A couple weeks ago John found out he’d have an opportunity to have some time off work, so he said, “Hey, I’m gonna have time off.”
And I said, “Hey, let’s go to Colorado.”
And he said, “Hey, that’s a good idea.”
So we did.
What can I say? There’s no better place on earth in either of our minds, and a chance to run away and pretend nothing, you know, DIFFICULT is going on in our lives, combined with the sudden influx of “Enjoy Colorado!” commercials and ads everywhere we look? It was just God. We had no choice.
Our nine fun-filled days were flanked on either end by that wonderful fact of travelling… you know, the part where you actually travel.
We opted to make the trip from San Diego to the Rocky Mountains in one day each way, instead of staying overnight halfway through like we have the past several times we’ve headed up there. It would only be about 18 hours total each way, with stops and all, and we figured we could keep the boys occupied if we were creative enough.
The drive up was beautiful. We left at 3am, watched the sun rising over the desert while the boys slept. Okay, well, John watched it. I was curled up in the front seat preparing for my turn to drive. With my eyes closed. And getting a nice crick in my neck that still hasn’t gone away. We spent those long hours reading and reciting our favorite children’s poems, making it through another chapter of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, coloring on a magnetic doodler, watching Charlotte’s Web and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, munching grapes, cheese sticks and M&M’s.
So sweet! So idyllic!
It was the drive home that decided to reach out it’s ugly tentacles and cry with a sinister laugh… GOTCHA!
We were thirty minutes outside town and the boys hadn’t gone back to sleep yet. (I don’t know what it is about going home as opposed to getting to the destination in the first place, but we always end up heading south with twice as much stuff loading down our truck, and leaving at least two hours later than planned.) We were driving down the famous and beloved Battle Mountain stretch of highway in 31-degree weather with snow continuing to cover the ground on either side of the road. Yes, it was the end of May, but this IS Colorado, remember? A snowy Memorial Day weekend is rather run-of-the-mill in John’s hometown of 10, 300 feet elevation.
Anyway, so we were driving along. Merritt, our breakfast fanatic, was freaking out because he’d been awake for a whole half hour by now and hadn’t been served a five-course meal yet, complete with pancakes, eggs-over-medium, bacon well done, buttered toast and hashbrowns. Oh, and milk. Lots and lots of whole milk.
We told him a granola bar would have to tide him over for a little while. The poor kid.
While he wolfed down that chocolate and cherry bar (the healthy breakfast snacks of our “to Colorado” trip were long gone, obviously), Troy, on the other hand, was quietly munching his bar, ever. so. slowly. This three year old, contrary to his little brother, thinks breakfast is simply optional. The meal-hierarchy equivalent of Elevenses or Fourth Meal. Unnecessary unless it’s really going to be worth his while and he’s being served an egg burrito with Canadian bacon and cheddar cheese. The chocolate cherry bar was just a’ight in his eyes.
Anyway, again, we were driving along, when, from where I sat in the passenger seat of our lovely and beloved black Titan, I heard the sound every mother longs to hear when she sweetly pats her unborn child and sings him songs of sugar and syrup. You know, that one sound she knows she’ll hear eventually, and spends her days just imagining the preciousness for an entire nine months.
Retching.
Gagging.
Heaving.
(I’ll spare you anymore descriptive terms, for the sake of those innocent young women who haven’t yet had a child, or at least not one past the age of four months.)
Apparently that chocolate cherry granola bar was going down a little too fast for our 18-month-old and a piece of oat or chocolate or cherry took up residence in his windpipe. But instead of simply coughing out only the offending piece of make-shift breakfast, his little body decided to clear out anything that bore it any resemblance.
John screeched the truck to a halt on the side of that mountain road, in a pull-out clearly provided at just the right time by our God who cares about the “little” things–even errant pieces of granola bar. The thing was, directly beside this road was a river. A river which, like all the rivers in those parts right now, has all but broken out of her preset-by-God boundaries. In other words, the thang was a-ragin’ RIGHT outside my passenger seat door and Merritt’s backseat door.
And remember, it was snowing.
I threw open my door, jumped out of my seat and opened Merritt’s door all in one swift move. The poor baby was just losing everything he’d eaten in the entire past week, and all I could do was loosen his car seat harness and try to catch the, ahem, mess in whatever piece of cloth I laid hands on.
