1234miles

On Wednesday morning Jon called and his mother passed away in her sleep. She had been fighing breast cancer and it had moved to both of her lungs. Jon flew out on Sunday so he was with her. It has been very hard but she is now with her Maker. She was a great mother, an excellent Grandmother and a Joy of a friend. She will be missed more than words can say.

I packed up the kiddos and my mom and drove. Thank goodness the Tahoe was done so we had the dvd player in the car. I think I would have gone beserk with out it. At about hour 5 Sam said the funniest thing - "We should have taken an airplane!" and two hour later "I dont want to go to Texas anymore, lets turn around and go home." The things that come out of her mouth! I have to say there is nothing in West Texas! My goal for the first day of driving was to go at least half way-so at 600 miles I said the next hotel we will stop at. well the next one wasnt until 677 miles! It was midnight and the kids had been asleep for about 3 hours so when we got into the hotel they were awake but still tired. I have to say it was the worst night I have ever experience in my life. Sam finally fell asleep but I ended up taking the twins into the car becasue they were so LOUD, screaming and crying. I felt so bad for the neighbors. I got them in the car abot 2 am and Sydney promptly fell asleep. As did I. Courtney was quite but wide eyed the whole time. At about 4 I tried to take them back into the room becasue I just needed to get some 'real' sleep. My mom ended up rocking Courtney to sleep- took her about 30 minutes and I ended up taking Sydney back out to the car. At 4:30 I said that was it she was going to have to sleep in the bed. I just yelled really loud and held her until she finally fell asleep. Sam slept through it all (lucky kid) and woke us all up at 8:30! Thursday was a long day but since there really isnt anything in west Texas the speed limit is 80! We made excellent time. We found the most amazing rest area about 150 miles outside of Houston. We could have spent a couple hours there. I think if it was near where i lived I would even go there. It had a great play structure and a nice little trail through the trees. and the building where the bathrooms were was really nice and had lots to look at in there. Pretty fancy for a rest stop. We finally got to our destination 8 last night. Jon had to go pick up people at the airport so I had to get these kids to sleep again. They were wired once again but Sam fell asleep while the twins bounced all over the place. I turned the lights off at 10 so it was dark and quiet but the twins were into everything. Sydney ended up snuggling up to me but Court didnt want anything to do with the bed. I even called Jon and told him to go buy some benedryl. I have never 'drugged' my kid to go to sleep but I was desperate. Jon ended up getting stuck in traffic so by the time he got back I had gotten them to sleep so no benedryl required!

Sam at rest stop in NM. Cool views.

this is from the fancy one near Houston


Here are a couple videos of the rest stop taken from the camera phone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0XfS6TxrWk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrdd9txSqX4

We stopped at a tasty Mexican restaurant. The kids didnt eat any of there food. Just chips. They were terrible eaters in restaurants but they ate in the car. I think they were jsut happy to be out of the car seats that the last thing they wanted to do was sit and eat. They wanted to RUN and PLAY!