Pumpkin Carving!

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!

Drury Inn & Suites, Meridian, MS Review

Hi All!!
We are back from our 2 week trip to Texas!  We had a great time but are happy to be home and back in our routine.

We broke our drive from Virginia to Texas into two days.  We had originally planned to do three days but rather than stay our second night in a hotel, we just opted to drive the extra hours to my parents house where we were staying for the rest of the trip.  It was a lot harder getting unloaded, settled then having to repack everything up the first night we stayed at a hotel than we had expected and we figured it would be better to just get settled rather than do another night in a hotel.




Our overnight stop was at the Drury Inn & Suites in Meridian, MS, link on the image above.  My parents and Beau had stayed at a few other Drury's when we were moving to Virginia from San Diego and loved them so when we were looking for somewhere to stay this time, they were definitely our first choice.

**Although we didn't have our dogs with us this trip, I do want to mention that they have a great pet policy (which is how we found them in the first place) that we took advantage of during our move.**

We checked in at about 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon.  I had made our reservation a few weeks before and had booked us a 1 bedroom suite.  We chose a suite because Tucker still wakes up a few times a night to eat and we were afraid that he would wake up Jordyn so we wanted a room with an actual door.

Check in was very quick and the lobby and dining room were newly renovated and very nice.  It wasn't too crowded so we were able to use a luggage cart which was nice because we ended up with so much stuff we had to lug up to the third floor.

Our first order of business once we got to our room was to test out the bed!








Our plan was then to then hit up the pool but apparently there had been some kind of "accident" and they had to close to pool down for the night to shock it so we decided to check out what else the hotel had to offer.





We wondered downstairs to snag some popcorn which they have available from 3-10pm in the lobby and to see what was on the menu for their 530 Kick Back.  The Kick Back is included in the cost of your room and includes a hot food, beer, wine, mixed drinks and cold sodas every night at 530pm.  The night we were there was grilled chicken and baked potatoes which we decided to skip in lieu of Chili's take away but we did take advantage of the drinks.  The lady at the front desk said it was 3 drinks (alcoholic or not) per person.

They also have a guest pantry at this location.  It is a little room by the front desk where you can purchase anything from personal care items to frozen dinners and snacks.  The prices were a bit steep for what they were but if you didn't have a car, it would be very handy.

The room itself was very nice!  It consisted of a living room with a little "kitchen" which was a couple of cabinets with mini fridge, microwave and a coffee maker on top.

Pardon our mess!  We forgot to take photos before Jordyn settled in and destroyed the place.

The little kitchen was in the living room which included a 2nd flat screen TV and a sofa that folds out into a queen bed I believe.

Can you tell we brought a toddler?!

Down the hall was the bathroom and bedroom.



The bathroom was awesome!!  Brand new, clean and very nice fixtures.





The tub was very clean and I had no problem giving the kids a bath in it. (I HATE hotel bathtubs! Yuck!)
The one feature that really stood out to me in this bathroom was the soap dispenser.  There was a shampoo, conditioner and body wash dispenser mounted on the wall and I love this idea.  There is never enough soap in the tiny bottles, especially for multiple people and this also means there aren't tons of little bottles ending up in the trash which is nice.

And lastly, the bedroom.







We did take advantage of the hot breakfast the next morning but we were in a hurry to get back on the road so we took it to go.  The food was awesome compared to other hotel breakfasts I've had.  Everything was hot and fresh (ie actual scrambled eggs and not those egg slabs some places do) and Beau said there was a nice selection.  Jordyn enjoyed a sausage and a muffin while I had eggs, biscuits and gravy.


Overall, a great, great hotel and for less than $100, cannot be beat.  We will definitely be staying here again on our future trips to Texas.  Everyone was very very nice and we would have loved to have stayed longer.  I should mention they do offer porta cribs free of charge but they are on a first come first serve basis.  We already had to bring both of ours for the rest of the trip so we opted to just use those rather than risk not being able to get two.  The Wifi was great and the channel selection on the TVs was good as well.



The rest of the trip posts will be up very soon as well as a Tucker hand update and a Christmas budgeting post!!

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Thanks y'all!

Texas Road Trip 2016: Preparation

Our road trips are a big undertaking for us, especially now with two small children, so we do as much as we can in advance to make the trips as painless as possible.  I'm the type of person that is always worried we are going to forget something important so I would much rather put the time in to make sure everything is super organized so I thought I would share how I do that!

4 Months Before:

• Selected the dates of our trip.
• Determined our route.
• Booked hotels.

2 Months Before:

• Start making detailed lists.  I love the iPhone app called 2Do for most of my list making because I can organize all my lists into categories and it is on my phone rather than a piece of paper I'm sure to loose.  I make a separate list for each bag as well as one for the car, the rocket box on top and a to-do list.  I usually sit down and start all my lists at once then I slowly add things as I think of them.

