King of the World

Last weekend we drove to Arkansas to visit Brooks family. It was a blast. We did a ton of stuff in a matter of just a few days. Let me start by sharing our traveling experiences. The last time we drove to Arkansas with Gavin, he was only 3 months old and still in the sleeping all the time phase so he wasn't bothered by riding in a car seat for 8 hours. However, now that he is 10 months and very active, Brooks and I were very curious to see how he would manage with having to be strapped into a car seat for so long. Gavin did great!! He is always so aware and inquistive about things as is, so it was no surprise that he only slept for 20 minutes because he was very busy looking out the window and watching things pass by-- not to mention our dog Maggie was in the back seat with him and he loves watching her. We stopped a few times for gas and potty breaks (changing his diaper, etc) and sadly to say... everyplace we went to gas station, grocery store, and even fast food place did NOT have a changing station in their bathrooms. how GROSS!! I had to change Gavin on the floor of the bathrooms b/c our car was so jam packed, there was no place to lay him down (even on the floor of the car). I was mortified and felt like the worse mom ever. But, that was our only hiccups on the way there. On our way home, believe it or not, we stopped at 3 different places and those 3 places did not have changing stations either-- this time though, I made sure to leave room to change him in the car. We stopped at Burger King to grab a quick bite to eat and Brooks found one of their crowns and put it on Gavin's head-- he wore it the entire time! He just thought that was the best thing ever-- that or he didn't realize it was on his head. Either way, it made for some very cute photos!!! I have to run-- the air conditioning guys are here... our air conditioner is messing up, AGAIN. I'll write later and post more pics of our trip soon. I tried downloading a video all night and it keeps telling me there is an error!
Oh yea, we stopped for dinner at a Chili's in Texarkana, TX and left Maggie in the car while we ate. Did you know it is a felony to leave an animal in a vehicle that is turned off, with no windows rolled down (yea, we didn't think about doing that for her). We came out of the restaurant and were welcomed by a police officer who received a phone call about animal abuse. He mentioned that he could arrest us because we committed a felony, but decided against it since we had our child with us and were traveling (we simply stated we weren't from around there and were unaware of this law). It was very interesting!