We are blessed to finally leave on our vacation with friends heading for Beaufort, South Carolina. It just so happens to be David's 45th birthday and I am pretending to not remember in the craziness of packing for the trip, but surprises await the birthday boy later in the day. We are traveling with our good friends the Forbes who have six children and their daughters Gracie and Maddie ride with us and our 8 hour drive is pretty uneventful with the exception that Jonathan our 20 month old does not take a nap until 10 minutes before we arrive at our destination. We arrive at our friends the Burns home and settle in for a great time of fellowship and grilling with the Burns and our friends the Harts and Brumbalows. All is going pretty good, the kids are having fun playing, but only a few hours after we get there Jonathan decides to try and flush EVERYTHING that he can down the kids toilet, including a stuffed lion, hand towel, and as much as he could grab from the near by trash can. THEN as we are cleaning up the mess and throw the poor lion into the wash along with the towels from clean up, Jon sneaks in behind us and dumps the Tide liquid laundry detergent all over his face and body. SOOOOO, I am on the phone with poison control (Thank you Lorri Lipski for suggesting I put that number in my cell phone) while David starts to strip him down and wash the soap from his eyes and mouth. Unfortunately, due to how much he got in his eyes, the poison control people say we need to do a 10 minute wash out of EACH EYE to avoid irritation and damage. YEAH RIGHT hold a 20 month old under water running in their face, can you say SCREAMING CHILD. And all of this in a matter of hours of us arriving at our friends home where we are staying until Sunday. THEY ARE SAINTS with three children in the same age range and the understanding of our Heavenly Father. OF course right after the bathroom and TIDE incident we quickly sang Happy Birthday to David and surprised him with a Superman cake and presents and cards from family and friends. Surprise David, flooding toilets, poison control for your baby boy, cake, and presents all FOR YOU HONEY, Happy Birthday.
NEW DAY, with a Marine Corp. Boot Camp graduation to see and two children who did not sleep well our first night away from home and in a strange place. So to say the least, they did not have a good time watching the New Marine's march with pride into our Nation's military ranks. But we still had a great time watching Matt Hart enter the Marine Corp. ranks with pride following the footsteps of his Dad, brother Todd, and many brave men and women. It was wonderful being on the base where my own David graduated boot camp so many years ago and having so many friends past and present turn out to see Matt graduate, it was like old home week from McCotter (our home church) right there on the parade deck. We had lunch with everyone and then visited the Marine Corp. Parris Island Museum while we were there and I think David even gained back a little more pride in his service to country, As for the boys, they were little rapscallions the whole time but when we got back to Margie and Billy's the kids settled in and did good for the rest of the day.
THIRD Day, What a wonderful day, day three of our trip brought. We got up and had a wonderful breakfast with Margie and Billy. Then we took the boys to the park and out for lunch and met the Burns back at the house to get ready for a afternoon on the boat. The time out on the boat was totally wonderful and everything that I thought it wouldn't be. (After everything we had already been through with Jon I was not expecting him to stay in the boat very easily). To my surprise the boys had a good time, I had a good time, and it was just perfect weather and company. The evening brought about a pretty good night of dinner, watching movies, and just chatting with Margie and Billy. BUT, around 9 pm Davey really starts coughing and Dad gives him some cough syrup quickly followed by Davey throwing up all over the bathroom that his brother had flooded on the two days earlier with his toilet adventure. Now Flash back to just about an hour earlier, Davey's situation was not helped by our wonderful hostess Margie, I had already told her that Davey doesn't get anything to drink after 7:30 ish so he won't wet the bed. But Margie being the perfect hostess she is had made cookies for our movie night and sweetly said to me "Well he can't eat a cookie without milk". Now Mom's out there everywhere are putting it together, you know you don't give a child with a cough chocolate chip cookies, milk, and cough syrup, it just doesn't stay down. (In fairness to Margie, she didn't know how much worse Davey's cough would get as the night progressed and David not knowing about the milk and cookies of course did the fatherly thing and tried to help Davey have a restful night with the medication.) In the end it of course leads to a night of me up and down with Davey and Dad snoring away, but keeping at bay any signs of a temp or further sickness. Not sure what brought on his "wicked cough" but it arrived and seems to be hanging on.
