The puppy arrival meant that we couldn't leave Ginny home with our neighbors, like we do with Maggie, because, see, we actually really like them and want to keep them as both neighbors and friends. We were pretty certain that leaving Ginny with them meant that we'd return to them at least shunning our friendship if not moving away entirely. Therefore the dog had to come with us, which meant we piled two dogs, two kids and two adults into the minivan and drove for 14.5 hours south until we reached beautiful, exciting, rural yet not Valrico, FL.
I got two reactions from telling people of our plan: (1) you are certifiably insane and (2) have you had your head checked? We decided to put the kids in the car around naptime and drive through the night getting here around 6am. Then we'd hand over the kids and dogs and take ourselves to bed.
So we packed up the car and left our driveway at 2:50 p.m. Not wanting to help us out, the universe saw to it that we got some good backups on 495/95S in the DC area. Nothing like starting off a nice long drive by creeping past Potomac Mills. All in all things went smoothly, though. We didn't get the first "are we almost at Grandmommy's house?" until about an hour in. The girls watched 2 videos, then we stuck them in their PJs at a gas station in North Carolina. Then they stayed awake chattering cute chatters for another couple of hours before passing out around 9pm.
Doug tried to take a nap from 7:30-8:30ish. This attempt was hampered by Charlotte, who kept hollering "wake UP Daddy. Wake UP. Nap DONE. Done nap!!!! Done!! Wake up!" in a constant stream. Far from being annoyed by this, we both found it hilarious. She was absolutely adamant that he would not be napping.
So then they were asleep at 9pm and we had about 9 hrs of silence in front of us. We had decided to both stay awake to help keep the driver awake. This is very hard to do when you're sleep deprived and not driving. Poor Doug thought he'd get to listen to a book on CD for those 9 hrs, but I need chattering to stay awake so I made him talk to me for at least 6 of those hours. The Time Traveler's Wife is too weird anyway.
We thought there was no way that we'd make it in less than 15 hrs, since on our best trip without kids we did it in 14.5 hrs. Somehow, we made it in exactly 14.5 hrs and then ended up circling the neighborhood until my parents got up. Somehow we also made it along the same route that Google maps uses, but in about 50 fewer miles than Google promised us. It is, therefore, conceivable that The Time Traveler's Wife CDs do something very strange in the Georgia area and warped us closer. We'll have to see how that goes on the return trip.
It has so far been a very fun trip. We've been in the pool 37 times. Elisabeth is quite the little swimmer now - so long as she has at least 4 flotation devices strapped to her at all times and her face comes nowhere near the water. But she is so comfortable in the water, which is a good step in the right direction.
We went to the Florida Aquarium yesterday, which was really great for kids. We watched the penguine prominade, which is where they wheel some penguins in a wheelbarrow out for all the kids to see. Two penguin trainers (great job, by the way) let the kids ask questions. One kid asked why penguins don't fly. The trainer asked for answers and Elisabeth raised her hand and said "Penguins weren't born to fly, they were born to dive." Take that kid with the interesting question!!
Charlotte identified every turtle in the place. While we were standing there looking at one turtle, a grandmother came up and said "Oh look at this one!! She's so cute!" Doug looked over at her and she was talking about Charlotte. The lady said, "oh, I don't come to these places to see the fish! I come to see the babies!" We held onto Charlotte a little tighter...
They also have a little waterpark at the aquarium. True to their personalities, Charlotte came out of the park soaking wet after going on slides and climbing on things with water squirting on them. Elisabeth came out entirely dry after avoiding getting sprayed with any water. Then, for good measure, we let them both get into the huge sandbox because what fun is getting into the car both dry and un-sandy?
Tomorrow we're heading to the beach for breakfast. Then on Monday we'll do the whole trip home - although this time we're aiming to arrive home at 2:30ish so that I can we can both get some sleep before we head off to work/ballet lessons.
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