Simultaneously, John was hopping out of his seat as if the truck was on fire, and as I looked over at him, my eye caught sight of Troy.
His blue eyes were wide as he watched the scene unfolding in the car seat next to him. To say his sweet little pale face was turning green around the gills would be an understatement.
John opened Troy’s door just as an encore presentation began on the set to the left.
He’s nothing if not an extremely empathetic brother.
It was 31 degrees. It was snowing. The rebellious river just a couple feet from my OWN two feet was making me a little edgy with it’s spray against my back. I was in jeans and a tank top. My babies were both getting sick at the exact same time. In the car. With a full day of driving ahead of us.
Strange–I didn’t exactly even feel cold in that moment. They say there’s this stuff called adrenaline that sometimes helps with such things.
Call us mean parents, or insensitive, or plain crazy, but once our boys were through with their sad episode and we started the process of cleaning up the rather big mess we had on our hands (quite literally) and both boys decided this was a bit of an interesting turn of events that would best be followed by a period of hysterical laughter on their part… we just decided to join them. On the side of a mountain road. In the late-May snow. In a tank top with a river angrily splashing drops of water at us.
They also say laughter is pretty good medicine. All I know is that it sure seemed to cure our family’s momentary tummy trouble.
“Weeeelp.” I said to John, craning my neck to look back him from the front seat where I sat with a toddler wrapped in my sweatshirt. Both the back doors were open while John was cleaning the car seats with paper towels and baby wipes, so the heater was blasting on our now-nekkid boys while we waited for a minute to find their clean clothes. “At least it was chocolate cherry and not some sort of acidy fruit. We still have seventeen-and-a-half hours in this car today.”
It was a good trip. Really. It was. John just says we’ve now officially been entered into the True Road Trippin’ Families Guild.
Actually, I made that name up. He just said this was pay back for his severe motion sickness that his own parents had to deal with from his infanthood.
Either way, I think it was an honor I’d rather have let slide this time.
Let’s just say this road home included a whole lot more Disney movies and electronic toy playing in place of the sweet and idyllic family read-alouds and coloring books that accompanied our first trip.
(And let me offer my sincerest apologies if you happen to love or are currently eating a chocolate cherry granola bar. I probably should have warned you to stop reading at the beginning. Or to at least put down your snack. Sorry ’bout that.)
Elizabeth J. says:
That sounds like what might happen on one of my family roadtrips.=)
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June 1st, 2009 at 4:19 am
Ashley C says:
Ashleigh, anyone can become mad and scream at the kids…I’m so glad you let it roll and laughed instead.
(I found your blog from ylcf and it has meant much to me.)God bless you.
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June 1st, 2009 at 6:44 am
LeAnna says:
Oh, what fun we have to look forward to. I think only boys can barf and then start laughing hysterically about it. ;)
I have to say, I’m never gonna eat a chocolate cherry granola bar. Never. Ever. Amen.
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June 1st, 2009 at 7:16 am
Becky K. says:
Ewwww! Takes me back to the time we had to stop at Quantico with a sick boy. We were probably on our way to Williamsburg, VA. I don’t remember that…just the stop.
You are so funny and a great Momma!
Keep up the great work!
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June 1st, 2009 at 7:34 am
Darcy says:
I’m so glad to hear you were off in Colorado, getting away from the things that California holds for you these days.
I envisioned every bit of your roadside tale, and well, was glad it wasn’t me. I would have cried. LOL.
Glad to see you’ve posted, you have been missed.
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June 1st, 2009 at 10:21 am
Christine says:
So gald to hear from you again and to hear that you had a lovely trip to Colorado in the meantime.
I can totally feel your pain. For me though it was in an airplane, not our own car. Which is either good or bad. But the big sissie got a little out of sorts by an overzealous banking of the 737 into Dulles airport and up came lunch. All over her and her carseat. Which was too much for little sister and up it all came for her too. As hubs and I are strapped into our seats and prohibited by Federal regulation from doing anything about it. It was awful. At least we didn’t have to clean it up. But I’m not sure getting to the point where we could leave the plane (probably 20 minutes after the rest of our fellow passengers!) was any easier.
Aahhh, the joys of traveling with little ones!
