Road Trip

The book I've been reading says that traveling across the country in a minivan is "the ultimate family bonding experience." If that's so, I've done some major bonding over the last few weeks with mine. We covered 900 miles of road last week, from Boston to PA, then VA, and back again. We loaded up the minivan with a dozen bags, 6 people, 3 bikes, 2 strollers, and one car top carrier. Here are some of those memorable moments.

Jack and Elliot were once again enthralled with Uncle Bill's Rock Band game. They couldn't get enough playing time. The most surprising and fun part of it for me, was realizing how well they were actually able to sing and play the drums. Their favorite songs were Eye of the Tiger, Hungry Like the Wolf, and Psycho Killer. Walking downstairs to find Elliot belting out the tune and Jack playing the drums was priceless. It also made them seem suddenly very grown up.

I also got to hear lots of stories from my verbose brood . Elliot shared some future plans with me. When he grows up, he's looking forward to being a lifeguard in Seaside Park, NJ. He plans to spend his summers there, and then buy a winter house in Princeton when he's 16, "because (he's) already in NJ." At first he told me he intended to work as a "business man" during the winter, until a new idea occurred to him suddenly. His new idea? To work at a "general store" for the winter. According to Elliot, "people need more food in winter, because it's cold and you can't pick things." But, he wanted my reassurance that, working in a general store, he could still have Saturdays and Sundays off so that he could make waffles for breakfast, and sometimes grits and bacon.

Jack, though not thinking about his future career so much, was also full of questions about other potential future plans. He wanted to know all about building and designing houses. Apparently he was doing research for his dream house. I found him drawing up the plans after we got home. (Click on either image to see them in larger scale.)

We made most of the 11+ hour drive home listening to Christmas carols and talking about our plans to put up our tree. We also made sure to take a few short breaks to practice singing Hungry Like the Wolf and Eye of the Tiger.