Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to Iowa we go

On Saturday we left for a 10 day vacation to Iowa to visit the grandparents. Ten days sounds like a long time to be gone, but considering we are crazy enough to be driving there, the actual "vacation" time is not as long and the "trip" part is.

Here is a recap of the top 10 lessons I have learned so far on our trip, in no particular order.

1. Tejano music makes me happy. Never mind the fact that I don't have a clue what they are singing about. For all I know they could be telling me to leave my husband for the man with the mustache in Mexico. I like the music anyway.

2. The drivers side door handle breaking while stopped in San Antonio therefore causing the driver for the remainder of the trip to exit out the van door, makes our family look like we should be auditioning for the Shriners Circus.

3. Any casual mention of the word "gas" as in, "How much gas is left in the tank?" or "Should we stop for gas?" causes uncontrollable giggles from the back row of the van.

4. While in theory it seems reasonable to allow each child to bring whatever number of stuffed animals they can fit into their backpack, it is in reality not doable or practical considering they can each fit 32 stuffed animals into their backpacks making our van look like a stuffed animal machine exploded inside the minute they unzip their backpacks.

5. Our dog is really Hudini reincarnated considering she can escape from the tiniest of places quicker than a flash.

6. Mitchell Musso's version of "Lean on me" gets old after you have listened to it fourteen times in a row since the oldest child proclaimed it "The best song ever in the world. Period."

7. A child losing a tooth in the hotel room raises the whole vacation excitement level by about 10.

8. A child misplacing said tooth in the hotel bed raises the whole vacation stress level by about 10.

9. The beauty of Texas is that you can drive for almost 500 miles and still be in the great state of Texas.

10. Going on a family vacation is great. Don't take my word for it though. Here is what our oldest child wrote in his journal on day one. (by the way, he's 8):

"We have just started on are trip to Iowa. My sister was really mad because she could not get hooked in. Then we had to get ice in the cooler. Then we went to the post office. To drop off some letters to send. After that we keep on going on are trip to Iowa. Its goin to be a great trip."

There you have it!