First solo road trip

This past weekend I took my first solo road trip with the triplets.  My aunt passed away after almost two decades battling cancer and my parents were flying in from Hawaii for the funeral so after waffling about whether or not to go for almost a week, I decided the night before that I would go for it.  Michelle couldn't make the trip because she was finishing up data collection and a class she was teaching and just couldn't get away.  So the night before we rushed around packing things up for the trip.  I must say we did quite well!  I think the only two things we forgot that I realized later were their toothbrushes (they just used mine) and a comb (which we borrowed from Tara).

We had a driving buddy for the first 4 hours of the drive there because our good friends Carrie & Chris were headed the same direction on their big cross country move and that was a big help.  Carrie helped manage the little scuffles over who got what toy and rubbed heads as various kiddos fought their nap or woke up too early from their nap.  All in all the drive wasn't too bad.  Google maps says the drive should take 7 hours and it took us just under 9 hours on the way there.  After we parted ways with Carrie & Chris I stopped at a park for dinner so they could get out and play for a bit.  Well, actually the park that I planned to stop at looked sketchy so I drove around a bit and found an elementary school playground for our picnic.

surveying the scene & eating yogurt!

Since I'd decided so last minute to make the trip I decided to keep it a secret from my parents and surprise them on Friday. The funeral itself was a no-kiddo event so we had to occupy ourselves for the morning.  Thanks to a Facebook connection we ended up meeting another triplet family in Acton at the Children's Discovery Museum, which was a ton of fun!

It's a triplet boat party!

this musical ball run was a big hit!

Then on Friday afternoon we surprised them at my cousin's house.  It was great and the presence of the triplets put some much needed smiles on everyone's faces.  The weekend as a whole was pretty fantastic and it was fun to watch the kiddos playing so nicely with everyone.  They all have moments of shyness and being super mommy/mama focused, but really they all warm up quickly and enjoy playing with all the different family members!

playing in the sand with Grandpa

water fun with Grandma...note my mom keeping Avery from jumping in =)

on a walk to see the alpacas across the street

"flying in the flowers" with Tara
(I'm so sad this one is blurry!)

I love this shot of my mom walking with Isaiah & Ellie

happy Grandma

Ellie LOVED the alpacas who all came walking right over to check out the triplets

Avery was nervous about them at first but she warmed up & then didn't want to leave

eating dinner on the deck with Jill & Claire

naughty Auntie Mary feeding the babies cake!

so pleased with herself for having two smoothie cups!

taking a "BIG bite" of Grandma's burger!

family....

second cousins

one of whom can't sit for too long

they were so excited to meet a nice cat!

Having fun blowing bubbles with Grandma

and climbing in the hammock with Grandpa

 or just snuggling.

A special treat was joining Claire for a few minutes of Mickey Mouse Club
and eating goldfish!

On Saturday we went to my favorite place in Fitchburg, Coggshall park, with my mom and dad and Tara.  I have such fond memories of climbing on the giant rocks there as a kid and it was fun that the babies are old enough now to actually do a little climbing.  Stay tuned for a motor monday post about climbing! =)

Grandma & Ellie collecting pine cones
(the mountain laurel was gorgeous too!)

sweet Grandpa-grandson moment

someone was a tad excited about her nectarine!

Tried to get a group shot & had fun playing peekaboo but it's hard to get them to "boo" all at once!

this pic makes me think we need a "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" shot...

Ellie was excited to get to hold the keys
(and was fascinated that she could make the lights flash when she pushed a button!)

cousins
(Tara & I have always been BFF style cousins despite the fact that we never
lived near each other.  She did a good job of convincing me to make the drive & I"m glad I did!)

looking for her next step

"hi Mommy!"

"you sure I can get up to you Mommy?"

Mr. Serious

I'm not even sure what this look is saying, but it's pretty adorable
Anyone have any good captions for this?  If so leave it in the comments!

 As always the time with my mom & dad went too fast.  These shots are from Sunday morning just before saying goodbye & hopping back in the car to head home.

Avery & Grandma got the "cheese" memo...

Add in Grandpa! (and Isaiah's cheese!)

wow...everyone is looking at the camera!

trying to wear them out by running up & down the hill in Adam's backyard

and everyone wanted to hold Grandma & Grandpa's hands

Auntie Tara jumping in for a round
They probably ran up & down 20 times.
From the look of it, Ellie was actually starting to get sleepy!

All things considered the kiddos did remarkably well on the drive home.  They all took a short nap soon after getting in the car and we drove for about an hour and a half before a planned stop in Hartford.  We went to Trader Joes to stock up on snacks and pick up lunch and then popped over to a park to eat and move around.  The park we stopped at had a splash pad so I had to change everyone into swim clothes which meant that stop took a little longer than planned, but they had fun and got some energy out which was the whole idea.  Then we made it to Wilkes Barre, another 3.5 hours before stopping again. They took a pretty good nap again, which proved challenging because I desperately had to pee!  So when I couldn't stand it anymore I did a "30 second entrance ramp pull open both doors & squat" style pee and just hoped no one would wake up!  They did, but fell back asleep without too much fuss.  We finally make it home a little past bedtime, but they were sooooo happy to see Mama and just to be home that there was no way they were going right to bed!