On the Road, Part I

Grandpa Fawcett convinced us we were crazy to leave DC after work Friday for our cross country trip to Iowa, so we only put in a couple of hours at the office before heading home via the park and library, where we quickly packed up the car, grabbed lunch and left for Aunt Katherine's. We planned it so that Owen would be exhausted by the time we hit the road and figured he'd sleep a nice chunk of the way. We didn't factor in I-270 traffic, however, and so when we came to a standstill outside Hagerstown so ended the sleeping quietly portion of our first leg. Happily, we'd borrowed Grandpa Fawcett's van which comes equipped with a DVD player and so Owen got to watch his first movie ever, The Jungle Book, while on route to Aunt Katherine's. And while we don't generally advocate using television to placate our child, thanks to it we managed to drive 6 1/2 hours without a single stop.

We got in around 9:00 that night and ran around and played while Katherine made dinner and then put the little guy to bed. The next morning involved riding trikes, searching for ducks, trying on football helmets, naked sprinkler time, climbing rocks, and investigating a train, all before lunch. Afterwards we headed to Uncle Steve & Aunt Becky's for leg number II.