Road Trip

My husband and I decided we need to visit Grandma in Iowa. He had some vacation coming up and with President's Day and Lincoln's Day the kids wouldn't miss too much school. The last time we'd been out was 3 and a half years ago. Our youngest daughter Isabelle was only 6 months old. I started looking for plane tickets the next day. I was shocked that for a family of five it would cost between $1400 and $2200. I would have expected that if we'd wanted to go to Hawaii but not for Iowa.

We talked it over and we really wanted to go. The kids were really excited plus we had told Grandma we were coming. I started looking for rentals. Yes, as in a rental car. I found out renting a van for a week was around the cost of a monthly payment so I booked it. Next I bought snow gear online for the kids. After packing for everyone we were ready.

Melissa agreed to watch Dakota while we were gone. We dropped her off at the dog park with all her things and hit the road. I drove the first leg because I knew I'd be tired long before Matt. Everything was fine until we were somewhere in Utah. It started to flurry, which made me a little nervous, because I'd never driven in the snow before. After an hour at about 2am I woke Matt up and we switched. Then I fell asleep.

Two hours later I woke up and couldn't see anything. Matt had a death grip on the wheel and looked wide awake. He said this had been going on for over an hour. "This" I would have called a blizzard but Matt said,"It's only a white out." Only my behind. I freaked out and told him me should get off the freeway and find a hotel for the night. He quietly told me to go back to sleep everything was ok. I tried, I really did, but visions of death and five head stones kept waking me up.

Once we hit Colorado the weather was fine so we switched again. I was worried that the three hours of sleep wouldn't be enough but after an energy drink I was wide awake. The drive went by quickly and less dramatic for me and we made it to Iowa later that day after 31 hours of driving. The kids loved playing in the snow and seeing Grandma. Some other family was able to make it out to see us. The week went by way too fast.

The trip home was a lot less eventful. The weather was great and we didn't hit any snow. We stopped in Nevada for the breakfast buffet. Matt played a hand at one of the tables and won thirty five dollars. We were able to make it home in twenty three hours. We all fell asleep at 7pm and didn't wake up until mid-morning. It was great. We are already talking about trying to go back again. Yes, we are crazy!