We left for Edmonton this morning around 10:30. It would have been sooner but the night wasn’t great, and we were pretty bleary eyed. That is how we prefer to roll on our road trips, though. We leave when we’re all up, feeling decent, and have had time to load up without feeling super rushed.
We had bought each kid a mini magnadoodle toy to play with on the trip. They were tucked into their car seats, which went over well when we loaded them into the van. For about five seconds. I won’t lie. Rowan screamed for about two hours ish. He’s in that tough spot where he can’t say too much, and can’t quite keep up, but desperately wants to! He is also in the middle of the backseat, so he has to rely on his siblings to give him the toys and stuff that he wants. So he screams and reaches and no one knows what he wants. Meanwhile, we can’t communicate well with anyone in the back because he’s screaming so loud! It was a pretty interesting first leg of the trip, to say the least. Dekker and Laela are more used to long rides in the van, but Rowan is not a seasoned road tripper at all. It was a LOUD couple of hours.
Roughly halfway through, Rowan dosed off and we had some nice peaceful driving time, but it didn’t last too terribly long. He was in better shape when he woke up, but still pretty high pitched and shrieky. It was an adventure, but all things considered, it actually went pretty well! Solly slept most of the time, Laela was totally happy, Dekker was a bit bored but handled himself very well, and Brady and I could hold hands and listen to music and sip coffee. It was nice.
We got to our hotel an hour after check in and our room wasn’t ready! We were a bit surprised, but I said we could definitely occupy ourselves for a bit if that was easier. We had forgotten a couple of little things and knew we’d have to hit Superstore or Walmart this evening anyway. But instead, they just moved us around, into the exact same style of room.
We got all of the kids up into the room, and I got on feeding the now incredibly sad baby boy. Brady headed to the van to bring in our stuff. Judge if you must, but it is AMAZING how much stuff you bring when you go on a trip with four kids! I guess maybe its just us, but we had a GOOD laugh when Brady couldn’t fit the baggage cart through the door!
Can we at least get credit for being somewhat organized??
We took some time and set the room up. I’ve got to say, if this trip goes well, we have found our Edmonton hotel!! We are paying a very reasonable price to stay here. The big kids are tucked away in the bedroom with a queen bed and just enough room for a playpen…
And Brady and I are sleeping in the king bed in the main area! That is all there is to the room really. No couch or sitting area, but our massive bed doubles as a couch and makes for great cuddle time!!
We went out for supper nearby at McDonalds. Rowan specifically was super overdone so we needed to be somewhere where he could be loud. And he took advantage of it! Haha! When we got home, we got some crackers and cookies and watched some Netflix in our bed before sending them all off to bed. It was SUCH a nice evening!! Of course they’re all still wide awake and giggling like crazy, as we suspected. They’ll eventually fall asleep, right??
Solly is sleeping in the big closet nearby, and we’re thinking we’ll cuddle in and call it a night ourselves soon. We are SO TIRED!! But it was a great first day 🙂 Hopefully tomorrow, we’ll make it to the zoo, or something of the sort. With coffee. And then some more coffee. I’m not expecting to get too terribly much sleep, but I think even two potentially rough nights would be worth the fun we’re going to have!