gone too long

So I kind of took a week off there, didn't I.  Sorry about that.  We were travelling/ hosting a small houseguest/ passing a stomach bug around/ trying to keep from shaking the baby as her teething experience rages on like an hateful, incurable cancer.  I guess I kind of lost focus for a spell.  All better now!  Well, except the teething.  She's still doing that.  She hates us.

So if you remember, we took a little road trip last weekend.  We drove about 300 miles south to visit both sets of Benjamin's grandparents.  It was about as exciting as anyone else's family vacation - here are some things I learned along the way:

 

1.  Road trips are exciting!  Unless you have children.  Then just don't leave your house.  Five adults and four kids careening down the highway in a two-truck caravan for five hours is not anyone's idea of a good time.  Add in two hours of stop-and-go city traffic and the ride goes from un-fun to a torture that rivals water boarding.  Did I mention one of the children is an infant, and she was in our truck?  It was a long ride.

2.  Hotels are exciting!  Unless you're an adult and you're not on your honeymoon.  Then it's just a bad night's sleep in a petri dish of other people's dirt, with not enough towels in the morning and a free breakfast that is SO not good enough to make up for the bed bugs.

3.  It doesn't matter if we're leaving for a week or for an overnight trip - Estie requires no less than three bags of necessities. 

4.  No homes in Colorado have air conditioning.  I'm just saying.

5.  Old people are really just young people like me, but trapped in little wrinkly cages.  No snark here - I'm serious.  I love old people.  They have the best stories and are always looking for someone to share them with.  And if you're really nice, they usually send you home with something.

6.  There is only so much visiting a five month-old baby can handle.  The exact amount is eight hours, actually.  That's it.  No more.  Time to go home.

 The ride down

The hotel

Estie's first pool experience. Look at her face!

We told them to make the Facebook face. 
I was so sad that they both knew what we meant.

Visiting

This is how real women make breakfast.
This skillet is from the Oregon Trail.
My mother-in-law's mama is 81, has had eight children, eats this for breakfast and is still svelte.
What the hell are we doing wrong?

Three generations of gingers!

My sis-in-law, whose insanity keeps me sane at family fuctions.

Lupe, the farm dog.

What, you don't see bufallo on your road trips?

Time to go home.