And we're off! We left Kalamazoo at 6:30am this morning to head for Jacksonville Florida - just over 1100 miles of traveling to get there. Our goal was 6am but we had to take a little detour when my parents (and Anna and Savannah) got to our house and then realized they forgot to turn off the water at their house. The kids were great today. Our first stop was just south of Indianapolis for gas and a bathroom break about 4 hours after we left. Our next stop was about 4 hours after that at the Tennessee Welcome Center rest area. We were surprised at the heavy amount of traffic heading south. It definitely slowed down our travel but we still made really great time and ended up arriving at our hotel in Chattanooga just after 5pm - 10 1/2 hours after we left.
The kids, like I previously mentioned, did great in the van! We watched a few DVDs between Kalamazoo and Indianapolis and then they didn't ask for it for the rest of the day! The girls both napped in the afternoon and Samuel had some quiet time by playing on the Kindle. We fed them breakfast and lunch in the van and made our stops more about running around and getting energy out. Eating is a great activity for the van b/c it takes up a lot of time! We also did their stocking presents in the van so every 100 or so miles they got another present to open. I read a LOT of books to them . . . so many that by the time we got to the hotel I felt a little dizzy and nauseous.
The van ride today was too uncomfortable for me. I made sure to do a lot of ankle pumps to keep the blood in my legs flowing! I didn't even tell my OB doctors that I was taking a 18hr car trip to Florida because I didn't want them to try and talk me out of it! ;) But I was careful about walking around a lot at our stops and moving around a lot in the van (well, as much as I could with being buckled!). I let Daryl do all of the driving because I figured I could move around more and adjust my position more frequently with being the passenger.
We stayed at a great hotel in Chattanooga. Our hotel and most of the hotels around us were full. I think a lot of the traffic was snow birds heading down south as well as some holiday vacation travel and football (a few bowl games down south) travel. We had Wendy's for supper, then let the kids jump on the beds for awhile, and then headed to the pool for about an hour of swimming before bedtime. The kids all loved the pool! It was hard to get them out when it was time for bed. Samuel asked me, "Mommy, when we wake up in the morning can we get our swimsuits on and go down to the pool again?" Aliyah loves swimming and did really well paddling around the pool with her puddle jumper on. She even jumped in a couple of times and said "I don't want you to catch me!" She did great with going under the water and not swallowing any! She says the word "pool" more like "pooooo" (with maybe a little "l" on the end that you can just barely hear) - too cute! Hope is my girl that is a little nervous and tense in the water. She also gets cold easier than my other two, which doesn't help. She swam for a little bit, but then preferred to sit on Aunt Anna's lap and watch everyone else play.
Tomorrow: Jacksonville!!! :)
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