A visit to grampas house

Picture this: Myself. Dustin. sister Cassie. Samantha. Niece Mariah. In one car. For a very long trip.

So we've got me driving. Dustin in the passenger seat. Cassie in the backseat with the 2 girls.
It's a FULL car. We have a 7 hour 10 hour! drive ahead of us. So we leave after I get home from work, take a nap, finish packing, get the car loaded up, stop at Walmart... longest "get ready to go time" ever. Anyways. We finally are on the road! YAY! Then my sisters phone is dying. And she needs it. So we stop at Target (about a half hour from home). She buys a phone charger. We continue driving. We drive about another 30-40 minutes. Samantha starts screaming at the top of her lungs. What is wrong with my poor child!? So I get off the highway, pull in to the gas station to see what the problem is. She is a little wet. But all that screaming due to a wet diaper? hmm... weird. Anyways... I go in.. change her. she screams some more. I give her some tylenol. WHAT is wrong with my child!? Doesn't help. Give her some mylocin. She seems okay while someone is holding her, but we have a very looooong car ride ahead of us. I spot a Dennys. YES! We go get some food and let the girls stretch out a bit. Samantha goes "potty". Messy, but she seems to be feeling much better! So we get back in the car and head back to the highway. Drive for a long while. Kids are sleeping on and off. Stop to get gas. Mariah wakes up screaming at the top he HER lungs. Stop at a rest area. Contemplate getting a hotel so she can sleep in a BED... decide no. Too expensive. Call around when she continues yelling. Find a motel for fifty bucks a night. Perfect. Right? Nope. still too expensive for me and I just want to GET there already! So we keep driving. About 5 miles down the road of the motel exit, what happens? The only thing that could possibly happen to make this drive ANY worse. Cop. Cop.. Cop. uh oh. Did I slow down in enough time? Um no. Here he comes. Lights on. Crap. Pull over. Cry. Yes, cry. Pay the cop for the ticket (kinda convenient if you ask me, but still a pain). Ticket = 75 dollars. Crap. It would have been cheaper to get off and sleep at a motel. ugh. So we continue driving. Oh, there's our exit (2 hours later). YAY! But no. We still have an hour and a half before we get there. Longest drive EVER. Finally get there at 5am. YES! Set up Samanthas pack and play. Go potty. Go to bed. Wake up around 11:30ish? Jeez. Anyways, we just pretty much relaxed all day on Friday and hung out... we went to see the farm across the street. They have horses, cows, chickens, roosters... Samantha had fun. Mariah loved it. We went back to grampas house. Had lunch. A big yummy sandwich from the deli. hung out. Went to Walmart and the Chinese Buffet for dinner. yummy food. Headed back to grampas house (anout half hour drive). Hung out and went to bed. Saturday woke up with a burst of energy. Made a yummy breakfast of eggs, hash browns, bacon and toast. (FRESH farm eggs!) hung out and visited. Grampa, Dustin and I went to the casino and left the girls at the house with Cassie. Had some fun. Lost 20 bucks. oh well. Headed back to grampas house and had a yummy steak and baked potato dinner, complete with corn and a salad. Had delicious strawberry shortcake for dessert. Some pop corn later. went to bed. Woke up on Sunday with a slight "I don't want to go home yet" feeling. Got all ready to go and we left around 10am. Got home around 8. I won't torture you with the details of the ride home, but it did go better than the way there. We made it ticket free by 8pm. We stopped A LOT to let the girls stretch out and exercise their legs. We had a GREAT time and I can't wait to go back (although, when we do, I think it's going to be a 2 part trip!)
Here are a couple pictures from our visit:



My grampas backyard. Completely 100% gorgeous out there!

Fun on the trampoline!