Day 1 Spring Break: Travel Day

Knowing since November that we were going to Florida for Spring Break, you'd think I'd have started packing sooner than the night before we were supposed to leave. But no. I waited. I always pack last minute, and this trip was no exception.

Fortunately, the only thing we forgot was the kids' noise maker, so not bad....considering.

Knowing we wake up early anyway, we didn't set an alarm even though we knew we wanted to get an early start. However, since we didn't set an alarm, I woke up just about every hour worried that we'd oversleep.  Who really sleeps the night before vacation anyway? It's kinda like the night before school starts, only better.

Finally, when I woke up a little before 5am, I went ahead and got up. Good thing I did, because even with getting up before 5am, it was still 6:30am before we actually got on the road.

The kids stayed in their pjs until our first stop for a bathroom break just past Fredericksburg.  Daniel woke up on his own that morning (they were super excited too), and Anabella must have heard him (or us), because just as we were about to get her up, she walked out of her room ready to go, too.

The first hour or so, they drank their milk and waited for the sun to come up. They wanted to watch a movie, but I told them we had to at least wait for daybreak.

I put in a Berenstain Bears Springtime movie around 7:30, and they watched that until about 8:30 am when we stopped at a McDonald's for a bathroom break.  Followed about a half hour later by breakfast.

Can you tell where we ate our first meal?

I may have waited until the last minute to pack our suitcases, but I had thought ahead and pre-packed some "busy bags" for the kids to enjoy on the way down. I included some dvds, some markers, notepads, coloring kit, Mickey & Minnie Pez, their leappads, and some other fun stuff to keep them occupied for such a long trip. MaMaw had also wrapped up some surprises for them including the Minnie and Mickeys below.

Their first surprise was a Mickey & Minnie! 

If that doesn't speak Disney-bound, then I don't know what does!

I don't know if it was the goody bags or that I had set myself up for it to be a super long (and possibly painful) day, but it wasn't at all. It was an amazingly easy (and pleasant) trip.  Neither Daniel nor Anabella asked the dreaded, "are we there yet," or even complained once that they were bored.

Chip tried to take credit for it later that night telling me that he had talked with them that night before putting them to bed explaining that it was going to be a long trip and that we didn't want to hear them complain, etc. So, maybe it was that? Or maybe that we stopped just about every 2 hours and let them run around, go to the bathroom, eat, etc. Maybe it was that we were all just so enthusiastic and happy to be going on our first ever family spring break trip?

Hey, maybe they're just good kids. ha! No matter the reason, I'm not complaining, just thankful. Believe me, we've had enough tough trips (dealing with traffic, cranky kids, testy parents, etc. etc.) over the years, this was definitely a nice gift. 

And set us up for what turned out to be our best vacation ever. Never mind that it was the first. It was the best. Ever.

We hadn't decided ahead of time exactly when or where we'd stop for the night. We figured we'd know when it was time. Chip drove most of the day, and it rained and rained. Poured. 

It didn't stop raining until literally minutes after I started driving around 3pm. Taking out my sunglasses for the first time that day (as Chip rolled his eyes from the third seat where he was happily propping against pillows and stretching out his long legs while tuning to some ESPN radio with his headphones), I opened the sunroof and couldn't help but smile. You know those storms where it's pouring one minute, then the sun comes out the next. That was it. I couldn't have planned it better (for my turn driving) if I tried. You mighta had to be there, but it was funny.

Do you see that palm tree?
The green grass?

We're clearly not in Virginia anymore!

Forget that it was Georgia and that it wasn't even warm enough for me to shed my sweatshirt (or Dan his jacket- Anabella, she's never cold), but it felt like SUMMER to us. 

We were only at a half-seedy Days Inn for the night, but you'd a thought we were already at Disneyworld for the excitement we felt. Anabella was skipping everywhere, Daniel talking a mile a minute and asking if he could put on his swim trunks (seeing the pool).
We.
 Were.
 Excited! 

Given that we were on vacation after all, even though we weren't quite at our destination, we celebrated anyway with a nice ol' steak dinner at Logan's Steakhouse.

Yum!
Cheers to a great road trip!

Back at the hotel, there was lots of silliness and so much fun that I'm not sure any of us actually got much sleep that night. Maybe we should have just kept driving!

Dream Lite, Frozen blanket, Muffin, yehyeh, she could be in her own bed for all that she brought along with her! 

Why did I ever tell them that they were allowed to jump on beds only at hotels?! 

I said "jump on" not "jump over" but it's all the same apparently.

Who knew a night at Days Inn in Brunswick, Georgia could be so fun?! Following nearly twelve hours of driving in a van.....in the rain (oh, excuse me...only 8 of it in the rain....heeehee)!

Left Gainesville 6:30am; Arrived to hotel around 6pm.

No pictures of our lunch, which we had to eat in the van since it was raining. Pouring rather. We had chicken salad sandwiches, which I'd packed for us along with some chips and veggies.