There's a Cracker Barrel a little over an hour away that we always stop at to get a nice meal and stretch our legs. We were making good time and I was happily thinking to myself how well the trip was going so far (why do I ever think thoughts like that?). Megan has been stricken with car sickness back in March but she had not thrown up at all (at home or in the car) since April 20 when we stopped giving her a bottle. I was feeling so optimistic that the issue had been resolved.
We were about 10 minutes from our exit when Chloe yells from the back seat, "Meggie threw up!" I look back and sure enough, barf. Lots of it. More than I was expecting given the fact that Nathan said he couldn't get her to eat much before we left. He did get her to eat some berries, though. I know that because the barf was mostly comprised of blueberries and raspberries with some crackers mixed in (sorry, was that too much detail?) Megan was screaming at this point so we decided to pull off to a parking lot to survey the damage and clean up the mess. It was bad. I seriously did not know how this kid threw up so much food when she'd eaten so little. After about 20 wipes we had the situation under control enough to continue on to the restaurant and clean up the rest when we took her out of the seat. Ten minutes later we were parked and making our way into the Cracker Barrel. We were seated and I told Nathan I was going to wipe down Megan in the bathroom. My optimism had returned a bit...and then I got a good look at her outfit. It was much worse than I thought. I literally had to take off her top and shorts, rinse them out in the sink, and wring them dry. They were so wet - I couldn't put them back on her - so I had to take her back to our table only wearing her diaper and sandals. Thankfully it's a cute look on a 15 month old because she ate her breakfast that way while her clothes dried.
Our meal was pretty uneventful except for Chloe being obsessed with the photo above her. She kept asking if it was Jesus which clearly it was not.
We learned our lesson with Megan - we had to keep the windows down to give her fresh air to avoid the car sickness. I'm glad to report that she did not throw up the rest of the trip. We also made a stop at a rest area so the girls could run and run.
We made it to our hotel in the middle of the afternoon. The girls were soooo ready to get out of the car and run around a little bit. We loaded up and moved into our hotel room for the weekend :) Gave Megan a roll of paper towels to carry up to the room and she ended up carrying it around for about an hour. I'm sure she was thinking, "This is my job. I'm in charge of the paper towels and I'm not going to mess it up."
Since it was still early we decided to take a quick trip over to Harbor Springs to Tom's Mom's Cookies to pick up a few cookies for dessert. Once we were back at our hotel, we stopped at the deli next door and got our "anniversary dinner." Nathan got a sandwich and I ordered pasta - the girls shared a pizza with us (that's roasted garlic on top) and made the rounds to eat off our plate.
This is where things started to go south. I'd had some dental work the week before and my mouth had been a little sore ever since but it had mostly started to improve. Somehow when I ate dinner, it woke up the beast. After dinner my teeth really started to hurt. I figured it would go away so we took the girls out on a walk on the hotel grounds.
Suddenly one or two teeth towards the back of my mouth were absolutely killing me. They ached and then I'd get sharp jabs of pain. By 8pm I was in so much pain that I was crying. Poor Nathan - I think he was really wondering what he'd gotten himself into! He called his dad for advice (don't ever underestimate the importance of having a dentist in the family on a Friday night when you're in pain). He called in some antibiotics and Motrin for me. After a quick trip to Rite Aid, I was on the road to feeling better. Around 9:30 we finally put the girls to bed. Megan went down pretty easily. Chloe was another story. She ended up in bed with Nathan & I and we each promptly had the worst night of sleep ever. I have no idea how people sleep with their kids in their bed. I would strongly advise against it.
We were determined that the next day would be better. We dragged ourselves out of bed and had breakfast at our favorite place "Twisted Olive Cafe" in Petoskey. We had a great breakfast. The girls were on their best behavior and were being super cute. I had two people who were in the restaurant with us stop us and compliment us on how adorable and well-behaved the girls were during the meal. I...kid...you...not. That really happened.
We walked around the downtown. We got Chloe a slap bracelet which she loved and provided endless amusement to her all weekend.
She found a stuffed bear wearing a t-shirt that said, "Smitten with the mitten." LOL.
Nathan found some bubble toy he'd loved as a kid.
More fun stuff on the streets.
We even got to see a wedding at our hotel!
Got ice cream (don't worry - she's just defending her bowl. she loved her blue ice cream. I got orange cream).
And snuggled before bedtime. We had a much better day!
Sunday was cool and rainy...but we were headed home anyway. Thankful for a safe trip and time together as a family, even though it was pretty crazy!
(A few closing shots of our room. It was a studio so it had a little kitchenette. Very nice!)
