Drive to Chamonix

We actually did fairly well at getting up and out of the house this morning; especially considering we had a three course breakfast including eggs, french toast and yogurt! Josh, Charlotte and I were all a little nervous about how the car ride would go. At around eight hours this would be the longest drive we've taken together... with Avery. How did it go? Well, I blogged the whole way up so you can judge for yourself:

7:40 depart; navigation system indicates arrival at 15:19

7:43 realized I forgot to bring any cash, stop at bank

8:00 Olivia: "how long have we been driving?”

8:10 Avery bothering Olivia, leaning into her space and stealing her cat

8:15 Avery: “I’m hungry”

8:22 Avery: “I’m thirsty”

8:27 Olivia: “I’m really bored; can we watch a movie” (only laptop, so limied battery life. Really miss the built in DVD player on these long drives)

8:31 Avery bothering the driver

8:40 Charlotte’s been listening to her IPOD the entire ride, clueless as to what is going on, but Olivia and Avery finally start to play a game

8:48 Orvieto

8:50 Josh has to pee. He drank too much coffee and wants to stop at the Autogrill for another. I convince him to hold it; just as I am doing

8:57 Kids have been practicing their writing; now can’t find the cap to the colored pen. It’s a crisis.

9:00 Can’t hold it anymore. We make a pit stop. Autogrill facility has a huge bathroom – 20 stalls -- and the smell of fresh baked croissants upstairs.

9:15 Back on the road. Not bad for our first pit stop. But still unsuccessful in finding the cap to the pen. Charlotte is upset.

9:20 Put High School Musical CD on over the airwaves

9:45 Start a movie: Finding Nemo

10:12 Breakout the popcorn

10:22 Firenze (imagine the trains make it here in 1 hour and 39 minutes!)

10:39 We are climbing around the ? mountains, will reach a peak of 700 meters.

10:47 Kids have lost interest in the movie. Pinching and hairpulling commences. What happened to watching the movie? Avery wants to watch a different movie.

10:49 Avery exclaims: “LOOK SNOW!”

10:50 Charlotte is having difficulty ejecting the Nemo DVD.

11:00 Olivia wrtes on Avery’s blanket. Avery is upset. He is sceaming.

11:01 Still having difficulty getting the DVD out of Dad’s laptop

11:02 Charlotte farts. My money was on Josh to be the first – oh well, like father, like daughter.

11:05 We are now driving through the mountains ie. through a lot of tunnels.

11:09 Bologna. 37degrees and very foggy at 80 meters.

11:10 The girls are trying new hairstyles on Avery. He looks adorable with the satin bow headband on. Everyone is laughing

11:14 The fun is over. Now Avery is screaming again.

11:19 Modena – home of the balsamic vineger

11:27 We plug in Charlotte’s IPOD now. Jay Sean signing Down and then Black Eyed Peas singing “I’m gonna Be.”

11:32 S.O.S. pit stop on the side of the road. Olivia needs to pee.

11:37 Back on the road after Josh, Olivia and I all pee'd on the side of the road. Unfortunately, Olivia sprayed a bit on her pants.

11:45 Break out the sandwiches – complaints from the second row “too much mayonnaise” “I got one with mustard” “I don’t like ham.”

11:51 Parma – home of Prosciutto di Parma. However, we are eating San Daniele Prosciutto (in our sandwiches)

11:55 I proudly announce that we are more than half way there. There has not been more than 30 seconds of silence during the ride so far (not even during the movie portion). It’s still foggy. Too bad, can’t see too much.

12:13 Outbreak. Avery and Olivia start hitting each other. Avery can’t keep his hands to himself. Charlotte is yelling at them just the way I do. What a poor example I’ve set. “Stop touching!”

12:18 Piacenza

12:26 Avery needs to pee. He starts making screaming sounds. Olivia says “I have nothing to do.” She’s been coloring all of 12 minutes.

12:28 Avery is leaning into Olivia, Olivia is leaning in to Charlotte. Mayhem ensues. No one can sit in their spot.

12:29 Olivia is trying to suffocate Avery under his blanket

12:30 As we enter Lombardia, Avery is screaming: “she’s touching my blanket!”

12:38 We make a refueling stop. I take Avery to the bathroom. He is doing some combination of crying and yelling some incoherent blabber. A little tired, perhaps?

12:49 Back on the road. It’s still foggy. Round two of sandwich distribution. It’s quiet for a few minutes.

