I wish I had a picture that conveyed how slow these cars were going. And that they were backed up for miles and miles!
Here is the gorgeous little boy that we took on our trip with us. Here is the 45 minute nap John took yesterday during our 13 hours of driving. (It proved to be not enough.)
He tried so hard, and did so well. It took us two days to drive from Columbus Ohio, to Fort Lauderdale Florida. On the GPS it says it is a 17 hour trip. But from the time that we got in the car and got out of the car and then got in the car next day and got out of the car to stop driving, it was 22 hours.
I had prepared 19 different little boxes that John could open with different toys in them, that I planned to give him each hour that we drove., But he wanted a new one every five minutes. I ran out of boxes a lot faster than I hoped. And apparently selection of 10 DVDs that I brought, we're not to John's liking as I had hoped. And ironically, "frozen" kept freezing. He just was beyond interested even in movies by the end of the trip.
Poor John really struggled on the evening of the second day. I felt like I was torturing him every time we put them back in the car seat after a rest stop. Just when we were about an hour away. He just lost it! Nothing could soothe him but getting out of the car. And we just couldn't do that 30 minutes away from my destination. Then, when we got just a couple minutes away, we got stopped by the guard in the gated community where Seth's sister Leilani lives. He didn't want to let us in, and I lost it! John was crying and screaming at the top of his lungs, but I just couldn't believe that the guard would not let us in! I told him that we have been driving for 22 hours, and we just needed to get there. When he finally let us in, he told us that John was crying because been sitting too long. I wanted to get out of the car and punch him. 😡
When we arrived at Leilani and Tyler's house. John was almost inconsolable. Even though I was holding him and telling him we were not going to get back in the car, he was just so shaken. It broke my heart. After about 30 more minutes of clinging to me and feeling scared, John settled down, and realized he was in a safe with his cousins and aunt and uncle, whom he really does know, and remember. He started playing with his littler cousins, Miya and Kalia. They ran around the house giggling and laughing, and he seem to forget the whole thing! And he forgave me for not releasing him out of his constraining car seat, even for all of the times when I could do nothing, when he was crying "mama! Please get out! Owie, bottom!"
We are so thankful not to be driving today! And we are truly enjoying relaxing with family in sunny Florida, and are amazed that it is 80° in March 😄
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