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June 1st, 2009 at 12:55 pm
delightinginhim says:
A real trip is not a real trip without something like this to remember it by. =) I’m glad it all ended well though. At first I thought he was going to be choking and visions of that started coming but then you quickly replaced that with the gagging and retching. LOL
Anyway, I’m so happy you were able to have a little family getaway to the beautiful mtns. of Colorado.
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June 1st, 2009 at 1:17 pm
April says:
Ahh, yet another reason to never. have. kids.
Hehehehehehehe… ::snort::
Actually…this sounded a little too eerily familiar to our family road trip two years ago…except it was the 25-year-old doing the projectile barfing…ahh, the memories…
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June 1st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Laural Out Loud says:
I'm a sympathy puker. Whenever my daughter starts wretching, it's only a matter of time before I add my own to the pile. It's just disgusting. I HATE PUKE! And care puke is the worst. I hope that getting it all out of the car as quickly as possible lended itself to a pleasant smelling car ride home.
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June 1st, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Valerie aka Mamalovelock says:
At least the rest of the trip seemed to be great! Sorry you had the puking episode, poor boys. The raging river would have scared me too!!
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June 2nd, 2009 at 7:39 am
Katie says:
So GREAT to have you back – and what a terrific story. Hazel has yet to “expel” her insides in the car (knock on wood) – but we’ve experienced the retching in the bathtub. Very fun.
Glad your trip was so refreshing!
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June 2nd, 2009 at 7:58 am
Rebekah says:
Hehehehehehehe! Sounds like one of those either-laugh-or-cry moments — I’m glad y’all were able to just laugh! :)
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June 2nd, 2009 at 12:22 pm
joyfullyhis says:
Funny how things happen like that….
I hope your boys are completely fine now though! And like John said, good thing it wasn’t an acidy fruit! I hope the trip home wasn’t too smelly either…
It’s hard to imagine it snowing now that it’s June but I guess anything can happen in Colorado at that elevation!
Good for you for being able to take it all in stride and laugh about it. You’ll have stories to tell your boys now for when they’re grown up! =P
and yes, like my sister said, I’m glad you were able to go to CO. You needed to get away and have some fun!
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June 2nd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Carrie at dumptrucksandteacups says:
Yikes!! That’s quite the trip home. It sounds like we were just about passing each other on the road, going the other direction. Although, we didn’t quite make it in 18 hrs…hmmm…
So glad you had a good time in Co.
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June 2nd, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Joelle says:
Oh dear. This reminds me of when I was a kid! I got sick going to Disney World when I was 2 yrs old. And then another time I got sick on a weekend trip to visit friends and caused our family to go home early (at 6 or 7 yrs old). And then I got sick for some other strange reason when I was around 12 years old. Good times. Ugh… not. Have mercy. Bless you, Ashleigh! And I hope if/when I have kids, they won’t barf. Ever.
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June 2nd, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Jen says:
That is freaking hilarious. Thanks for the giggle :)
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June 2nd, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Hannah C. says:
Hey, I was in Colorado then too! From May 18th-June 1st, for an astronomy class! (My college is in TX, but they do Astronomy in Colorado as a Mayterm class.)
I'm glad you're able to laugh about things. My family isn't one that is so great at that, but my fiance's family is, and it's a huge blessing. I hope your car didn't smell on the way back!!!
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June 3rd, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Steve n Vickie says:
I think there should be some sort of warning siren attached to children to give you enough time to prepare for the car sick child :D
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June 4th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Tiffany says:
Oh wow what a trip!! I can't wait for those fun moments. You two are awesome!! You didnt freak out you just did what you had to do! Proud of you!
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June 8th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Rebekah says:
Sick kiddos on a trip is never fun. Though I'll be making almost the same trip in a couple weeks by myself. We leave next Monday for Mississippi, there for about a week then drive West, drop the kids off in Texas, then final destination San Diego. Brian will be staying there (for school), and I'll drive out to Colorado to spend the summer with my sister. I hope the drive is uneventful, though I dread driving alone.
So here's to praying for no sicknesses while on the road :)
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June 17th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Charity says:
oh lol, that’s definitely familiar. you don’t even want to HEAR about the time that my baby brother had um, a #2 accident on a cross-country trip from CO to PA. Not. Fun. yep, CO does have plenty of snow in May, lol. It IS Colorado. And it IS the best state on Planet Earth.
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May 24th, 2010 at 11:04 am