Rolling With Trips

The boys turned 15 months old on Friday. The week before, we took the boys to Illinois. The band had a show up there, and we thought it would be a great opportunity to get the boys out on the open road and get them used to being in different places.

What a horrible mistake that was.

Traveling with triplets who are about 15 months old is a nightmare. It's roughly the equivalent to traveling with three drunken midgets with a lot of luggage. From Austin, Texas to Springfield, Illinois is roughly 15 hours if you don't have the triplet handicap. We decided that it was best to keep the boys on their schedule, or at least as close as possible to their schedule. So, we took off on a Monday from Austin after their 7:00 a.m. feeding. Our plan was to make it to Joplin, Missouri where we had reservations in a hotel. The hotel was The Comfort Inn, and I have to say that The Comfort Inn will be the Official Hotel of the Krug Family for a while. They were the only hotel willing to set up three cribs in our room before we got there. I can't tell you how nice it was to walk into the room and have them all ready for the boys. However, I'm getting ahead of myself.

We took off and the plan was to stop and feed them at their normal 11:00 a.m. feeding time. I haven't been inside a McDonald's in years. The food is absolutely atrocious. However, they do have lots of high chairs. We pulled into our first McDonald's. Now, this one had a play area which was good, because our little tribe is pretty loud. Moving into the McDonald's is a chore. First of all, we can't take the stroller. It's too wide for the door. So that means that Carrie carries the diaper bag with all their food along with one boy. I carry two boys and off we go. Now come the stares. We are getting so used to the boys, that we forget that they are unique. Sometimes the stares and comments can catch you off guard. Right at this moment we are in no mood to chit chat about triplets. We just want to get them fed. I get started on feeding them, and Carrie takes them one at a time to the bathroom to change them. We run into problems when the boys don't understand the high chairs. They are different than their high chairs at home, and they don't seem to appreciate the change. They try laying down in them. They try drinking their bottle upside down. There is so much new stuff to see that they don't really pay attention to their food. After they throw their sippy cups on the floor at least five times each, we finally finish feeding them and head out. I feel slightly guilty that we just used McDonald's without making a purchase. However, with all the germs that were probably on the floor, I don't feel so bad.

Back out on the open road things are better. The boys like their car seats and they are used to them. We also have a DVD player with screens in the headrests. We listen to music for a while and then it's time to put in one of the Yo Gabba Gabba DVDs that we got for the trip. Yo Gabba Gabba is like triplet crack. They are instantly quiet and happy as soon as the show comes on. There are like five episodes on each DVD. The sound plays over the stereo, so I can hear everything that is going on, but can't see the screen. That's fine. I don't need to see it. The sound is up loud enough to drive me clinically insane over the next eight hours. I find myself singing the songs.

It's fun to make lemonade
It's fun to make lemonade
It's fun to make lemonade
And this is how you do it!!!

It's all the same song but with different lyrics. They try to teach you stuff. Like how to brush your teeth.

Then I start making up my own lyrics:

It's fun to crash into the lake
It's fun to crash into the lake
It's fun to crash into the lake
and this is how you do it!!!

Other alternate lyrics include:

It's fun to not pee your pants
It's fun to not pee your pants
It's fun to not pee your pants
Now WHY CAN'T YOU DO IT????!!??!

Here is the video to the brush your teeth song.



Needless to say, this stuff can really mess with a man after several hours. Fortunately, we get to the hotel room at around 6:00 p.m. Just in time to feed the boys, lay them down, and enjoy a fine nights sleep in The Comfort Inn.

This is when things went horribly horribly wrong. We put the boys on the floor to play with their toys. I make about seven trips from the car to the room with all of the things we need. When I come back, Carrie and I realize that we are in for a long night.

I try and figure out what must be going through the boys' heads at this point.

"This isn't our floor."

"This isn't our house."

"Did we move?"

Aside from one trip when they were about five months old, all the boys know is their house, their floor, their high chairs, and their beds. They know the car, and that's a constant, but everything else is brand new. We have no high chairs in the room, so we prop them up on the bed to feed them. This is a disaster. They smear food in the pillows, roll around with their bottles, and really don't understand the concept of eating in a strange bed. This is understandable. After we get through dinner, we get their pajamas on and try to lay them down in the cribs. These cribs are of the pack and play variety. They have a soft bottom and the boys haven't seen one of these in a long time. When we put them to bed the screaming starts.

We are not used to this.

They scream at the top of their lungs for quite a while.

We can't get them to stop.

They AREN'T normally like this. They just go to sleep at home and stay that way until morning.

What is wrong?

They pull themselves up and they are all standing in their cribs screaming at us. It's easy for us to hear them because we are five feet away. It's probably easy for the whole entire Comfort Inn to hear us.

These boys are angry.

I'm worried we are going to get kicked out of the hotel. I've been to some pretty crazy parties in hotel rooms before with the band, but I don't think we were ever this loud.

I believe the combination of the drive, the new place, and the fact that for the first time we all slept in the same room, drove the boys over the edge. It was a long night. I don't think Carrie got any sleep. I finally fell asleep out of shear exhaustion and I'm not sure what time it was. Apparently the screaming continued through the night. I have the ability to sleep through a full scale prison riot, so this is a skill that I'm happy I possess in triplet fatherhood. Carrie on the other hand is a very light sleeper. She didn't sleep the whole trip.

The next day we headed out on our last leg of our journey to Illinois. We immediately got pulled over by a member of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. I thought I was doing around 73. He said 78. He came over to Carrie's side of the car.

Officer: You know how fast you were going?

Me: Around 70.

Officer: No, you were doing 78. I'm hanging out right here around these mowers (there were two guys mowing the median with tractors) and you wouldn't believe how fast people go.

Me: Wow. I'm really sorry.

Officer: Let me see your license.

I hand him my license. We can't find our insurance card. We do have insurance, but the only card we have is from 2010.

Officer comes back to car.

Officer: Did you find the card?

Carrie: No, we only have an old one.

Officer: I'm sure with a rig like this you have insurance.

Not sure what he meant, but we'll go with it.

Officer: Besides, it looks like you have your hands full. (He motions to the boys in the back seat)

Carrie: We sure do.

Now is when this fine officer of the law gave us the quote of year.

Officer: Are they all yours?

Wow. How does one respond to this question? The guy is obviously going to let us off, so we don't want to upset him. He was looking at the boys who are dressed and look EXACTLY the same.

What to say....

Carrie is a huge smart ass, so I just waited.

Here is a list of things she could have, and wanted to say:

Carrie: Have you heard about an Amber Alert? No? Then yes, they are all ours.

or

Carrie: Well, we had the two, and at the last stop we saw this other boy who looked a lot like them so we took him.


Instead, she just said:

Carrie: Ha! Ha! Yes, they are all ours.

Officer: Well, you folks slow it down and have a good day.

We proceeded to Springfield without incident.

The rest of the trip was a constant series of adjustments for the boys. They saw a lot of people and missed a lot of naps. They really didn't sleep that well until the last night. Fortunately, once we got them home, they went right back on schedule and have been that way since.

We are going to stay home for a while.

Here are some pictures. This first one is a boy (not sure which one) with his great grandmother Bowen.


It's pretty cool when you get to meet your Great Grandmother.

Here is a couple of pictures of what happens when you try to unload the dishwasher:





Yes we have our hands full. Of course we have our hands full. Yes our hands are full. Wow, we do have our hands full.

If you see anyone with triplets. Don't say "Wow, you have your hands full."

Be original.

As triplet parents we hear this at least ten times every time we leave the house.

As for life right now, that's our only complaint, so things must be pretty good.