California Day 1... The Drive

Well... I suppose there is no better place to begin than, well, the beginning. The alarms went off promptly at 7am. I have never before seen the children LEAP from their beds. {seriously, it trumped Christmas morning} They were dressed and standing ready long before mom and dad had even finished packing. With one last glance to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything {oh ya know like moms toothbrush, dad's shoes, Drayden's underwear... I forget, but we forgot much more.} We were off. We didn't even make it out of St. George before the "I'm Hungry" bug bit. So we stopped for the first of MANY fast food meals.

I was Dreading the drive. We all get car sick and I made every last person gag down a Dramamine. Thankfully we dodged the barfing bullet. I was also dreading it because our family doesn't generally travel well. We can't even make it to Costco without several hollow threats against their lives. "If you hit your sister one more time I am gonna tie you to the bumper." So 7 hours in our rented Nissan was daunting.

We got just outside of Primm when the fighting really started. {which was pretty good if you ask me.} We had to do something to distract them. To take their minds off the fact that their little butts were getting permanently stuck into the seat with every passing mile. *Side note: The first 4.5 hours of the drive to California are desolate... I would recommend taking a laptop for movie watching in the future. Anyway, So we decided to give them their birthday / spending money to get them excited.

IT WORKED!!!! for about 4 minutes... lol...

We hung in until Barstow where we stopped at the Train Car McDonalds. It was super fun for the kids. I didn't enjoy it much because I would rather eat gum off the bottom of high school desks than McDonalds, but I humored them.

Brittany and I ventured off into the other train car areas... I just love hangin' with my Britt. We are alike in so many ways. She makes me laugh.

And well... Laughter makes the best memories.

Then I spotted the JELLY BELLY stand!!! I freaking LOVE LOVE LOVE Jelly Bellies. I got 1/2 pound of cantaloupe and juicy pear... *aaahhh pause for the bliss

This is the "ok, now lets stand in front of the train car and get a picture." moment. I swear if I gauged my photography skills on my own family I would be a hopeless failure. They are all jaded and don't listen to me anymore. So here is our "BARSTOW, CA" picture. lol... after this I gave up and put the camera away, but we made it to our hotel safely and it was actually really nice. I would definitely stay there again. We got to go relax in the hot tub, where my husband actually said out loud, "I should have brought my test kit, so I could make sure the PH isn't off." lol... The man can't take a day off, I swear.

TO BE CONTINUED..... Chapter 2... DISNEYLAND