Tornados and Florida Fun

A week in the sun always recharges my soul when I have been stuck in central Indiana's long and boring winter. We drove down to Naple's Florida with my sister Kim and her husband Ben. Our departure time was Noon on Friday the 2nd. This was the same day of all the crazy tornado's ravaged the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia(probably several others too). We knew we were taking a huge risk but really wanted to get on the road so we could start our vacation on the beach. My parents were already there waiting for us so away we went to face what almost turned out to be the death of us.
The weather turned bad in Southern Indiana. We were on highway 65 and it began to hail pea sized hail balls. Joe called his stepmom to ask about checking the weather where we were driving through but they had not had any satellite at the moment. Out of no where their satellite returned and she was able to tell us that the tornado was about to cross over the same highway we were on. We pulled off onto the shoulder and waited for the hail to pass us by. After 5 minutes of what sounded like marbles being shot at our van we pressed onward. No more than half a mile we saw it...the biggest funnel cloud I could have imagined just to the east of 65! It was so wide it almost didn't seem real, but we knew it had to have been real and that we missed it by less than a mile. Another half mile of driving and we realized that if we had not pulled off to the shoulder we would have most definitely been thrown by the same tornado we watched pass us by! So sad to see the damaged it caused and we were so thankful for God's protection from it for us! I have a video of the damage we saw so if I can figure out how to post it I will do so in a separate post for you.
We made it safe and sound after 22 hours of being in the car. The boys did pretty well sleeping all night in the car. Wade was a gem and we had no issues with him. jake had a few difficult hours but was able to get 9ish hours of sleep. I was so proud of them both for their cooperation for being strapped in their seats for so long. We only had to make a total a 5 stops and 4 of those were no more than 10 min stops. In order to keep Jake busy in the car I had gathered and bought and borrow a bunch of stuff and put them all in a black bag and called it my "treasure bag." Whenever Jake was getting bored or whiny I would pull something out of the bag for him. These items were things that he had never played with before so he was very excited to discover his new treasures.
Here is my list just in case you are curious so you can plan for your next rode trip with your kids.
Magnadoodle
Monkey's in a Barrel
Pipe Cleaners
Colorful Cotton Balls
Coloring activities(washables Stacy Cook!) Or even better use Color Wonder Markers
Window Stickers
Light up Toys for night driving
Small Melissa and Doug Puzzles
Stickers with a sticker book
I borrow magnetic Leap Frog Letters and brought a cookie sheet for him to play with in his lap. I think the cookie sheet idea is my favorite because you can do so much more with it. I also brought a few others magnetic toys that I borrow from a friend that he loved and I didn't have to worry about toys sliding of constantly. I also plan to make my own magnetic puzzles for our next trip or to just keep in the car for anytime we are in the car for an hour or more.
We also have a DVD player in our car which was a lifesaver. We brought around 12 movies for him to pick from.
Our trip home was a little more difficult because we started out driving around 7pm and drove all night and didn't get home until 2pm the next day. I think I prefer to start out mid-day, drive all night and know that by the time the boys wake up we will be at our destination. Poor Wade also had a high fever and runny diapers so he didn't sleep much through the night which means I didn't get to sleep more than about an hour either.
All in all a week on the beach was worth the 40 hours of driving and much cheaper than flying if you think you have enough patience to manage being in a car with your kids that long.
We stayed in a rental home with a private pool and hot tub for 6 days with my parents and sister and brother-in-law. Lots of walks on the beach, swimming in the pool, laying in the sun and went looking for alligators in the wild with Joe and Jake. That part was probably Jake's favorite part.
Enjoy the pictures!