A Quick Stop

Because we have two out-of-town weddings this year, both of which require travel by our whole little gang, an entire separate trip to The River wasn't going to happen this summer.  There's only so many trips that this Mama can handle with an infant, and only so many vacation days for Daddy.  So we decided to squeeze in a quick trip on the way home from Hilton Head...

We left Hilton Head around 10pm and pulled up to the River House about 4.5 hours later.  Two sleeping children quickly turned into two wide awake children.  We got them settled into bed fast enough, but neither fell back to sleep.  Annabelle decided to blow out her diaper, requiring a diaper, PJ and blanket change.  Sam decided to test the freedom he was given to come get us - rather than calling us - if he needed anything.  To be honest, I don't know how long it took them to fall asleep because we ended up passing out first.  Oops.

Saturday was lovely.  It was the first time that we'd ever been alone at the river.  We went down to the water for about an hour, but didn't float at all.  We mostly played and hung out just the four of us.  Grammy and Papa arrived at dinner and got to hang out before the kids went to bed.

And then Sam woke up in the middle of the night with a high fever.  Score for Mommy: not only did I remember to pack the children's tylenol, I knew where it was in the suitcase, found it and dispensed it in the dark.  Thank you, thank you very much.  Anywho, he was crying hysterically and, as per usual, only calmed down when Daddy laid with him.  Except they did that in the big bed (btw, all 4 of us were in one small room).  I lost my spot, as I'd gotten up to tend to Annabelle, who woke up to the crying.  She was happy as could be, but not the least bit interested in sleeping.  So Sam passed out and transferred back to his bed, and I took Annabelle to the family room in fear that her "talking" would wake the screamer again.  1.5 hours later she was asleep in her car seat and I was asleep on the couch.  Unscore.

Sunday was interesting.  We've now done enough fevers to know that when Sam gets a fever, he gets a high fever - like, over 103.  And he throws up once when its at its peak.  And I think we can finally recognize when that's coming.  Poor guy was miserable and had no interest in the river.  The grandparents and I took Lady A for her first run ever, and she did great.  We finally convinced Sam to stay with the grandparents so Mommy and Daddy could get about 45 minutes of water time.

After dinner we loaded up one more time and drove the 12 hours home.  It was nice to feel like we were in the middle of no where for 2 days.  It was nice to spend that last weekend of our vacation away, rather than rushing back into laundry, yard work, etc by getting home on Saturday.  But that last drive was painful.  If we hadn't been up with the kids on Saturday night it would have been a different story, but it was a pretty rough go for the adults.

But now we are home, enjoying our last few weeks of summer.  Can't believe so many are back in school this week - I am NOT ready to admit that summer is over!