Monday, October 15, 2007

Family Road Trip

We just got home from an impromptu trip to Danville, CA. The kids had Thursday, Friday and Monday off of school, so we just jumped in the car and drove all night last Wednesday to get there. That's a long drive, especially with 5 bickering kids!

It gave me flashbacks of my last trip to Missouri which we are planning to repeat next summer. Last time I did that trip (it takes about 18 hours), I drove through the night, too. So the kids did great on the way there - Abby was 7 months old and did not cry a single time! The trip home, though, was a whole different story.

Before coming home, we (Martha, Liz and I) decided to drive to Nauvoo, Illinois, because the temple had just been dedicated. So we ended up spending about 3 days in the car by the time it was all over. The first two days, everyone did pretty well. But by the last day, Anna kicked it off by running non-stop circles around the breakfast table in the hotel we'd stayed in. Liz very sweetly asked me if she'd had her pill. Abby cried on and off the whole day, and for the last few hours of the drive, she puked apple juice.
We were getting so close to the end of the trip that we didn't want to stop to nurse her, so we kept pacifying her with apple juice. Her stomach apparently was not happy with that solution. I got in back and held her for a while so she wouldn't choke herself lying on her back in her carseat. She puked all over me several times in about a 20 minute period. Then, when we finally got home, the doors were all locked and I didn't have a key. On top of that, I was supposed to meet with the bishop about 15 minutes after we got home, and I was soaked in apple juice puke.

We finally found an upstairs window that was cracked open. My neighbor climbed up a ladder and pulled the screen off, then had 9 year old Anna climb up in front of him to shimmy through the open window. She's always been a good climber. Hopefully, next summer's big trip will be a little less eventful.

1 comment:

Liz said...

That last day of driving was a nightmare! I can't imagine your next drive to Missouri being nearly as horrible, maybe not great, but not that bad.