Long Trips in the Van

We are blessed to live 3(ish) hours from Portland and I love it.  Chris has family there and it is always awesome to spend time with them.  You know how you can spend time with people and leave feeling so loved, cared about and spoiled (and well-fed)?  That is how his family makes us feel when we visit.
We always have so much fun.  Between visits to the beach, trips to the lake, motorcycle rides, Cheesecake Factory, the Saturday market, trips to the park, hanging out at home, playing with pets, and partaking of the awesomeness that is Cinetopia, we stay very busy and enjoy every second of our time there.

I even like the drive to and from.  Road trips with Chris are my favorite.  The girls usually spend most of the ride asleep but this time on the home the girls stayed awake the whole time.  This really has never happened and it made for an entertaining trip.

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At one point in the trip Juj started crying because she was tired and grumpy.  Pops tried to comfort her by singing a song. It started out as the Baby of Mine song from Dumbo but Pops took creative license and changed the song to be like this:

Baby mine, don't you cry
Baby mine, dry your eyes
Don't act ridiculous
It is just a car ride
I don't want to share my Sully with you

The song was surprisingly effective.

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Here is a conversation P had with her Dad around hour 2:

P: Dad, can you drive faster?  That sun is always following us and I really don't like it.

Chris: I'm going 67!

P: Oh.  Well, I wish you would go #1.

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Nearing hour 3:

Chris: Egh.  And the closer we get to home, the more the green disappears.  Welcome back to our home in the desert.

Pops: Dad!  NO!  We DON'T live in a desert!  We live in a HOUSE!  Stop saying we live in the desert!

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Me: Did we ever even give our van a name?

Juj: Caca toots.

Chris and me: What?

Juj: (Shrugging, not seeing what was weird about her suggestion)

Pops: How about Bambi?

Me: ...Yeah.  That's a little better.

Juj: I think our van tooted.

Pops: ...That was you, Juj.