The Roadtrip

We made it to Chicago. We drove 4100 miles in 6 days from Alaska, but we're still not done yet. We got in Thursday evening, but luckily we're hanging out here for another week before we attempt our final 13 hour drive. 3 dogs, 1 baby, 2 parents and 1 extremely stuffed truck. Oh, and all three of us were extremely sick during the whole trip which made it that much more fun. We managed.

The road trip went a lot better than I thought it would. We plotted out our stops for each day. On day 1, we were supposed to stop in Tok, AK (a 7.5 hour drive) but by the time we got there, it was only about 2pm so we said, "Let's just keep going," and we made it to Haines Junction, Yukon after about 14 hours of driving. We put in about 14 hours for the first three days and it completely cut out an entire day of our planned trip.

Oh look, only about half our drive

On day one, I discovered that Ryan's bottom teeth started popping through!!!! I didn't discover it until we were past Tok and had zero service before hitting the border, so I couldn't even tell anyone until days later when we were out of Canada. Sweet boy! He was having trouble sleeping the week earlier and I thought it was because there was so much going on, but it was his teeth! I knew something was up though because when I'd feed him with a spoon, he was purposely trying eat with only the top of his mouth-not allowing the spoon to touch his bottom gums. And here they are! I'm so incredibly in love with his sweet smile when his tongue isn't covering them up, but I'm super sad!!! I LOVE his gummy smile. I'm NOT ready for baby teeth and him growing up. I can't handle what a grown up he is becoming! Although I must admit, being home right now with my little nephews calms my nerves. Seeing what cuties they still are gives me hope that it's okay for Ry to not be a baby forever. But I'm still trying to absorb every moment I can.

Baby teeth popping through

He did great on the trip! For the most part. We'd wake up in the mornings, feed him, pack and while he played, and when he was ready for his first nap, that's when we'd feed him and leave so we could drive a few hours while he slept. Whenever he woke up, we'd pull over, G would let the dogs out, and I'd get in back and change him then stay back there to feed and play with him. Our truck was so incredibly packed that I couldn't get into the back seat without moving a giant tote to my vacant seat. It was not easy. The good news is I was able to pump while plugged into the car. I'd pump while he slept, then feed him a bottle while we drove. It made the drive much easier and the stopping minimal. We had our own cd's of kid's songs for Ry that we'd pop in on occasion. BEST PURCHASE EVER: There's this car mirror that is set up so we can look back and see him. But the best part of it is it has a remote that turns music on. That music was magical. As soon as it played, that kid calmed down and was content. I don't think we'd have made it without that music mirror. Amazing.

I'm starting to believe that bears are mythical creatures. I have the worst luck with animals. We drove through the remainder of Alaska and didn't see ONE animal on the whole drive (other than eagles and some road kill). I may as well have been looking for unicorns, because bears DO NOT exist in Alaska. Greg has tried taking me bear searching so many different times, yet I never got to see bears when people were claiming they were all over the place. It wasn't until we were a few hours into Canada that we saw our first animal: some caribou. There were three of them and they crossed the road right in front of our car. It was pretty cool. Another time, we found another caribou that was just standing in the road, until our dogs discovered it and barked-scaring the crap out of it. They also tried barking at bison (who didn't really care) and a motorcyclist who was behind us at a red light. This sounds crazy, but one of my favorite animals we saw was in Canada. I woke up and was taking Denali out, and there were three giant rabbits eating grass out there. But they weren't brown rabbits like I see in my parents' yard, they were white with grey spots-they looked like they could be someone's pets. Giant pets. They were beautiful and so free. I loved them! We also saw some elk, deer (or antelope?) a porcupine, and a billion cows. I'm officially over red meat-those cows were so adorably sweet. I never really ate red meat before, but now I'm definitely done with it. I just wanted to gather them all together and cuddle them. I love cows.

I know I complained about not seeing bears, but we actually did see a bear! Just one for about 10 seconds and it was gone. It was awesome because it came from a really crappy situation. Ryan did really well on the trip, however he had a few moments where he freaked out. This particular time, he was screaming and we were in the middle of nowhere, Canada. There was no where to stop so G just kind of pulled over into this grassy spot on the highway. He went to go check on the dogs while I took care of Ry, and jokingly, he said, "Let me know if a bison sneaks up behind me." Well, I looked up and suddenly across the road, this small black bear walks out of the woods. I was in disbelief! (I seriously didn't think they existed) so I kept knocking on the back window to G to warn him. He finally figured out what I was saying and ran out just in time before the bear went back into the woods. If it weren't for Ryan screaming his face off, we'd never have seen the bear.

The dogs did GREAT on the trip as well. We set the back up so that our luggage was all on one side, and the dog beds were on the other. Belle enjoyed her little beds, but the boys were king of the castle and slept on top of our luggage mounds. They were all so adorable and whenever we'd walk near the truck, they would want to get back into their little apartment. They would just look out the windows at everything until their eyelids drooped and they fell asleep. Such angels.

