Florida 2007: On the Road to Nashville

Who is this Monkey Queen in the back seat? Read on to find out...

Ah, the free breakfast at the Baymont Inn…pop tarts! The kids were very excited because they don't normally get to eat those at home. We took a dip in the pool and hit the road by 10 after the kids ‘rode’ the dolly with all the luggage down to the lobby (I was pushing—my exercise for the day). We drove for about 6 hours, lunch at Subway, only a little squabbling, and Emmett had fun wearing a monkey queen sleep mask we found on the ground at a gas station. Probably totally unsanitary but it was worth it seeing Emmett wearing it in the backseat.

We arrived at Bonnie and Joel’s at about 4:30. I hadn't seen Maya yet, and she's now an adorable toddling 1 year old with huge personality and a charming stubborn streak. We switched to the van, picked up some burgers and beer, and went to Trevor’s for a BBQ (my ex-brother-in-law’s house, for those who don't know--Ben was a good sport about it). Trevor’s girls were so excited to see the boys, and Angus, Emmett, Skye, Zoe, Chloe, Hailee, and Maya all played (much shrieking involved) and swam in Trevor's backyard pool (more shrieking), we had dinner, Trevor tried to give Emmett two of his dogs and his rabbit (hutch included!) but I put the kibosh on that.


Finally we went back to Bonnie’s house. Joel got home from work about 10 pm and we watched TiVo for awhile. Tivo is cool! They actually have significantly more media technology in their house than we do, which I didn’t think was possible. But Joel is as much if not more of a techy geek than Ben so I guess it’s not surprising. Angus and Skye have always had a special bond and they always pick up right where they left off--now they are sharing their cool pre-teen vibe. Zoe and Emmett have been having a great time being the eccentric pair who ‘don’t need’ their older siblings. They all stayed up way too late because they were having so much fun being together again, but everyone was finally asleep by midnight, and the rest of us followed shortly after.