Should I go or should I stay?

The weeks leading up to our spring break were extremely grueling  I think pregnancy had started to get the best of me (and my family). I was so darn tired ALL the time and just felt yucky. Life seemed a bit overwhelming and just plain hard. The dreary weather here in Indiana did not seem to help. I think this has been the longest winter in Indiana for quite some time.

The kids had mentioned a couple times that they wanted to go see their cousins in Texas for spring break. I couldn't even entertain the idea. I was so exhausted that the thought of packing up everything was just too much to think about. I told them several times that there would be no way we could go. As the days neared spring break we all started to worry about what we would do for 2 weeks. The weather was going to be cold and snowy. We would be stuck indoors and most of our neighbors and friends were gone as well.

Abby came to me Saturday night and started to explain how she could do most of the packing and so that I could rest. She promised that I could just take it easy and relax. We had just gotten home from "Time Out for Women" and I needed to lay down so that I could think clearly. About an hour later, I woke up and came out to a major packing party. Abby had 5 rows, one for each child, each child having 5 different outfits, underwear, swimsuits, pj's ...etc. She had packed lunches and snacks for each child in a little bag with their name on it.  She literally packed 75% of our trip. This girl is so darn amazing. She told me that she actually enjoyed getting everything together. I couldn't say no to that. She had done most of the work.

There was a snow storm moving into Avon Sunday morning so we figured we needed to get out of town before it hit. We were able to get out of town before it hit Avon, but we ran directly into it about 2 1/2 hours from home. We had to pull over for the night it was so BAD. There were Semi-trucks and cars stuck on the side of the road everywhere.

It was a crazy storm with about 7-9 inches. As we were unloading our stuff for the night there was lightening and thunder, while it was snowing. I have never seen that before. The small town that we stopped in (Vidallia, IL) had most everything closed down. The kids were happy to not be at home. We had a great time swimming,eating, relaxing and shopping at the Walmart that was in the same parking lot as our hotel.

We ordered our usual hotel food, pizza and had it delivered. 

 Before we left town, our awesome neighbors had dropped off some yummy homemade cupcakes. We brought them along since they were too fancy to leave behind. 

They had fondant flowers on top. They were so good!

Since there was so much snow outside the kids took advantage of it. They decided to have snow-ball fights in the pool area. 

Ethan made a friend at the hotel. This cute boy reminded us all of one of their cousins, Alec, so Ethan was in heaven pretending to play with his cousin for the day.

Dinner at Taco Bell. It was memorable, for sure.

The next morning we were some of the first ones on the road. I had called the road-safety condition hotline and they said it was pretty safe to drive. We had no time to waste since we needed to go 12 hours that day. We decided to check it out.

The roads were much better. It was nuts to see all the cars that had slid of the road the day before and gotten stuck. I was grateful we stopped when we did even if it was super frustrating that we were only 2 1/2 hours from home.

We pulled into my parents around 7:30pm Monday night. My sister and a couple of her boys met us there. As I sat there with my parents and sister talking I immediately felt happy that I had made the drive. It was so worth it. I so needed to see them all.