What do 16, 4, 2 and 3 have in common?

We drove to Michigan.

With two kids.

In a snowstorm.

Over 16 hours in a mini-van on 4 hours of sleep with 2 kids under 3 (one of whom is still nursing nearly every 2 hours).

The trip went remarkably well *all things considered.*  The roads were so terrible leaving Kansas City that it took us nearly 5 hours to get to Jefferson City (which is 2 hours away).  We saw more cars and semi's in the ditch than we could count and more than once, traffic was backed up going the opposite direction due to cars that were stuck on the roads and exit ramps.

The girls were champions for the majority of the trip.  Around hour 10, Olivia had a meltdown which might have been the peak of all meltdowns in which I'm pretty sure she told us we were "mean" for telling her she should close her eyes and rest.  However, at the end of the meltdown she actually fell asleep for about 30 minutes and woke up a new person.  At hour 12, we stopped at Chipolte which just made everything better. Hails started to lose it around hour 13 at which point we were 3 hours away so I climbed in the back and rocked her carseat, sang Silent Night about 300 times and rubbed Olivia's head for the remainder of the trip.  At 10:55, Olivia fell asleep.  This is monumental in and of itself because Olivia never sleeps in the car. Ever.  But monumental occurrence #2 was when she was successfully able to be transferred from the CAR to a BED without waking up.  Matt successfully placed her into my sisters twin bed which sits atop a high wooden frame that is pushed against the wall on one side and had a bed rail on the other side.  Sometime in the night while I was half-awake nursing Hails, I heard a small noise but in my exhausted state, I must have just gone back to sleep.  Around 7ish this morning, I wanted to go check on Olivia so I walked in and the poor girl was on the floor (along with the bed rail) all stretched out in the position she always sleeps in, completely asleep.  I was a little shocked that she fell out of a very high bed onto the floor, on top of a bed rail and never woke up and then continued to sleep for 4 more hours! When she woke up, I said "Oh honey, did you fall out of bed?" She said "No, I didn't." And then she looked around and said "I fell out of the bed!"

We are having a great time, the girls are ecstatic to see other faces besides Mommy and Daddy. I can't wait until Christmas!