Day One of 30 Days of Mayhem: Traveling to Arkansas

First of all, I have to take a second to thank all of my wonderful friends who read my panicked post a few days ago and reached out to offer help.  I am so thankful to have such amazing people in my life.  

Michael took the kids to their last day of VBS while I got started of the long list of stuff that had to be finished before we left. Most f it actually got done but we were 45 minutes late leaving our house to go get the kids. Luckily they could help with tear down until we got there. 

We were ready to head out. Walking across the church patio Ruby realized She had left her sunglasses at home. Fit ensued. We told her we could stop and get her another pair. I really think she was having some last minute anxiety about this crazy trip of ours. Michael and I conferred and decided to give her the choice of going 30 minutes out of the way to go home and get her sunglasses or stop and buy new ones, knowing that the stop would end up taking about as long. 

Ruby refusing to leave church to go on our trip once she realized her new sunglasses were at home.

On the way back to the house Rehm realized that he did not have his headphones, Eliza Claire did not have her sunglasses, I had forgotten to take my morning medication, and a couple of the car blankets were not in the van. So stopping at home wasn't a bad thing. 

Van we saw on our way back to our house.  Awesome because Dirt is one of Eliza Claire's many nicknames and the one on the window of the van for the trip.

When packing I could not find the Dramamine we had bought specifically for this trip. I really think that Charlotte put it somewhere but she swears she didn't. Rehm said it could have possibly ended up under the sink when he put things back after replacing the faucet if it had been sitting on the counter. We never found it. I had to buy more when we stopped for gas. 


Speaking of Dramamine, why have I not been giving it to Charlotte for years? Oh my! It is awesome. My child that gets super bored and motion sick in the car slept for hours today! I just hope she sleeps tonight. 

Charlotte and Gumby (one of our trip mascots, apparently we have three or four so far) napping after a dose of Dramamine.

VBS was hard work.  Rehm slept for a couple of hours. I love sleeping kids in the car.

Ruby saw this pillow at Walmart and asked me to buy it for our trip.  She thought it would be good to have in the car to hold up when feeling angry.  Or to use to scream into when frustrated.  For some reason when I see it it makes me laugh, so far at least.  

Coloring to keep herself entertained

The sunglasses really do look awesome on her and make her very happy

Can we just talk about the traffic on I35 between Austin and Dallas? Oh my goodness! It is ridiculous! Now we ended up hitting Dallas at rush hour which was totally our fault but between the two was not. Ugh!

We finally reached the hotel about 8:40. Once we unloaded Michael took the girls to the pool while Rehm and I cooked dinner. Tonight was bacon chicken Alfredo pasta. The pot didn't do something quite right. It counted down like it was supposed to but when I released the pressure there was no pressure. The chicken wasn't done so I had to add time and try again. The second time it worked like a charm. Dinner was served at 10:00. Oops. That extra stop at the house sure did throw everything off for the day. 

Ruby's new cover up I finished this week instead of packing.  It is super cute and she loves it.  She says she feels like an angel when she wears it.  

What hotel cooking in the Instant Pot looks like.  This was after cooking was finished and during serving.

Everyone enjoying dinner. 

After dinner Ruby was not happy. She just wanted to go home. Our TV choices here are horrible. But thanks to my awesomely smart husband we brought the Roku with us. In about five minutes we had it hooked up and Ruby was happily watching the Disney Channel. Gotta love technology. 


While Michael washed the dishes. I made lunch for tomorrow - chicken Caesar pasta salad. I cooked more pasta in the instant pot added the extra chicken from dinner, some Caesar dressing and voila, lunch for tomorrow is chilling in the mini fridge. 


Finally everyone is asleep or at least in bed and the lights are off. We are off to the Crater of the Diamonds tomorrow morning then heading to Nashville to spend the night. 


Reveille Rider out!