We made it!!

Well, no, in fact, we did not "make it" to our final destination, or even our intended destination for the day. But the weather was not our friend, nor was the darkness (where the eff where you, daylight???), so we are just exceptionally glad to be alive, whole and unscathed here in our Best Western hotel in Cranbrook.

I am a massive sissy when it comes to the road. I have many intense fears, including but not limited to:
--Semi-trucks--Driving in the dark--DEER AND/ OR ANYTHING RESEMBLING "WILDLIFE" ON OR NEAR THE ROADWAY ("near" including any point within the same zipcode as my vehicle (Did I mention that I passed someone who had HIT AN ELK today?? Oh my god. The beast appeared to be alive, though injured, and was sitting on the road. Either that or it was a cow. I'm not completely sure, but either way: TERRIFYING.)--Curves in the road (my heart skips a beat when I see one of those squiggly arrow signs)--Single-lane highways--Oncoming traffic (or, uh, traffic in general. I get nervous about my fellow drivers on the highway)--Lack of traffic (I panic when driving alone)--WEATHER (in any form. Rain, snow, fog, clouds, pure sunshine, whatever. If it could affect my driving in any way, I fear it.)--Screaming backseat children.

Unfortunately, all of the above were on the menu today, most notably the WEATHER and the DARKNESS. It snowed almost the entire drive. Thankfully, it wasn't too cold, so the snow wasn't sticking. But visibility sucked, and even though the roads weren't icy, there were 80 million signs in middle-of-nowhere North Idaho and British Columbia that said, "Watch for Ice." And I was watching, believe me. I had a heart attack every time I curved a little too sharply and hallucinated about skating on the nonexistant ice.

I have a problem with horrible, morbid, worst-case-traffic-related-scenario thoughts creeping into my brain as I'm trying to stay positive and not hallucinate. It was a major challenge not to let my mind go there as I drove the dark, snowy highway with my sometimes angelic, sometimes not-so-angelic girl in the backseat.

And that is why I called it quits around 6, when we finally rolled into something resembling civilization. We're about an hour from my intended destination today, but I will happily get up earlier tomorrow and drive the extra hour in the daylight. We're about 7 hours away from Edmonton (our ultimate goal), so hopefully Luci can tolerate that much time on the road in one day.

Our hotel has a pool with a waterslide, which was fun for about 20 minutes, at which point I realized that Luci was really never going to warm up, and we headed back to our room for a nice, warm bath. All Luci really wanted to do was explore the toilet-- her latest obsession-- and unravel the entire roll of toilet paper. I feel sorry for the housekeeper that gets this room tomorrow.

I wish I could get some rest, but I've just completed my fourth attempt at getting Luci down, and it ain't happenin'. Something is weird with her lately, and I am beginning to wonder if she's getting a molar. Or, I should say, I am hoping it's something like a molar, lest this be a permanent change in behavior. Bedtime is a nightmare (well, more of one) these days. :(
So we're watching Sesame Street, littering the floor with cracker crumbs, and screaming in our crabby, overtired-but-can't-sleep state.

But HEY! We're in CANADA! On our first ever family vacation! Adam flies up tomorrow, and then the real fun begins.

First Steps!

Luci took her first steps this weekend!

It was sooo cute, and I am so happy that Adam was there to witness this milestone. I have been having a terrible time getting her to go to sleep at night, so she had stayed up on Saturday night until Adam got home a little before 10pm. We were playing with her on the living room floor, and decided to see if she would walk from Adam to me as we sat across from each other. She stood for a few seconds, then cautiously wobbled onto one foot, then the next, and took a few steps, and finally dove into me with wide-open arms. What absolutely melted me was that she let out a little shrieking giggle as she dove into me, and I knew she knew exactly what this meant for her! She was so happy. She has just been dying to walk on her own two feet. Adam and I both burst out in cheers, and she could not have looked more proud of herself.

Then she just wanted to do it over and over again, walking from me to Adam, then Adam to me... And half the time she was just pitched forward, going full speed ahead, diving into our laps-- not so much walking, but loving every second of it. What an amazing, happy, family-licious moment that was. :)