On the Road Again...to Monte Vista!

Micah’s dad is building a new garage and he asked Micah to come up to Colorado for the weekend to help. Originally we thought he would go alone and I would have a couple of nights home alone with the babes. We thought this would be best for everyone since the babes don’t enjoy long car rides and they would be a distraction to the project. But as the weekend got closer I realized that I didn’t want to be home alone with the babes for almost three full days and two nights as doing everything by myself is exhausting. Micah and I discussed this and decided that the babes and I should go with him to his parents’ house. We realized that we often “divide and conquer” to make things easier for the babes, but we need to put more effort into staying together so that we experience things as a family.

We all left around 6:15 p.m. on Thursday when Micah got home from work. I altered our schedule a bit during the day so that the babes napped earlier and woke earlier in hopes that they would sleep in the car ride to Monte Vista. It’s less than a 4-hour drive and when we went a few weeks ago it took us 5.5 hours as we stopped for a meal and play break. We were hopeful that if we left in the evening the babes would fall asleep and sleep until we arrived at Micah’s parents.

Well, as I mentioned in my last post about our camping trip, the babes no longer seem to like sleeping in the car! Instead of sleeping they cried….and cried….and cried! If all three were quiet for a few minutes inevitably someone would start crying again and then all three would be at it. We ended up stopping about halfway through the drive to feed the babes bottles in hopes that the snack would help them fall asleep, but again we were wrong! All three were perfectly happy when we stopped, and we didn’t even take them out of their car seats, but as soon as we started driving again the crying continued. About 30 minutes after we stopped I remembered that we used to sing to them when they cried on car rides (I'm not sure why this didn’t occur to me earlier), so we started with their old favorite: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. It worked!! I then remembered that on our way back from Denver last April we recorded us singing a handful of songs on my phone (to use in situations such as this!) so I spent the next HOUR playing the same songs over and over again from my phone. I was so tired of hearing my own voice singing (I’m not a great singer but like most babies, my babes calm when I sing) and I was tired of the same songs. But every time I stopped playing the songs someone would start crying again, so I endured.

Finally, when we had about 30 minutes remaining in our drive, all three were sound asleep. It was a frustrating drive, especially for Micah as he had to drive through the crying, but we managed. We were so happy to arrive in Monte Vista! Luckily, everyone slept well at night despite the fact that they were in a strange place and we were all sleeping in the same room (last time we visited we split everyone up, but Micah’s parents had another visitor helping with the garage as well so they were low on space).

On Friday Micah started working on the garage with his dad while his mom and I took care of the babes.  We spent time just hanging out inside, we went for a walk, and in the afternoon we went thrift store shopping. I found a few good deals, but the thing I am most excited about is our Halloween costumes. I had an idea, which I will reveal on Halloween, and I thought I would make the babes costumes since I didn’t want to spend a lot, but finding them at a thrift store was awesome since they were inexpensive and it will save me time!

 

The "playpen" that we created last time we visited worked perfectly this time as well! We just pulled the chairs close to the sofa, filled in the opening with a footrest, and the babes had a safe zone.

Grammy playing with the babes in the playpen

In the late afternoon we took the babes outside so they could see what the men were working on, and they were pretty fascinated! There was a lot of loud noise, which made them curious, and they had fun playing in the ladders lying on the ground and exploring Grammy and Grandpa’s property.

Babes in a crock! The were too busy watching the men working to stop and smile for a pic.

There were a lot of loud noises with the nail gun going off every few seconds!

Faith and Jack watching Daddy work on the garage

Jack climbing across the ladder

Fun with the ladder

Jack

Lexi found a cozy spot to watch the action

Faith was walking everywhere!

Lexi relaxing in the chair

Faith

Lexi and Faith in the chair

All three! Again they were too busy watching the men work to smile.

Saturday was much of the same with the men working outside and the women caring for the babes. In the evening we took the babes outside again, and they had a blast. All three are now walking to some extent and it’s amazing watching them navigate the changes in terrain (grass, brick sidewalk, boards in doorways in the new garage, etc.). Of course they all fall and Jack and Alexis still crawl a lot outside, but Faith seems to have mastered the walking thing as she was practically running in circles!

Faith inspecting the construction in the garage

Lexi walking through the wall

Faith walking in circles

Jack

The trio headed outside! Jack and Alexis can walk well now, but crawling is still a little faster in unfamiliar terrain.

Alexis walking!

Little explorers

After playing outside no one was content in their playpen, so instead they spent time climbing on the couch

It took both of us to manage this craziness!

Tomorrow we leave for our drive back to ABQ. We are leaving bright and early and planning on a long stop for food and play as that worked well a few weeks ago, but we are mentally preparing for the worst as the babes since the drive up didn't go as planned.