Trip to Natural Bridge, Virginia
April 13 April 16, 2006
Cast:
Me (driver)
Mom (aka Grandma)
Jarrod (quirky kid)
Ethan (lounge lizard)
Accommodations:
Natural Bridge Inn and Conference Center
Mountain View Room, 2 double beds, and a crib
Preparing:
Spur of the moment trip momentarily dampened by a nasty stomach virus. We began packing Thursday morning and moved like crazy people in an attempt to be able to leave prior to midnight!! I was moving a little bit slowly because I had been up most of the night not feeling well!
I called Jay (Jars dad) and asked him about the clothes Jar had at his house so that I would be able to only pack what the kid would need. Jay, very nicely
agreed to wash Jars clothing and repack all of it so that I wouldnt have to deal with packing his clothes!! Woohoo!!
At 11am I threw the dog in the car and made the mad dash to the kennel to drop her off. It would have been a nice drive, had she not tried to climb in my lap while I drove
shes 65 pounds of lap dog!!
It was only really a problem when I had to swerve to miss the lake she was trying to push me into!! However, she was deposited very nicely at the kennel and seemed happy to go sniffing out other dog butts!!
I realized (at noon) almost too late, that I had to make a K-Mart run to get Jarrods Concerta. There was no way I was going away from home with no adhd meds!! (I may dumb but I aint stupid!
)
I finally got around to packing my clothes and Ethans clothes. Items taken: 2 pair of pants (jeans can be re-worn!), 3 s/s tee shirts, 2 l/s tee shirts, socks, undies, and princess jammies (and pink no less). I wore the only pair of shoes I was taking and drove in a pair of Mickey sweat pants! Plenty of clothing for 3 days in the mountains
. Remind me of this later!!
For Ethan I packed 2 pair of jeans and a pair of sweat pants, 2 red (different shades of course) tee shirts, and 1 green shirt, a sweater, a sweatshirt, and onesies, socks, and lots and lots of diapers. Oh wait, why dont I put back one of the jeans and get out a pair of red sweatpants. Yeah, that will work.
Grab make up. Make mental note to grab toothbrush and hairbrush. Grab hair clip and headband. Whew! Im all packed!! (hahahaha
note to self
mental notepad is like an etch a sketch
as soon as you move it erases all saved data!!)
Ack
gotta take the Easter bunny loot. Why in the world did I buy each of the them chocolate bunnies that have 8 inch ears???? What the heck was I thinking? How do you pack and hide bunnies that are a foot tall? Not to mention a few dozen other goodies to put in the baskets. So this ends up taking a whole carry on suitcase (you know the tall rolley ones that people store in the overhead compartments on airplanes!! Oye vey! Not to mention I have to not let the kids see inside this suitcase for 3 days!
Whos bright idea was it to be gone for Easter??
Now to the cooler
bought ice at Kmart
16 pounds should be enough
pack the water, the milk, the oj, and diet cokes. Pack the snacks, the juice boxes, and the fruit roll ups. Enough snack food to keep us lost in the mountains for a month!!
Now, I have a decent sized vehicle (evil SUV) so this should be pretty easy!!
Yeah right! Cooler, stroller, tall suitcase, 3 shoulder bags (one each mom, me, Ethan), 2 Easter baskets, juice boxes, box of individual snacks.
yeah right! I had to rearrange 3 times before I finally got it all in. Finally, we are ready to depart!
Stay tuned for chapter 2!
I will keep you all in my prayers... I cannot even imagine what your husband and you all are going through. I am thankful that your husband is physically okay though. My heart goes out to you both
....and watch some TV.
Paula, AA, Todd, Amanda, Liz, Beth, Kimmie, Kristy, Deena, John, and anyone else I missed. 
The parenting thread. Tara you had me giggling out loud on that one! That was one bizarre thread!
]
