A first...and a last.

Total warning up front. This is going to be wordy. But I know one day this will be all but a memory and I want every detail to be remembered. thankyouverymuch. 

A couple of weekends ago the boys and I hopped in the car and headed to Arkansas...leaving my dear sweet husband/tag-teamer/daddy extraordinaire at home. I was nervous about the trip to begin with, but there was no way I wasn't going. You see, one of my besties since freshman year of college had just had a baby a mere week earlier. Since I think newborns and new mommies are just about the best thing since sliced bread, I had been ITCHING to get there. We left after a big breakfast on Saturday morning and I knew I would have to feed Cade once during the 6 hour trip, but was thinking I would just delay his late afternoon feeding by an hour or so and wait until we got to my mom's. Gotta love my naive positivity :). 

We were about a whopping 20 miles down the road when I realized I had forgotten to make Connor go to the bathroom before we left. I had to pick some lunch up for Cade anyway, so I stopped at Kroger. Connor was not excited about going in because that meant he would have to stop watching his movie, so I told him he could pick out a treat. I was thinking some M&M's, Starbursts.. something along that line. Homeboy picked out a peas, spinach and pear puree. HA! He picked it because it was green and green was his favorite color. Totally wasn't expecting that win, but I took it. I also decided that I would put the cash I was carrying on a gift card so that I could better keep track of what I was spending (because we all know cash just stinkin disappears). I grabbed my gift card and checked out feeling very proud of myself for thinking of such a good idea. Got some gas on the way out and 35 minutes later was back on the road. Two minutes later Cade starts screaming out of pure furiousness and I adjust my mirror to find this: 

That is his sleeve he is holding. His arm is no longer in it. I guess he was trying to tell me he was hot? It was a bad spot for it to happen as I had nowhere to go, so at the stoplight I threw the car in park and just went ahead and took his other arm out. Commence smiles and gurgles of happiness. 

About an hour out of Nashville I start seeing signs about interstate closing 60 miles ahead. I call Matt faster than I can even think about anything else and start mapping out an alternate route. It was being reported that it would be clear by the time I made it there, but once I got there it was not. I made a u-turn and followed some other cars up a ramp...going the wrong way. After about an hour detour, I stopped at a gas station to feed Cade and let Connor and I eat lunch (that I had packed). This is where I think I missed Matt the most. Here I was with a 9 1/2 month old that could not stand on his own and an almost 3 year old that touches EVERYTHING. I am going to the bathroom, holding Cade and trying to keep Connor from touching everything in sight in that nasty bathroom. Cade is squriming around and just about sticks his leg in the toilet, Connor is pushing the lid on the trashcan and all I can do is laugh. In hindsight I should have left Cade in his carseat (and did the rest of the trip), but I just felt so bad for him being stuck in it all day! We went back to the car and I got comfortable in the front seat nursing Cade and popped a movie in for Connor. I didn't start the car so that I wouldn't run out of gas. Finished feeding Cade, put him in his seat, got Connor buckled in and hopped in the front seat ready to go. Tried to start the car and NADA. Battery dead. DUH. I let him watch that DVD.. on the power of a battery that had died 3 days earlier. Awesome. Got both kids back out of the car and walked our way back in to try to find someone to jump us off. Thankfully, the first guy I asked had some and we were on our way. 

We were just to Memphis and I start thinking that I should probably get gas and feed Cade. Due to that 2 hour delay, there was no way I was going to be able to wait to feed him until we got to Arkansas. It was then that it hit me. That awesome idea I had of putting my money for the trip on a gift card was awesome...except I put it on a Kroger card and not just a standard Visa. After a quick GPS search of Kroger, I found one only 5 miles off an exit. Which also had a Starbucks across the street. Yes, please! Got gas, gave Connor a potty break, fed Cade and 40 minutes later were on our way. Finally I started seeing the signs to point me in the direction of Arkansas. I take them and what do we see? Stand still traffic. There were two lanes closed, which is Memphis traffic is a big deal. You better believe I rode that empty lane until I couldn't move an inch forward without hitting those big orange cones. I know that people were not happy with me, but after being in the car 6 1/2 hours and at least 2 to go? I didn't care! 

After one more detour in Arkansas (the only one I was expecting) we finally pulled into my mom's house at 7:20. We left at 10. That was a 6 hr drive that turned into NINE HOURS AND TWENTY MINUTES. Needless to say my dad and husband were fit to be tied! They were worried to death and very relieved that we were there! I have to say, the boys were absolute angels. They both took their normal naps and never once cried. 

I got a lot of quality friend time (read: two separate meet ups, both sans kids!!!) while we were there, which was SO refreshing to my soul. I sure do love those girls and am so thankful for what they bring to my life! Of course, the main reason for the trip was to meet sweet Shelby June. Oh, sweet Shelbs. She was soo teeny tiny and absolutely perfect. I was absolutely amazed at how aware she was. I got to rock her to sleep and cuddle and see Lana being a mommy... well there are not enough words for how happy that made me.  

Lana is gorgeous anyway, but man alive does motherhood not make her look radiant?! And y'all. She had that baby girl only 11 days prior and you couldn't even tell. Shame on you, Lana,  for making it look so easy! ;)

The trip home was MUCH less eventful. The only crazy thing that happened was Connor slipped his arms out of his harness and FLIPPED HIS LID when he couldn't get them back in. This time it only took 7ish hours! Matt was at the back door waiting for us to pull in and was so excited to see his babies (me included I'm sure.. ha!). Cade would just look at him and laugh for the first 10 minutes we got home. He had missed his daddy and I think it goes without saying that I had missed him, too!!!