Family Road Trip

"Alright, kids, get packing! We're leaving soon!" Navy Blue called to his family.

His wife stood beside him. Or, rather, sat beside him, packing the littlest of their childrens' bag. One by one, the children ran up to grab their bag.

"Where are we going, Daddy?" the first child asked, grabbing her rolling suitcase.

"Maya Blue, that is an excellent question! We are going to your Aunt Scarlet's house for the weekend."

The eldest girl marched off, letting her younger sister, Cornflower Blue, step forward.

"But why are we going?" Cornflower asked, grabbing her pink backpack to fill.

"Because we need a family vacation and Scarlet has the most wonderful beach house," Navy explained.

Cornflower trotted off, letting her brother get in front.

"Why the beach, though?" Steel Blue whined.

"Because that's what your mother and I have decided," Navy replied firmly.

Steel sighed as he ran off with his green duffel bag, leaving an opening for the final member of the family. The small child quickly crawled into position, obviously ready for her bag.

"No, Baby Blue," Mrs. Blue laughed, "You can't pack your own things!"

The baby looked quietly at her mother for a moment before clapping her hands and giggling. She agreed.

There was only a brief moment of silence before chaos broke out.

"Hey, Mom, do you know where my socks went?" Steel called from upstairs.

"Did you check your drawer, cootie-boy?" Maya asked.

"Don't call names!" her mother reminded.

"Names! Names! Names!" Cornflower yelled.

"Ah, here they are!" Steel shouted over the constant noise.

"Who stole my art set?" Maya asked in an accusing tone.

"No one stole it, you silly-head!" Cornflower said.

"Names!" Mrs. Blue called up again.

Of course, the baby chose that exact moment to burst into tears because, well, they never actually found out why she was crying. The noise continued building up until a loud horn blasted. Everyone turned to Navy.

"Everyone needs to calm down!" Navy said, "We can't go anywhere when you behave like this! And Cornflower, you gave your art set to your cousin, Carolina Blue, remember? Now, we will calmly finish packing, then have a nice, peaceful, car ride. Does everyone understand?"

"Yes, Daddy!" all of the children said at the same time. That is, except Baby Blue. Baby said something closer to, "Goo goo, ga!"

The family managed to get packed without complete and total pandemonium. However, the horn was used on more than one occasion. That was before they got in the car.

The bickering got worse in the smaller space. They had barely gotten out of their driveway when Navy Blue threatened to turn the van around if they didn't stop. They held their tongues for a while. Or, in regular terms, about five minutes.

Mrs. Blue suggested some games, but none of the kids could hear her over their talking and crying – Baby wasn't the only one crying. Steel had wanted to see how much pain he could take, so Cornflower took it as a challenge and pinched his arm as hard as she could, digging her nails into his skin. Cornflower and Maya then got into a verbal fight about which boy at school was cuter. Luckily, no one could hear them over Baby and Steel.

Along the way, there were five restroom stops and one stop on the side of the road when Maya thought she was getting carsick. Steel had wanted her to open the window and see how far she could barf, but Cornflower refused to watch, and Maya was sitting in the middle, anyway.

After five hard hours sitting still, they finally arrived at Scarlet's beach house. As she strolled out to greet them, each of the childrens' jaws dropped. They had never seen a grandma-woman with redder hair.

"Navy! Azure Blue! These must be your children! I haven't seen them since Maya was about two years old, and Cornflower was just a little baby. Who's this young man here, and this pretty little lady?"

"My name is Steel," Steel said, then a puzzled look appeared on his face, "But I'm not a young man. I'm only eight. And that's Baby Blue, not a little lady."

"Well, come on in! Although . . . I thought you were going to come next weekend."

Navy Blue smacked his hand onto his forehead.

"I knew there was something I forgot!"