Roadtrip

So, I shared pictures of the house we are buying in Rochester, but I neglected to share any stories from our roadtrip - and we spent more days on the road than we did in Rochester!

It's a 12 hour drive from Cleveland to Rochester so we decided to break it up and stay overnight in the Chicago area.  Good thing too, because after 6 hours in the car the kids were losing it - well mostly Alex was whining and crying and Noah was asking every 5 seconds where we were (as in what state) which was causing Paul and I to lose it.  Actually though, the kids did alright...not great (which we never expected anyways) but alright.  That may, of course, had something to do with the portable DVD player, 4 never-before-seen-by-our-kids movies from Hollywood video, juice boxes, crackers, pretzels, candy, etc.  Hey, this trip was all about surviving with our sanity (and our kids) intact.

We left Monday evening, after picking Paul up from the airport.  The kids both ended up falling asleep in the car before we got to our hotel...which meant that once we got checked in we were all up until about 1am, with the kids jumping, screaming, laughing, and bouncing from one bed to the other.  Noah LOVED our hotel...because the outside was lit up with blue lights.  It will forever be known as the "blue hotel."  

We woke bright and early (FUN) and took the kids swimming at the indoor pool, as promised.  That was one of our tricks for getting the kids excited about this roadtrip.  Anyways, the kids couldn't wait to wear their new swimsuits.  And we thought they looked pretty cute : )

Noah picked his out - yes, those are sharks.  He even has shark flip flops to match.  Thanks Grandma Hunt!  Paul and I picked out Alex's suit - you can pretty much get her excited about anything.  We couldn't resist the matching swim shirt.  I love chubby little toddlers in swimsuits!

The kids had a great time in the pool.  Noah was a little fearful at first, but slowly improved.  He did much better when we came back through a few days later.  Alex is a total water baby and has no fear whatsoever.  In fact, she thinks she can do it herself.  There was no "baby pool" so I had to hold her but she kept yelling at me and trying to wriggle free.  I finally resorted to letting go and allowing her to drop under water for a split second.  She'd let me hold her for about 5 minutes and then we'd have to repeat the process all over again.  2-year olds...HONESTLY!

The funny thing is this hotel has an indoor waterpark - the indoor pool is separate...and free!  When we booked it we thought we'd take the kids to the waterpark but we ended up being pretty short on time and the price was pretty outrageous.  It worked out great because our kids had just as much fun in the pool, which we had to ourselves most of the time.  They never had any idea there was a waterpark in the same building!

Other highlights from the roadtrip include: letting the kids run like maniacs through random Walmarts along the way and lunch at the MouseHouse CheeseHaus in Wisconsin - seriously delicious.

The night we got home, as Paul got Noah ready for bed, Noah said to him, "Daddy I never want to go on another roadtrip NEVER EVER EVER again."  Too bad we have to do the same drive in about 5 weeks...shhhhhh : )