I am just terrible at keeping up with this thing these days! But it irks me when I see a blog I’m following, and the last post was “2 weeks ago” or whatever, so I try to at least be better than that! I’m not sure if I’ve made it this time, though.

One of the many things I love about my job is that I can use the travel to a show as an excuse for a family vacation or weekend getaway. I’ve done it in Arkansas (and am looking to do it again soon, ladies!) and most recently, Independence KS. My mom works there (have I said lately that she’s my #1 cheerleader/supporter even though I don’t think she reads my blog? Well, then you know it’s true because I don’t think I’m getting brownie points for saying it if she never sees this). Anyway, she did a show for me there a few months ago that was a lot of fun, and several shows have come from that. I actually had one last weekend AND the weekend before that. but the previous one, I drove down there on a Friday afternoon and got back late Friday night. But last weekend, all five of us went.

Do you ever get the feeling on a trip that you might not ever make it home? Well, we picked up T. from work Friday night and went to Indy from there. It takes about 3 hours (or less, unless you’ve got kids and an hour-long fast food dinner to accout for). We ate in good ol’ Beto Junction (where in the world is Beto Junction? they say), and had another two hours or so to go. About a half hour after dinner, Baby Belle throws up. Now, let me back up just a little….she had gotten shots the day before (related? I have no idea) and she was sitting facing forward in her brand new big girl car seat. For the first time, she was seeing all the cars go by and the road ahead of us, etc. So, she throws up, we pull over, and I clean her up. No problem. A few minutes later, she throws up again. And again. And a few more times. She covered in it, and we still have at least an hour to go to get to my mom’s place. We pull over, take off her soaked clothes. Okay, correction: T. holds her as far away from him as he can while I take off her clothes and emtpy out her car seat while he tries not to throw up himself. It was touch and go there for a while. I cover her seat up with a swimming towel and thank the Lord that my mom has a washing machine at her rental house.

We finally hit the road again, and this is where I start to panic. Essie has thrown up A LOT and if it is because of the car seat, well, we don’t have anything else to put her in on the way back. Are we going to be stuck in Indy forever? That is, if we ever get there in the first place??

We finally make it to my mom’s house in our vomit-smelling car, after Essie has thrown up (just a little) a couple more times. I spend a good amount of time taking the brand new car seat apart and throwing it, along with the towel, her clothes, and whatever else we used to soak up the vomit, in the aforementioned washing machine.

Saturday morning, after a good half-hour to an hour of putting the car seat back together, we go to Pizza Hut and have some lunch and then spend a couple of hours at the water park. And that’s the point of my story. All of the eating out and swimming fun was paid for by that show I had Saturday night. And we got to get away as a family before Henry starts preschool (yikes!) in a couple of weeks.

I’m sure you’re wondering how the trip home went. Well, E. Belle sat on a towel from the very beginning, and T. covered up the window she was next to with another beach towel. And she slept most of the way. Oh, and she was not allowed too much milk that morning! I’m sure you can use your imagination on that one…

So, the trip home was mostly without incident. About 20 miles from home, though, Ivy said her tummy hurt. As we pulled into our driveway, she threw up. T. took out her car seat and hosed it down.

The End.