The Griswalds trade sun for sun

We're in San Jorge. More on that later of course, but we came down to watch my cousin Pierre run his first marathon ever. It's hot at home and it's hot here. The last time we ventured down south, the trip was a little overwhelming. We came to find the sun, and got snowed into our hotel room with two crazy little boys.

In order to get here, we of course had to drive. We had to leave after work. I was nervous that we would get out of the house so late, waiting for our dad to get home, that it would be early morning when we arrived. On a perfect travel day, it should take us about 4.5/5 hours to drive south. Yesterday was not a perfect day.

As he left in the morning, Ross told me to take one of my stockpile of xanex in the afternoon so I wouldn't be stressed out and panicking when he was later coming home than I wanted him to be. If that isn't a sign that your husband thinks your a bit nutso, then I don't know what is. But - no drugs and no late - he got home early than I had hoped and after a quick vacuum of the house, a loading of the car, the loss of one 17 month old (he'd walked into the street and climbed into the car on his own) we were in the car ready to go.

But....the traffic. Oh, the traffic. It took us an hour and a half to go about 45 miles. Elliott was asleep but spontaneously crying because in his past life he was a 15 year old girl and the Chick was screaming because, well, that's just what he does.

At the halfway point of our journey, we stopped for dinner. You know you're in food trouble when your first choice of a place to eat is an Arby's attached to a gas station. You know you are in even more trouble when the Arby's and the gas station are closed. Abandoned. Gone forever. Thank heaven's for Larry's Drive in. It wasn't the best small town food but we ate, drank and we all stopped in the bathroom before loading back into the car. 10 minutes back on the road however, Elliott announced he needed to use the bathroom - a #2. We found a rest stop, I ran him into the bathroom and then stood outside the stall for 10 minutes while on the inside of a stall, my almost four year old just played with the garbage cans.

No #2.

We got back in the car, got back on the road and realized that we were in fact, headed the wrong direction. Ross was distracted by a "bus" (his phone?) and then we headed the wrong way until we could find an exit that got us back to the other side of the freeway.

Phew! It was an eventful couple of hours. Eventually Chick fell asleep, Elliott found the games on my phone, Ross had his headphones in and I sat for the remainder of the drive in the dark - talking to myself, in my head. So, basically it was a regular trip in the car.

We finally arrived at our destination, had a super fast check in and walked into our suite that cost us an arm and a leg for two nights because we were last minute hotel bookers and because of the marathon. The suite is, well, sweet, however and well worth the money. It's huge, spacious, and room for my little caged tigers to run around and actually not crash into each other. Two rooms are a must for us. How did our parents travel with kids and regular old tiny hotel rooms.



The only dilemma of the evening - besides two wide awake and SUPER EXCITED kids at 11 pm was where the Chick was going to sleep. We didn't have a plan. He won't sleep in a port-a-crib. He will fall off of a bed. He is too much of a tosser and a turner to share a bed with us.



Thank heavens for a giant bathtub. A tub big enough for a couple people for sure. I filled it up with blankets and pillows and it was a perfect nighttime home for my little squirt who never sleeps. The funny thing? He slept as good in an empty bathtub as he would at home.