The Mini Me Times: Vacation in 3 easy steps

Step 1: Get there

We decided that leaving at the girls' bedtime would be ideal. They would sleep most of the way, wouldn't need to stop to eat, no potty/diaper changes, and we would avoid traffic. We knew we would be tired, but we had knew that Gram and Grandpa would be waiting in the driveway to waiting to squish the kids while mom and dad collapsed in a heap of exhaustion.

Ummm....yeah.

It went a little more like this:

Prior to leaving, Mini Me had been constipated for several days. She was complaining of being in pain and having a tummy ache. I'll spare you the details, but needless to say, we tried to remedy the situation with only a small success. But, thinking that we were at least headed in the right direction, we piled everyone into the car, and off we went.

After a very short time, we ran straight into strong thunderstorms, complete with torrential rain and wind, just as it was getting dark. Sweet. So, we were crawling along, unable to see very much. Mini Me was in and out of sleep. Finally, a break in the weather. And then, I heard it. Mini Me started to puke. I had a blanket on my lap, and immediately lept into the back, holding the blanket in front of her to puke into. So, Hubby finds a place to pull over and I send him inside for extra napkins. Thankfully, the blanket caught most of the nastiness, but some was on her, the carseat and the car. I carefully got her out, cleaned the carseat and car, and then stripped her right there in the parking lot. While I was doing all this, another storm was approaching. Lighting, thunder, wind. I was hurrying, but still ended up getting soaked.

Finally the skies cleared and we were on our way. The girls' finally fell asleep and all was quiet. Except that every time we stopped for gas, they woke up. They did go right back to sleep, but still. We arrived the next morning, with 2 tired kids, exhausted parents and a back of puke-covered stuff. We were a sight to see (and smell).

Step 2: Have fun

Despite being slightly off schedule, and all the excitement, the girls' did really well. There was only 1 night that Sweet Pea had a really rough time, and that was because she had fallen asleep and gotten woken up. Other than a few accidents and some normal 3 year old moments, Mini Me was fine. We were able to leave the kids with Gram and Grandpa for a couple of days so that we could go away. We had a great time and from what I hear, sounds like the girls' had fun too. Sweet Pea also got a new tooth on vacation. Grandpa knicknamed Sweet Pea 'Sparky' and their cousin calls Mini Me 'Dragon' (not because of anything in particular, but she's almost 2 and that's how she pronounces Mini Me's name).

Step 3: Get home

We decided that since driving overnight had not worked out so well for us, that we would try driving during the day. That would have been OK, except that we got stuck in traffic, at the border for almost 2 hours. Our kids are fine in the car, as long as its moving. When we're stopped, it's not so much fun. We had left just before 8:30am and we arrived home at midnight. Thankfully, the kids had not slept all that much, and went to bed fairly easily. And, they have done a great job of settling in and getting back to their routine. Mini Me has not had a single accident since arriving home (nor any in the car, for that matter). So, yay! Great vacation all around, but happy to be home!

No post about our vacation would be complete without a ton of pictures.....