December in Review

On our epic journey through what felt like most of the Midwest this December, we learned many things. Although this is probably elementary for you veteran parents, we like to think that we came out of the trip smarter than when we started.

• You can roughly guess the number of small children in a family by the amount of milk on the inside of the van windows.

Happy Meals covered three different cartoons

• Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to build up an immunity to McDonald's food in less than three weeks.
• Dried crusty milk will come up with a strong enough vacuum and some elbow grease.
• Car seat covers can and should be washed every other day (at least) when traveling with toddlers with the flu.
• Chocolate milk when thrown up does stain clothing.
• However, resolve really does do better than the off brand cleaner
• Jonas can sleep through Lucy screaming in his ear at 2:00 AM.
• A playpen will fit in the bathroom of some hotel rooms.
• Priceline.com is usually more expensive than simply walking in and asking for a room.

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• Legos will keep Jonas busy for an indefinite amount of time, but make potty, nap, bed, and meal time difficult.
• A three year old can only hold his urine for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.
• After about 2,600 miles in the van, one is very thankful for kids that travel well.
• Road salt is really hard on coolant/heater lines.

• The slinky is possibly the best attention keeper in the car seat, and really is fun for a girl and a boy...but not the slinky.

•  Waking up is hard to do when you are on vacation.

•  It is tough to say goodbye.

• The swimming pool in a hotel is the only amenity important to a toddler.

• Everything will be okay as long as the milk is cold and the sippy is full.
• We have the best family and group of supporters known to man. 
• God will continue to provide for us.

While we want you to smile when you see these pictures of the kids and try to picture a family of four taking a road trip roughly the distance of going from New York City to San Diego, we also want to seriously say that we had a wonderful time spending Christmas with family and some time before that with supporters. God has truly blessed us in 2011 and we are eagerly anticipating 2012.

Of course we know 2012 and beyond won't all be fun and games. Sometimes Lucy will be tossing cookies in the back seat and sometimes the van will spring a leak. But there will be times that we get to see the people we love and everything will be running smoothly and at the correct temperature. Regardless, God is there and very much involved, and because of that fact, we can confidently charge head first into 2012, even if at times it feels like a cross country road trip...with two toddlers...with the flu...

May God bless you this new year,

Ben and Caroline Jonas and Lucy