On the road again

It's not even 9:00 p.m. And we've been in bed for nearly an hour.

It's day seven of our nine day road trip and we've officially succumbed to the exhaustion that results from being away from your own routine. The newness and excitement carried us through the week and now we just need our structure back.

This spring break has been so good in so many ways. And the kids have been fabulous (minus a few episodes of acting out, of course). But if you think about being seven and four years old and sleeping in three different cities and, therefore, three different beds, in the course of one week and eating new foods in new kitchens and meeting lots of new faces, they have actually proved remarkably resilient.

We departed St. Louis for Columbia on Monday morning to stay with dear friends. This was a double fun situation because I got to spend time with one of my closest friends, Kelly. We've known each other since we were (wait for it)... three years old. Let it be known that if I take a liking to you, we might just be friends forever.

Kelly hosted us for two nights and the kids loved playing with her littles ones, Evelyn and Miles. Or as Abe says, Evelyn and Mialyn. They ransacked Evelyn's library of Little Miss and Mr. books. I think Anna tried to read all of them. There are approximately 75 million.

I love hearing the girls play. Anna was very intent on having a Magic School, where all the dolls (and humans) had their own magical powers. She gave herself the name Flame because her power is that her hair can turn into fire. As I write this I realize that might not always be an asset. Sweet Evelyn had magical butterfly powers. She readily agreed to all of Anna's crazy schemes. Flame and Butterfly.

This stopover allowed us to see my father and brother. The kids get regular visits from my dad, but seeing Uncle Andy is a bit harder. They were glad to spend time with them. And Uncle Andy indulged Abe by reading him a stack of books. What a good sport.

There's always a food element to every trip I take. More on that soon!