Riding in Cars with Hooligans

People often think I'm kinda crazy for taking 4 kids all the places I end up taking 4 kids. The dentist, the grocery store, etc. This past weekend I decided to attempt probably the craziest 4-kids-included activity yet: we made a 10 hour car trip to see my sister, brother-in-law, niece, and newest niece. I really was nervous about making the trip, and almost decided not to do it about 539 times. I'm so glad we did, though. It was great to see everyone and my newest niece, Ezra, is the most adorable baby doll sized kiddo. (Reminds me of Merrick, who was also a teeny-tiny preemie clothes wearing baby.)

The trip went way better than I expected. I was expecting Amaryllis to literally scream the entire 10 hours since she sees her car seat as a means of torture. She thankfully slept for big chunks of the trip, and only screamed for an hour straight here and there. ;)

 (The two baby cousins...only 10 weeks apart!)

The kiddos had so much fun playing together, and seeing their cousins. We made a trip into Nashville one of the days we were there, wandered around a little and had dinner. One of my sisters was really hoping to run into a celebrity or two, but no such luck. At least not unless you count Tirzah...who will probably be a celebrity one day with her acting skills.

We were sad when we had to come back home, and only partly because of the 10 hour trip back. ;) I think the trip back was better than the drive there, but that's probably because I didn't have another 10 hours in the car to look forward to hanging over my head. The kiddos occupied themselves making up jokes that weren't funny, playing Simon Says and I Spy, and losing 397 crayons. I think I'll sacrifice those crayons since I did manage to not lose my sanity. One pleasant side effect of a whole day in a van with your 4 kids is that one trip to the grocery store with them suddenly seems like a piece of cake.

(Top pic is from our last trip to visit my sister, bottom is from this trip...a lot has changed in a little over a year!)