We Made It!

We survived our first 15 hour road trip as a family of five...in one day!!!!  We are on our first stop during Tim's leave in Colorado Springs.  Considering the length of the trip the boys did awesome!  Even with the few hiccups we had in our travel, overall it went very smooth and it really didn't feel like a 15 hour trip. 

What's a road trip though with out kids throwing up or blowout diapers?  Colin had been sick the past two days but he hadn't had an incident for about 24 hours and we were thinking he was on the tail end of whatever he had.  Apparently he had one more in him.  Thankfully he only "got sick" one time and his timing couldn't have been more perfect.  On our first stop he got out of the car and was hanging outside the van w/Tim and Ryan when the moment hit him.  We were SO thankful it wasn't in the car.  I had brought a towel and a few other things with us just in case, but it was such a blessing not to have to deal with cleaning up the car.

The towel came in pretty handy later though when Blaine decided to have a blowout.  I was just going to change him on the go, but when I went to pull him out of the seat I realized that it was ALL over the seat.  We were currently driving through New Mexico and there aren't that many places to stop but thankfully we were passing through what used to be a town so Tim was able to pull over right away and I had a little more space to work with.  I was EXTREMELY pleased with how well Blaine did.  When we made the round-trip when he was 4 weeks old and then at 2 months old he screamed a majority of the trip.  Yes..literally screamed and yes, a majority of the trip.  I couldn't keep in his car seat for more than 5 minutes without him having a meltdown.  My friend Sarah as said it as well, and it's true...he is a completely different baby then he was 6 months ago.  This time around he stayed in his seat a majority of the time just talking, playing, laughing and sleeping.  It was wonderful! 

Confession...I gave Ryan and Colin a small dose of Dramamine to help with the trip.  The bottle says it is for children and adults.  The last time we made the trip I didn't give them anything so I was a little nervous with the way the boys reacted to it.  Colin slept a lot...but I thought that could have partly been from him not feeling well still.  Ryan on the other hand was quiet.  No words.  VERY weird.  Kind of nice; but VERY weird...kind of scary.  Although it was nice and it did seem to help the trip go pretty smooth I'm not sure we'll be using it again on the way back South.  Tim and I still have to talk about it.  Maybe a smaller dose won't be quiet as bad.

We made it to my parent's house at a very decent time and the boys still had a couple hours to play and then went right to bed.  Of course they were up bright and early the next morning excited to hang out with Grandma & Grandpa.  So far the weather has been BEAUTIFUL and they even received some desperately needed rain this afternoon.  We have already had a few outings but are looking forward to the rest of the week here.  Some of the things on our list (some still up for debate):  The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, Cave of the Winds, and Mr. Wilber (a fountain for the boys to play in downtown).  Tim and I are also hoping to sneak out for a few hours.  ;) 

My Birthday Gift

I posted about the one big gift we got the boys, but I forgot to mention the one BIG gift Tim got for me for my birthday....A new mattress!  PRAISE GOD!!!!!

Before Tim even deployed a new bed was on our radar and it was at the top of the list of things to buy when he got back.  Tim bought the mattress set we had when we first got married.  It's been 6 1/2 years now.  It was a queen pillow top that he scored for $500!  As most of you can probably guess...we got what we paid for.  After probably about three years it started to sink in the middle.  I could lay flat on my back and my left side would be noticeably lower than my right. I remember being horribly uncomfortable in it when I was pregnant with Colin.  Tim had even tried putting plywood in between the mattresses for me, and we bought a 4 inch memory foam topper, but I pretty much slept sitting up for the last five months of the pregnancy.  After having Colin that bed was a love/hate relationship.  Some nights it would be great.  Other nights...not so much.  It was getting worse and worse and we were SO tempted to buy a new mattress before Tim deployed, but we were praying if we could hold out one more year we could bump it up to a king.  Plus, the bed was much more doable with just one person in it.

Tim got back on a Friday and on Tuesday I woke up whining. L.I.T.E.R.A.L.L.Y....Classy, right?  So we went out mattress shopping.  We went to a few different stores, but ended up getting a memory foam from Denver Mattress Company.  We weren't even thinking a king size mattress was going to work in our budget until we saw their prices.  They just delivered it this past Saturday so we've been in it four nights so far.  It was a little rough the first night, but I think I'm getting used to it.  Tim can sleep on anything so he's been out like a rock within seconds of going to bed.  We are both LOVING the king size and are very thankful we were able to get it. 

Oh and Ryan's reaction to our big new bed, "Wow!  It's big enough for all of us to sleep on it!  Ryan (Yes, he refers to himself in 3rd person) and Colin can sleep with Mom and Dad now!"

Yeah...good luck with that one kiddo.