Impromptu Road Trip

So Monday we left for Ohio....my cousin's wife died unexpectedly and the boys and I left to drive up with Oma and Opa. We opted for Opa's car since it has a bigger back seat and let me say we are all very snug as a big in a rug!!!

Opa and I take turns sitting in between the car seats in the back. It's either an Opa or Mama sandwich back there!! Not only are the car seats on either side, there is stuff on the floor boards on both sides, so to get in and out you need to take out Ewan's carrier and then empty the floor board and climb over the car seat base!!! Quite the adventure. The boys enjoy the company though.

I must say both boys have been extremely good so far. The driving has been pretty good; we broke up the drive into two days to make it easier for everyone. Monday Jack and Ewan both added two new states to their list...Virginia and West Virginia.

Monday night we decided to stay in Beckley, West Virginia. The first hotel we tried was booked. The second we didn't like the way it looked outside so we wound up at the third. It was very nice. The boys and I had a room and Oma and Opa had a room two doors down.

We went out for a late dinner. Jack ate quite well and didn't even make a mess. By the time we returned to the hotel it was about 8:30 (Jack usually goes to bed at 8). I set up the two portable cribs and got everyone ready for bed. Ewan went down for his nap (seems to like to nap before his last bottle) and Jack was down to bed by 9. He played but remained quiet and calm. He finally fell asleep by 9:45, just as Ewan got up from his nap. Ewan had his last bottle and was in bed by 10:20. Lights out.

AND THEN at about 11:30 (mind you I had no clue what time it was) I was awakened by a very loud noise. First I thought it was the alarm clock since Jack was playing with it. No luck. Then I checked the smoke detector. No luck. Finally it occurred to me that it was a fire alarm. After calling Oma and Opa and the front desk we left the room (Jack woke up, but remained in a good mood) and Ewan was still asleep.

I threw on some clothes, picked up Ewan and wrapped him in his blankie and grabbed Jack. We went down the stairs (from the 5th floor) and stayed in the lobby with everyone else. Jack was happy to spend more time with his Opa, enjoyed the firetrucks and firemen. Ewan slept through it all!! I made a comment about there not being a space in their baby books for "first" fire alarm....everything thought that was funny!!!

So by midnight we were back in the room. Jack managed to fall back asleep relatively quickly, Ewan never even woke up!!

AND THEN at 1:30 the alarm went off again!!! Couldn't bloody well believe it!! This time Jack didn't even wake up. He was exhausted. Luckily the fire department got it off in less than 5 minutes so we never left the room.

It was an exhausting night but we survived. The boys were absolute angels given the situation. They napped well in the car on the way to Columbus. We'll hope to sleep well tonight.