Hours and hours in a car.

No iPods allowed.

Ahhhh ... 

I love holding my children captive. 

I love those long road trips where we share a very small space and where our words get swirled around over our heads. 

We share our music (appropriately rolling our eyes at each other’s choices while we let ourselves meet  - and enjoy - new stuff).

I get to hear about things I would never hear at home ... because there is so much time to talk and so much time to listen. And so little room for the words to get lost.

I hear what is important to them. I tell them what’s important to me. They listen and sometimes ask me more.

I hear them talk about other trips and I let myself believe that for all the times I might have screwed up, there are plenty of times when I haven’t. 

I watch them whisper to each other and explodes in laughter.

I ask my rearview mirror to never fully erase those images. 

I am in heaven. 

And then, when we find out after half a day of driving that I accidentally booked a campsite TWO hours away from where we are going, I hear them tell me that it’s no big deal: they love being in the car.