The Journey

Fabian trying to get comfortable. Ethan was very excited that the kitty was in the car!

Ethan really didn't want to wake up....

Our little alarm clock. Wyatt in the hotel room.

Stopped in Blue River for a run, Ethan ran around with his suitcase for ten minutes, I fed Wyatt and then we headed back out. It pretty much rained our entire trip!

Fabian has become a little road cat. This was his 5th trip on one of these journeys. He much preferred the van to my old car. He layed between Kelly and I on the console most of the trip. He sat on my lap for awhile and down at my feet. The car is COVERED in hair, I'm just about to go vaccuum it out!

Fully tummy, showing off his two new teeth!

Big smiles!

As we pulled into my parents driveway last night at 12:35 (I guess I should say this morning), both Kelly and I agreed that this would be the first and last time we EVER make this drive with the kids. The journey was, well it was not fun, not because the kids were bad but because 0f a few unforseen circumstances that couldn't be avoided.

Kelly arrived home Tuesday night at 9:30. The car was completely pack and Ethan was waiting at the door with his suitcase all ready to get in the car and head out. Kelly quickly showered, we put the kids in the car and headed out (with a quick stop at Timmy's of course). Wyatt fell instantly back to sleep, Ethan was clinging to his blanket, dancing away to the music and not interested in going to sleep at all. We told him we were driving to Granny's house. Which we learned was quite the mistake. He thought that we would be at Granny's very soon, not so much. Ethan made us listen to 'Shake Shake Shake your sillies out' OVER and OVER and OVER until neither Kelly or I could shake anymore. I reserved a room in Hinton so that was our destination for the night. At 12:15, just as we were coming into Hinton the backseat was very quiet. I figured Ethan was asleep. I turned around to two big brown eyes staring at me. I told him to go to sleep, he looked at me with big eyes and said 'Granny's house', 'Big Bed Granny' (Translation: I want to sleep with Granny in her big bed). I felt terrible, I realized that he figured we were just about at Gran's house.

We rolled into the hotel at around 12:35, Kel went and got our keys and to pay for the room. The second we opened the door (without thinking about it) the cat FLEW out of the car and made a mad dash through the parking lot. Kelly and I both had kids in our hands so we couldn't run after him. I thought he was a goner. Thankfully 20 minutes later Kelly arrived with Fabian in his hands. PHEW that could have been catastrophic.

This was Ethan's first night ever in a hotel, he was wild, running around, screaming, ceratinly keeping everyone anywhere near our room awake, I couldn't get Wyatt go to back to sleep because Ethan was chitchatting, Finally Kelly layed Ethan down and whipsered to him and it seemed he fell instantly asleep.

A quick 5 hours later and we were up and on our way. Another stop at Tim Horton's and we were off. Kelly made it until Jasper before he started to head-bob and slur his speach, dang that meant I was up. So I took a turn driving from Jasper to Blue River. I'm not a huge fan of driving on unfamiliar roads such as the ones we were on, so when Kelly woke up and realized I was driving 80km/h and had a train of cars behind me I had to pull over and switch. We stopped in Blue River to feed Wyatt and give Ethan a little run, then back into the car. I must say the kids were incredibly well behaved the entire trip. Only a few little outburst and i'm sure it was because they were bored and sick of being in the car.

I think someone needs to open a Tim Hortons somewhere between Jasper and Kamloops. There isn't one for hours and no one can make tea quite like them. I swear they would make a killing.

We stopped in Merrit for another quick feed and pee break. We heard on the radio that there was a mudslide just outside of Hope and Highway one was closed both way. OH Great..... but they said use Highway 7 as a detour. I checked the map and that seemed to be an ok alternative so I wasn't really worried. If only I had known what was to come....

We pull into Hope and being our detour.... Traffic was slow, there was a TON of traffic and finally our slow crawl turned into a complete stop.... for TWO and a HALF hours. We were stopped completely for two and a half hours. We would creep fowrard every half an hour or so but maybe 5 metres each time. Wyatt was SCREAMING his brains out for 2 out of the 2.5 hour stop. Ethan was getting very frusterated being stuck in the car. It was POURING rain out and the traffic coming the other way was zooming by so it was not safe to take Ethan out, plus every so often we would move and I wasn't about to let anyone pass us because we were putting kids in the car. So we waited, waited and waited some more. As we were waintg I develoepd a migraine. The kind of migraine that made me have to puke. So I had to puke, Wyatt was screaming everyone was grumpy, the chances of making any kind of ferry were dwindling. We were all pretty miserable.

When we finally started moving we decided to just take the back route the entire way (rather than getting back onto the number 1 with all the traffic). It was a beautiful drive. I wasn't sure how busy the last ferry was going to be but when we got there it seemed we made it with no troubles.

We enjoyed a $32 deep fried crappy meal on the ferry and then Wyatt and I found a nice place on the floor and both curled up and went to sleep. Kelly was stuck with our exhausted Ethan who was walking around pulling his suitcase and just falling for no reason at all and the crying because he fel. Just before we had to drive off the ferry Ethan took a massive poop. Kelly was stressed out to the max, there were wipes flying everywhere, poop all over the seat, the car stunk. I couldn't help him because I was hoping the cat so he didn't run out of the car onto the ferry. HA almost wish I was videotaping.

The one hour drive down to Courtenay was a tough one. Kelly and I were both so tierd I had to shake my head to keep myself awake. Ethan and Wyatt were both sound asleep, but Ethan woke up just before we got there. Granny and Grandad were waiting up for us and Ethan was SO excited to see them! Big hugs, then headed straight for the toys. It was after 1 before we got him to sleep and he was up at 7 all set to play. Kel and I fell asleep within seconds as did Wyatt. Wyatt woke up at 4 then for good at 6:30. It is a good thing I don't need a lot of sleep to function!

We will be flying from this day forward. THe money we saved by driving is not worth any part of that drive. In my head it would be a fun family trip. Never again... EVER... not even when the kids are older. No more flapping road trips. Driving sucks!

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