road trippin'

 (disclaimer: this post is poorly written and does not have a profound double meaning or nice little moral to tie everything together. you have been warned)

i don't know what it is exactly but road trips have become one of my favorite things since being married. there are few things i love more than cramming stuff in our little car, making a playlist chock-full of our favorite jams, stocking up on unhealthy snackage and making our way across the country. life tends to get kind of busy when you're married, attending school full-time, working full-time, and being parents so sometimes i really miss those long conversations about nothing that we had all the time when we were dating. but when you've got 21 hours alone together in the car there's nothing but time to catch up and be weird and laugh at jokes that aren't really funny. like at all. because, ya know, that's what being married is all about.

so i was really excited when we planned two big road trips for this summer. one to drive east and go visit our families, and the other to drive to san antonio, texas where andrew is working until august. this time, however, we had a baby; and that made me super duper nervous. i wasn't sure i could handle a 22+ hour road trip with a baby screaming the entire way. (spoiler alert: he was the pro-est of pros)

at the end of april we began the craziest "vacation" of my life. we left utah at 4 am, drove 5 hours to vegas, parked in long-term parking, caught the shuttle to the airport, went through security, found out our flight to philadelphia was delayed two hours, found out our flight was cancelled due to weather, rebooked a red-eye to baltimore later that night, went to a hotel to sleep until we had to be back at the airport, went back to the airport around 10 pm, had to be taken aside and questioned and patted down and detained for 45 minutes because my license didn't match my ticket (that's never happened before meh), finally got through security, found out our flight was delayed AGAIN, sat in the airport until 2 am, got on our plane, landed in baltimore around 9 am, got picked up by my mom and drove two hours to my family's house. all with a baby strapped to my chest. but you know who cried the least amount of the 3 of us? that baby of mine. he was happy as a clam all day long and slept a bunch so that we were able to rest and didn't make a peep on the plane (which i was so so SO stressed about). that boy of mine was truly the dreamiest baby those two days and i cannot be more thankful.

so we finally got to philly on thursday morning and spent the day there with my family. friday morning we left for north carolina to go see andrew's family. we took my dad's car and drove 9 hours to greensboro. once again, not a peep from the baby the whole time. 

sunday morning andrew blessed milo in his family's church building and it was by far one of the sweetest things i've ever experienced. i love those two boys of mine. (more on that later? probably)

monday afternoon we headed back up to philadelphia, but this time with my sister in the back of the car to help tend to milo and keep him entertained. that was nice. and then wednesday night we headed back to the airport and flew home, this time without any delays or security problems (thank goodness). 

we were home for a week and then off it was to san antonio! we split the trip into two 12 hour days. milo wasn't quite as perfect as he was on our east coast trip but i'm pretty sure he just got lonely because once i decided to move to the back of the car he smiled at me really big and then fell asleep holding my finger. i missed you too, pal.

i'm not really sure what the point is to all this. i guess ultimately the point is that despite the chaotic craziness of this summer so far, and despite having a tiny two month old that can't even keep a pacifier in his mouth, i still really really love road trips. i love seeing new places and the sound of the pavement beneath the tires and the excitement that ensues each time we cross into a new state and just everything about traveling the country with my family is wonderful to me. (except for that moment when we were in the middle of nowhere texas at midnight and our gps stopped working and we didn't know where to go. that was a little terrifying BUT i digress) 

so i guess i just like adventures. which is probably why i decided to leave public high school at 15 and why i decided to move to utah at 17, even though i had no idea what i was going to do there. it's why i got married at 18 and pregnant at 19 and it's why i want a whole gigantic slew of precocious redheaded children to call my own. 

i like adventures. i like road trips. and i want to do them all with my family. forever. i can't wait to see what the future holds.

so now you know.