Road Trip!!! (Picture overload!)

This weekend, Mason got to take his very first road trip.  We went to Arkansas so he could finally meet my Grandpa and the rest of my dad's side of the family.  We left around 8:30 on Saturday morning, and let me just say, it was a bit of a rough ride!  We tried to stop a lot to give Mason breaks, and ended up stretching our 8 hour road trip to about 13 hours.  Our saving grace was a portable DVD player that we borrowed - Veggie Tales and Elmo to the rescue!

On the way up there, he only slept about an hour.  He looked too cute. =)

We got to the hotel around 9:30 and were ready for bed around 10:30 - Mason got to stay up LATE!  He fell asleep on me, but as soon as I laid him in the Pack & Play, he woke up screaming "NO NO NO!"  Sooo, guess who got to sleep with him?  That would be me.  I actually enjoyed watching him sleep, but I didn't sleep much myself.  That kid tosses and turns more than anyone I've ever seen!

Saturday morning, Pappa came to meet us at the hotel.  As soon as he walked through the hotel doors, Mason ran up to him and let him pick him up.  If you know my kid, you know this is totally NOT normal for him!  He's usually very shy and reserved with people he doesn't know.  I thought it was pretty neat that he was so comfortable with Pappa so fast. 

We hung around at the hotel for a while, visiting and waiting for lunch.  Mason and Grammy goofed around a bit and made us laugh.

For lunch, we met the whole family at Cracker Barrel.  I think there were 17 of us!  It was great to see everyone, and Mason did pretty well despite his lack of sleep (until the end of the meal, but that's another story.)

After letting Mason take a good nap, we went out to Danny and Carol's house to visit.  It was a lot of fun to see all of the kids together - they are all so adorable!

Mason and Annabelle

Mason, Daniel, and Ava

Mason, Annabelle, Ava, Daniel, and Abigail

Mason and Carol

After a fun day of visiting the family and getting to know the kiddos, we headed back to the hotel, and stopped for pizza on the way, since that's what Mason asked for. 

We both slept better Sunday night, until Mason fell off the bed around 4:00.  =(  It scared both of us and we weren't able to go back to sleep!  After a breakfast with Pappa, we were back on the road headed home.  Mason slept a lot more this time, and we made it home in about 8 hours instead of 13! 

The trip was kind of rough, but I'm really glad we got to introduce Mason to the family!