Road Trippin'

Our road trip didn't go quite as planned.  We left Thursday morning at 9:00 and headed to Dallas.  The kids were doing great!  I moved Reese and Stella to the 3rd row.  They had a bucket of toys between their car seats.  They would dig in, find a book or toy to play with and throw it on the floor when they were done.  After the bucket was empty, I would grab all the toys off the floor and they would do it again.  They did this all the way to Dallas, where we met the Alinks at a McDonalds around 12:00.  After a quick lunch and a few minutes on the playground, we loaded up the kids and headed to Alabama.   Stella passed out for a nap and Reese played on her i-Pad for a couple of hours.  Drake was also doing great.  He was with me in the 2nd row and alternated between cat naps and playing with his toes.  We stopped again around 6:00 pm at a Chik-fil-A and had a quick dinner.  We were only 3 hours away!!!  And things only got rough during the last hour.  Everyone was cranky, tired and uncomfortable.  I sang "The Wheels on the Bus" the last 30 minutes to keep the peace.  We were super excited to pull up to our cabin at Mom and Dad's house.  Everything was ready for us - 3 cribs for kiddos, 4 twin beds for Wes, myself and Anadean.  Little school desks filled with new notebooks and pens for Reese and Stella.  Boxes of books and toys.  A stocked mini fridge (including Mom's homemade brown bread and strawberry jam) and snacks to munch on.  Everything was going great!!!!  Until it wasn't.  We hoped the kids would be so exhausted from their car trip that they would pass out and sleep in.  No such luck.  We were up all. night. long.  Reese would cry out, which would wake up Stella.  Then she would start crying and Drake would get up.  We'd get the girls settled and feed Drake a bottle, only to have the cycle start all over again.  We spent all day Friday trying to catch up on sleep. And then it got worse.  I had Stella down in the huge field behind the house.  She was in heaven, running and running and running.  It was time to give them a bath so I grabbed her arm on one side and my niece Emma grabbed the other.  We started running, holding Stella's hands in ours and giving her a lift off the ground every once in a while.  I pulled a little too hard one jump and Stella screamed in pain.  I was pretty sure I had dislocated her shoulder.  Her right arm hung limp at her side and she refused to move it.  I tested my theory with M&M's, holding her good arm down to see if she would use the other arm.  Fail.  So Wes took Stella to the emergency room, where they popped it back in place.  That night went a little better, but still lots of wake ups.  We decided early Saturday morning that we would be better off in our own home.  Wes has some big meetings on Monday and Tuesday and the thought of doing a few days without him (although I still had plenty of help) was unsettling.  We said our goodbyes and loaded up the car.  The trip home went a little faster by using a few back roads.  We cut about an hour and a half off our trip time.  Only 2 quick stops to re-fuel the car and our bellies.  We quickly bathed and fed the kiddos and dropped them in bed so we could collapse on the couch.  Around 11:00, I went up to check on Reese because I heard coughing and she was super congested.  She kept coughing herself awake because she had a hard time breathing.  And Stella was right behind her.  Stella had a fever, as well.  So Tylenol and Vapo-Rub all around and by 3:00, everyone was back asleep.  So far today has been great.  Both girls are in a good mood and besides a runny nose, they are feeling good.  Drake seems to have avoided the plague thus far.  And so our road trip story ends.  At least I know the kids can survive a long car ride.