12:55 Now Avery starts screaming for a cookie, which he can’t have due to his behavior earlier.

12:59 Avery says” Mommy, I’m going to sleep now.”

13:10 Avery still can’t get comfortable..it’s been 10 minutes of complaining.

13:16 I think Avery must be sleeping but I can’t tell because he’s under his blanket. Charlotte lifts the blanket up and Avery yells out because she woke him up.

13:20 It ‘s quiet. I take my shoes off and put my feet up. It’s been 5 hours and 40 minutes. The GPS says 15:26 arrival time (not bad considering we’ve stopped three times) We’re starting to climb out of the fog, at 140 meters.

13:48 Charlotte falls asleep

13:54 Avery wakes up crying, smothered by his blanket. Charlotte tries to re-situate him but he is blabbering and not making any sense.

13:56 Avery falls back asleep. Shortly Charlotte falls back asleep too.

14:01 Now Olivia is bored. What should do?

14:07 There’s a smell – Charlotte’s awake – she farted, AGAIN!

14:08 Avery wakes up. He wants his cookie now. That’s it?! I only get a 48 minute nap out of him?

14:09 We enter the territory of Val D’Aosta. Mountains are now towering all around us.

14:32 We exit the Autostrada and pay the toll: (drum roll, please) 56.40 euros! (We filled up the tank for 63 euros and it'll take about a tank of gas each way). We're at 630 meters now.

14:41 We begin entering a series of tunnels ranging from 1.2km to 3.6km long

14:51 Courmayer

14:59 We pay the toll (43.70 euro roundtrip, or it would've been 35 euro each way) and enter THE tunnel. It's over 11km long. In the middle of the tunnel, we enter France. When we emerge from the tunnel, we are in Chamonix.

15:07 Avery can't take it anymore; he's been sitting too long and his butt hurts.

15:15 Charlotte farts again.

15:24 Thankfully, we arrive at Hotel L'Aiglons!

Well, what do you think? We made it. There was not alot of downtime but we survived.

The hotel has a very cool, contemporary interior. We checked in and received the lesson passes for Olivia and Avery. Josh had to book the ski school ahead of time as it sells out. In fact, we had to pay for Olivia to attend the whole week even though we will only ski five days and she may only go to ski school three or four days. If we wanted to ensure her place, we had no choice. Interestingly, for the group she is skiing with, she is to bring her own lunch! So, Josh packed a back-pack especially for her for this purpose. Avery's lessons are beginner, and they start from one place while Olivia's lesson's start from another part of the mountain. When booking the lessons were told that for Avery's group, they will pick him up at the hotel. But today, upon check-in, the receptionist was doubtfull. She said this week is so busy that the ski school is not doing pick-ups. I was worried. How could we get both Avery and Olivia to two different places at the same time with one car? In the end, the receptionist called the school on our behalf and somehow managed to get them to agree to pick him up afterall. It may still be tight to wait for Avery's pick up and then get Olivia to her group on time. Oh well, we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

We rented skis across the road. The person who helped us was very knowledgable. Then we put our newly rented skis in the locker and headed for the pool. The hotel has a heated pool, hot tub (although it's small), sauna and "hammam" or steam room. In order to get to this outdoor area, you have to walk through the Spa where you can pick up towels and a glass of water. It's all very friendly and nice. The kids had a great time swimming and steaming.

We decided to begin our stay here on half-board. We've discovered that with Avery, it's easiest not to have to leave the hotel for dinner. However, we did not have to commit to the half-board option for our entire stay so we can see how we like and see how it goes.

Based on our meal this evening, I'd say we chose well. The food is really delicious and of a high quality. We also ordered a bottle of wine which we can drink over as many days as we like. So far, we have found all of the staff to be extremely accommodating and very nice. For example, when I asked what type of sandwich was served in the box lunch -- as Olivia is picky about her sandwiches -- the receptionist ( the same one who took care of Avery getting picked up) said to just let her know what Olivia likes and she will ask the kitchen to make that for her.

We have a two bedroom suite here. For such a large room, it is very poorly designed in terms of storage space. We were thinking we had more room for our belongings in our cabins on the Egyptian cruise! Couldn't they have put a few hooks on the wall in the entrance hall? Afterall, I imagine everyone here has ski jackets that need hanging.

Time for bed. Olivia almost passed out from exhaustion at the dinner table. We're all tired. It's been a long day!