Last week my family and I went to Colorado. For only the third time in my life, I DROVE for a long distance vacation. For most of my childhood, anytime I traveled, I did so via airplane. I can only remember traveling in a car one time during my entire childhood. Up until last year, I had never driven much farther than the states borders in a car and had NEVER driven west. Josh giggled at me as I talked about what our first trip in the car as a family, my first trip west, might be like. As I babbled on, he stopped me and said, "Misty, please tell me you're not envisioning covered wagons and buffalo along the highway." Oops..guilty...as I said, driving for vacation was not a frequent occurrence for me and when I thought of traveling west the only way I had "participated" was in my imagination when I read The Little House on the Prairie books as a young girl. In my minds eye, we were going to see little girls running behind their covered wagons in long dresses and bonnets while their dog lapped at their heels.
So, ok, yeah, I was waaaaaaaay off base..thankfully. The trip through Kansas lasts for what seems like forever & at one point, Josh and I had the discussion, how tough it must have been for all the little "Half Pint's" who traveled with their Ma's and Pa's.
But one thing that always seemed, well, glamorous for me about their trips West were the time they had together, as a family. Coming from a family that for some time was disjointed and then later spread out, travel was impractical. I always envied my friends, both in HS and college, who talked of playing in the back with their siblings on long car trips. Even Josh has some hilarious stories he has shared with me, like scaring a little old lady in the car next to theirs on the interstate by showing her a plastic knife and making a mean face while his brother cheered him on...probably not his proudest moment now..but hey at the time THAT was fun! In my family, those road trips never happened...so as I said, my imagination was running wild when we decided to take our FIRST trip West in December. We were able to go again, to Colorado, last week. And while I am not an EXPERIENCED road tripper, I did know that there were not covered wagons and little girls running around. However, it was another extended road trip...15 hours in the car! Keep in mind, I have a 10mos old, 4 year old and a 7 year old...now, you might be seeing the words...DANGER, NO WAY, TURN BACK NOW flash in front of you..and in December, I did too..but honestly, both trips, we had a BLAST! We giggled, sang songs, played games and, my FAVORITE past time of all, listened to the interactions between our boys that were occurring in the back seat. For 14 hours..we were inside an extremely small minivan, that truly seemed to get smaller as the trip wore on, and we couldn't "get away" from each other. We HAD to interract with each other and I loved every minute of it! I loved listening to Brit explain to Aidan how to get to that unattainable level on the Nintendo DS, I loved listening to Aidan tell why "that was his favwite" part of the movie and I loved listening to them try to get Liam to giggle as they danced in their seats! I loved listening to Josh explain the workings of a windmill and I LOVED sitting next to my husband, holding his hand and listening..just listening to them in the back seat. I simply LOVED it...
Now, grant it, it wasn't a FAST way to make our way to Colorado and it DEFINITELY wasn't in a covered wagon...it was simply wonderful...and has definitely made the list of one of our favorite activities...yeah, there were no little girls running in bonnets, BUT there were toothless little boys (one b/c he's lost them and another b/c he hasn't gotten them) giggling in the back seat and that to me is absolutely PRICELESS! And sooooo very much better than ANY imaginings I could have had...
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