Family Vacation Part II - Red Rocks

I won a special "Mother of the Year" Award on the first day of our vacation.  Finn is usually a wonderful little passenger while driving.  We left in the late afternoon and I was just sure he'd be drifting off to sleep soon.  The kids all had their earphones, Leapsters, Didj's, and a handheld TV-type thing that held a bunch of their favorite cartoons all charged up.

Within about 20 minutes, of driving, Finn started acting a little whiny so I gave him the bottle of milk that I had all ready for him.  He drank a little, then whined some more.  He drank a bit more, then started crying in earnest.  We waited for it to stop and for him to fall asleep.  It didn't.  He cried and cried and cried.  He would throw his bottle.  I'd twist around and try to get it.  I'd hand it back to him.  He'd drink a little.  He'd start crying again.  Ugh.  We finally stopped after about another hour and I changed his diaper.  Surely he must be in pain from the rash he had, I thought.  I put all kinds of ointments and powders on him and gave him a little baby tylenol.  Back in his seat, he began to cry again.

"Drink your bottle, baby" I coaxed over and over again.  Several hours into the trip and I was really beginning to regret the whole thing.  Finn was obviously in serious pain or else just plain being a bad traveler!  He whined and cried for hours.  Finally as it got dark he drank some more of his bottle and fell asleep.

At the motel, trying to get Finn to sleep was a nightmare.  I knew he had to be hungry so I fixed him a bottle.  He wouldn't take it but finally fell asleep on my chest rather than in the portable crib we brought.  In the night he woke up sobbing.  I got the bottle out of the fridge but he wouldn't take it.  I went to the sink and ran it under hot water until it warmed.  He still refused the bottle.  "Just relax, baby.  Come on!  Just drink your bottle and go back to sleep.  I even warmed it for you.  Please go back to sleep!"  Finally he drank the bottle and fell into slumber.

Well...its going to take me forever to get through our vacation if I go on like this, so I'll cut it short.  As we finally got loaded up in the car the next morning, I began filling yet another bottle for Finn.  He'd been happy in the morning at breakfast and I prayed he would not be screaming for hours again as we drove to Arizona.  The jug of milk was nearly gone as I filled the last of Finn's bottle.  It nearly overflowed, so I took a sip of the top--and GAGGED!  The milk was SOUR!  I had bought it only a few days before and the expiration date was still a week away.  It was kept in a nice cooler with plenty of ice.  But sure enough...the milk was sour.  And for the past 24 I had been forcing my very hungry baby to drink it!

And that is the story of how I won Mother of the Year.

After we got new milk and warmed a bottle of it in the microwave at a gas station, Finn drank it and slept happily for several hours.

The kids were really amped up, for now we were on our vacation for real.  We had reached Kanab in the dark so they hadn't been able to see the bright red cliffs all around us.  I always hoped my kids would appreciate the beautiful things of nature and the changes we'd see.  They did NOT disappoint me.

Deedle asked, "Can we touch those red rocks???  Can we climb on them???"   I assured her we could.

A ways into the drive I heard String Cheese say, "I've never wanted to look out the window so much in my whole life!"

After crossing Glen Canyon Dam, we found a place to pull over so the kids could get out and climb on the red sandstone.  They were overjoyed.  And, quite frankly, so was I.   We let them just run freely about for quite some time.  I started to follow them.  String Cheese held Finn until I came back.

"We should go," he said.

:"No, let me take Chuggington,"  I said.  "You go run with the kids for awhile."  And so he did.  I really can't explain the happiness and energy and closeness that we all felt at that moment, but I did hear Loumy shout, as he jumped over a small crevice, "THIS IS THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!" 

And thus our family vacation began in earnest.