Hollywood Journey

Brad's Bad Idea

"Are you sure taking a road trip with a baby, toddler, and teenagers is a good idea?" I follow Brad through the house as he throws random items that he thinks we might need into bags. He turns to face me, shrugs, and turns back to grabbing anything in sight.

"It just doesn't seem safe. Or smart. Nolan is never going to make it in the car this long, and Willow and Julian are going to get bored... even Zane will have problems."

He continues to ignore me, obviously thinking he thought of a good idea for once. His good idea, however just happens to be one of my worst nightmares since Nolan was born. There's so much that can, and will go wrong that I don't even want to think about it.

"We're leaving in two hours. Be ready."

He walks outside to start filling the SUV with all our crap, leaving me with no choice but to get the boys ready to sit in the car for hours overnight. They definitely won't sleep, which means none of the rest of us will be able to either.

"Has he gone crazy for real this time? I love my cousins, but I really don't want to be stranded in a car overnight with them."

Willow throws her bags downstairs as she waits for Julian to get here. She doesn't look happy at all, even suggesting her and Julian can watch the boys so Brad and I can just go alone.

"If you won't let us watch them alone, maybe we can stay at Julian's house! You know Lisa loves the boys so much."

"Honey, if I have to go, you have to go. I wish I could change his mind but he's thought too much about this. We don't have any choice but to go."

I check on the boys, making sure they're both still napping so they aren't too miserable at first. Nolan hears me and quickly shoots up out of his bed to ask every question he can think of.

"Where we go?"

"I don't know, baby."

"We watch movie?" He climbs into my lap. I stroke his little back as I come up with answers, "Of course. You can pick one to watch on the way, you just have to be quiet so everyone else can sleep."

"Is daddy driving?"

"Yeah, I think so."

I eventually carry him out of the room so he won't wake Zane, letting him think of even more as we walk downstairs to see everyone.

"We get snacks?"

"I packed you lots and lots of cookies!" Brad takes him from me as they go over everything we'll be doing. All I know is it's a surprise destination, and he wants to drive overnight so there won't be much traffic.

After we have everything set up and as put together as you can, Brad decides we're leaving early. We all pile in the SUV to pick up Julian, who looks less than thrilled when we arrive at Lisa's house. Even Lisa is laughing, knowing this is a terrible situation to be in.

"Too bad I can't be drinking even though you're driving," I try to ignore the constant complaints coming from the back two rows "That would really keep me much more sane right now. You don't have to deal with any of it but they never stop bugging me."

"That's because you're too nice. They know I don't sugarcoat so they go to you first. I have it much easier." He reaches over for my hand as we make our way to the freeway and I still have no idea where exactly we're going, "This is going to be worth it once you see where we're going. You'll love it and think of me as a little less of an idiot."

"You better hope so because I'm going to need to feed him at least once and this place better be freaking amazing to be worth putting all that effort in." I think about how I'm going to manage getting in the back to feed Zane without waking everyone up and risking our peace and quiet, "That's going to take some serious skill."