Notes about being on the road

As if I didn't already have enough to say. Tom's co-worker once told him about how a friend of his took a trip and blogged about it. But the wife also sometimes wrote the blog. Whenever the wife wrote, the post was super long, explaining every detail. Whenever the husband wrote, it was like, "Today we went to Paris. Saw the Eiffel. Saw some museums. It was fun." I wonder what the posts would look like if Tom were to write?

So, some of my random notes about being on the road:

• This southwest weather is DRY. Tom and the boys are getting their signature Chang dry skin patches again. And I don't know if it's the white balance on the camera or what but our unmoisturized legs in shorts are looking mighty chalky.
• I'm *trying* to eat well. I never thought that after just 2 days of "road food" (i.e., burgers) that I'd be opting for small town Chinese food (Flagstaff) and grilled fish with veggies (Cracker Barrel in Gallup). And ever since our 2nd ever pitstop in before the Grapevine in southern CA, I vowed not to get a Starbuck's unless I'm the driver in need of sugar/caffeine. And since Tom's done ALL the driving so far, he's had like 10 Starbuck's mochas by now (well, I don't know about 10, but somewhere between 5-10).
• What kid doesn't love hotels because they get to watch TV? If it's still early in the morning, we can catch good shows for the kids (Clifford, Super Why) on PBS while we pack. But like today and at least one other day, we're gettin' close to check out deadline and the only thing on is Spongebob and Tom & Jerry. But what does Tobey like to watch? The Weather Channel! Hallelujah, a safe alternative!
• Speaking of weather, I wonder why Tobey is so interested in weather. Is it possibly because Northern CA weather is so boring? Tobey seems quite intrigued that it could rain in Boston in the summer. And with isolated T-storms in this southwest/southern area, I'd actually not mind getting caught in a thunderstorm, as long as it's just a driving day and not a day we want to see anything. So far on this trip, the weather has been nothing short of perfect. One day in Sedona it was in the 80's but it was so dry, you don't feel yourself sweating. As long as we don't get caught in a tornado while going across the plains states, I wouldn't mind seeing a little rain out here.
• Mad Libs - We call them "silly stories". We first encountered them in a Travel Activity Book that Tobey's teachers gave us. Tobey is the King of Silly so he has fun not only filling in the blanks (I write, he learns about nouns and adjectives), but he likes hearing the stories days later. My Cracker Barrel Country Store find? A real Mad Libs book.
• I think I mentioned in a previous post about (mostly Tobey's but sometimes also Eli's) disobedience. Things finally came to a head two days ago and Tobey earned himself a spanking for outright disobedience. I know sometimes a 2 year old can't control his impulses which is why Eli has still been getting time outs which mostly seem to work on him. But Tobey was getting out of control and I hated trying to nag/teach him the same rules and things over and over and over again (times two because Tom's been correcting him too). So one morning while we were packing, things just got so bad that he had to get a spanking and a lecture. I must say that by the next day, behavior has been markedly improving. Much less of his out of control, silly/hyper, lack of listening to us. And that means a much more enjoyable trip for all.
• On that note, I also wondered if the kids needed more attention from us. Hard to believe that you could be with someone 24/7 and them still not get enough attention. But since we're doing this trip on the fly, there's a lot of navigating and sightseeing going on and perhaps not as much "family time", the kind of simple family time that kids crave. So that's why I pushed for swimming this morning and Tom's been looking for an evening to do a movie night (which the kids love -- too bad the Route 66 Drive-In theater in Carthage, MO is only showing PG-13 movies). There's a Route 66 mini-golf in Oklahoma City and some rest stop in western OK that the book says is a must-stop because of a nice playground for kids. So especially since some of the big sights are behind us, we hope to do more "family time" kinds of activities.

One last note, don't forget about our Flickr pictures. We uploaded some more tonight.