Labor Day weekend trip

David and I decided to make an impromptu trip to College Station this weekend to visit his parents.  The kids have so many cousins down there that they don't get to see that often.  And they absolutely LOVE their Gabby and Poppy.  It is around a 6 hour trip with no traffic and one or two stops.  Well - we had traffic.

We had hoped to leave around 9.  With 3 kids and 2 dogs we needed to get to the kennel, we ended up getting on the highway at 10:30.  Made it to Ft Worth with no traffic, stopped at Chic-Fill-A for lunch at 1.  Kids were happy the whole way there, we watched Toy Story, then ate and played for 45 minutes.  Diaper changes, potty for Paige, and we were back on the road at 2.  That is where things got rocky.  We had major traffic in Ft Worth.  I told David - this is exactly why I could never live in a city like this.  I just can't handle traffic on a weekday at 2 in the afternoon (yes, it was a holiday weekend, hence more traffic...but here in the 405, we never have to deal with that : ) ).  I tried to get the kids to watch Cars, but Paige freaked out and wanted to watch Toy Story again.  We ended up watching it 4 times total this weekend.  Good thing it is one of my favorite kid movies!  The kids did end up dozing off - Paige just a few minutes, Jack 45 minutes, and Braley a little over and hour.  So that helped.  But we ran into brutal traffic outside Waco that set us back another hour.  Blah.  All 3 cried the last 45 minutes.

However, when we pulled into Gabby and Poppy's house, everything was forgotten!  We had a wonderful time.  

Gabby cooked us lots of home cooked meals, we went swimming...

snack time with Gabby!

All the cousins on David's side together!  This hasn't happened since our Christmas ski trip.

They have an amazing back yard that we got to run around in.  College Station has this amazingly soft grass.  The kind that is too expensive to maintain here - we don't have the humidity to keep it damp.

There is a fun playground in their neighborhood that we walked to a few times.

Gabby teaches 4th grade, and let Paige help her get a project for her students together.  She loved it.

We had planned all along to come home Monday morning.  But the more I thought about it, the more it made me nervous.  I knew holiday traffic would be awful.  I hated making the kids sit in their seat all day after we had JUST done that.  So we decided to leave after dinner last night.  We pulled out at 8, ran into zero traffic.  Watched Toy Story (again).  The kids didn't fall asleep like I thought they would.  But at least these two had a sweet little hand to hold...

They finally fell asleep around 11 pm and slept for the most part until we pulled in at 1 AM.  Everyone went right in their bed and went to sleep.  Early (and hopefully long) naps today and we should be back on schedule.  I am SO glad we are home today instead of sitting in the car in traffic.

Getting ready to prep for a Labor Day BBQ now : )

Have a great week, friends!