Smith Stories Cont...: The Great Summer Road Trip 2012: Leg One-Dumfries to Indianapolis and Evanston

We successfully drove from Dumfries, VA to Avon, IN with a dog, a 3 ½ year old, a 7 ½ week old, and two adults in not much longer than it would usually take J We planned to leave when Graham woke up for a late-middle-of-the-night feeding, which I was hoping would be around 3am, so we would leave around 4am. We had decided any earlier was a little too much. Of course he woke up around 2! I was trying to think of what to do to hold him off, but that wasn’t really working. I ended up only giving him half a feeding and not unswaddling him to change his diaper figuring that was enough for him to go back to sleep, but only for a couple of hours. Nope, he slept until 5am! We got up with him and Josh hustled to get all of the last minute things in the car. We were able to drive for about two hours before stopping to feed Graham. That stop was only about half an hour, which THRILLED me since I was so worried about our stops taking forever! Our stop for lunch coincided with Graham’s next feeding, so that stop really didn’t add any more time. We stopped one more time before we got to Katie and Nick’s at which point Graham was hungry again, but at least we were at our destination! The boys both were really good in the car. I was so worried about my road warrior husband with all of the extra stops, but he was wonderful! I was the one that was so tired of turning around to find Graham’s paci, that I felt like saying, “Just keep driving! He can cry!” I was a bit flustered when we got to the Conners, but it really was a good travel day.

The day according to Facebook statuses:
On our way and Graham has picked up his 2nd state, West by God Virginia.
Dear Graham, Here is your third state: Maryland. Sorry, but it's a necessary evil. Love, Mommy and Daddy
Graham, welcome to state #4, Pennsylvania. At least it isn't Maryland.
PA was traumatic. After a brief revisit to WV for lunch - Hi-O-Hi-o
In(diana) Graham's sixth state to meet his 5 Conner friends!
Graham, this is what all the (Illi)nois is about: your seventh state is home to Mimi, Bampa, Lou's, Herm's, and so much more :)
We are in Evanston :) We had a mostly successful drive that ended with Jackson being carried into the house and asking to go to bed!

As always, we had a GREAT time visiting with Katie, Nick, Paige, Lexi and Caleb J

Paige got the first turn to hold Graham.

Lexi was next in line--Katie was obviously going to have to fight her daughters in order to get her snuggles in!

We got there just in time for dinner on Saturday night, and Katie and Nick cooked a really yummy dinner. They marinated chicken breasts in Italian dressing and then grilled them. They also had delicious roasted veggies and rice that tasted EXACTLY like the rice from Chipotle!!! We walked over to the playground across the street after dinner to burn off some energy.

After the kids went to bed the guys played Baggo with the new set of Purdue boards Nick made, complete with lighted holes for nighttime games!

Reading some stories before bed.

And, then feeding the fish before bed :)

The next morning the dads took the big kids to the playground while Katie and I got Caleb and Graham ready. Then we all headed to a different playground. The kids had a great time playing on the huge structures before we went to lunch at Qdoba. After nap and an early dinner of pizza, we hit the road for Evanston!!!

Caleb checking out Baby Graham

Paige and Jackson came with Josh and me to walk Pax, and they were oh, so cute together! They were walking holding hands without any prompting, just because they were good friends :)