vacationing ( hmm is that a word?)

Well after a LONG week on "vacation" i am home again. I don't know why i thought it would be fun to drive all the way to California with a 6 month old, 18 month old, and 2 1/2 year old in the car! My sister Halley and I decided to drive in the night in hopes that the boys would sleep and we would not have to deal with them. We started off around 8 pm and sure enough they fell asleep and everything was going great. Halley and I had long conversations and time was going by quickly. We were going to stop for gas in a town called Ely but when we got close all the kids were sleeping and we didn't want to wake them by stopping the car and with the florescent lights at the gas station. It said there was another gas station coming soon so we decided to wait till we got there. We still had half a tank so we were not worried one bit.

Well we soon arrived at this gas station. Which consisted of a old worn down, dusty dark brown wooden shack with two old school pumps in the front. I seriously thought the place was abandoned! ( on the way home we learned it was a legit place that did actually sell extremely over priced gas to those that run out in the middle of no where) Since it was a little after midnight of course this place was closed. Right after it there was a sign that said next gas..96 miles! Halley and i were close to empty. We didn't know what to do... so we just kept driving. Of course this is the time that Theo woke up to eat. He started to cry, then all three boys were awake and crying. We are in the absolute middle of no where in Nevada on a small road with only one lane each direction and no cars in sight either way as far as you can see. There is nothing on the sides of the roads, no rest stops, no trees, nothing! Occasionally you will see a rabbit or mouse on the road. once we saw a bobcat run across. I finally just gave up and took Theo out and nursed him on the seat. We were too scared to stop the car at this point because the empty light had come on a while back.. and we were still 36 miles from the next town. We were worried if we stoped we would not be able to start again. I didn't worry too much nursing him anyways since we were so isolated on a strait road that Halley would have had to try really hard to crash that van enough to hurt anyone.

By now we were praying, we had porter praying.. we were both praying in our heads. All I could think was what if we got stranded.. what would we do? We had a cooler of food so at least we wouldn't starve. But the thought of sitting in the car in the middle of the pitch black nothing ness just scared me to death! I was of course pondering on all the scary ghost stories you hear as a child and I was so worried something would happen to us. It had been over 30 miles since the gas light came on. We kept on driving. The boys started to get really cranky. Finally Porter and Daniel were just both screaming and Halley and I just looked at each other and laughed, what could we do? There was no way we were going to stop that car now. we turned up the music, we pointed out the stars (the only thing you could see) We tried to reason with them, we tried yelling at them, we tried ignoring them.

We finally coasted into town.. the gas light had been on for 52 miles! We stoped at the first gas station, said a big prayer of thanks, and finally got all the screaming kids out for a break. Porter had to go to the bathroom.. he had been telling me this in the car for a while and I told him to go in the diaper he was wearing just for this purpose. He of course said NO! He actually held it till we got to the gas station. I was impressed for if I had a diaper on I think I would have just gone! I am sure the attendant was wondering why they were all so wide awake at two in the morning. Screaming will do that do you.

After this I drove. The boys were wired. They wouldnt sleep for a couple of hours. One would finally nod off and then one of the others were start to cry waking them all again. It was a verry long drive. We came to a place where the road had many dips, it felt like a roller coaster. The first one I didnt expect ( it was too dark to tell) and we got alot of air. My tummmy actually flip floped. On the way home the 30 minutes of so of these dips provided much entertainment to the boys who would yell Weeeee from the back. After the dips and lots of winding we entered Yosemite Park and did lots more turning.. he boys finaly were all sleeping. I wished I was sleeping. we drove clear through.. it was dark though so we couldnt see the sights.

we arrived at the campground at 7:00 am. Neither halley nor I had slept a wink the entire night. We had breakfast and just kept on going the whole day! We stayed in a yurt. Which is a cross between a cabin and tent. Its circular and has a wooden floor but tent walls. It had a footon for each of us. I am glad we had them to sleep on, much more comfy then the ground. I still had a hard time sleeping since both boys were with me and Porter snores and i spent the whole night trying to either make sure Theo didn't roll off the bed or that porter didn't roll on top of him. All in all I think i managed only 4 hours or so of sleep a night.

The days we went swimming, hiking, just lounged around ( hmmmm sounds like what I do here?? why did I drive all the way to cali do the same things?? .. oh ya to see the family at the Reunion!) On Thursday I met a few of the moms and kids from my online baby group. I must say that was a big highlight of the trip for me. We hiked to the waterfall. Porter had a great time. He was chasing squirrels and climbing rocks. he also really had fun seeing all the stars, playing with flashlights, his first campfire (well any fire really). He roasted some marshmallows. He ate one but after that he said it was too sticky. He just wanted to put it in the fir and watch it burn. A piro already!

The drive home we did during the day, which was actually easier. The boys did real well till the last third of the trip. We ended up stoping at a MacDonald's so they could play for an hour. That helped allot. I also read stories to them ( I sat in the middle row in the van by Theo and they were in the back ) The last hour I resorted to singing to keep them happy. Halley was laughing at my enthusiastic renditions of monkeys jumping on the bed and old mac Donald's farm, but hey it beats listening to two high pitched wails!

On thursday of the trip Theo started to feel really warm.. I didnt think much at first since it was a 100 outside anyways.. but he looked flushed and was cranky. He was crying alot, not wanting to nurse much, and just irritable. Friday on the drive home he was crying most of the time.. he would finally go to sleep and the boys would of course be loud and wake him. Poor baby was just so sad. I just wrote if off to traveling and too much sun. Saturday he had a rash on his face and when I checked he had a temp of 103. sunday the rash was worse and in his hair and on his neck, today (monday)when he woke up it was on his tummy. Two hours later it was on his back and an hour after that I changed him and it was all over down there too. He was still just cranky and crying alot and rubbing his face. We took him to urgent care and he has strep. Well actually he also has scarlet fever.. i guess that is the rash. I always thoght scarlet fever was like the small pox and didnt happen anymore. Apparently it does. And its no fun. So poor theo is sleeping restlessly. He is covered in a rough rash, and misserable. He is on amoxacillian and tylonol so hopefuly he feels better soon.

This is the longest post ever.. I will have to finish all I need to share later as I am tired and need to sleep while I can! I will post about my house soon.. We closed today.