We are sorry. But if you live more than 1.5 hours from us, we will not be visiting you unless we can fly (Leanne says that 1.5 hours is stretching it!) We just got back from an overnight visit to Gettysburg, PA to see friends. We assumed that it would be an easy drive. HA.

Friday. We load the car like we are going away for a month. Two pack and plays, 2 crib sheets, 1 monitor, 1 white noise machine, 16 diapers, pajamas, clothes, blah, blah, blah. We leave on time as planned. We get on the road and get a call from Leanne's work that she needs to edit a document. Now. We locate a Panera Bread (free wireless Internet) that is on the way, unload the boys and placate them with chocolate milk and a bagel while Leanne reviews the document (yes, I had brought the laptop.) Load them back in for the remaining hour of our trip. They are so tired they can't stand themselves and are whining up a storm. Carter passes out with 10 minutes left. Gray whines until I think my ears are going to bleed.

We had a fabulous time in Gettysburg. Our friends Arlette and Aaron (who are now living in Florida) were there visiting Aaron's parents. And so with our friends Debbie, Brian, and Chad we all converged on the Ivey's home. Given the amount of food and alcohol we all brought we must have assumed that nothing had changed from our college days. HA. Evidently a lot has changed since we were in college. By 8pm, all the kids were asleep (in addition to our two, Arlette and Aaron have a 5 year old son and a 6 month old daughter) and we had all changed over from wine (after a measily glass or two) to water and were yawning and droopy eyed. We all turned in for the night at 10:15. Not quite the late night we all had envisioned. Nevertheless we had a great time reminiscing, laughing, and talking about our kids. Thankfully, our kids slept through the night.

Saturday. We were up at 6:30 with happy and funny kids. After breakfast and lots of playtime, we attempted a morning nap. HA. They refused despite being so tired they couldn't see straight - so we packed up and headed out expecting that they would pass out in the car immediately. And Carter did. I am not sure we made it out of the driveway before he was out like a light. And because we were in Gettysburg - and I haven't been there since I was a kid, we decided to take an car/audio tour of the battlefield. Gray did fall asleep after - oh, 100 rounds of Mary Had a Little Lamb, 50 rounds of Wheels on the Bus, and an assortment of Christmas carols. But it was short lived. He woke after 25 minutes - madder than hell. He did not want to be in the car. He didn't want more songs. He didn't want Goldfish. He didn't want water. He didn't want to read books. He wanted out. And his protesting woke Carter. So then we had 2 cranky toddlers who wanted one thing. To get out of the car. We found a Cracker Barrel on the GPS - and it wasn't until we were nearly there that we realized we had gone way our of our way to get there. Oh well. The boys ate pretty well and we got our favorites. However, we were still 90 minutes from home and neither kid wanted to get in the car. So for 90 minutes we tried to placate with cookies, songs, and books. To little avail. By the time we pulled into our driveway you probably heard the whoops of joy from your house.

The boys were thrilled to be home and ran around the playroom with utter abandon - until they ate, had a bath, and were nearly asleep on the floor at 6:30. They were in their cribs and asleep by 6:45.

And now it is 8:00. Leanne and I feel like we have been through the ringer. We are exhausted. I wouldn't be surprised if were asleep by 9. On a Saturday night.