love + merriment = family: worth the challenge

when i learned diegas was doing an adventurous backpacking trip with his uncle and friends, 30+ miles through santa barbara's wilderness - i quickly thought of something the girls and i could do to make use of our 3 days without papa. as you can imagine day in and day out of the three of us being together weekly, called for something to break up the monotony. i had been wanting to see family and my bff becky for several months so the idea of jumping in the car with two little ones for 6+ hours seemed obvious, right? as the weeks approached and then days, i became more and more anxious. single parents - hats off! the idea of having only one set of hands (that belonged on the steering wheel) to attend to two "babies" seemed daunting, but as friends and family assured me, i would be able to do it. the girls and i talked a lot about it before we left, so they were ultra prepared for the adventure. they knew that once something dropped from their little hands, mama would not be able to reach it, that it was going to be a long ride and we were going to make sure to stop and stretch but only when mama was able to. we had plenty of snacks, lunch, books, games, crayons and lets not forget the "i will never do that when i'm a parent"item, a DVD(!!). they watched an hour of diego, we stopped once at a rest stop and amazingly we arrived at our destination, 5 hours later.

we had the most amazing time, visiting family, old friends and doing a really fun, challenging adventure together. i was so happy in each moment of our trip and so glad when we arrived home to diegas, freshly back from his travels. on a side note: they way home, not so fun as it took 7.5 hours and we sat in 2 hour traffic through gilroy due to 2 accidents and one in the south bay. but we made it and it gave me confidence in traveling with two little nuggets alone. so glad we went. thanks to all our hosts! what a grand spring kick-off!