On the first of July we began our great journey north to the motherland. We embarked around 10am (it always takes way longer to finalize packing up and get out the door in the morning than it should). Fireworks on the lake were at 10 pm that night, and since the drive time was only eight and a half hours, I thought we'd get there with plenty of time. But since this was one of the premier travel days of the year, we lost a lot of time in traffic jams and the total trip ended up taking eleven hours. Alice did pretty good, but Simon asked "How many more minutes?" about a thousand times and frequently registered his distress at being contained for that long.
Exercising at a rest stop.
We got to Mansfield around 9pm, ate a quick spaghetti dinner and hopped on a pontoon boat that the neighbors had generously lent us to go across the lake to see the fireworks. It was beautiful, and extra fun because Simon loves fireworks so much.
And we got the kids in bed before midnight. Win!
