Evac-ation

Hurricane Irene provided a great opportunity for us to take a short vacation--without the tolls on the Verazanno Bridge (score 13 smackaroonies ($) saved).

We left at 11 p.m. on Friday night (we were going to leave at 4 a.m. Saturday morning but as it turned out we decided it may save us a lot of traffic to leave sooner). We arrived at the hotel at 3 a.m. with no traffic--with the exception of the area around construction into the entrance of PA). We went to Harrisburg,PA.

The kids were so ecstatic to be staying at a hotel, they got out of the car practically dancing with excitement.

I was really hoping that they would be so exhausted that they would just fall into the bed and go right to sleep. But it was not to be. They skipped around me as I checked in( and was told everyone before had hours of traffic), skipped and hopped and jumped onto the elevator (oh joy!). When it came time to slide the key card they determined they would take turns, but who to go first was the hard part.  I ended up doing it first.  Then they got into the bathroom and that was very exciting because they got to check ot all the soap, shampoo, lotion, shower cap (mini-bottles---kid-size--how exciting).

Instead of calming down and going to sleep afterward, they had to check on the TV, search the drawers, practice for a small pillow fight, check the bounciness of the bed, ooh and ahh over the water bottles and cups just waiting for us.  Turn the lights on and off--twenty times.

I was utterly exhausted but there was a huge part of me bubbling with excitement almost as much as them. So when I was ready for bed I got into the covers (lights going on and off and giggling galore) there was a lot of  pulling up the covers because the moment I got them up the dear squiggling child next me squealed with delight and kicked the covers down again.

Then my I-really-need-to-go-to-sleep-so-I-can-be-rational-tomorrow-self kicked in and I stated, "People are trying to sleep in the rooms next door.  We need to go to sleep so we can feel good tomorrow. Think of all the fun we're going to have if we sleep."

Eventually all the squirming and giggling stopped and I heard steady breathing around me and I took a moment to feel super excited then I fell right to sleep.  It was 3:45 a.m. for pity's sake--a girl's got to sleep.

The only thing that made me feel a bit sad was that my dear sweetie couldn't come with us.  He had to work. We really missed him!!!