First Family Road Trip - Little Miss M's Tale

Little M is becoming quite the smarty pants, and it is for this reason she thinks she is also the boss. (Hence the nickname Little Miss M) This doesn't bode well for a long drive. It just so happened that Little Miss M thought she could tell daddy what to do while we were near completing the drive up to our vacation spot. And, this is what led to the first time we had to pull over to discipline our oldest. This was the least favorite part of everyone in our car (maybe except Little L because she didn't like being in the car anyway). 

Throughout most of the drive, Little Miss M had been so good! She didn't keep asking "are we there yet", she kept her little self busy either coloring, playing games on the iPad or playing with the new little lego car we bought her. But just as we were getting close to our destination, she pulled out the "NO!" and wouldn't back down (in defiant preschooler fashion). After the disciplinary event, she was quite solemn as we were stuck in some road repair work right before reaching our destination. Finally, she came out of her self induced grump and tried to cheer up Little L who, by this time was screaming for release from her carseat bondage. 

Thankfully, that was our biggest bad behavior incident the whole trip. Little Miss loved "the cabins" as she called them. She was quite happy being able to walk to Nama and Papa's cabin everyday to see what they were doing. She loved playing in the hot springs and did such a great job practicing her back float that she was finally able to do it all by herself for a few seconds! She went fishing and caught a fish within the second try of casting (even with all her wiggling about!) She played with her cousins (arguing with little Noah was one of her pastimes). Even though she tired herself out daily with all of these activities, she went to bed late each night because she was sleeping with me and wanted to talk the whole time. I didn't mind most of the time, especially the night we had spectacular thunderstorms. She's such a big girl and is not afraid of the thunder! Even as loud and crazy as it was! We just laid on our uncomfortable pull out bed watching the lightning illuminate the room and listening to the thunder crash and echo off of the surrounding mountains. 

She makes me smile because she's growing so much and she's so smart! But of course there are her moments like on the ride up where she reminds us she's only 3 and 1/2 and still has a lot of growing and learning to do. But I'm so blessed that I'm able to be here at home with her and her sister, at least for the present, to watch them grow each day. I know it will still go by fast, my goodness, this first year of L's has gone by SO fast. But when we get to have family trips like this, it makes it all the more sweet. I hope there are many many many more to come. She has so much fun with daddy and it's so great to see them together. 

At the end of our trip when I told her we were heading home she said "but I don't want to leave the cabins!" and I said "neither do I! But we'll come back again". Hopefully we'll be able to do something like that every year. With Nama and Papa and aunty too, because that just makes it more fun!