why does it still surprise me when kids are really loud?

Yesterday evening our weekly dinner with friends was in Stoneham, and since the rest of us are coming from Bedford it made sense for the boys and I to carpool with another family going the same way with one parent and two kids. Slightly less sense when we also had to pick up one of the hosts from work, since his car was in the shop, but we made it happen. It was actually kind of nice to be able to combine three car trips into one, and show of the full potential of our minivan. But also, oh my goodness was it loud! You might think just adding two more kids on top of the three I'm used to hauling couldn't have made more than a 66% difference, but it actually appears that volume per child increases at more like an exponential rate. With bonus points for children of different families. The three adults all survived it—the one who had to sit between two eight year olds only barely—but I wouldn't want to make a habit of it! Just imagine being a bus driver...