Road Trip: College

Since Mark is off work until the end of January, we decided to head to Marion, Indiana to visit Vince at Indiana Wesleyan University. Grace loves to ride in the car, but except for our first trip home from the airport, she hasn't ridden in the car for more than about an hour. We also would be staying in a hotel for the first time, which required packing a blanket, pull ups, several changes of clothes, baby shampoo, swimming suits, and the potty chair. (We learned our lesson after the gas station incident from the last post.) You should have seen Grace's face when she told us she had to go to the bathroom and we pulled off to the side of the road, sat her on the potty chair in the back of the van, and wiped her hands and behind with the baby wipes. She was so disappointed. She loves bathrooms and couldn't believe that she didn't get to try out yelling/singing in a new bathroom to hear her echo or waving her hands to get paper towels to magically appear from the dispenser. Later on she told us, "Ne pishka in the colata!" Which means "No, pottying in the car!"

Although we all loved catching up with Vince and one of his friends, Jake, Grace's favorite part of the trip was swimming at the Comfort Suites. When we walked into the vacant pool area, she squealed with delight. She loved her suit, the steps, the ladder, holding our hands to jump in, kicking her feet, blowing bubbles in the water, and watching Vince swim under the water. The water was really warm, but she didn't want to get out when she was shivering and all shriveled up. She even counted to three with us, went all the way under the water 5 or 6 times and got her hair completely wet. She wasn't afraid at all.

We were told by adoption books and our coordinator that it would take a long time for her to trust us, but as long as we were holding her hands, she would jump right into the water. She even "swam" between Mark, Vince, and I and tried to paddle her arms and kick her feet. She will be begging to go to college everyday now. Mark and I needed to go home to sleep, though. The next time we decide to stay in a hotel, she will not be sleeping in the king bed with us...We woke up this morning (no, we would have to be asleep to do that) with her head in the middle of Mark's back and one foot thrown over my head. She didn't fall out of bed, but we both took a beating. Tea was a necessity with breakfast, an interesting message at College Wesleyan kept us awake at church, and Starbucks and Diet Mt. Dew helped Mark make it home.

Note to myself:  Get a roll-away for the next trip.

Okay, so which one is cheesier?