ON THE ROAD AGAIN

After Chapel Hill, we hit Interstate 95 and made our way to Danielle's house in Silver Spring, Maryland. We were hoping to strike out early so that we could by pass the infamous DC traffic. We stopped at a rest stop right on the Virginia border and after that headed straight up to Maryland.

Everyone was getting pretty tired with the drive, but this leg was a little shorter. Everything was fine until we hit bumper to bumper traffic. It literally took us 45 minutes to go 3 miles. It was the absolute worst. To top it off, Kielle is not a fan of the car seat anyway so she was hollering like a banshee. I had to keep my left middle finger in her mouth so she could calm down - poor thing. It was stressful but we were looking forward to getting to Maryland. I was especially excited because Khyri's Godmother Ukindra was gonna come out and visit us.




When we pulled to the house, we once again, unloaded and set up in the basement down stairs. Danielle's sister Daria has two girls Amaya and Alisa. Poor Khyri was outnumbered. ahahhahaha good thing Daria's husband Greg was there to throw a little more testosterone into the mix hahahah.

The little ones got a lot of attention in Maryland. Danielle's nieces LOVED the babies! hahaah I think Amaya wanted to keep Kielle. While the kids ran around in the living room, the babies got some much needed personal attention.

We only spent one night in Maryland and then we were back on the road the next afternoon around 2pm. Khyri and Cadence both seemed to know that this was the last leg and soon we would have a 'home base' in New Jersey. So with excitement we road on...

In four short hours, we were pulling off the New Jersey Turnpike and pulling into Danielle's driveway. We made it! We made it! We made it! Cadence jumped right into her routine and she and Khyri played hard core! The toy of the day was the Dora tunnel. ahahah

Even Kielle looked relieved that there would be no more driving for awhile. We had a nice setup at Dani's a crib, changing table, even soft night time music. It felt just like home. Kielle and Khyri fell right into place. We had a fun filled week ahead of us, but at least we had one place to come back to every night.

6 UNDER 6

The drive went smoother than expected! We cruised up Interstate 85 pretty quickly. There was no traffic. After hearing 'cracker, cracker' 8 million times and having to make sure Khyri wasn't touching Cadence's car seat in the back, we made our first pit stop right outside of Charlotte. According to the GPS we were 2.5 hours away from our first stop in Chapel Hill - my friends from undergrad Amy and Alex's house.

Here's video of the 'carseat squabble' (Still learning this blog stuff - I don't know how to rotate the video)

 
We pulled over to eat, nurse, and use the restroom at a small Wendy's. This was a good choice, because the toddlers were able to run around and stretch their legs while Danielle and I nursed. The folks at Wendy's even gave the little ones a balloon  It must have been senior citizen hour or something, because the place only had old people eating -it was weird. The good thing though - old people love children. After Wendy's we filled up the MDX and were back on the road.


 
We pulled down the dirt road (yes dirt road, this is country Chapel Hill, like no cell phone signal country...) in front of Amy's house around 6ish. Now, let me state that Amy is all mom :-) Yes she has a PhD, yes she's a professor at a NC college - but her true expertise is children! Besides having two children of their own Elijah and Eden, Amy and Alex also foster children from time to time. Amy's awesome.

Anyway, before Danielle and I could blink, Amy had scooped up the two youngest and brought them in the house.

The kids of course went straight to the toys. Danielle and I caught our breath and relaxed for half a minute. That night we ordered pizza and everybody got settled in. There was no rush or anything, since we planned on staying in Chapel Hill for a full day and heading out on Friday morning. Right and I mean right after the kids went to bed, I hit the pillow. I was ti-red.

The next morning Khyri woke up and tried grits for the first time. I think he liked them - or maybe he was just hungry. You can't tell at this age, everything is in flux hahhahaa.

All day, the kids played in the house and outside. Seriously it was like Christmas for the kids. Trampolines, play kitchens, musical instruments there was so much to get into!

Cadence kept calling the backyard the playground... I can totally see the confusion. This was kiddie paradise.

We got a nice surprise when one of my Besties Nia stopped by to visit with us!

I think she's fallen in love with Kielle. With 6 kids running around, I wonder if Nia caught the mommy bug haaha there were kids everywhere.

 



 
Khyri continued to test me by playing on the steps so... he had to go to the naughty corner. (side note: I love the naughty corner idea. You can do it anywhere - in a restaurant, in a store - anywhere! there's no shortage of corners hahaha). He has to stay in the corner 1 minute for each year of his life. He never lasts for 2 whole minutes though.. I'm a softee :-) But boy doesn't he get DEEP in that corner. hahaha


  

After a restful play day Friday, we all loaded into cars and went out to eat sushi. Yup - ALL OF US! We went around 5pm which was good because the place wasn't packed yet and Elijah happily asked for a table of 10! We enjoyed sushi and noodles and a surprisingly no fuss dinner. We did a lot of rotating taking people to the restrooms but other than that we had a peaceful meal.

table for 10 please

We stayed in Chapel Hill for two days. It was fantastic and I think gave me and Danielle a little bit of confidence to keep on rolling... If we could handle 6 under 6: Elijah 5, Eden 2, Khyri 2, Kielle 2mo, Cadence 23mo, and Aria 4mo. We could handle anything! We got this! hahahahah. Next stop - Silver Spring, Maryland.

3 middle aged moms *wink wink*  and 6 kids under 6