Exhaustion has a new meaning…

So, I thought that having a newborn was as exhausted as I would ever be. That was before I took out of state trips two weekends in a row with the kiddos. I would like to say that at this moment and I delirious and exhausted, but entirely hopeful that our trip to the beach in 2 weeks might not actually kill me!


Two weekends ago the kids and I took off on our first road trip in a car by ourselves. To say that I was worried, was an understatement. But, I was bound and determined that we'd make it to Dallas no matter how long it took us. It had been mother's day since we'd seen Mimi and Pops and we all needed a little face time.

Contemplating life with Pops after a game of hoops

Well, the trip was as perfect as could be! We left right at Amelia's naptime so the first 90 minutes were bliss. Braden was content watching movies and Amelia was napping. When she woke up we stopped for a bit and got on down the road. Only took us 4 ½ hours to get there.

(One complaint I do have is that every public restroom, save a 21 and up place, should have a baby changing area in it. More often than not, when we stopped it seemed like there was no changing station which posed all sorts of new problems!)

So, we got to Dallas and got settled in our fabulous room. Late that night Mimi, Pops, and Uncle Ross arrived. Amelia was not feeling the crib in the closet set up and woke us all up at 4:30am. Good times.

Later that morning Melissa and Bobby, and Jenny, Aunt Susie, and Madden stopped by the hotel. This was pretty epic because the 4 of us cousins had not been together in one place in 12 ½ years. We had a blast catching up!

Ross is excited that he's finally the tallest

The traditional 'Benson' pose - gotta start em early!

After that it was off to the water park for me, the kids, and mom and Larry. The water park was great! Had lots of kid areas for both Braden and Amelia and I won't lie – we all enjoyed the lazy river for about half an hour. And I can proudly say that Amelia didn't try to catapult herself off the raft even once.

After a nice refreshment of Marble Slab creamery we went back to the room for some down time. We were all kind of zonked from the sun.

The next morning it was more pool time and catching up with Deana. Uncle Ross decided to brave the ride back to Arkansas with us. It wasn't too bad of a trip either. Both kids threw small fits, but nothing a little time and tuning out couldn't handle =)

When we got home I didn't really even bother unpacking all of the bags because the very next weekend we were headed to Nashville for a girls' weekend.

Again, the kids and I headed out Friday afternoon and surprisingly enough made it to Nashville (380 miles) in one piece. We got all checked into the hotel and waited for the rest of the crew to arrive from Atlanta.

Friday night was an early-ish night for the kiddos and some much needed girl talk for the grown ups. Saturday morning we got up and headed to the Nashville Zoo. The kids had a blast and I was very impressed with the zoo, but it was 8000 degrees outside so we left after 2 hours. Spent the afternoon in the pool where it was again confirmed that I have the least buoyant (Braden) child on the face of the planet, but we all cooled off and had some fun.

They had a great playground that the boys loved!

It was Ice Day at the zoo so the boys checked out (aka licked) the ice sculpture they had on hand

Amelia was Amanda's little buddy all weekend

That night we loaded up and went to downtown Nashville. Ate dinner at a BBQ restaurant downtown and then crammed ourselves into a buggy for a horse drawn carriage ride through downtown. The kids were amazed and I have to admit, it wasn't a bad way to see the city. That night we all kind of crapped out early and tried to get a good night's sleep.

Sunday we tried to go see Opryland, but since both of my kids fell asleep on the ride over I thought it best to get on down the road towards home. We stopped at a Train museum on the way home and played for about 45 minutes. Other than that, no notable issues or meltdowns.

Choo Choo

For now, we're home and unpacked, but I'm already mentally preparing myself for the trip to the beach in T – 10 days (520 miles).