If I was to make a list of wishes somewhere on it would be, “I wish I was the kind of person who could pack light and leave on time”.

I am so not that person and unfortunately for our schedule either is my husband. We had such big plans to leave the city around 10am on Wednesday. Serious plans. John even took off Tuesday so we could have a full day together to pack and clean. We arranged to pick up the rental car that night so we could load it up and just ease out of town in the morning. I had visions of a calm, happy, organized morning before departure.

So didn’t happen that way.

We still weren’t ready. The only difference was that this time I didn’t freak out about it. I didn’t cry or yell at John about how he needed to move faster or complain that he wasn’t ready. Around 11am I started to get frustrated and was on the verge of a breakdown but then I could physically feel myself just give up and surrender to the day. We would leave when we left.

And we left at 4pm.

That’s when our road trip rituals could begin.

We like to flip off the “Thanks for paying a whole lotta money to drive on the roads sign”

We stop in Janesville, WI to partake of the glory that is Hardees. God I love Hardees. We always would park under this one tree and enjoy our feast and let Lilo out for a walk but sometime last year they cut the tree down. That was sad. But then they added these rocky medians and for Canyon, the boy who loves to dig in rocks, this was a happy thing.

Then the sun set…

And then we drove in the dark and listened to music. Around midnight in the middle of Wisconsin I found this on my iPod. Yes, I have things on my iPod that I don’t even know about. I like to think the universe was just saving it for the right moment for me to be able to fully appreciate it.

I listened to it over and over. I made John crazy.

We drove on and finally arrived at The Kennedy’s just outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul. We unloaded the car and let Lilo play in the front yard for awhile. Sure it was around 1:30am but Lilo and Canyon slept for most of the trip and needed to stretch their legs.

And then we slept.

But I miss the ritual of sitting down at the end of the night to look over the photos and writing a post to memorialize the day. I could just leave it at that and start from today but since I love to look back through this site as a permanent record of my life I will now sit down at my Dad’s kitchen table and start from the beginning…

It takes a lot of energy to get Lilo, Canyon and me to the beach but it is so worth it. When we leave I feel so happy it is bordering on bliss. It’s that good.

So way back in April Canyon attended his first comic book convention. So way back in April we decided that he would be a baby Dr. Who for Wizard World. So that gave us 4 months to get his costume together. So we started making it at 11pm the night before.

We are not artsy craftsy people. We are good at pulling together costumes and props but actually creating a TARDIS out of cardboard was work. I know the final product looks pretty simple but it took us hours! Hours I say! But we are pleased with the final product.

Zombie Disney Princesses love Canyon…(and apparently Indiana Jones too)

Even baby Timelords get tired…

New Religion
by Bill Holm

This morning no sound but the loud
breathing of the sea. Suppose that under
all that salt water lived the god
that humans have spent ten thousand years
trawling the heavens for.
We caught the wrong metaphor.
Real space is wet and underneath,
the church of shark and whale and cod.
The noise of those vast lungs
exhaling: the plain chanting of monkfish choirs.
Heaven’s not up but down, and hell
is to evaporate in air. Salvation,
to drown and breathe
forever with the sea.

Thanks Carrie and the Writers Almanac

Then Canyon wanted in…

He didn’t need a suit!

I blurred out his secret private place so he’s not embarrassed to read this when he’s older…

When we got back to the car it was dark and decided to pull off the “taking off my wet suit in the car with people around trick”. I was doing an admirable job-turned off dome light and working with a strategically placed towel. The one problem was a car, about half a block down that had it’s brights on, slightly illuminating me. It was nerve wracking because it was just enough light to make it clear that I was trying to change clothes. I wasn’t sure if they even noticed me, but when I was done and we closed the door they turned their lights on and off about 5 times. Again, was this about me? The only I was concerned is we are now in a digital age. Growing up the worst thing that could happen was someone might see you trying to change clothes. Now it’s someone might see you trying to change clothes and post it on Youtube.