Car ride to MD

 Sutton, WV

 Swimming after a long day in the car

 Stopping for lunch at McDonald's

We found out last fall that Cassidy was accepted for an eight week internship for the summer at Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman law firm in Las Vegas.  For several reasons, we decided it would be best for our family if Cassidy went to Las Vegas by himself for those eight weeks, while I took the kids and stayed in Maryland with my parents.  So, Thursday evening (5/24), after Parker's last day of  Preschool, we said our tearful goodbyes to Cassidy, and drove to Kansas City to meet baby Vea and to pick up my Mom who actually volunteered to be trapped in a car with an energetic 4 yr old, an opinionated 2 yr old, and a newborn for 20+ hrs.  She is a brave woman! ;) Friday morning around 4:30 am we took off on our adventure knowing full well that Gavin would be our director. Well, Gavin did great, and allowed us to go for 3-4 hr stretches at a time.  We averaged about an hr for stops, so it was fortunate that we didn't have to make too many! We drove for about 12 hrs the first day before stopping in Sutton, WV to stay the night.  We took the kids swimming that night at the hotel before heading to bed. The next morning, we took our time and finally got on the road around 8:30 am.  We made one stop for lunch around 12:30pm and then drove straight to Ocean City to meet up with my Dad, and my brother, Nate and his family.  The ride was actually not too bad.  The kids didn't sleep as much as I thought they would, but we had a fun time singing, talking and playing games.  Every 1/2 hour, Riley and Parker could each earn a ticket.  Every 2 hours or so, I would open our "store", and let them buy things with their tickets. Sometimes we would play bonus games where they could earn extra tickets. This really helped to break the trip up into achievable increments rather than just one long car ride.