5 years 11 months 7 days

Day 2167. On Tuesday we arrived in Mississippi, and the kids had a great time with Grandma, their half-sister and nieces. I was teaching in the mornings, while they were playing. On Wednesday we spent all day with Grandma, and on Thursday all day with the rest of the family. Then we made the decision to take two days to travel to Florida instead of one, making it less stressful and giving Grandma extra rest from the wild triplets. 

This morning it was once again Sammy who was up first, and soon thereafter Emmy who was in bed with me, as was Tammy. As soon as they were up, they opened the door so the cat could come in which she always does in the morning - much to their delight. They had fun, which is loud, and soon Tammy joined in the fun. It was impossible to get any more sleep. I finally got up - a good bit before my alarm was gonna go off. I started packing so that Randy could load the car up while I was teaching, then I got myself something to eat. The others were already eating or even done eating. Then I sat down at the computer to get ready for my first student.

I taught from 9 to 12 pm. By the time I was done, we were the only ones left in the house. Randy had already loaded most of our stuff into the car. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, then we got into the car to start our second round trip. 

It was 12:50 pm when we drove off. We had a 4-hour trip ahead of us, driving east and south. We drove for a long time before we stopped for gas, restrooms and a bite to eat. The gas station had a Wendy's which was an experience. Not just the deep southerners, but the food was also slow, and they didn't have everything, so we spent a full half hour there trying to pick up food. 

Continuing on our way, the kids actually ate all the food we had bought which was impressive. They were on their tablets the whole time we were driving. 

By 5:35 pm we arrived at the Walmart just around the corner of our hotel. Emmy and I went inside - first to the restroom, then to do our shopping. We had quite a lot of stuff to get, so it took us over half an hour, but we had a good time together. When we got to the car, we found out that Sammy had cried the whole time but I still don't know why. I comforted him as we drove off to get to the hotel that was just 5 minutes away. 

By 6:15 pm we were there, and I checked us in. The hotel had a security door to get in, so I asked the receptionist whether we were in a bad part of town, and he said no. He was an Indian. He gave me the keycard, then I returned to the car. We all went to our room first, then Randy left again to go get our luggage. The kids were impatient to go to the pool so we all put our swimsuits on as soon as the suitcase with them was in the room. Once Randy had changed as well, we made our way downstairs to the pool.

When we reached the door to go outside, we saw that it was raining hard. On the way here, we had passed through a storm, and it looked like it had caught up with us. There was no going swimming. Sammy started crying hard. We told him we'd go as soon as the rain was over.

We returned to our room and ordered a pizza. Randy then left to go pick it up. After 40 minutes he was back, and we all ate. I looked outside, and it looked like it had stopped raining. However, there was still lightning in the sky, so we had no choice but to abandon our plan of going swimming. Again, Sammy was crying hard. I comforted him that we were going to be with our friend tomorrow who has a pool so they'd be able to go swimming all day every day the next few days, if they wanted to. It helped a little.

They went into the bathtub instead, then we got them ready for bed. We read a story, then I prayed for them. It was already nearly 9 pm, so high time for bed. I turned my computer on and started working. Now it's nearly midnight, and I hope to make it to bed soon.