hold on to these moments as they pass: i just can't wait to get on the road again

first, you should know that i love a good road trip. i try to take several a year. lucky for me, my boys like traveling too. well, actually i give them no choice but to like it. i remember an early roadtrip i took with my mom, my mamaw, and zane. zane was about 11 or 12 months old. we were on our way to chicago, and we decided to stop halfway for the night at a hotel. it was about 11pm by the time we got unpacked and settled in to the room. zane had been asleep for most of the trip, but the moment we layed him down in the bed, the child shot up to a sitting position with wild eyes. he then slid off the bed and began running around the bed laughing and squeeling. he couldn't walk by himself yet, so he was holding on to the beds and sort of hopping between the two beds. it was a moment of pure delight for him. he must have ran around for a good 20 minutes before he calmed down. it was one of those fast moving moments that i hope to never forget.

fun times in the car

this past week, my mom and i packed up the boys again for a spring break road trip. some families head to ski resorts, college kids head to beaches, but not i. i packed my kids up for a good ol' road trip to ikea in texas. ikea is one of my favorite stores and sadly we do not have one where i live. however, this gives my mom and i an excellent excuse for a trip. so we piled the kids into the car, and off we went.

as i've gotten older, i've become a hotel snob. my mom teases me about this, but i know secretly that she's happy to not "have" to stay in dumps anymore. so, i have my standards when it comes to lodging, and this trip i chose us a really nice place with feather top beds, 9 pillows per bed, and a plenty of space. the downside to these nicer hotels is that they have a lot of business people staying at them as well. (this should have connected with me earlier as i was using my husband's rewards points for free nights.) the boys love hotels. they really don't care about a trip's destination as long as we are staying in a hotel (or a show-n-tell as zane used to call them when he was little). on night two, we were attempting to get the boys settled in to their beds, and they were giggly and laughing and bouncing around - this is typical, so we hardly noticed. and then the phone rang, and the boys' faces turned white.

zander had to bring every friend in his room

many years ago, when zane was probably 2, on our first trip to florida, we had our first encounter with "combey". combey is the manager of every hotel, restaurant, target, etc in the world. on this trip to florida, zane was running around like a wild man in the room making all kinds of noise, and we couldn't settle him down. my stepdad then told zane that he should quiet down before the manager called and kicked us out. zane ignored him, and he continued on with his fun. after about 15 mintues of this, we heard a loud knock at the door. (now, i am admitting nothing, but perhaps it might have been my stepdad pounding on the bathroom wall.) zane's face went pale and he froze. he then grabbed his lovie, ellie, and ran to hide under the bedskirt of the bed. my stepdad calmly opened the door to the room and explained to combey that we would quiet down. from that moment on, combey become a fixture in our world. anytime we have a child acting up, we mention combey, and silence will fall over the room. it's glorious.

at ikea - these are times i'm glad to have a strong boy to help

so, on this most recent trip, the phone rang, and the boys knew. it was combey. we were getting kicked out, forced to sleep in the car. they leaped into their bed, grabbed ellie, ninnie (zander's blankie), and ghee (zaiden's blankie), and slid under the covers. it was awesome. they were quiet the rest of the night and fell alseep rather quickly after that call. it did stink to have to be the one to answer the call from the real combey and explain that my kids were wound up, but at least it settled them down.

traveling is in my blood i guess, and i hope i'm showing my kids the country as we make this little road trips. it's nice for us to have to be trapped in a car together and talk (well, when the batteries on their games die at least), and i love being able to travel with my mom. i am so grateful that i am able to take these trips. i'm also grateful that i've never had to actually meet combey face to face.