12 hours on the road

Yesterday we made the big trip! We drove from Portland to the Bay Area in one day. We got up at 5 am, had breakfast and did last minute packing. We were on the road by 6:15.

Really, the kids did very well. I went to the dollar store before the trip started, and bought lots of little presents. Alayna wrapped some of them up, to increase the excitement. Also, before going, Mateo and I sat down to make a list of what it should sound like and look like when we were in the car. We also wrote down things that it should not sound like. (High on that list was whining and saying, "Are we there yet.")

I brought a timer along for the ride. I knew that they would be fine for the first 30 minutes or so. I put the timer on for 5 minutes. Obviously, they were find for the first 5 minutes. When the timer went off, I drew a coin for them. (Just made a picture of a coin for a point.) Another 5 minutes, another coin. The third 5 minutes, they earned their third coin and both received a present. They played with the present nicely for a good 30 minutes, making us 45 minutes into the trip.

At that point, we went back to the timer for good behavior. I told them they could watch a movie in the car once they had 5 points. In no time, they got to watch an hour long movie - Dora!

So, along the way they earned coins for going out to Subway. We, of course, were planning on doing that anyway. They also got to go to the park. (Again, already planned on.) More presents, books and all sorts of things along the way. Overall, very little whining occurred on the trip from either of the older children!

On the Rosa front, she did very well. I pumped before we got in the car and then brought along the hand pump. We might have made a very interesting sight along the road. I was sitting in the front and pumping with the hand pump. Then, I would turn around and feed the baby with the bottle. Pump some more. Feed the baby some more. I even ended up nursing her in the car seat for part of the time too!

The trip was overall very good. It was a long day, and we arrived at the house 12 hours later. I'm not exactly looking forward to the return trip, but the drive down wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. And now we have a whole week in California. We're looking forward to spending time with Alayna's parents, celebrating Alayna's and Tali's birthdays, seeing friends, and, of course, enjoying this gorgeous warm and sunny weather.