Why I'm Dreading Vacation

We have just a little while before heading out to our annual summer vacation. 1300 miles in the car with four boys. I'm excited to visit with family, to see the town in which I grew up, got married, had my first house and first two babies in. I always get sentimental and love being in a place that holds so many dear memories.  There is quite a large part of me, though, that is just dreading this trip.

First and foremost: twenty hour car ride. I suspect it will be riddled with "are we there yet?" and "I'm bored." "He touched me."  "I can't see the movie!" "Mooooommmmmmmmmmmy."  There's bound to be frequent potty stops and it wouldn't surprise me if we have to stop off for additional items for entertainment. A new movie perhaps, some new toys. Yes, I plan to bring plenty but let me reiterate, twenty hour car ride. We can't even drive to the corner grocery store without some sort of sibling altercation occurring

Sleeping in a hotel room with four kids is less than ideal. Yes, I am thrilled to be stopping for the night this time instead of driving straight through like we often do. Although I'm unsure how much sleeping will actually occur. I'm certain one or more boys will wake up. Probably multiple times. They'll be disoriented or scared and likely end up in bed with my husband and I. Which means I won't sleep. At least I can nap in the car in between kid squabbles.

I'm also totally unenthused about traveling into the Central Time Zone. My kids are notorious for waking up insanely early,and now I'll have the joy of them waking up an hour earlier. Even if they stay up later than usual they'll manage to be up by 5, I'm certain.

Did I mention that it's 20 hours?  Because we have to get home too.

An original Deep South Moms post. 

Rebecca is a mom to four boys and blogs about  fun times and trials at Life With Boys.