Adventure awaits

I

Traveling with children is hard.  I'm a planner by nature and as much as I try not to be, well, I just can't throw all caution to the wind.  It's just not my style.  But, I have learned to plan for what I can so letting go at a point isn't so painful.  

So last night after loads upon loads of laundry, lists made for weeks, house straightened up, littles nestled in their beds, I took a big deep breath and looked up at the clock, "wow, It's only 9:00.  I'm pretty proud of us!  We will even get a good night's sleep tonight!" 

I knew better.  I did. I won't even I say I should have known better.  Because, well, I just did.  

I walked into the bedroom and plopped down on the bed and as if on cue from the monitor came the distinct horrific sounds of a sick baby.  I yelled to Dan and we flew to her room.  Yep. Just as we had dreaded.  Vomit everywhere.  

Sure, there was those few moments we told ourselves, "she just drank too much milk before bed." But, as the vomitting continued for hours we knew it wasn't just a glitch in our perfectly planned evening.  Nope. But even as she lay, her head hanging sleepily in the toilet, she would occasionally turn her little eyes up to me and say, "I wanna go to Disney World!" 

Thankfully, the worst of it was short-lived and only lasted a few hours, although with every grunt, groan or rustling I would again fly to her room, fling open the door thrusting a bowl at her chest and forcing her upright.  Oh, the dear sweet Chach.  But, we lucked out.  No, I'm going to go ahead and say many prayers were answered last night and the Char woke up a new girl!  

When we arrived at the airport we divided to conquer.  We checked our luggage curbside and Dan dropped me off with the kids to go park the car.  The kids and I found a sunny spot to wait inside.  As we sat down a flood of exchange students were suddenly beside us, talking to the children and giving them chocolate truffles faster than I could object.  And then, the pictures started.  They each took turns politely asking me if they could take a picture with my kids.  It was so funny and yet, with no other grown-up to share a giggle with, I was just in my own little upside-down world. 

The kids ate it up. Obviously, Hudson is never one to shy from attention and the Chach?  Well, the Chach ate it up, too.  Although literally. She had chocolate running down the sides of her mouth and a seemingly plastered smile on her face.  "Great.  So much for no solids!" I thought as Charli turned to me to tell me she needed to go throw up.  (Note: next time hang a "do not feed the Chach" sign from her neck.) 

I went into flight mode, gathered our stuff to head to a bathroom and she stopped and looked up at me. "I'm fine," she smiled as she wiped chocolate from the corner of her mouth.  

The flights were uneventful and I was so very glad they were.  A nice couple even stopped us as we got off our plane to tell me I had amazingly well-behaved children, which those moms out there know is about as close to it gets as a grown-up gold star.  

Yep. We survived.  We are here.  We are exhausted.  We attempted to hit Downtown Disney, but it was too much after this long day.  And sometimes, you just have to abort the mission and drive thru Wendy's. 

 Kids are in bed, bathed and ready to start Big tomorrow.  

Tomorrow: magic kingdom! 

Blog done.  Surprises left out.  It's time for this sleeeepy girl to hit it, too.  Nite.