Eight Plus Hours to Snow

Sad, carsick baby

I hung out with the kids on Tuesday and we had a great day together. We played and they also entertained themselves enough for me to get us partly packed up by the time Mike got home from work. We did a killer job on cleaning out the fridge and it felt very Grinch-like ... as I'm pretty sure the crumbs we left were too small for a mouse.

Wednesday morning, we got up and Mike finished loading the car while I got the kids ready. Quinn was complaining about her tummy and that she was hungry. I gave them each a bowl of dry cereal to eat while watching a cartoon as we finished getting packed. We had taken Q to the doctor last Saturday after a few rough nights to find that she had a sinus infection that was also moving to her ear. So she was on antibiotics. I gave her the pink meds, but she was still looking a little off. On a whim, I grabbed a bowl on my way out the door.

Dec rocked the
dress up bin at
Gma's

We were about 45 minutes from home, just going through Elk River, when Quinn said quite urgently, "I need to go potty." We were coming up on a McDonald's so I told Mike to pull off. I had barely finished telling him to turn when Q said more urgently, "I NEED THE PUKE BOWL." And yep, she did. She tried her best to hit the bowl, but her sweatshirt and the carseat took a hit as well. So we continued to the McD's parking lot where I handed Mike the pack of Wet Wipes, grabbed a Q, and headed inside to clean her up. (Also - worst place to deal with this ever. No paper towels in the bathroom and very little water pressure)

A stomach bug had been going around day care, so we turned around and headed back home. We didn't want to be the ones to bring the stomach flu to Christmas. Bugs was super bummed, but we had a quick talk about not making her sister feel bad because it wasn't her fault. I was also sad as I realized that I have never not been in GR for Christmas. 

We found snow!

Quinn did okay on the ride home and about halfway there, she started asking if we had waffles at home. I told her that I could make waffles if she wanted them. And she did. We barely got in the door before she was asking for a shower and then waffles. I got her cleaned up and tried to scrounge up enough ingredients to make some waffles. Quinn ate FOUR waffles - in record time. Then she headed down to the basement with her siblings and ran around like crazy for the next two hours. 

Without a crystal ball, Mike and I made the best call that we could - and that was carsick combined with mucus and antibiotics in stomach. So we talked to the gang and all decided to try again. We repacked the few things we had unloaded and headed back north. Eight and a half hours after our initial departure, we pulled into my parents' driveway. 

Bugs and Daddy made
snow angels

About 30 minutes before we got to GR, Q let out a big sigh (she was done being in the car. She has the hardest time with the long trips). I turned around and asked her if she was sick of the car. She looked at me and said, "No. I don't need the puke bowl." My bad on the wording!

There was a beautiful covering of snow up there (hooray!) and my mom really wanted to take the kids on a nighttime walk through the woods. It sounded like fun and the fresh air sounded nice, but it also sounded like a lot of work to wrangle three kids plus dog into winter gear. And then get all ours on too. But my mom and the kids were excited, so Mike and I suppressed our laziness and did it. You guys, grandmas are smart and we should listen to them! It was such a lovely way to end what had been a very long day. There was crisp air, snow, a few runs down the sledding hill, and one Declan sled crash into a tree. 

The trip north didn't quite go as planned, but we were all glad to finally make it up there!