Ehren was able to take 2 days off of work so we made a long weekend out of it and went to see Ingrid and the girls last weekend. The road trip takes around 9 hours with all the stops we have to make with the kids, but they did great on the way there and back. We were really surprised about Kason who is the most active child out of all of ours yet he was content being strapped in his car seat. He only complained a little bit when he was tired but it didn’t take him very long to fall asleep. If Kade and Ani weren’t so loud he might have slept longer too. 
Anika had some crying spells which she usually has on long drives, but she wasn’t too bad. And Kade pretty much wanted to talk the whole trip so we had to keep telling him to stop talking. I think for not having a dvd player they did great.
We had such a great time there and Friday was the highlight of our weekend when we went to the zoo. So the 3 of us took all 5 kids to the zoo and it actually wasn’t too bad. Kason did great in the stroller, which he didn’t even remember what it was since we haven’t been able to use it all winter. Anika had to walk which was a lot to ask of her, but she did great. We knew she loved animals but she absolutely loved looking at all the different animals there. She even missed her nap and still was all chippery. That’s until the very end when she finally got too pooped and wanted me to hold her. Ehren and I were tired as well from all the walking around, but it was such a nice day. The weather was so beautiful, sun was shining and we could just wear thin long sleeved shirts instead of our big winter jackets and hats. Kade seemed so grown up and never once showed a sign of tiredness. He wanted to keep going so we didn’t miss any animals at the zoo. Overall he had a great weekend, playing with Sage and being able to be outside in the warm weather. He was really bumming when we came back to the snow and today we have a blizzard so it’s just not fun. It’s never super easy and smooth with 5 children ages 5, 3, 2, 1 and 10 months and coordinate their naps/sleep schedules but it was still fun to get to see them. Kason and Clare played some together as well, mostly knocking each other down and giggling until Kason would grab and pull Clare’s hair. Ehren and I were able to go on a date to the Cheesecake Factory which we love so that was great too. Poor Ingrid stayed home with all the kids, for which we’re so thankful to her, but at least they all went to sleep for her. Unfortunately, we didn’t take very many pictures but it was a little crazy and we had our hands full to think about the shots on top of everything else.
