The End of the Longest Vacation Ever

Alternate title: The 17 Hour Drive Home. We left Arizona loaded up with apples and they ended up saving us on the drive. Both boys were eating them nonstop.

I can't remember very much from this leg of the trip. Maybe because I am writing this two months later, or maybe because it was just another two days of driving and nothing really exciting happened.

I wrapped a few toys for the boys so we could give them to them if we were ever having a tough day. But we were almost home and Alex still had half of his toys left. So I let him open another one even though he wasn't sad.

After driving 10 hours, we stopped in Fort Stockton for the night. My mom was totally on top of things and had found a hotel for us and made a reservation. When I got there, it was mobbed. In line in front of me, I saw someone get the last room and then I saw the next person get turned away. I was so grateful we had a reservation since the other places in town were much more expensive. I dragged the boys up the stairs to our tiny room. They didn't have a crib for us. I put Alex in our Pack N Play and Edison was going to sleep on the hard floor with the one tiny blanket that was on the bed. This is what I wrote to my mom after she asked if we had slept well: 

 "It could've been better. The floor was not carpeted so it was a very hard bed for the boy going on the floor. Alex started out in the pack n play then I brought him onto the bed with me and stuck Edison in the pack n play because Edison thought it was party time. Alex fell asleep on the bed, but kept waking up when I had to bring Edison in during the night because he was waking up. It was pretty much a family reunion all night."

But it didn't matter. I was giddy because it was the day we were getting home! We only had seven hours of driving to go. We left early and had granola bars for breakfast while driving. We had a late lunch in San Antonio and we were home before Sam got home from work. I unpacked and then met him at the rental car office to return his car.

We were so blessed to be able to go on this vacation. We had family let us stay with them, throw up on them, and eat all of their food. The car worked the whole way (amazing with our luck!). The boys got to play with their cousins and I got to play with my cousins, siblings, and parentals. I miss family but I know we live closer than a lot of people do. We were close enough to be able to drive and I am so grateful for that. All 4,218 miles were worth it.