The Wisdom and Insanity of Road Trips

During the course of 5 days this past week we spent 36 hours in a vehicle with 4 of our 5 kids on the way to and from New Mexico for Grandma Katie's funeral.

My dad was always one for vacation road trips as long as they went to the Black Hills of South Dakota, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. I think he was either insane or brilliant to pack his kids and later his grand kids into the car and willingly drive away from home for a week to 10 days.

I have to say if you want to get to know your kids (any age) better this is a sure fired way to do it as long as you have a firm grip on yourself, your wallet and your sense of humor.

This is the furthest the boys have been away from home and the longest since we came back from the Philippines in November. They handled the whole trip pretty well, Alison and Sydney handled it pretty well (Rachel had college finals so she missed this trip). I should probably qualify this by saying they tolerated one another in an enclosed space for extended periods with only minor eruptions and sibling disagreements. I'm also pretty sure Alison and Sydney will not be getting into a vehicle with their brothers for awhile.

Below are some of the dialogue from the car:

• Eli -"me no like Sydney!"
• Lucas - "what is thees?" (Texas)
• Lucas - "me no like" (Oklahoma)
• Eli and Lucas to Sydney - "speak ENGLISH!" (she said caballo)
• Trying to get Eli to pronounce elasticman - came out Eli-astic
• Eli talking about the mountains in New Mexico - "let's go up!" Lucas -"no you fall down!"
• Sydney trying to get Eli to try strawberries - tells him he's never had them. He says he has......strawberry Poptarts

And so went the billion conversations throughout this road trip.

So while my dad certainly enjoyed our family road trips I'm betting he secretly loved being slightly deaf from the farm tractor.