road trip :: summer 2013

in case you missed it, i took my kids on a little road trip. bottom line, it was the funnest, best, smoothest time ever and i'm so so glad i did it!

i'm putting the whole trip in one post so it's going to be long :-)

i proposed this trip idea to pat weeks ago. at first he wasn't crazy about it (always the $) but i cut a day/night out of the original plan and got him on board. he couldn't go because someone has to work :-)

i spent HOURS planning it. every detail. reading reviews. i thought through so many details and really wanted it to be FUN. so often the dad gets to be the fun one and do the fun activities and the mom is always folding the laundry or making the sandwiches for lunch, right? i wanted to just HAVE FUN with my kids. one of the biggest things i thought through was making sure we weren't RUSHING from place to place. i tried to build in enough time so we could ENJOY. i feel like so much of our lives we are rushing...that really paid off! 

we left at 10 am on saturday morning. i got up at 5, ran 11 miles, took a shower, then we went to the first half of the kids swim meet (they swam freestyle and backstroke) and THEN we left! we kinda had already lived a whole day, huh? but our excitement kept us going!

pulling out...

i had some things to keep them busy, occupied, and behaving in the car. we had a 9 hour trip to lexington, sc on saturday...

i knew they'd want spending money at one of the places we were going to go, so this tip took care of that. they earned a ticket for every hour they behaved in the car...by the end of the first long day, they could have earned $9. that was all they were getting from me...any other money they wanted to spend had to come from their wallets. it worked so well! (i just printed the tickets off the internet somewhere and cut them up)

i brought stuff to make all our lunches...and we ate out for dinner.

i tried to eat "paleo" as best i could. and enjoyed a few treats. the first day was easy to pack this...but the other lunches for me were trail mix :/ i tried to stay on it partly because it's making me feel so good, but i was also super nervous to go "off" too much because if i had one of my episodes during the trip it wouldn't have been pretty. it would have looked like me curled up in the fetal position for a few hours while my kids watched me. thankfully, i felt good the whole time!

dinner on saturday!! we LOVE this place! the kids were SO excited to see the signs on the highway...and we found one to stop at!

the kids definitely missed pat...and we sent him lots of pictures to let him know!

the first 7 hours that day were so easy...the last 2 were a little loud. :-)

but we arrived at the schrodt's on saturday evening and were so excited to be there! the kids all went to bed pretty quickly and i got to catch up with katy and david (katy and i have known each other since middle school!) before we all went to bed.

we got to go to their church sunday morning. david is the worship pastor (playing the piano here) and katy is in the praise band (far right singing). she also had just finished vbs with 500 kids the week before and led them that morning in singing a couple songs. it was a blessing to see them in their elements!

after church, we ate lunch and then went to their zoo - it was awesome!

bailey LOVES horses and has wanted to ride one for like 3 years! HER DREAM CAME TRUE! the smile on her face was priceless...

katy and i caught up little bits at a time between all of our kids needs, etc. (she has 5 kids)

rebekah and i were twins (on purpose :-)) that day.

 after the zoo, we went to their pool and then ate dinner and got everyone ready for bed!

all of our kids got along and had so much fun playing together. the schrodt kids are awesome and so kind to share all their toys. i think my favorite combo were these 2 - caleb and sawyer. they are so much alike and i just loved watching sawyer have someone like him to play with.

lots going on...video games, coloring, board games...

a pic of all our kids before we headed out on monday morning. we LOVED our time there! thanks for welcoming us and feeding us so well!!!

from there, we drove to atlanta. it was a 3 hour drive.

hi, atlanta!

this was the only time i got a little edge the whole trip. on the drive to atlanta, i realized my phone wasn't working right. i could call and hear someone, but they couldn't hear me. i must have called pat 15 times (while he was trying to work! :-)) and drove him nuts. i was flipping out. mostly because i was alone with 6 kids, 650 miles away from home and what if i NEEDED to call someone? i couldn't!

