Spring Break Trip

We've just returned from a week in sunny California, it was great!! Here we are heading down. I didn't think a trip to CA would be complete without new shades for the fam, so here is everyone sporting their new look.

You may have noticed that the kids are still in their jammies. That's because we are a tad bit crazy and decided on a 3am departure from Sandy. Can I just say, that it turned out AMAZING!! The kids slept or were at least in a sureal (quiet) state for over half the trip! They were fully awake at 7:30, and we pushed them for about another hour before we stopped for a big breakfast at Elemers in Grants Pass. We were back in the car around 9:00, and made it to Redding by 11:30. It was the easiest trip we've made by far. The kids were awake for less than 1/2 of the 8 hour+ trip!

Here are some highlights of our time:

Turtle Bay (science museum) with cousins -

Abby with cousin Lydia (3years old)

And vacation is not complete without Chuck-e-cheese.... the wonder of chuck-e-cheese is that if you don't buy food its actually pretty cheap. Especially if you have a coupon for tokens. We went early, had the place to ourselves, and the kids had a blast for only 10 bucks!

The way home was a whole different story. And believe me I was NOT taking pictures to document it!! Our plan was to leave by 5am to once again get an early start. However Abby woke up at 3am with a fever and then she threw up!!! What a way to throw a wrench in our plan! We decided to sleep until a normal hour and then see how she was doing before coming up with our plan B. Thankfully when she woke up around 6:30, her fever was gone (without meds), and she ate breakfast like normal. By the time we pulled ourselves together and made the necessary stops (for childrens motrin and Starbucks) we weren't on the road until after 8:30, URGH!! Nothing like knowing that you are 3 1/2 hours behind schedule to start an 8 hour drive. The drive just dragged on and on...... Thankfully Abby's fever never returned and she didn't throw up in the car!! She was however very crabby and whinned (loudly) or protested for nearly an hour and a half. Wowsers - that sure has a way of wearing on your patience! There were hours, where it seemed like I was handing her a different toy, snack, drink, blanket, etc. every 2 minutes. (seriously folks, I'm not exagerating!!) She finally fell asleep for about an hour and then picked up right where she left off. She woke up screaming in protest and then began the worlds LONGESTS fit!! She seriously threw a fit for 20 minutes straight! It was awful!

Here's a sampling of a tame "Abby fit"

THE FIT started about 3 minutes before we stopped for lunch and continued all the way through it. Our girl was SOOO angry and upset. She grabbed anything that she could to throw and just kept screaming, arching her back, etc! I tried EVERY trick in the book to get her to calm down (and I have a big book of tricks) and NOTHING worked! Wow! It was a little scary to see her so out of control, and I'm really hoping that its not a forshawdowing of what's to come. I'm thinking most likely it was a combo of being really overtired, not feeling well, and being cooped up, but serioulsy folks... not fun! Thankfully she was back to her normal self this evening. I'm hoping that we won't see the reture of THE FIT anytime soon.


Two more photos....

Here are all the cousins together. John-7, Kenneth-6, Anna-5, Aidan-4, Lydia-3, Russel-2, Abby-1, Zach 10 months

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Aidan loves Grandma and Papa's dogs! Here is one of him with Hershey