This is why we only go out once a week.

Yesterday was our day to go out. And by "out", I mean that we took a day-long trip to our nearest Major City, where I used to work and where most of our friends live.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Major City is an hour's driving distance from our house. Yep, that's right. We live in The Middle Of Nowhere, so driving is a must to get to anything (the nearest W*lMart, for example, is over 20 miles away).

We really look forward to our weekly outings, but they always leave us exhausted, and the driving is a big part of that. I don't mind the drive, but Olivia is reaching an age where she's not entirely satisfied with being restrained for an hour. Add to that the fact that our van's air conditioning is starting to lose it's effectiveness, and it makes for a very long day.

We started early because I wanted Olivia to nap in the car on the way to town. She tried, poor thing, but her head kept falling forward (the big downside to her new carseat). She managed to get about 30 minutes of nap in before she woke up and took a huge interest in everything outside (the big upside to her new carseat).

We ran several errands before lunch. In the car, out of the car. Olivia did very well and didn't fight being strapped back in. We went to lunch with friends. Olivia ate and entertained, then climbed all over the booth while I chatted with the others awhile longer. She'd finally HAD ENOUGH of this chatting business and made it known by getting right in my face and WHINING so loudly that I had to take notice. We left and ran several other errands. In the car, out of the car. Olivia seemed to get more and more tired with each short trip in the car. After our last stop, I told her that she could relax because we were going home. And she fell asleep (or, rather, passed out) before we got out of the parking lot.

She slept a lot better on the way home. She just lay her head to the side so it rested on the little headrests they make for these fancy schmancy car seats and sucked on her pacifier all the way home. So peaceful. And while I had the A/C running full blast (and blowing mostly warm air) all the way home, the poor thing left a huge sweat mark on her carseat when I took her out.

Overall, Olivia was (and usually is) very good during our outing. She was mostly content to look outside and babble to herself and clap to the music on the radio. But she was completely wiped out by the time we got home. She FINALLY had the opportunity to crawl around and play, which she can't do much when we are out, but OMG, she was such a drama queen all evening. She'd drop a toy, and that would send her into fits of wailing. I'd leave the room for a minute...more wailing. Sometimes she'd just start wailing for no apparent reason. She'd just be sitting there, studying the doll she was holding, and then she'd start to cry. You'd think the thing had bit her or something. Sheesh.

She went to bed early last night because I was simply tired of dealing with all the CRAZY. And now she's catching up on her naps. That is good, because this is a holiday weekend. Which means more running, more parties, more long trips and more missed naps.

I think we may camp out at home all next week just to make up for it.