The next trip to Indiana

The next trip to Indiana will be a different trip. We will do this differently. Gone are the days of a quick weekend trip to Indiana. The little one who has made our lives so beautiful and full, makes taking a quick trip to the homeland of my husband a little less than easy.

It seemed like a good idea to leave at her bedtime. She would just go to sleep and we could log in some fast miles and get there around midnight. Most babies sleep in the car. Ella is not most babies. Ella is a girl with a routine. She is a girl that likes her bed. She is a girl that has always hated riding in the car. Some things just don't change.

2 1/2 hours into the trip, at 9:15 we decided to stop at a hotel. I couldn't take it anymore. My poor tortured daughter in the backseat, sucking her thumb, closing her eyes, and then just wailing every couple of minutes. Poor little thing just could not fall asleep. I was at my wit's end. I am not sure what a wit is, but I was definitely at the end of it.

We stop at a Day's Inn. I tell Eli that the dogs are not sleeping in the room, so it doesn't matter if they have pet rooms or not. We didn't need anything else to keep us awake once we finally settled in for the night. Apparently he didn't believe me because he told the guy we had two dogs and paid the $30 pet fee. I was not kidding. No dogs in the hotel room (and he was able to get the pet fee back the next morning when he convinced them the dogs did not set foot in the room).

Ella had a great time in the hotel room. At that point it was so far past her bedtime, she forgot she was tired and just crawled around the room, and laughed. (I tried really hard not to think about what was on the carpet). By 10:30 I was able to lay her down in the hotel crib and she fussed for about 30 seconds before falling asleep. Whew.

We got up the next morning at 6:45 AM and continued our trip. We almost just turned around and came home. But we didn't. The other part of the equation was that Eli has a whole list of many things to do to our house so that we can close at the end of the month. And he has very little time to do it. We almost just called the trip off to begin with because of how much there is to do. But Eli hates to let people down, and he had some family traveling a few hours to see us too. So away we went. The morning drive went better.

We arrived, and had some fun meeting Ella's new 5 month old second cousin, and seeing everyone else.
Fast trip. We left the next day so we could get back for Eli to work on the house. So we were in Indiana for slightly more than 24 hours. Fast trip.
The next thing we knew were back in the car heading home. Ella was a trooper, but only slept for 45 minutes of the whole 6+ hour drive. And I was completely worn out trying to entertain her. She was so happy to be back in her home and in her bed. Too much driving for such a short trip. It is not just Eli and me anymore. Jetsetting in the car for a weekend trip is not fair for a 10 month old.

So, the moral to the story is: no more quick weekend trips to Indiana with the baby. We take our time. Take stops along the way. Take some time off work. Do it right.

We did have some good times while we were there. Ella got to play in the little wading pool with her second cousins, we had a last minute early joint birthday party for her and her cousin Calli, and of course she had some good times with her Grandma! Oh, and don't forget the potato launcher that kept the boys busy for most of the day.

Indiana part two

Well, Ella did wake up just a few minutes after I finished the last post. I think it was like 7:30. She decided that she wasn't happy sleeping in a pack n play by herself in a strange house. I am glad we decided not to go out for Valentine's Day for dinner and leave Ella sleeping with Grandma and Uncle Keegan. I am sure they could have handled it, but I would have been stressing, worrying about if she was going to wake up and be confused about where she was and where I was. I guess maybe it was a little bit of Mother's intuition, because she did wake up and needed her mommy to help her get back to sleep.

The rest of the trip was just fine. Ella did quite well with all the comings and goings and although she did not sleep very well, she tolerated everything just fine.

Sitting with 

                                                                Great Grandma Day!

A kiss from

                                                                                     Uncle Keegan.

Grandma reading to Ella 

                                                                              about Irish cooking!

Grandma feeding Ella

Ella and Grandpa

Here is Ella with her cousin that is 5 1/2 weeks older than her, Kallie (not sure if I spelled it right?)
And Yogi of course.







When we woke up to leave on Monday morning, there was about 5 inches of fresh snow on top of the already covered ground and it was still coming down hard. We decided to hurry up and get on the road before Ella's morning nap. There was quite a bit of white knuckle driving. The roads were pretty slick and it just kept snowing! We drove in it for quite a few hours. Luckily Ella had no idea what a treacherous situation we were driving in and slept peacefully for the first 2 1/2 hours. She was spent from such a busy trip!

But we made it home. It took about 8 1/2 hours. We did stop to have lunch at McDonalds (heehee, Ella's first McDonalds stop, and no, she didn't eat anything).

We let Ella do a little driving.










And stopped at a big book outlet where we bought Ella a few more books for night time reading. We might have to make that a normal stop on our way to and from Indiana in the future!

The end.

Indiana part one

Well, we made it. Barely. We have been getting snow storms in our southern temperate rain forest just about every weekend this last month or so. This weekend was no exception. Our plan was to head to Indiana and take Ella for her first trip to the Crossroads of America to meet much of her extended family. She had not met her only living great grandma, Grandma Day. We were to leave Friday evening after Eli got home from work around Ella's bedtime. It started snowing at about 3 pm. It didn't stop. But we have a Subaru, so of course we can make the trip anyway. Why put it off? So we loaded up the car and headed out of town on a snowy Friday evening, at rush hour, on a route already crowded from the detour from the I-40 closure. Great idea. As soon as we got to Haywood Rd, the traffic was awful. Tail light to head light traffic and cars slipping off the road. Hm, should we proceed? I think not, but in the typical Sellers' way, I don't say much. Eli of course is game for it. Weather has never stopped him before! But we have precious cargo and I do remind him of this.

Okay, long story not quite so long, it takes us an hour and 45 minutes to make it to Mars Hill. (That should take about 20 minutes on a typical day). The traffic starts to thin out, but we still have to make it over the gaps to Johnson City. We did make it. It could have been much worse. But we did spend a significant portion of it behind the snow plow. And I did feel the trusty Subaru wheels slip more than once. I did gently tell Eli when we stopped in Mars Hill for gas, "next time this happens, we stay home." He gently agreed.

The whole trip took 8 hours. We arrived in Greenville, IN at 1:45 AM with a sleeping baby. She of course immediately woke up, quite suprised at her surroundings. All in all, she did great. Slept most of the trip and went back to sleep fairly well in her Grandma's pack n play, but did wake a few times the rest of the night. Needless to say, mommy and daddy are quite tired today.

So, we are here. Everyone is so happy to see Ella and of course she is the star of the party. She got to sit on her Great Grandma Day's lap for the first time and that was worth all the hastle to get here. She is a little out of sorts out of her environment and naps are a little hairy, but as I write this at 7:15 PM, she is sleeping quietly in the pack n play, and all is well. Here is hoping she sleeps well the whole night so we can get rested up.

Pictures and more updates will come soon. It is not worth fighting the "dial-up" connection to upload pictures.