We had a LONG drive up. I still can't think about it without swearing. We went straight to New Ulm for the wedding so it required us to drive through Nebraska instead of Missouri. Hey, Nebraska! Next time I drive through your fine state, open up some freeways, would ya? Construction everywhere!!! When I was a kid, we'd drive to Harmony, MN to visit my grandparents. It was only an hour away but it was a single-lane highway drive with several little towns along the way that required you to slow down to 30 mph. The drive always felt like it took much longer than an hour when I was little and I always got sick to my stomach from the hills and turns. The drive to MN on Friday was like the drive to Harmony. For TEN HOURS. It was torture. Single lane country highway driving the entire way full of tiny towns to slow down and drive through. I couldn't appreciate that it really was a beautiful drive because it felt like we were getting nowhere slowly. The boys were very well behaved until the last 90 miles when Andrew declared he was DONE. He had a good, loud cry and then fell asleep. Jackson is a champ on road trips and this one was no exception.
We arrived in time for the rehearsal and then dinner. We got the boys settled into bed at the hotel but they didn't fall asleep until 10:00 and were up at 6:00. Three to four hours less than their usual sleep total. I saw the time on the bed-side alarm clock and all I could think about was how they could possibly hold up through the wedding reception. They were great for the wedding, started to fade during dinner, rallied enough for a couple dances at the reception and by 10:00 came completely unglued. At 10:30 I finally had to tell Jackson that if he didn't stop crying so loud, the hotel management would come to the room and ask us to leave the hotel because other people were trying to sleep. My rule-following-oldest-child quickly quieted down and was asleep in about 2 minutes. Not to be outdone by Jackson's wailing, Andrew saw his tears and raised him with whining like I've never heard. I would have laughed if it weren't SO annoying. At 10:00 he insisted on pretzels and juice and NO, HE WAS NOT GOING TO BRUSH HIS TEETH. Fine. Once that was done, the whining resumed until I grabbed the nearest sippy cup of water and gave him a splash to snap him out of it. That turned the whining into sobs which caused him to fall asleep in about 60 seconds. Maybe not a Super Nanny parenting tip, but it worked and I'm sure our hotel neighbors were very grateful.
They slept a little later this morning and we left for St. Paul at 11:00. We arrived in time for lunch and then saw Matthew and Ella in their end-of-summer-camp show with Ashland. It was darling. Ashland does such a great job with the kids. I was weeping from the joy of Ashland has become. I still miss working with them. Gotta figure out a way to get them to Manhattan.....
Then we went back to the Sutherlands' for a cook-out with some dear friends and my sister and her boyfriend. It was the perfect end to the day. Now my boys are camped out in Matthew's room and we're hoping some sleep will be had. It's their first pseudo sleep-over. I have some cute pics to post but that will have to wait.
Tomorrow we head to the cabin. The weather tomorrow looks sketchy and maybe Tuesday morning as well, but the rest of our week there looks great! We can't wait. I am crossing my fingers that the boys are able to get some regular sleep there so they can enjoy everything we want to do this week. Moms understand that three and five year olds cannot abandon their sleep for a full week and be expected to behave or even enjoy themselves. It just doesn't work. And we all know who picks up the pieces....
Speaking of....I think some little boys need to be settled down.
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