Daddy/Tanner Roadie..

This was a very complicated vacation from a scheduling standpoint. I was back and forth to Tahoe a total of four times; two times driving and two times flying in the space of two weeks. The plan was for Marisa, Jake and Faith to head down to the Bay Area for three days while Tanner and I drove back to Boise from Tahoe. Circumstances made it so that Tanner and I ended up driving back to Boise from the Bay Area instead. We drove down and dropped Jake off at his Auntie Sues and then Tanner and I headed off to Boise and home from there - a total of 14 hours in the car for my little man.

Tanner was an absolute champ the entire way, yes, that's right, all 14 hours of it. My man was the perfect road trip companion (way better than my wife). As I explained to Marisa; Tanner was fine with whatever I wanted to eat, he was perfectly happy with long stretches of silence, didn't need to stop to go to the bathroom (god bless diapers), and never, not once, not the entire trip, complained that the stereo was too loud. We didn't stop so we could get out and stretch our legs as Marisa often makes me do. It was the perfect roadie for me; start the truck, crank up the iPod and don't stop until you get where you're going (isn't that why God made drive -thru's?).

Tanners limited vocabulary became fairly clear during our time in the car. He would say; kar, twuck, at (which means hat), dojies (which means dog) and eventually (around the Oregon boarder), finally figured out moo is what the cows say. On a complete aside; remember the river scene in City Slickers? Billy Crystal is trying to herd the cows across the river and exclaims, " I'm 40 years old, and I'm saying moo cow in a river." Substitute me being 38 years old instead of 40 and a Suburban with all the windows rolled down for the river, and I was there man ( I love that scene!). He also asked, every 10 minutes or so where mama was, baby was and dada was. When I explained that dada was driving the car, he would giggle hysterically and then start over again with mama. We got home about 11:00 PM and Tanner and I fell into bed and slept like two guys who had just completed a monster road trip.

We spent the next three days together, just Tanner and me, and it was Daddy/Tanner time long overdue. I had a great time with him, and if I need to take another long road trip - I'm gonna be lookin' at you big guy (at least until you're out of diapers, after that I am taking your sister!)