Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!

(to be read in a big trucker, announcer voice)

Well, here we are again folks! Round two of the early Sunday shift! There is some sort of adrenaline rush I get from getting up early before the sun and getting ready before anyone else is up and driving away into the dark night. BUT it has to be early enough because 7 o' clock? Not early enough to give me the rush but still way to early to be awake in my opinion. Same with 6 o' clock and almooossttt 5 o' clock. That is pushing it. But anything before then, there is definitely that excitement of "oh this is new! I have to be real quiet! I'm like a spy..." kind of a feeling.

I blame this feeling on the many times that we would get up early to go on car trips and whatnot not. Those were the best days because we would get up super early, everyone would be freezing because we were used to our warm beds and then were thrown out into the blistering cold nights (it wasn't really that bad... it just felt like it) whereupon I remember much shivering was done. But it was exhilerating because we were going on a car trip! We were going somewhere new! Somewhere fun and different and exciting! And so now, when I get up early early to go somewhere, I get the same feeling, like wherever I'm going is exciting and the rest of the world is missing out on this wonderful secret because they are asleep so I alone get to enjoy it.

Until I realize I am going to work, at which point I realize that the rest of the world has got it right and I should have stayed in bed.

But you know? Sometimes these mornings are still my favorite, even if I'm not excited about where I'm going. I can't help it! Family vacations were my favorite thing growing up! We took so many car trips, we had the system worked down to a science. Boys in the back, wherein much gaming and contortion-izing occurs; girls in the captain seats, with pillows up against each of the windows for numerous naps; snacks at the foot of the girls, accessible without too much trouble by all except the boys (mwahaha); random stuff shoved between the middle seats for extra storage and all items meant for entertainment (that the children hadn't already packed in their individual backpacks) were located by the foot of the passenger seat where my mother could distribute them as she pleased.

Every car trip now, we immediately fall into this routine, no matter how old we are. It took us a while to figure it out, especially because the boys couldn't accept their fate of being in the back seat every time. But they figured it out eventually :)

I miss those days. I'm afraid it might not happen ever again.. With Cam and I off to school and Laura too in the fall, we are all over the place and not together enough to all get in the same car and go! Even this summer, if we do end up going on a certain vacation (that I'm pretty excited about if it works out...), Cam and I will be coming from school and meet our family there so it won't even be the same! But I'm grateful for the memories and the times we were able to all cram into our van. I'm grateful for the experiences that brought us closer together as a family, both emotionally and proximity wise (I'm telling you, sometimes there is just not enough breathing room in there!). Those trips will always have a very special place in my heart.