What’s That Great Smell?

We’re driving home today from visiting family in New Jersey.   It’s a long day’s travel, starting with a ferry ride early in the morning.   Or it was suppose to be, provided we had our alarms set and got up in time to get out of the house to make the ferry’s departure time.

I rolled over and looked at my phone: 8:07AM…when was it we were suppose to leave, I though?   I woke up my husband and he said 8:30AM.   So we scrambled.   We had packed, but we had to get the things off the children’s bed, the children dressed, the car packed, explain to the children we had to hurry (which never seems to be important to them) and say goodbye to our family.

We made it out by 8:35AM.   I bought a ticket for the 9:30AM ferry online while my husband drove.   We weren’t sure if we were taking the ferry route but we’ve had traffic issues going the other route.   So even though the ferry may have been the longer, it was a more relaxed route—that is if we woke up in time to make it.

The ferry departs once an hour, but we stop to change at Tesla supercharger stations and my husband likes to plan our route to stop at optimal times for meals.   He’s good at the trip planning.   And he’s good with the alarm setting, only we both forgot last night.   Still, we made it out, said our goodbyes quickly and got on the ferry.

We ate some breakfast on the ferry, enjoyed some rocky weather on the water with light rain and then ibupwere on our way for the rest of the trip.   My children’s backs were bothering them, which is a little unusual.   My back was bothering me, which isn’t unusual at all.   We stopped in at a RiteAid to get some ibuprofen for them.   I waited in the car with my children and saw my husband come out with a bag larger than would be needed for just the bottle of ibuprofen.

My son was looking at his iPad, as was my daughter as we drove off.   He pulled out from the bag a package of M&M’s and opened them.   Five seconds later my daughter called out, “what’s that great smell?  Is there chocolate in here?”  My husband and I just laughed, because there’s not much you can get past her if it’s sound or smell related.

She now knows there are M&M’s in the car—and she loves M&M’s.   We have to tell her she can’t have any more now, but she doesn’t give up easily.   She piped up, “do I hear M&M’s” when my husband had some a while later.   And now, as I’m writing this she’s asking, “I’m sure looking forward to having more M&M’s” followed by, “I just can’t wait for M&M’s”.   And now she’s singing a song she’s made up about M&M’s.

We have three more hours of this.   She’s been warned to pipe down or she won’t get any.   She’s tenacious though.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has turned into a very good traveller.   He used to complain, be noisy and, oh yes, get car sick.   We have dramamine now and we give him a half tablet if he thinks he’s not feeling well (which he tells us early on).    We can travel with him all day.   It’s nice.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to bring home some seaweed she found on the beach.   I told her it might not be that interesting when it was all dried up, but she said she still wanted it.   Today as I was packing I found the very small remainder of what’s left of seaweed once all the water has evaporated from it.   I put it in her shell and packed it though.