The trip to Texas is always long. It gets more difficult with kids, dogs and pregnancy. We hatched a plan that we thought would be foolproof. We were going to leave around 3:00am or 4:00am on Friday, December 17th and take the northern route to Denver. We would stop at my cousin's house around 11:00am or 12:00pm. Doug would sleep. Then we would leave at about 7:00pm for the last 12-15 hour drive. Rachel and I would sleep most of the trip. The plan broke down when we weren't ready to leave until 5:00pm on that Friday. We weighed the options and decided to just wing it. We loaded up and started to drive.
We left our house at 5:00pm and drove until 4:00am the next morning. We stopped at a Quality Inn in Limon, CO. Rachel didn't want to sleep in the playpen so Doug wrestled with her in the bed until 7:00am. At that point she had had enough. We put her in the playpen with all of her toys, turned on the Disney channel and climbed back into bed. That only lasted for another hour before Rachel insisted she not be ignored anymore.
I got up and took Rachel to find the free continental breakfast. We wandered in to find ourselves the minority. The room was filled with construction workers. No empty tables in sight. I tried to balance a plate of this, a bowl of that, a cup of milk, a glass of juice etc. in one arm while holding tightly to Rachel's hand. We took our spoils back to the room. At 9:00am, with only a few hours of sleep, we were back on the road. We arrived in Italy, TX at 11:00pm that night. I drove only 7 of the 24 hours on the road. Doug was my driving hero. To say we were exhausted would be putting it mildly.
That night we tried again to put Rachel into the playpen to sleep. It was a no go. I gathered her up in my arms and held her like a little baby in my bed. (Doug and I unfortunately don't fit in a full size bed once we reach certain point in my pregnancy so he had separate accommodations.) This moment with Rachel is indelibly imprinted in my mind. She would start to doze and then her eyes would pop open briefly to make sure I was still there. She stroked my arm and my face with her little hand, reassuring herself that she was safe. Within 10 minutes she was completely asleep. I texted Doug and he carefully moved her to the playpen. She never had a problem again sleeping in her makeshift bed as long as she knew that I was in the bed next to hers. The only down side was that I would have to wait for her to fall asleep, then sneak out to spend time with the adults in the living room.
Doug, Rachel and I had a wonderful time with the family. We had family dinner most every night with the whole extended gang. During the day we had fun just talking, watching movies and playing with the family. We were having so much fun that we forgot to take pictures until the last couple of days. Rachel played incessantly with mom's little table and chairs and child's play cupboard. Rachel enjoyed the never ending supply of people that would read and play with her. She loved having kids around. On our last trip to Texas Mikie kindly gave Rachel part of his giant carrot to eat. I took it away and told him that she couldn't eat it because she didn't have teeth. He promptly stuck his finger in her mouth. She chomped down. Shocked, he yanked his finger free, came over to me and confused exclaimed, "You said she had no teeth. But, she bit me!" So Mikie's first words to me on this trip were, "so does she have any teeth yet?"
Another one of Rachel's favorites was watching the wildlife on the pond.
Doug and I took Rachel to see Tangled. She loved sitting in the theater and eating the popcorn just as much as watching the movie. When she fell asleep on the way home Doug and I decided to continue driving. We drove from Waxahachie to Hillsboro and did a little shopping. Rachel was still asleep. So we turned around and drove to Cedar Hills to go to Costco. Then we returned home. It was about a 135 mile trip just so that Rachel would nap and we could get some shopping done. Ridiculous.
Zoe liked having a dog buddy. Mom's dog, Arial, seemed to like it too.
One of Doug's triumphs of this trip was that he successfully made one of my dad's favorite candies...Boston Creams. Like so many candies this recipe is more about technique than ingredients.
The basic recipe is:
2 cups evaporated milk or cream
3 cups sugar
Carmelize 1 1/2 cups of the sugar. Add 1 cup of cream. Cook until it is smooth. Add 1 cup cream and boil a few minutes. Add rest of sugar. Cook to (225 degrees) soft ball stage. Remove from heat. Beat until very stiff and smooth and maybe add nuts.
It was fun to go. It was great to see Rachel play with everybody. It was wonderful to be with my family. I cried for an hour after we left. But it was so heavenly to arrive home. There really is no place like home.
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