It’s a well-deserved long weekend! I’m heading to New York City to visit my sister and her ever-expanding family!! I’m taking my mom and my youngest sister, too.Â
My niece, Mia! She's a week old in this pic. Sorry, Mia! You do look like I did...which means you may have braces once or twice in your life. 
Instead of doing sight-seeing and such, this is purely a family trip!! I can’t wait to see everyone and spend some time with my new niece. The problem is….a weekend’s way too short! As soon as we get there, we’ll have to turn around and go home.
It’s already 5 a.m. and I’m ready to go. The things I pack for a road trip with Incognito Braces include water (to rinse out my mouth), toothpicks (to remove food from my brackets), travel toothbrush and toothpaste (for those truck stop washrooms) and mints (because 9 hours is a long time).
*Update*
So my 9-hour drive turned into an 11-hour drive. I took a nice detour through New Jersey, though, when I missed an exit (way too much traffic to get through) and saw my fair share of accidents. I also met Mia – she’s adorable!! She’s so much thinner than Matteo was at her age (he had really chunky legs and hers are lanky). She’s a bit of a princess, but she’ll be spoiled as she’s the first girl in five generations for her dad’s family. That’s crazy! I come from a family of 10 kids, so there are 4 boys and 6 girls in my generation alone.  Â
*Update #2*
I’m back in Canada! To pass time on the drive, we watched for different states on licence plates. We found 29 states…and 4 Canadian provinces….and 2 US government plates…and one military vehicle without a plate at all. It makes me smile that we were so dedicated to it the entire drive!