we got to where we needed to be and were an hour early. we ate lunch and i, on a whim, looked up the closest Apple store. it was in the next shopping center! what are the chances?? but even then, those stores are known for crazy long waits. and, after eating lunch, we only had about 20 minutes to spare (we had tickets to enter Legoland at a specific time). so, we walked in the Apple store with no appt and the first guy that saw me, asked me if i needed help (i think it was written all over my face) and was SUPER helpful. not great news, but definitive news which was helpful. my bottom microphone on my phone is shot, can't be fixed, but i CAN use speakerphone to call people. not ideal, but a good option at the moment! so, we moved on and counted it a blessing that we had such a helpful salesperson!

ok. Legoland Discovery Center. i had looked this up online (obviously) and it got good reviews,etc.

BUT, there is NOTHING on the website that says it's IN a mall! so weird?!? it's like a store in the mall! except it's Legoland. anyways, once we figured out WHERE it was, we made our way in.

you enter through these doors as a group (at your allotted time slot)

and first you learn how lego's are made (i got a bit claustrophobic in this room)

the guy was funny!

the next room was super cool...ALL these buildings, etc are out of lego's. and the lights go on and off every 5 or so minutes and change from day to nighttime. at night, everything has lights inside of it.

there was also a football stadium. my boys loved that!

then you went into this huge area where you could build cars and race them...

a whole corner of the girl lego's :-)

we watched a 4D movie that the kids loved.

and there was a huge play area with slides, etc.

and, of course, when you are done, it dumps you out in the store :-)

this is where they spent the money they had earned on our car ride on saturday. they each made wise choices with their money!

my overall opinion on legoland? i was a bit disappointed. we spent 2 solid hours there. but it was $12/person - a bit much for what it was. but the kids LOVED it and keep talking about it. i'm glad we did it as part of the whole plan i came up with. but i would NOT drive 10 hours to atlanta JUST to go to Legoland. (i would still do legoland a million times over an amusement park!!)

we left legoland and went into the heart of atlanta (thanks to a suggestion of a friend - THANK YOU, veronica!) to olympic centennial park (the olympics were in atlanta in 1996 and there is a whole, beautiful park dedicated to it!

i LOVE this picture!!

this playground was so so fun!

at one point, both sawyer and levi were crying and rebekah grabbed my camera and took some pictures :-)

the tears only lasted a few minutes...i think we were maybe a bit tired :-)

then we walked to the fountains...

i knew they would like this...but i think we could have spent another hour here! we just got hungry...

we drove to dinner at THE place to eat in atlanta - it was yummy! and CHEAP!

whew...i was tired. but they were still going strong! we got to our hotel, swam for an hour or so, and then crashed!

i hardly slept that night. part of it was my bed partner kicked me all night (bailey). i eventually put her on the floor! and i was also nervous about the drive home on tuesday...

we LOVE staying at Hampton Inn's because of the GREAT breakfast that is included!

and back on the road. 642 miles home. left at 8:40 am. got home at 8 that night. no tickets/dollars every hour for this ride. we only stopped twice - once for lunch and once for dinner!

it rained off and on all day...that wasn't fun.

i had printed off maps to EACH destination...joshua had fun following those (which was my hope!)

the other great thing i brought was cookie sheets. here joshua is making his lego's. but they were also great for coloring in their laps!

lunch stop (some of them were getting sick of peanut butter and jelly...but that's all we had!)

when i realized we'd be passing through richmond around dinner time, i texted leah (and ali - but they were out of town!) to see if anyone could meet us for dinner...and leah and her kids did! so fun!! it was super short which was sad. but ANY minutes with her are better than none!

we were so so glad to get home and see pat. but i did go to bed a little sad last night. the trip went so smoothly. the kids did SO well. we had SO much fun. i think we just created some memories that we will always remember...and that makes me happy!