Our summer has been so busy this year with the kids’ activities and schedules that Gulley and I began to stress that we weren’t going to have a time to take our annual summer road trip. Which was absolutely unacceptable because we vowed early on the road trip will happen every summer until the kids go off to college. And, EVEN THEN, we may show up at their dorm or apartment or whatever and load them up and drive them through Chick-Fil-A and make them listen to our music on the radio or the chip in our brain that automatically plays music that we’ll probably all have by then.
(Go ahead and laugh but how many of you thought cassette tapes were the best technology you’d ever experienced?)
So we finally came up with a couple of days last week in addition to three days this week and, thus, the road trip lives.
Last summer we discovered that a resort is a delightful way to spend a portion of the road trip and so we drove right up the road to the JW Marriott where Gulley and I finally found ourselves by a pool with drinks in hand and our kids nowhere to be found. Which is really optimal.
They swam and floated the lazy river all day long, occasionally stopping by to check in with us. Or they would occasionally ambush us while we floated the lazy river and flip us over on our tubes. Oh, teenagers, they are the best except when they’re absolutely not.
Eventually we all made our way to dinner. We let the kids go eat on their own while Gulley and I enjoyed a glass of wine on the patio. After dinner, they ate seventeen S’mores by the campfire and then settled in for checkers.
The next morning we slept in and then headed back down to the pool. I told the kids to get together so I could get some photographic evidence of the trip and this is what I got.
Caroline told me to quit taking pictures of them where they look weird, but I’ve discovered getting a good picture of all of them is more difficult now than it was when they were toddlers. Someone is always making a goofy face or has their eyes closed or is just so over it because MOMMMMMMM.
But it was a great two days and the perfect start to our road trip that will be continued starting Wednesday afternoon. We aren’t entirely sure what all we are going to do, but I can bet on a few things.
1. At some point Will is either going to just feel carsick or actually throw up.
2. Caroline will try to convince one or both boys that she already took a turn sitting in the middle seat in the back.
3. They will imitate either Gulley or me or both of us. And it will be funny at first and then they’ll cross the line.
What I’m saying is not much has changed since we took our first summer road trip with them ten years ago when they looked like this.
Except now they look like this.