so THAT'S why minivans were invented

we're headed to the beach today for a 5-day weekend. my dearest friend lainey and i are making the trip with our four children, enough food to feed an army, and a couple of swimsuits. web, her oldest, is 5; liam is 3; susanna (her goddaughter) is 2; and marshall (my godson) is 1. we bought a dual transportable DVD player just for this event, but chris seems to think that we could air a political debate on AM radio and they all would be happy, just to be sitting so near such fun pals.

getting the four car seats installed was a monumental feat. lainey and i have decided to enter as a dual team in the Car Seat Installation event at the upcoming olympic games. i know they're important and safe and that whole illegal-if-you-don't-use-them mess, but wow does it complicate things. one of us has to shimmy in between the two smaller children's captain chairs to reach the bigger boys in the third row just to buckle them in. God forbid they need a drink or to go to the bathroom. we're grateful that my mom's pacifica even has the room for all of us, since our only alternative was to strap liam & web to the top of the roof and give them a few snacks to keep them occupied. (it was genius until we couldn't come up with a good plan B if it rained.) we refuse to pay a total of $160 in gas round-trip (yes, you read that right) to take another vehicle, so we're determined to make this work. whatever happened to the days of throwing all the luggage on the bench seat of the station wagon and letting four kids roll around in the way back playing twister? didn't our parents bring us home from the hospital in shoe boxes? those were the days ... but i digress.

so, wish us luck on our adventure! we're looking forward to five days of vacationing with such good friends -- although at this stage in our parenting lives, "vacationing" makes as much sense as "relaxing by the pool". in lieu of any such associated restful/peaceful/tropical drinks sort of terminology, my friend stacey coined the phrase "family trip" , and i'm hereby adopting it as my own. so, lainey and i will we be eagerly awaiting the arrival of our husbands late thursday night to join all the festivities of our vacation family trip.