Last Day in NC

This is the part of the post where I tell you we drove 2,500 miles in 10 days with no TV in the car for the children.  It can be done, people.  Not that I'm bragging about our lack of television just that I'm saying we entertained ourselves with other things.  We do have one portable TV/DVD player and I DID bring it with.  I just never hauled it out.  On the way down most of our time was spent sleeping or hiking.  On the way back we did have a lot more awake time in the car but I had lots of forms of entertainment stashed in the van.  Crayons, stickers, paper, books, snacks.  Looking for letters on the road.  Seeing how many McDonalds signs we can see, etc.

This is a Harrier at the entrance to the base.  The sign says "Pardon our noise, it's the sound of your freedom."  Amen.

We hung out at Uncle Josh's after we checked out of our hotel.  We watched quite a few episodes of Dinosaur Train.  At least, some of us did..

Exhibit A::Paper airplanes.  We folded them all up and decorated them for the kids.  They had fun looking at all the decorations, folding and unfolding them.

We did have a rougher time sleeping on the way back.  Adelyn really struggled, which is unusual.  Then she had to go potty at 4 in the morning.  Do you know how difficult it is to find a rest room at 2am?  Very.  All the 24 hour McDonalds are drive-thru only.  The stores we stopped at, that were all lit up, were closed.  So I ended up hauling our portable potty out, plunking it in the parking lot and having Adelyn and Brecken sit on it.  And they filled that thing to the BRIM.  I proceeded to dump it all out, in the middle of the parking lot, wipe it and continue on our merry way.  Priorities people.

We stopped at the Meijer in Columbus at 4 for a potty break for Mom and Dad.  Brecken is demonstrating how he sleeps while traveling.  With his blanket over his head.  I can't even make this up.  And he totally does it without any encouragement.  After our 4am potty break and still having a rough time sleeping, we stopped at McDonalds for some promised "fries."  Don't judge.  After we promised the fries, we pull into McDonalds.  News flash::They don't serve fries at 4am.  They serve hash-browns.  We had a few minor tears and then they were happy with their hash brown.  I'm sure the drive-thru lady spit on them after she heard me cursing through the intercom about the lack of fries.

After their hash-brown in Columbus they slept soundly until we got to Lansing.  I'd call that a successful hash-brown.  We got home shortly before 9am.  Successful and uneventful.

I did hose their car seats out.  Which is why they are upside down in this picture.  Joelle leaked through her diaper more than once, Brecken has a habit of dribbling and I don't have to mention how many snacks get smashed in the seats and sprinkled with water.  Or urine.

All the shells we collected at Shackelford.

Adelyn and all of her "special" (broken) shells she collected and HAD to have ;)