Sunday, December 21, 2008

Road Trip

We are back. From the 14 hour (one-way) road trip. To see my sister walk across the stage to get her doctorate.

It was totally worth it!

So we headed out on Tuesday after TC got off work. We only went 4 hours (since TC had been at work all day) and stayed the night in Amarillo. X-man kept saying that we were going to "take a nap in Amarilla." That night was the most restless of the whole trip. And it also spawned my idea of a "Hotel Survival" kit that I will now start bringing with me whenever a hotel stay is involved.

You know how hotel doors have a deadbolt...that unlatches as you pull on the handle? Well do you remember how they used to have the chain that you could also put on the door? Now they have those flap-things that keep the door from opening any further than the sideways U-shaped piece that flaps over the stick with the ball on the end. Clear as mud?

Anyway, at the Amarillo hotel (Yes, ^starshine, it was the yellow house), X-man was completely cool with the idea of staying in the hotel. It was an all-suite hotel and the suite had a living room and a bedroom with a door to separate the two rooms. X-man had a blast hiding in the closet. At bedtime, we put the kids in the living room (Buttercup was in her pack-n-play) and X-man wanted to sleep right next to Buttercup. They kept giggling at each other. It was really cute. At one point, we were in our room listening to the kids and TC said, "Did you happen to notice that X-man can reach the door-flap-lock thing?" Well, that totally freaked me out because if my son could figure out how to unflap it and then open the door (which he had already tried several times), he could totally be in the hallway and then who knows where! He's almost three and isn't terribly tall for his age, so why was the flap thing so low to the ground? I'll be packing a roll of duct tape with me on my next hotel trip!

He never did even attempt to leave the room, but it still kept me from sleeping very well that evening.

Wednesday morning we hit the road for the remaining 10 hour trip to Arizona State in Tempe. We were planning on heading toward Flagstaff and then down, but bad weather forced us to go south before we wanted to. And that added an extra two hours to our trip. Lunch came a little later than normal so I got a migraine. And the twisty-turny up-and-down the side of a MOUNTAIN part of the trip didn't make things any better. I was so ready to throw up by the time we finally got to Tempe it wasn't funny. The kids did fine in the car (thank goodness for the travel DVD player!) but bedtime was a different story. It's a good thing that Buttercup can sleep through X-man's fits because he through a giant one Wednesday night. I know he was tired and the suite we stayed in only had a half-wall to separate the rooms, so it really was all one big room. Very nice hotel, but the one-room concept bothered X-man I think. He kept screaming about wanting to sleep in the hall. And he was being so fussy that there was no way we were going to reward that with watching a movie to go to sleep! He finally calmed down and went right to sleep.

Thursday we got up and after breakfast, it was off to Aunt Doc's graduation ceremonies. The big one for the whole school was nice and we got to see Aunt Doc get her doctoral hood put on. Fancy! TC and the kids went back to the hotel for a nap (where no one napped!) while Sis, my parents and I headed to the school of music's graduation ceremony. We got to see Aunt Doc recognized again (yahoo for you!!) and then headed back to the hotel. We had snacks at Four Peaks and then it was off to Sushi 101 for dinner. The kids both were really good considering it had been a long day for them and they both had about a 10 minute nap in the car. We let X-man watch Fantasia 2000 and he fell asleep before it was even over!

Friday was filled with shopping at the Chandler Mall (is that right?) and then mom and I stayed with the kids (who did nap some) while TC, my sis and my dad went to another mall, Trader Joe's and then some other places. We had dinner at a cute Italian restaurant and then it was the kids' bedtime.

Saturday we had breakfast at US Egg and then headed to Albuquerque. We went through Flagstaff so there wasn't as much mountain driving and we go to ABQ with plenty of time to relax a little before going to dinner.

Sunday we headed back home and again, had a very uneventful drive. I got TC a GPS for Christmas and that helped us quite a bit. We did have trouble finding the Fudruckers in ABQ because the restaurant was in the mall, but it kept telling us it was on a particular corner. We couldn't even see the Fudd's sign from there! There are a few other minor annoyances with the GPS, but all in all, I think it was a good buy!

Oh, and as for my Hotel Survival kit, it's going to have duct tape, garbage bags (to tie up the stinky diapers!) and nightlights (because those rooms are really dark!).

I am so glad to be home.

And have I mentioned that Buttercup has learned how to blow kisses? She's been doing that for about a week now and it is absolutely adorable! She puts her hand in her mouth and then throws it out...and sometimes even makes a little noise with blowing the kisses!

3 comments:

^starshine said...

Congrats to Aunt Doc. Do tell her that we saw Katy J. (from Spirit Wind and is the daughter of Hubby's boss who is also a Civil Engineer) this past weekend at the Hubby's work Christmas party. I did my best to fill her in on Aunt Doc's latest happenings (such as finishing her Doctorate and where she is living now.) Katy has a short little hair-do like you!! She says hello to both you and your sis!

^starshine said...

And that is too cool that you guys stayed at the yellow house!! C&Z will be envious! :)

That is a good idea about the night lights. We always leave the bathroom light on and just crack the door.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the props, btw. I'm glad all y'all could come.