January Reflections: Moment

I've joined Corrin at The Glorious Impossible to look back on this past year with a project called January Reflections.

Moment.

Today, I wanted to remember one of the best moments from 2010. The "build up" to the moment still gives me anxiety reflecting back. Back in August, we were on our last day of our first vacation (tongue twister) in Texas and we had planned a long anticipated breakfast at a cute little place called Monument Cafe. We had a bit of a wait because our family was a big group. Right away, Declan had zero patience so we quickly took him out of the restaurant and out to watch Dora in the car. The food [finally] arrived and we brought Decs back in and then it happened. The melt downs of all melt downs. Inconsolable 2 year old, stressed parents, a quick and obvious exit. We went straight back to my Aunt's house and were packed up and ready to get on the road by the time the rest of the family was back home. We were completed deflated.

Our drive back to Nebraska from Texas started smoothly. After 15 minutes of driving, the monster (i.e. Declan) fell asleep and Mark and I popped in a book on CD. All seemed well until all traffic stopped. We scooted along at 15mph seeing accident after accident for hours. It was the day after Labor Day- what were we thinking?! A drive that took us 4ish hours before (to Norman, OK to sleep for the night) took over 7. We were both boiling over in stress, Declan was ready to be off the road, we were starving and d-o-n-e.

Embassy Suites had never looked so fabulous. We took turns going down to the free happy hour and hoarding drinks up to our room. We ordered and devoured outrageously overpriced room service, turned on a football game and watched Declan run around and have a blast. After Decs had a long bath we all 3 settled in to the king sized bed and Declan fell asleep cuddled in between us. It was delicious contentment of an evening.

A moment I won't forget.