So, I’m in Texas, sitting on the floor of my parent’s living room, surrounded by suitcases, diapers, teething biscuits, and Breathe Right strips. My sister is on the couch, texting. Except for the presence of cell phones it feels like my childhood. When I was a kid, we took many road trips to visit family and presidential birth places, and tomorrow we will face a two-day, 1,100 mile drive to UP Michigan and later Detroit for a family reunion. This was hard enough when it was just my sister and I squabbling in the backseat and my parents squabbling in the front seat, but this time we’ve added my seventeen-month-old toddler to the mix. Wheeeee!

On Wednesday Oscar and I boarded a plane for Dallas, leaving Darin behind at home in Flagstaff. I held Oscar on my lap during the flight, which turned out to be easier than anticipated, except for the fact that I couldn’t reach my carry-on and there was an eight-year-old boy inexplicably glaring at us from the next seat.

We spent a couple of nights here in Plano at my parents’ house, my sister and I sharing a bed (yes) and Oscar sleeping in his pack-n-play in the same room.  My sister informs me that I snore (well, Darin has been telling me this for over a decade) so I’ve researched a number of home remedies. I’ll let you know if anything works. You are welcome to leave tips in the comments section, but I am not sewing a tennis ball into the back of my pajamas.

We’ve stocked up on toys, DVDs, and diapers for Oscar; and magazines, snacks, and laxatives for everyone else. Oscar and I have three times as many bags as the rest of the family put together, but when my sister made fun of me I told her it’s impossible to pack lightly for a toddler who lacks bladder control.

My sister and I decided to name our trip, kind of like The Great Depression, and as we were eating Skittles and tossing around names, my step father muttered dryly from across the room, “What were we thinking?”