The Best Panera Trip

2:00: Joshua calls from work on a Tuesday to say it is time to leave.

3:00: After feeding Sophia and changing her diaper, changing both of our clothes and making sure the diaper bag is fully stocked we leave Quincy for Downtown Boston.

3:30: We arrive in the city in the midst of a thunderstorm. Joshua leaves his office in a suit, attempting to avoid getting soaked. 

4:00: We hit traffic.

6:30: We stop for dinner in Western Massachusetts. It takes a long time and isn't very good, but Sophia sleeps the entire time.

8:00: We have a necessary conversation about my needing to clarify when I am disappointed in a situation vs. mad at Joshua. I am not mad at Joshua, I am just sad we are not at Panera yet.

8:30: We arrive at Panera! The reason for my sadness had been that our family had arrived at Panera a half hour earlier, and we had missed that time with them while at the not-so-good-slow-restaurant. This was magnified by the amount of time we had been on the road with a sometimes 'very vocal' backseat passenger and the fact that our visit would have to be short. However, all of this was actually unexpected time. Joshua's older brother and his family had been packing up the car to move from Michigan to Colorado when they received the call that his grandmother had died. They made the amazing decision to drive many hours east instead of west and attend her memorial in Vermont. We met them at the stop that would be closest to us on their route back towards Colorado. Sophia gets to meet her family and I get to talk with my sister-in-law about being a new Mom.

Aunt Jennifer and Cousins Grace and Anna

Uncle Eric and Cousins Noah and Levi

9:30: After Joshua leads a parking lot game for the kids and hugs are had, we are back on the road.

10:30: Rain begins to pour again.

12:30: Still raining.....but we are home!

1:00: Sophia is changed and fed, swaddled in her bassinet with her white noise machine humming. We are in bed and grateful for the unanticipated opportunity to see our family, not knowing how long it will be until we see them again but hoping it will be soon.

***The 2nd  best Panera trip was on our next road trip when Joshua danced with Sophia to the overhead music next to our booth, so I could finish my dinner.