Sunday, January 4, 2009

Back from vacation!

How was everyone's Christmas? New Year's? Ours was a jam packed ball of fun! Every year we pack of all the kids and take a lonnnnnnggggg rode trip to Buffalo, NY! It is the perfect place to have our white Christmas! All 22 members of the Grow family come together and celebrate! It is complete and utter chaos, but I wouldn't want it any other way!

Getting there though is half the battle! We have a nice sized SUV that should be able to fit all of us and our belongings without any trouble. SHOULD and can do not have the same definition! We had quite the problem before we ever took off out of our drive-way. Not only do all 4 kids and 2 adults need to fit into the Expedition, BUT the 65lb dog, the dog food and dishes, the Santa presents, the clothes, the extra toys (since grandma doesn't have the right kind), the home school books and supplies, 4 pillows and blankets (grandma didn't have enough at her house), and the snow gear (which includes 6 pairs of snow pants, 6 pairs of boots, 6 pairs of gloves and 6 hats!) have to be packed into the truck. This is no small task my friends.

In years past, I have been able to help pack up the truck. This year was different. I decided that it would be nice to have a cargo pack up on top of the truck. Dear husband decided that he would rather be in charge of packing the truck up himself and he could do it without the cargo bag. He enlisted our daughter's help.

The first thing they did was take all the boots and snow pants and shove them under each and every space they could find. My little girl was in charge of the stuffing and shoving. She crawled her little body up and around all 4 car seats and found places for all the odd and ends. I thought this to be quite genius! The next thing was to find a way to place all 4 suit cases and 2 bags. One bag needed to be gently positioned while being in a spot that no kids would be able to open and peek inside of it, since it was full of the wrapped presents. (This type of instruction is the kind that drives my husband nuts! Hey! Every mom and wife knows that there are details that have to be considered!)

The last step was all the pillows and blankets. After all pillows are handed out the correct owner, we buckle them in. This is also quite the chore. All the seat belts are smashed in from the surrounding cargo or the dog is sitting on it! I have to climb over a mountain of who-knows-what and get my 6 foot long body (2/3 of which is legs!) to the very back of our SUV, without squishing my dog, who is now freaking out or my other 2 children, all to buckle the seat belt that I can't find! I promise I am ready for a nap and the truck is still in the driveway! OH MY!

2 hours after we started loading up, we are on our way! Not one child dares ask for a bathroom break. They are forbidden! No not really, but I do have the feeling that they knew that they would not be getting out of the truck without some degree of difficulty!

Can you imagine if we somehow got into an accident? I don't know how any medical personnel would find my kids! I am sure that they would be fine with all the extra padding, but the firemen would certainly have treated my truck the same way they would treat a cave that had caved in! They would have to burrow tunnels under all the crap that fell around the trapped family! Oh how my imagination takes over!

It was worth every drop of sweat. I am proud of my husband's packing skills. He got all of my desired belongings into the truck and did it again on the way home. We did decide that next trip would have to be different. We are going to have to buy something to put on the back of the truck to fit the suitcases. The kids are getting bigger and truck is continuing to feel smaller! No wonder my dog pants for the entire trip up there!

2 comments:

Kelly said...

Jen, I laughed so hard at your first paragraph. Instead of saying "utter chaos" you said "udder chaos". What a picture! But seeing as how there is always someone pregnant/nursing during the holidays, I guess you could say it is "udder chaos" too!

Love ya,

Kel

pbajgrow said...

whoops! That's probably a combo of my grammar and bad spell check! Jen