Road trip

Last weekend I took the boys down to Mike and Dorothy's for the weekend.  We decided to give Nate the weekend "off" and let him enjoy the house in quiet.  It was such a treat for me to have him do this for me last Mother's Day, so I wanted to pay him back. 
Let me preface by saying that Nate had a good weekend.  And I love my husband dearly, so I was more than happy to serve him by doing this and to let him enjoy some much needed "me" time. 
That said, it was a VERY hard weekend. 
I realized 2 hours into the drive I left the pacifiers and blankets at home.  Thankfully, there were 2 still left at their house, and L doesn't use a paci.  But still, the kids are used to one in the mouth and one in the hand, and I am used to not having to crawl around on a dark floor looking for a soothie that has bounced who-knows-where.  And they all love their 3 blankets each.  And they have minimal experience with pack-n-plays.  It was a set up for bad sleeping.  And bad sleeping it was. 
On Friday, L and C napped a total of 45 minutes, and N not at all.  There was a lot of crying and screaming.
Friday night, they did not go to bed easily either.  Dorothy and I left to go shopping when the little boys were in bed, but there was a lot of crying and screaming that went on before they finally went to sleep.
N woke up at 545 screaming (my kids normally get up at 7 or 715), and all the kids were in my room watching tv by 630. 
Saturday for naptime we tried to each take a kid to lie down with.  In the back of my head I thought it was probably a bad idea, but it couldn't be worse than the day before.  So I took N and Z, Dorothy took C, and Mike took L. L slept for a little over an hour.  N and C had nothing to do with it.  Finally after 45 minutes of them both fighting and screaming as we tried to get them to sleep, we gave up.  I put them in their pack-n-plays screaming and walked out.  A few minutes later I hear the door close....C had managed to get out of the pack-n-play.  Naptime was over.  No sleep for C and N. 
Tired, crabby kids. 
Saturday night C got out a few times, but then fell asleep.  Screaming from N and L.  All 3 were asleep an hour and a half after I put them down...an hour and a half of one or more screaming. 
Then, C was hopping out of bed at 520 on Sunday morning.  I put him in once, he hopped out again, so  brought him in with me, hoping the dark would make him go back to sleep.  Nope.  Singing, talking, kicking, flailing.  Sleeping was not in there.  Thankfully everyone else slept until 7. 
We left to go home and the boys napped in the car for about an hour. 
When we got home, the boys were tired and crabby.  So was I. We put them in bed at 6, and C, stinker, climbed out of bed.  He and N were completely delirious, and were screaming like I have never seen them scream.  C kept jumping out, so I finally just stayed in there and held N down, and C saw me there, so he finally calmed down. 
Did this stress me out BIG time?  YES.  Was the trip terrible?  No.  Besides the screaming and not napping, they were wonderful.  They had fun and behaved well.  Dorothy has a ton of toys, and the boys had a lot of fun playing with Grandma and Papa.  Z got to do crafts with Grandma, so he was happy.  I got to go shopping and got summer Crocs for the boys, plus a sweater for me and some clothes for the boys, so that was nice.  They have cable, and cable is always a fun treat for me.  We got McDonalds and Cracker Barrel, and I didn't have to worry about making dinner and getting meals on the table.  And Nate got a nice weekend. 
We are finally recouperated.  Thankfully C has not scaled his crib again, and he has had many opportunities.  I think it was just him being hysterical and totally not in his right head.  The boys didn't take good naps on Monday or Tuesday, but they did yesterday and today.
Here are a few of the pictures I was able to take.  See, they did have a great time!