Certain people have been wondering what is going on around the Casa de Adams that has resulted in a longer than usual hiatus from the Blogosphere. Last year around this time, my family and I left for an Independence Day visit with my family and arrived home to find that the plug had been pulled on my blogging space and the whole thing was kablooie. This year we made a junket down to points south to visit my in-laws and I was happy to return and discover that my blog was still intact.

And now for the trip and all that. The drive down was fairly miserable. It began with my waking up at 4:45 or something coughing my head off. That subsided, but I'd planned to get up around 5:30, so sleeping in was kind of shot. After everyone was up, dressed, the car loaded and everyone out the door, we were doing well to be on the way to the kennel by 7:50. We dropped the dog off, got breakfast at McDonald's (discovering later that neither child that can eat such things will eat an Egg McMuffin) and were truly on the road by 9:00. This is the first long car trip we've made with The Girl since she has been potty-trained. We had to visit bathrooms a lot and she still managed to wet the Pull-ups I'd put her in more than once.

Along the road we were entertained by screams of "Get your foot off my carseat," and variations thereon and also too many songs including the word "poo-poo" by the two year old, who has a refined interest in potty humor. Selections included "Mary had a little poo-poo" and "Jesus Loves the Little..." You get the picture. Visions of children gagged and restrained by swathes of duct tape danced in parental heads on more than one occasion.

The whole drive and stops down to Pensacola took us about 11 hours. When we arrived I could only curl up in a fetal position and stare at things. But long before we reached our final destination, there was one highlight to the trip.

As Terry mentioned last Friday, we stopped and had lunch with Papa Possum himself.

Meeting Terry was very fun and I was pleased to discover that he's really just like his blogself, except he didn't exactly sound like the voice in my head. Otherwise though, he's a funny, entertaining and totally sweet gentleman. And I got a hug. He's such a sucker.

When the kids weren't fighting we listened to Kipling's Just So Stories. Those are highly recommended. The Boy loved them and spent a few hours drawing illustrations of the various stories while he listened. I especially liked his Elephant's Child, but can't find it at the moment.

Once we finally arrived and I stopped staring at the walls and babbling, we had a nice time with my inlaws. Justin and I even got to go out on a date one night and enjoyed wandering around the streets of historic downtown Pensacola, which looks a lot like my neighborhood, only more renovated, with prettier gingerbread on the houses and a nice view of the beach. At least my house isn't likely to get blown down in a hurricane.

Sunday there was lots of churching at the congregation where my father-in-law is an Elder and a teacher at the preacher training school they run there. Justin also bought and installed a nice ceiling fan for his mom for her birthday, which was the next day. She's such a popular lady that people all over the country throw parties for her birthday and set off fireworks. It must be nice to be so famous.

Justin and I wanted to take some photos of the gingerbread on the houses downtown for inspiration, so on Monday we dragged everyone down there with us and discovered a neat little Fourth of July festival in the Square, with bouncy things, pony rides, a petting zoo and free balloons. The kids were thrilled and it was a pleasant, small towny way to spend a good portion of the day.

When we got back to my in-laws that afternoon, we started talking about the dreaded drive the next day and after more talking decided to pack up and just leave after dinner, so the kids would sleep instead of fight. The peace, quiet and much shorter (6 hours and 45 minutes) drive were wonderful, but the verdict is still out as to whether the sick and exhausted feeling of the next day were worth it.

I'm only now beginning to feel somewhat recovered and I still am working on putting suitcases and such things away, along with catching up on laundry and all the other things one has to do after a "vacation."