Flowers in Our Hair

Here's how the road trip goes in my head:

{Days spent loving on the babies, perusing antique shops for hidden treasures, eating at quaint,

little sidewalk  cafes, laying in fields of lavender, taking perfectly lit photos among the flowers,

tucking little buds behind the ears of my girls, tickling them into falling fits of giggles, talking

about our dreams and hopes and our pasts and  our now, smiling and laughing and just feeling

nice and lovely. Stopping at roadside fruit stands at the local  farm and stretching out legs.

Collecting memory after memory of spontaneous adventures and storing them in

 their little minds, filed under happy childhood vacations. Savoring peanut butter cookies

from the perfect  little bakery nestled carefully between the vineyards of Napa. Carrying

exhausted from really living life,  well-fed babies back up to a cool hotel room and tucking

them in tightly, kissing their eyelids, and bidding  them sweet, sweet dreams, then laying in

our own beds, hair wet from washing the days happenings away in
 a hot shower, whispering quietly to each other so as not wake the lightly snoring
littles, hearts full and  overflowing from days so perfectly filled with taking advantage
of everything that life has to offer us...}

That's my daydream road trip...

This is how the real life has gone so far:

Our departure

Halfway in

Almost there!

We left 4 hours later than anticipated because Ella got a rash and J had to run off to the flower shop to

make a few unplanned deliveries. It's ok, I can handle that. We drove our FULLY loaded Expedition into

 the hot afternoon sun... driving in rush hour traffic on a weekday isn't that pleasant.

I didn't think kids really said, "Are we there yet?" But I heard it, like, a million times.

It took us 7 LOOOONG hours to get from LA to Fremont where we spent the night at a Hilton.

Our arrival at the hotel

They loved doing this.

The kids love, love, love hotels. Like, they dance and jump on beds and pajama themselves instantly.

They adore traveling. Well, let me rephrase that; they love being at the location we are traveling to.

The traveling itself? They aren't too fond of that.

Charlie asked if we were in San Diego yet every 2 minutes -he kept forgetting that we were

headed to San Francisco... Now he says we're in Frisco,

like he's a local guy. He's so funny, my little man. Today at a lunch stop in Fremont, we ordered

California Rolls and when the plate of 2 whole orders of rolls arrived, the little piggy
 looked up at us and said, "What are you guys eating?"

 

The first thing we did in our beloved city? We were late to a doctors appointment for Ella. We familiarized

 ourselves with the good ol' Kaiser Permanente facilities in Northern California when he had to bring

 in Ella, whose rash spread to her upper torso and face. Good news though, it's just a virus or an

allergic reaction to something she came in contact with or ate. It will run its time...

Check in, and settled in. Check out what Charlie did with his corner... he wanted everything

 to be perfectly organized and layed out. I wish he was more like this at home!

Kate enjoyed the chocolate covered strawberries that our hotel left for us...

Ella also enjoyed some snacks of her own...standing in the cupboard

 

We then managed to get everyone dressed and into the stroller for an evening walk to

North Beach restaurant for an early dinner where we had an amazing pasta della casa and beef tortellini.

 Let me tell you, pushing a double stroller with

75 lbs worth of 3 children in it up the hills of San Francisco is not fun.

My thighs are hating me right about now!

My poor girl was peeking out a the sights through her back seat in the stroller...

it's been a long day for her.

Things aren't quite going as I had imagined in my little daydream but life seldom goes like we

 planned, does it? The photos haven't been perfect lit and a few teary tantrums have been tucked

in between the fits of giggles but we are definitely enjoying our lives right now and in this moment,

with the big exception of missing our daddy immensely, life is beautiful.

Kate keeps saying how compable (comfortable in Kate speak) she is and she and Charlie both decided together that they were afraid of the fog and wanted to turn in early to the hotel and

solidified that decision when they immediately put on their pj's the second we walked into the room.

So here we are, 9pm, watching The Upside Down Show with three jammied babies and enjoying a

chocolate chip cookies & milk turn-down service. My, how life changes when you have babies.

I guess no Ghirardelli Square ice cream sundae for us tonight...

but that's ok... we get a stack of pillows and blankets, sippy cups and bottles,

and jammied, baby powder-scented babies instead.

Who needs sundaes anyway?

I've got all the sweet I need right here...

Day 2 of road trip over. Let's see where the rest of our trip brings us...