Roadtrip to Obie Christmas

With the car packed to the max, (we have to buy a turtle shell for the top of our SUV next Christmas.  Our overpacking ways mixed with all the gifts we receive combined with the things we stock up on (my favorite Missouri wine, Nick's favorite Missouri chips, clothes and decor from our favorite local stores, etc) we were ready to head back to Florida.  Well, physically ready.  I'm never emotionally ready.  I hate saying goodbye to my family.  It's so hard.  Especially when my mother is crying, my Grandma is bawling, and we don't know when we'll see everyone again.  I need to get my next visit (or their next visit) on the calendar so I have something to look forward to!

Anyway, we had the car packed, and obviously Sierra wanted to come home with us too.  I'm sure she'd quickly want to go back to Missouri when she learned we don't let her on the couch or beds, nor do we give her human food or a treat every time she potties or enters a house (she's a spoiled only child.)  

The trip back kind of stunk.  I feel awful because Nick always does more driving than me.  I loathe driving.  After about 3 to 4 hours, I get antsy.  My butt begins to hurt.  My antsy-ness then turns into anxiety and I have to quit.  Which leaves poor Nick to do the majority of the driving.  In our 15 hour drive, I probably drive a total of 6 hours.  I'm an awful wife and roadtripper.  

Anyway, the drive sucked, for reasons other than it's a 15 hour drive.

For starters, we hit traffic.  At 10pm.  Seriously?  hashtag WTF.

Then it was raining for about 10 hours of our trip.  And about 8 of those it was a hard downpour.  

Sunflower seeds.  It's Nick's only saving grace for staying awake.  But they have to be barbecue flavored ones.  And they have to be the jumbo seeds.  Otherwise, they won't do the job for him.  Picky much??  That bottle of sunflower seed shells smells horrible.  But I guess it's better than alternatives such as dipping (disgusting) or downing energy drinks.  I just make sure he brushes his teeth before we makeout (you know, because there's lots of that going on while driving.)
The girls did well, as usual.  They slept the entire 15 hours, only standing up when we stopped for gas.  I love that we don't have to drug them for them to sleep on roadtrips or that they are content to stay in the car the entire trip.

Have you ever stopped at a rest area?  I've noticed that:

 // everyone there looks like a character out of Walking Dead.  Ya know, minus the whole eating people's faces off.

// old people love small dogs

// people absolutely love our dogs.  They point at them, smile at them, wave to them, and always want to pet them

// fashion rules and looking presentable are concepts that don't exist (guilty)

// the bathrooms are always about 40 degrees

Other things I learned on this trip:

// I now suddenly get car sick.  Isn't that just wonderful?  I didn't throw up but there were plenty of times I thought I was going to.  Thankfully, if I'm behind the wheel I'm okay.

// I'm over my love of fast food.  I used to love it.  Crave it all the time.  Now, it's the worst part of roadtrips.  There are really no healthy options.  I eat like crap and definitely feel like crap.

// Leggings and slipper booties are the best traveling attire ever.

Once home, we crashed in bed for about three hours.  When I woke up, I walked out of the bedroom to see this:

See all of that?  The crap on the floor, the crap on the couch, on the table (minus the computer monitor), and there's even more on the kitchen island.  Allllll of that was in our SUV.  And only in the second row seating (we had to make sure the dogs had the back all comfy because we're crazy dog people and would never inconvenience them).  I have NO idea how Nick does it, but he's an expert packer.  

Okay, so not only is he fantastic because he fit this all and saved us from mailing ourselves packages, but he also brought all of this in the house while I was sleeping!  I didn't have to do any work.  Best husband ever!  

Anyway, we showered and made ourselves look like real human beings (sort of) and then we had our own little Obie Christmas.  We didn't take all of our gifts to one another back to St. Louis on the account of saving space.   So we opened them all the night we got back.

Picture time!!!

I've been wanting a Clarasonic for a very long time and I finally got one!!!!!

Of course I couldn't pass up a VW shirt when I saw it.  (Nick is obsessed with Volkswagen) 

Nick wrapped my empty Rebel box since it was an early Christmas gift.

And Vino was loving just walking around holding the wadded up wrapping paper. (She never eats anything, just loves to hold things in her mouth. {that's what she said}.)

The girls always have to be in the middle of everything. 

Nick got me a gym bag because I'm desperately been needing one.  And of course he fed into my Under Armour obsession (he turned me to the dark side a few months ago).  He also got me a new laptop bag!  I have been using the ugly standard, bulky one my work gave me.  This one is cuter because it's purple (a common color for my job), it can hold my laptop, AND it can hold my paperwork, planner, and notebooks.  My old case could only hold my laptop, despite how large it was, which meant I was going to work with my oversized purse, my laptop case, an additional bag for my stuff, and a lunch bag!  That's just too much!

 Nick has been wanting a bottle of Jack's Single Barrel so I got him the gift set. And he loved it! 

Again, I saw another shirt that screamed Nick.  He's one of those Harry Potter nerds (and I don't mean that in a negative way!)  I also found this cute little helicopter.  I thought it'd be a nice addition to a shelf somewhere in the house :)

SPERRY'S!!!  I've never owned a pair but just recently I've really been wanting one.  And although he hates my leopard obsession, he fed into it by buying me the leopard Sperry's!!!  I love them!   

As always, the girls had fun ripping up all the paper.
And yes, we still didn't clean the mess from our trip.  To be honest, it stayed there for a good 48 hours!  No shame either.  

After the gifts were opened and we cleaned up the wrapping paper, Nick poured himself a drink.  Definitely a good gift!

And when we were finished, we cuddled in bed watching tv so that we didn't have to look at our unpacked bags and Christmas gifts and feel badly about being bums.  But in our defense, we had drove for 15 hours and only slept for 3 hours.  We were lacking all motivation.

And that completes the Christmas posts!!!  Woo, feels good! Now to focus on the new year!

(To answer the questions:  Obie is a nickname from our last name.  All of Nick's friends call me Mrs. Obie and that's what most of his friends refer to him as.)