So I had this crazy idea that to maximize our sabbatical vacation time we needed to leave for California right after we got home from North Carolina. We were originally going to fly in from NC on Friday night and hang out at home for a few days then make our way leisurely down to California. We wanted to hit Disneyland on a Monday since it would be less crowded. After charting out our trip on a calendar I thought it was a waste to sit around a home for a week so I somehow talked Jeff into going along with my crazy travel plans.
We left the beach on Friday morning and drove 3 hours to Raleigh, NC with no problems since Harrison slept and James watched a movie. Then the first flight Harrison was pretty cranky and after two hours of him fussing and wrangling him he finally gave up and took a second nap. I knew it was bad when the flight attendant came by and asked if there was anything she could do. I told Jeff we had become "that" family! We barely made our connecting flight in Denver and that 3 hour flight went by without incident. We landed in Portland at about 9pm, which felt like midnight since we were still on NC time. The boys both fell asleep on the drive home from the airport and we put them right into bed. Jeff and I made ourselves not try to pack or do anything but go right to bed with the intention of sleeping in good and long to be rested for a full day of driving. I felt so exhausted and had serious doubts about this great plan I had to do back to back trips.
Well, our leisurely morning started at 5:30am when Harrison woke up. It's crazy how that is his magical wake up time despite the time zone! I went through our mail and started a load of laundry before James came down at 6:30. Jeff couldn't sleep either and woke up just before 7. We decided to just get on the road so we finished packing the car and left our house at 9:30am. Getting off went pretty fast thanks to all the prep work I did before we left for the beach. Everything we needed to pack in the car was all set just to load, other than our clothes we took to the beach.
I have to say that we have pretty amazing kids! We drove to Sacramento, CA in 10 hours, stopping twice to eat and about 4 short potty breaks for James. You'd think it would be me needing to go since I'm the pregnant one! They both were fairly pleasant with only a few times of crankiness which food or naps usually cured. We stayed the night at Cami's house- ironic since we just saw them for two weeks at the beach. In fact, we beat them to their house by a few hours.
Sunday morning Harrison woke up at 4am but I got him back to sleep until about 6 but then everyone else woke up. The boys had a lot of fun playing with Owen and Jack's toys. I felt really guilty about skipping church Sunday morning. We were planning to go to sacrament meeting but the thought of making them sit still for an hour and then putting them back in a car for another 7 just seemed like pushing them too far. We made great time to Anaheim and did it in 7 1/2 hours. Again our kids were champs. James lost it when I put in the Little Mermaid DVD instead of Cars which he's seen hundreds of times. A few minutes later he was asleep so I know it was the exhaustion talking. A little after 5pm we checked into our hotel, Best Western Park Place, right across the street from the Disneyland entrance. James immediately wanted to go ride something but we told him we had to get a good nights sleep so they were both bathed and in bed at 7pm. Jeff and I had to do something quiet in the room while they fell asleep so we planned our route for the next day with the RideMax software Jeff subscribed to. We were all asleep by 10pm!
I still can't believe we made it, and in such good time! I thought for sure I would live to regret the decision to do so many travel days in a row. But now we're at Disneyland and it's easy to forget what we went through to get here with the anticipation of the week ahead.
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