Note to Self

Dear Self,

The next time you and Handsome Hubby take a road trip with Darling Daughter, remember these rules you learned from your most recent trip to Moab.

1. Do not wake the sweet angel up at 5:00 am (3 1/2 hours before her normal wake up time) in order to get a head start. Apparently, she is beyond the stage where she will go right back to sleep. She will remain wide eyed and happy for the whole car ride, but she will become an absolute basket case right about lunch time.

2. Do a better job of poopy diaper duty while in the car. Unless, of course, you want to hear that piercing demonic scream coming from the little darling's impressive lungs again.

3. Kudos on packing light for the first time in your entire life. However, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING when you packed only one outfit per day for the little sweetheart? Didn't it cross your mind while you were packing sticky juices and fruits and crumbly treats that it would end up smeared across her chest and lap? Did you also not realize that Moab is a giant red sandbox in the eyes of a toddler?

4. Don't let your crying and overly exhausted child suck on her pacifier in the park on the way home. Especially if that particular pacifier is the only remaining pacifier NOT to succumb to that mysterious pacifier-black-hole in your child's 18 months of life. I promise she will stop crying as soon as she sees the park. If you do let her suck on her pacifier in the park, she will lose it. You will forget she even had one until you are back in the car. You will have to find a Wal Mart in a strange town and buy a new pacifier.

5. INSIST on a hotel with a swimming pool. An empty swimming pool does not count.

6. Do be glad you got to go. Moab is unlike any other place on earth, and completely worth any toddler issues you may face.