• Book the house sitter.  We usually use the same house sitter when we go out of town and I prefer to have her scheduled as soon as possible so we aren't stuck scrambling around trying to find someone else last minute.  This time I texted her as soon as we decided on the dates but I wouldn't leave it any later than 2 months out.
• Tip on house/dog sitters that I've discovered.  Make them a "mess kit" for the dogs.  Our dogs are both house trained but they have gotten used to me being home most of time and just going out when they feel like it so there is almost always an accident while they are getting use to her routine.  Just get a box or caddy and put the products she would need to clean up the mess in it.  I usually include Lysol wipes, a big bottle of vinegar, paper towels, enzyme spray and some little trash bags for the mess.  That way the mess is cleaned with the correct products and she doesn't have to go digging for anything to clean them up.  Another thing to consider in line with pet messes is do you have a Roomba?  If so, make sure to schedule it around her routine when you are gone.  I made the mistake last time of not doing that and it ran before she was to get back to the house after being gone for a while...you can guess what happened. :)

1 Month Before:

• Start buying things.  Do you need things for your trip, for your house while you are gone or for your pets?  Maybe new bones or toys to help keep them busy, any new clothes, bags or things like that for you?  Anything for your kids like travel strollers, travel games, Pack n Plays, etc?

• Complete lists.  Go over your lists again and make sure that everything you need is on them and anything you don't is off.  Feel confident by this point that your lists are complete.

• Decide on bags and consider laying them out.  Make a decision on what bags you are going to be using for what and make sure they will fit how you need them to.  We had planned on putting all of our bags for our hotel stops in the car, then everything else in the rocket box up top but we did a "trial run" so to speak and discovered that our double stroller is WAY too big for the box so we have had to re work a few things.  I like to lay out all of our bags in our guest room/office upstairs so that as I start gathering things up, I can just toss them in their corresponding bag.  That way I'm not running all over the house last minute looking for random things.
• A tip if you have small children.  Put your bags in a room with a lock on the door.  Jordyn has discovered that going into the room and "packing" AKA moving things to the wrong bag as well as adding her own stuff is fun!! For her at least...

2 Weeks Before:

• Update & Print House Sitter Instructions.  I keep these saved on my computer so all I have to do is make any small changes and print before we leave.

• Start Actively Gathering Stuff.  I try to have everything that we don't use on a day to day basis gathered up by 1 week out.

• If Driving, Service the Car.  Change the oil, air up the tires, take it in for a general service if anything is due to be done.

1 Week Before:

Nasty!!

• If Driving, Clean the Car.  I like to try to start off the trip fresh so we clean the car from top to bottom.  We wash the whole car, vacuum, wipe down the inside for dust or kid yuck (2 week old applesauce perhaps?) and clean out any compartments or pockets.  I also take this opportunity to clean the car seats.  I take them all the way apart, wash all the fabric parts in the washer and wipe down the rest of it.  That way at least we start out the trip with as little sticky and crunchy as possible.

• Attach the Rocket Box.  Ours is a bit of a pain to put on so we like to do it well before we need it.

• Clean the House.  I like to leave the house as clean as I can so it isn't so bad when we get home.  The dogs will make the place hairy and dusty anyway so if it's clean to start off with, then it usually isn't too horrible.  I have discovered that the Roomba is fantastic at helping with this though.  Before when we would come back, the first thing I would have to do is vacuum because there was hair EVERYWHERE and it drove me batty.  The Roomba putts around every morning and takes care of I would say 90% of the dog hair which is awesome!  The house sitter just empties it every day and I don't have to think about it when we get home.  Another option might be to schedule a cleaning service to come while you are gone if that's an option.  A lady I know does this every time she goes out of town and she swears by it.

• Any Last Minute Shopping.

• Check your Food.  Check your pantry and fridge for anything that will spoil while you are gone and try to work them into your meal plan for this week so you won't have to throw them away.

Night Before:

• If Driving, Load the Car.  We leave very, very early in the morning (like 4am early) and the last thing we want to be doing is running around, cramming stuff in the car at 3am, in the dark.  No thank you!

• Make a Morning To Do List.  I make a paper list of everything that needs to be grabbed or done the next morning and leave it on the counter.  Our brains don't function well at 3am so this way we don't have to think about anything, just do whats on the list.

• Put the Kids to Bed Early.

• Have a Glass of Wine... 2 days in the car with 2 kids, 2 and under... Gonna need it.

Morning Of:

• Consult the List.  We check everything off the to do list I made the night before.  

• Lock Up.  Make sure all the doors and windows are locked.  And set your alarm if you have one.

• Load Up.  We get the kids up at the last second, change diapers only and straight into car seats.  And pray they go back to sleep.

• Caffeine.  Last but certainly not least, make a quick stop for your caffeine.

And that is everything we do to prepare for our road trips!  See anything missing?  Leave a comment below!!

Next time I will share how we fit all our junk into our van, and still have room for ourselves!!

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