ROAD TRIP!!

Gotta love road trips, especially when you're on a trip with your sister and 4 kids, whew! My mom was in Houston this week and my grandmother and her went to visit my aunt in Dallas so Kellie and Troy told her they would pick her up this weekend in Dallas (she flew to Houston, one way).
Troy needed to stay home and do some work. So I decided I would embark with Kellie on the journey. We left Friday morning and came home this afternoon.
The trip went really well for the first hour or so then, of course, everyone started getting restless...so we decided to stop at a place in Valley View, Texas to eat lunch. A good ol' small town restraunt called BIG FATTY'S BBQ, the name alone makes you want to rush to eat there, HA!! It was either Big Fatty's or Dairy Queen, not a huge fan of Dairy Queen. So we decided on Big Fatty's. If you are ever traveling through Valley View, I highly recommend Big Fatty's, it's very good, but our bill was $36, YIKES!! So we decided it was a bit expensive, especially for two little girls that didn't eat very much (Aub & CoCo).
After lunch we treked on. We arrived in Mesquite, Texas shortly before 2:00 pm. Hoping the entire time that Brody would fall asleep in the car, he did not...I wasn't sure how he was giong to get a nap. We couldn't check into our hotel until 3:00, so we went to my mom and grandmother's hotel, no nap was to be had, BY ANYONE!! Everyone was way to hyped up. This is the FIRST time in Brody's 20 month life that he hadn't had a nap and believe me it was ROUGH!! He's a sleeper!!
We visited for a while, then checked in at our hotel and went to eat dinner at Red Lobster (YUMMY). After dinner we took the kids swimming, something they all love to do, as a matter of fact, Aub wants to move to a hotel so she can swim whenever she wants, HA!! Not a bad idea...they do have maids at hotels, ahhhhhhh!!
After all the swimming excitment I had Brody asleep by 8:00, I then laid him in his pack and play (something he doesn't sleep well in), he's a very "I want my own bed" type of boy...like I said he's a sleeper, but he's always been a "lay me down in my bed, goodnight" type of kid...so a hotel is not his cup of tea. Kellie and I rented a movie while we got everyone else to sleep, and we had the TV pretty loud (which everyone slept through, figures)...around 1 am we finally got everyone settled turned off the lights. Then, of course, Brody woke up SCREAMING, like I said pack and plays freak him out...so he ended up in bed with me and Aub...again not doing well because he just wanted his own bed. Whew! So I messed with him and he tossed and turned most of the night. Then we have precious Dakota who woke up about every hour, so between the boys, Kellie and I didn't get much sleep, and of course the girls, SLEPT THROUGH IT ALL!!!! Lucky ducks!!
So needless to say we were all pretty tired (except for the girls) this morning and kinda cranky, hee hee! Around 11:00 we headed home, we stopped in Denton to eat lunch with Rick and Sue then continued on our way, thinking lunch was a great break, and we even let the kids run around on the grass while we visited with Rick and Sue for a bit, hoping to tire them all out...no one slept in the car except for Dakota...Brody pretty much screamed and fussed most of the way home, he just won't sleep anywhere else but his bed right now. When we FINALLY arrived home it was dinner time and I WAS NOT cooking so we went to eat, then came home gave CRANKY Brode a bath and put him straight to bed a little before 7:00 pm.
Needless to say our little quick road trip feels like we were gone for about a week from home...we did enjoy seeing grandmother and Harold, anytime I get to see them, no matter what the circumstances I'm always blessed.
I know in a day or two Kellie and I will be laughing at our trip, but for now, I'm just going to BED!!! Oh and did I mention that I had to work this ENTIRE time, oh my...whew!!

We have a busy week ahead of us. Aubree has VBS at Oakcrest Sunday through Wednesday this week in the evening. Monday we'll be heading to the waterpark and Tuesday Aubree and I are having a special "Aubree & Mommy" day and going to a children's museum, while Megs watches Brody. I'm off Monday & Tuesday, two much needed days off!! By Thursday we'll all be worn out!!
Hope everyone has a great week!!

Post more pics of the kids soon!! :-)