We started out a little later than we wanted, but we were just happy to finally be on the road!
It was touch and go there for a minute. The road to Florida is long and hard. I don’t know how professional drivers do it.
It’s been a long time since we were able to just live carefree and enjoy the moments as they come. Our family tends to operate under a lot of stress nearly 100% of the time. Is your family like that? No matter how hard you try, life happens and sometimes the consequences of life are not very fun. That’s why I wanted to take my family on a trip of a lifetime! I worked Summer School and completed 100 extra hours of work for Career Ladder. Without these, our trip would have never happened. I didn’t want anyone to stress about money; just wanted them to enjoy the trip.
I think it turned out okay. 🙂
And then there was the beach… four people in our crew had never seen the ocean. It was a sweet moment the first time they ran into the water.
The waves were everyone’s favorite part.
These pictures captured our smiles of pure bliss and even sand in my swimsuit bottoms, but here’s what the camera didn’t capture:
- All the sweating (mostly on my part)
- A teenager meltdown
- 700 loads of laundry and dishes
- Lover’s quarrels
- A drooping tail on a dog who swam way too long her first time (my bad)
- A brutal car ride home that nearly ended all road trips for the rest of our lives (ha!)
I’m not being dramatic…all 8 of us, including the dog, thought the trip home was brutal. I think the last 4 hours of the trip, Joe and I switched off driving more times than we did the whole trip! From St. Louis on we thought we were going to crawl out of our skin.
With everything we do, there are growing pains. Throwing nearly our whole household in a van, including the dog, and driving halfway across the U.S. is not something we do very often, so naturally we learned a thing or two.
For instance:
- You can’t pick up a rental unless you have a credit card in your name, not your wife’s.
- Missouri rest stops are the worst (they could learn something from our southern states).
- Do NOT stop for gas in Illinois, it’s unnecessarily high.
- I only need one-half of a Celcius energy drink, not two whole cans.
- Do NOT drive 24 hours straight, you are NOT superhuman though you may feel like it (Also, my bad).
Relationships are hard, life is hard, and sometimes people suck. But making memories with your loved ones helps you bond with them. And that’s all we will ever need.
Enjoy the rest of your summer!
Love, Jes
true life hot mess mom 