Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Surviving our first family road trip

Well, that was an adventure ;-)

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, since it sort of came upon us very suddenly, but we took a mini-vacation up to my mother-in-law's last week, which really wasn't a vacation.

We've been trying to sell the family home for quite some time, years in fact, because she's been alone there since 2004 and has been desperate to get into an apartment. Long story short - in mid-July it started looking as if it was finally going to work out, with a probable closing date of August 25th, so we had to go to help.

(We also had to go to make sure she didn't throw out any more family heirlooms, which she's prone to do, but that's another story for another day.)

So, online I went to book another car rental, and we headed out very early last Tuesday morning. I'd had a few weeks to plan out the packing, but considering we were only going for six days (two of which were driving days), the car was excessively full.

Luckily for us, N. was his usual cheerful self. I'd woken him up at 4AM to nurse, so we could hopefully get on the road by 5AM with him asleep in his carseat. He decided that the excitement was just too much fun, though, and stayed awake while we packed the car, and giggled at our manic running around. We were on the road by 5:40 (which wasn't too bad, all things considered), and we stayed on the road for nearly 15 hours.

There were stops in there, and one major detour that took about 80 minutes when we missed an exit, but all in all, it was pretty uneventful. N. was good, not too fussy until later in the day, and we arrived in time for him to have a bedtime snack and go right to bed after meeting his Memére (grandmother) and having some snuggles.

We spent the next day doing legal paperwork having to do with the house sale, and packing/cleaning. Same thing on Friday morning, with the heavy lifting happening Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Hubby's cousins were fantastic, bringing their truck and trailer and loading up all the furniture so efficiently. We stopped for a little pizza and beer around 6:30PM, which N. surprisingly showed an interest in, and then we kept going until nearly 10PM. My father arrived around 7:30PM, to take back to his place important family keepsakes (we store stuff at my parents' place, since they have a ton of room). N. seemed to get along just fine with his Papa, too.

Saturday afternoon was spent tidying up the loose ends, making sure we hadn't forgotten anything. Hubby also took photos of the house, and the yard with all its beautiful trees (it's quite a huge yard). Once we were sure everything was taken care of, we put the baby in the back of the car, and drove away.

I have to say, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done, and I can't imagine how Hubby felt. His parents bought the house when he was eight, and it has been his home for 25 years. But, it was time, it's better for his mom (who's now in a two-bedroom apartment, which means there's space for us when we visit), and it's a load off of everyone's mind.

Unfortunately, we only had the one evening together after all the madness ended, but we had a good time. We cooked dinner, helped MIL arrange some furniture, and played with N. until he was exhausted from all the giggling. Then, to bed early, and up at 5AM to get on the road to come back home.

N. was even better on the way back, with minimal fussiness all in the last hour of the drive. My kid, he's the bomb.

C'mon, Mom, can we go again?

(All images copyright E. Boudreau)

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