You know it's time to go home when you wake up in a big, beautiful bed (with all the sheets and towels in the room washed by someone else!) and you think about how you are looking forward to sleeping in your own bed tonight. The day starts off with Mike and I silly bickering about who gets to go down to the lobby by themselves to get coffee at the Starbocks. I got to go yesterday morning, but he got to go to the casino alone. Anyone with kids knows this alone-time-errand run dance. It's obviously been too many days in a row that no one has gotten alone time really and as much as we love each other, we could all use a break. Well, except Arlo, who would still be in utero if he could fit. I end up going but taking Arlo in the stroller. As I walk into the casino, wearing my jammies and pushing a baby in a stroller, I hear "Fancy" start blaring over the speakers. I feel as a DJ somewhere in the casino saw me and was playing a joke. I no longer have any fucks to give about my "mom lost in Vegas" presence and own it, walking to the beat and singing "who dat? who dat?" to myself. I AM fancy dammit. I'm wearing a bra and these are my nicest yoga pants. And you know what is ironic, there is really nothing fancy about anyone in a casino at 8 am.
Nothing goes wrong with packing and leaving, but I get snippy over stupid stuff. I hate packing and getting ready to go with stir crazy kids. It stresses me out, vacation is over and we have a long flight ahead of us. Mike and the boys are fine, I'm just cranky. Regardless we leave, get a taxi (with a massive amount of luggage again, and now our little 4 year old roller bag helper is down an arm), get checked in, to the gate and board the plane pretty seamlessly. I mean seamlessly for us. Which still isn't exactly a pretty process, but traveling with small children and all their gear it's impossible to look streamlined.
McCarron airport has to be the most "full of hot messes" location ever. The women's room smells like cheap perfume and poop and is full of women that look like it. Fortunately the flight is on time and we are headed home. I do the quick math in my head and realize we spent the same amount in less than 48 hours in Vegas as we did the whole first 12 days of the trip. This will most likely be my last time in McCarron airport!
The flight was, in one word: a miracle. Our boys are seriously perfect angels. They both took long naps, no one kicked the seat and no one cried once. They basically napped, ate dinner and watched Aladdin. Mike and I watched shows or slept. When we got off the flight the pilot let the boys in the cockpit and gave them both wings for being so good. We're feeling pretty awesome when MIL pulls up to hand over our car and we are able to load up and go home. On the way home Mike asks the boys if they had a good time, and "YES!!!!" was the resounding response from the back seat. He asks where we should go next to which G replies "Africa" (knew that was coming since mommy has talked about how far away it is). Then he asks, "what's the furthest state?" and we tell him Hawaii. He says, "we have to go to Hawaii next then. When I'm 6 we will go to Hawaii." Then they both start yelling, "we're going to Hawaii! We're going to Hawaii!" Geez guys, can we at least get home and unpack first? Maybe pay off the credit card bill from this trip first before my head starts spinning thinking about the cost of flights to Hawaii? But we are awfully glad they have that adventurer spirit in their hearts!
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| Learning to fly... |
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| Who me? I've been a challenge this trip?! Joke's on you, I'm totally low maintenance. |
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| Sleeping on mommy. I know my time is running out to soak this up! |
Final thoughts on the trip were that it was on the whole, pretty freaking awesome. I really liked the Utah stretch of the trip more than any other part. California and Arizona we were still working out the kinks and it was a little stressful, which was unavoidable. By Kenab, UT we hit our stride. And when we got to Vegas, we were kind of done with being in cramped quarters and showering in an upright coffin. I feel like such a lucky duck for getting to do this. We could have planned a vacation that was easier on families: Disney, a cruise, etc. (not knocking these at all- we plan on doing them too in the future!) but being able to show the boys such amazing natural beauty at such a young age was worth the bumps in the road. The positives outweigh the negatives by a landslide.
So would I recommend this kind of travel to families? Absolutely. For 2 weeks max though. Once you have a little RV experience under your belt, and if you stay nicer campgrounds with playgrounds, game rooms and pools it is the ultimate in family friendly travel. And once you've successfully done a family road trip, you too can say you beat the Germans and chant "USA! USA! USA!" to yourself every night before bed.
Not that I do that.
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