The little pups cuddling in back

Traveling with three dogs is such a challenge, though, because most hotels that are pet friendly only allow two, or they have a weight limit. There were only a couple times we had to lie about how many we had. The good news is 1. Cato and Denali look the same. We just didn't have them out at the same time. And 2. most pet friendly rooms are in the back, near doors, away from the entrance. That way, people never really saw  the dogs anyway. One of the hotels even gave us a welcome basket for the dogs! It was adorable. Our dogs are good and don't generally bark too much, but when we were in a room and people would walk right past our door talking, then they would bark, which would wake up the baby, which would make us miserable. It made me feel good though because sometimes we'd have a room next to one dog who would bark like crazy, and ours were quiet. It makes me feel like I did something right with these little nuts.

The doggie welcome basket!

Okay, these paragraphs don't really flow well, cause I'm going back to traveling through Canada. I LOVED Canada!! So we get to the US/Canada border (from Alaska traveling into Canada) and we see the U.S. check point on the other side of the road. However, we don't see one going into Canada. We kept driving and I couldn't figure out if we were in Canada or not. Then we starting seeing signs in kilometers and litres (yes, spelled that way) and I knew we were in Canada, but there was no check point! It was at least another 30 minutes until we hit their check point. So weird! It's like they don't even care if people are illegally in their country. Ha! But I loved calculating our distance in kilometers better than miles because they go by more quickly! And the accents when we got lunch at Tim Hortons-so adorable. I didn't get to try any donuts in Canada like I wanted to, but that's okay. We've had enough donuts in the last couple weeks to last me a while.

What else do I need to update on? Let's see. We are adjusted to time! It was not fun. Ryan adjusted first, which means waking up at 5am meant waking up at 3am AK time. That got us adjusted pretty quickly. His sleep has been so off and it SUCKS. He slept so much on the drive, which was nice for us, but by the time we found a room at 9 and just wanted to lay down and pass out, he'd be up and ready to play for the night. No bueno. And now that we're around family, it seems like no one really gives a shit that he needs to sleep. "I want to see the baby." "Wake him up." "I want to play with him." That's freaking great that they all want to see our bundle of perfection, but it seems like people failed to forget that we didn't take a 6 hour flight to get here-we took a 6 day drive and we're TIRED and we really don't want to deal with a fussy baby all day long because he won't sleep. It's actually really frustrating not being on schedule and having to plan events that are either at night when he wants to sleep or during the day when he needs to nap. I'd get a sitter, but noooo... everyone wants us to bring the baby and I'm not from here! I don't have a sitter I can call. And no one cares about being quiet either when he naps. This kid gets waken up more times than I can keep track of.

It's honestly just really hard not having a place to live, no quiet rooms for Ry, and not having a place for the dogs to be happy. They LOVE my parents yard, but they are also social creatures. They're only allowed in the basement-when they're used to being able to cuddle and hang out with us all day. Denali is high anxiety and a mama's boy, so he just sits by the gate at the top of the stairs and whines when he sees me. It's heart breaking. The first night here, he woke up a couple times in the night howling. My babe. I feel so terrible. We don't have a house down in GA yet either. We literally just have our dogs, the baby, our luggage and our truck. And now that its' rainy out today, they won't get to just run around today, so I think there's going to be a lot of whining. And Cato! He's normally our good dog, but he's been acting out lately. I don't know if it's the stress of the move or he's upset that he's being kept downstairs and not getting enough attention, but he's been disobeying and destructive! When we play, he's been getting overly excited and trying to attack any toy we play with (not dog toys, but the kids' toys). He's so naughty! And he's not listening to the commands that we give, when normally he's very good about that kind of stuff.

Before I said I loved that G's and my family were so close so when we go home, we can see everyone. Now, I hate it. It sucks because we now have to see everyone. We have to find time to see both sides. By day one that we were home, our schedule was booked Fri-Wed. And this weekend is mother's day and my dad's bday. You'd think that since we drove 4100 miles to get here, people would be more than happy to accommodate their lives to our schedules, but there are some who are just being totally inconsiderate and I want to slap them in the face! If I don't see you, then I'm not going to sit here and feel awful about not squeezing you into my schedule. I feel like the people that care most about us will find a way to see us-and guess what? So far they are. There are people who I haven't talked to in months, have seen my posts on Facebook so there's really no possible way that they couldn't have known I wasn't coming to town, then last minute, try to make ME go out of MY way to try to see them. Um... no. I'm sorry, but this trip isn't going to work like that. So frustrating!

Took a detour to see Mt. Rushmore.

Okay, I've been trying to update all week and now I feel super distracted. Ry's awake. I feel like I have a million things I have to do today. I don't have time to just sit and relax anymore when there's constantly someone jumping down my throat about something. I'm sure I've missed about a billion things I wanted to talk about, but oh well. That's life.  I can't believe we have to get back into a car in less than a week and figure out the next 6 months of our lives... then do this all over again. The good news is my man hit his promotion and is now officially CAPTAIN! I'm so proud of him. Okay, enough. Need to work out since everyone is trying to fatten me up back home. I can't wait til we have our own house again and I can cook. xoxoxo. The joys of the army life.