Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The Fun but Not Fun Beach Trip


With Ben's switch to his new job, he has the luxury of not working busy season hours or weekends anymore and also gets off for all bank holidays.  Since this is new for us, we had to take advantage of it for Martin Luther King, Jr. day and decided to plan a trip to the beach.  Even though it was in January and not quite "beach" weather, we figured it would still be fun to get away.  We asked two sets of friends and their babies to go with us- Johnny, Haley and Jane Reable (3 months younger than MH) and Whitney, Brian, and Baby O (just 2 months old!). We were thrilled when both couples said they could go and we were all so excited in the weeks leading up to our trip.  It would be the first weekend for us to all travel together and with babies! 

We had planned to leave on Friday afternoon, the day after Birmingham had the snow day (previous post).  Because of the snow, schools were delayed a few hours so I actually was able to stay home with Mary Hyatt that morning.  She had been acting totally fine and normal all morning.  On our way out the door, she had a huge explosive accident that resulted in both of us requiring a change of clothes and the bedspread (where I put her to change her) to be stripped and washed.  I thought, babies do that, right? No fever. Seems fine.  Off we went to school.  I told her teacher about our morning and told them to call me if they thought she wasn't feeling well because we had big plans to go to the beach that afternoon and I didn't want to if she was sick.  Literally as soon as I walked in to my office at work I got a call from her teacher saying she had just thrown up and was having bathroom issues.  Off I went to get her.  I called both friends and told them I was going to have to cancel our trip.  We were all so sad. 

As the rest of the day panned out, Mary Hyatt really seemed fine.  She was still having serious bathroom issues, but never threw up again, never ran a fever and was acting totally fine.  We wondered if maybe she just had an upset stomach from something she ate.  Both friends called that afternoon to check on her and after I gave them the update, they all decided they were still up for going if we were.  Ben and I debated it but after MH went several hours without any symptoms we thought it might be ok to go. So, we got a later start than we had planned but we were beach bound!  Two cars, 6 adults (is that what you call us?), 3 babies, and of course Ellie the maltese. 


We didn't even make it 30 minutes down the road and Baby O had an almost blow out in her diaper so we had to stop.  While we were getting off the exit ramp, Jane Reable choked on an apple and threw up everywhere.  As we pulled in to a gas station, Mary Hyatt then threw up everywhere.  So, in just 30 minutes, all three babies had some kind of accident. It was total chaos.  I was freaking out that maybe Mary Hyatt really was in fact sick and that maybe we didn't need to go. We joked that if we turned around now we could always remember this trip as "Hey, remember that time we drove to Pelham?" haha  We decided since we had already gone through the trouble of packing and loading up, we would just keep going and if Mary Hyatt was in fact sick, I wouldn't mind sitting in the condo with her. (In retrospect, I feel like that was a terrible decision on our part.  I mean, when I'm sick I just want to be at home. I should have played it safe and just headed home. I can imagine how she felt being sick in an unfamiliar place.  But hey, this is our first time as parents and we are learning. I'm sure this won't be the only decision I regret as her mama!)  In my defense, we really thought (and actually I still do) Mary Hyatt just threw up from being car sick.  We had her turned around backwards again (she's been use to riding forward), she was watching a dvd for the first time in the car (that in itself makes me car sick), and her friend had just thrown up beside her.  She never threw up the rest of the weekend so I really still think that was just a fluke.

Anyway, we got to the beach late that night and headed straight to bed.  The next morning we woke up and Mary Hyatt had a fever.  She was still having bathroom issues.  We all headed out to eat breakfast at the Donut Hole (which ended up in another wardrobe change needed from both me and MH).  We then headed back to the condo to let MH take a nap.  While she slept, I headed out with the girls to the outlets for a little shopping.   We ate dinner out early that night and headed back to the condo for bath time and bedtime.  We are so wild and crazy, huh?

Everyone had a good time watching Baby O get her bath in the kitchen!

But one of my favorite parts of the night was watching these to goofballs be who they are....
I mean this is some good entertainment right here...
I seriously laugh every time I look at these pictures...

Whew... anyway, after putting the two "big girls" to bed, we made cookies to celebrate Whitney's birthday!


We spent the rest of the night playing card games and hanging out. 

The next morning, my poor baby still had a fever and still wasn't feeling great.  She spent most of the day sleeping in the room.  When she was awake, she did play with toys and didn't act too terribly sick.  She was just a little cranky and whiney and didn't interact with others like she normally does.  I really didn't take many pictures of her with the other girls.  They did interact some, but we mostly tried to keep them away from each other so they wouldn't catch her virus. 

We walked around the Baytown Wharf Village that afternoon.  Mary Hyatt did ride the carousel and she definitely perked up for that! Lots of smiles and waving! She also got to feed the ducks which was another big hit.

I snapped this picture in one of the shops at the village.  Poor baby.  

We couldn't resist making one quick trip to at least see the beach while we were there. We went that evening right as the sun was setting.  Though it had actually been fairly warm during the day, it was much cooler on the beach. The wind was blowing and the sand was extremely cold to the touch. We only stayed about 15 minutes--long enough to get a few pictures.  Though Mary Hyatt still had her black eye (from school)  and wasn't feeling totally up to par,0  I did get a few cute pictures that I like.  I love that they aren't perfect.  It truly captures this stage of life.



Mary Hyatt is such a mama's girl!

After dinner that night and putting all the babies to bed, we all just sat around and talked.  The next morning, we all loaded up and headed back home.  These two girls were totally zonked out!

Though our trip didn't quite go as planned, we still ended up having some fun.  Ben and I loved getting to hang out with our sweet friends, and even though MH wasn't totally well, she was still able to squeeze in a little fun with her friends at times.  We all agreed that we will have to do it again when everyone is well and we can really have some fun!

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