DAY FOUR - Day of departure from Beaufort, South Carolina and remainder of vacation in Myrtle Beach, Davey wakes up in good spirits and other then the cough seems pretty good. We load up and share last hugs with the Burns family and depart for Myrtle Beach around 10 am. Everything is going great and the kids are watching movies in the back seat, and I had fallen asleep when suddenly WOOOOOSSSHHHH. There is a BIG WIND (and no for the wise guys in the reading audience I am not saying David had beans the night before) in the car and I wake up to David screaming at Davey, Davey has OPENED his car door at 60 miles an hour. To say the least we were not happy campers with him, but after some "correction" we get back on the road and arrive in Myrtle Beach for a restful night at the hotel including a swim at the indoor waterpark of the hotel. Oh yeah did I mention that Davey is now covered with hives and itching like crazy along with the still annoying cough. So, medication for him right after pool time and he drops like a fly and we hear no more from sleeping Davey until morning.
DAY FIVE - GREAT DAY! After 21 years apart, I get a chance to see my friend from Southbury, CT Good OLD MaryKate and her daughter Becca. We meet up at the Ripley's Aquarium and share several hours of joking around, seeing the sights, and catching up on things. David still can't believe we talked to one another the way that we did and took so many pictures of each other's tail ends to try and blackmail each other on FB. (No I will not be posting any MaryKate hinny pictures so you boys from HS who still crush on her don't get excited.)(Now I must interject here that after 21 years MaryKate and I run up to each other and hug and I being the sap I am begin to cry with the emotions of being back together after 21 years. However MaryKate says to me "don't make me cry it will make my mascara run" those of you who remember MK from high school know this is TOTALLY MK and you don't mess with her and her makeup. Totally love you girl but what happened to WATER PROOF you knew there was a possibility of emotional moments with me around) ANYWAY, Afterwards we went out to eat at Red Robin and enjoyed a sweet time of watching our kids Becca and Davey REALLY warm up to each other's company while Jon was asleep on the bench between us. David just soaked it all in, watching the two of us joke and pick at each other like 21 years were never there. Oh yeah did I mention that Myrtle Beach was on FIRE and many roads around it were closed so all our plans with MaryKate and Becca had to keep being edited due to not being able to go places we planned on going. Just OUR luck a FIRE on our vacation. After saying our goodbyes, we went back to the hotel for another swim and to get ready for the Dixie Stampede. The boys loved the show, although trying to keep a 20 month old in his "clip to table" booster was not a whole lot of fun for Dad. Oh yeah and by the way, they don't give you forks to eat with, the whole meal which includes a small roasted hen, pork loin, half a baked potato, corn on the cob, biscuit, and a pastry desert, ALL to be eaten with OUR HANDS. Now we did this at Medieval times 3 years ago for our anniversary and we understood it was in keeping with the times, but COME ON the south did know about silverware during the Civil War period, isn't that why it was called the "Civil" war. Next time I go to one of these dinner shows in Myrtle Beach THIS YANKEE is sneaking in her own silverware.
FINAL DAY - We end the last day of our vacation with Jonathan tipping over a chair in our room while we are packing out to leave and falling face first onto a tile floor and busting his nose BIG TIME. Blood all over him and me and the poor guy ends up with a very bad looking nose that is already producing bruises on the bridge and tip of his nose, along with his eyes. Even tonight I am still tending to his poor little nose because it is still bleeding off and on. WOW what a vacation, every other day with new adventures and things for my boys to get into. We truly found out the FULL extent of Jonathan's LACK OF FEAR and Curiosity to try and explore new things. Move over Curious George Curious Jon is taking your place. UUUUMMMMM I am thinking we won't take another vacation until he is 4, MAYBE!
Seriously, although we had crazy moments, it was a wonderful vacation filled with friends present and past and we loved it all. God truly blessed us with a sweet time together as a family that we will laugh about and remember for the REST OF OUR LIVES. After thought "This was a totally HAYNES vacation"!Footnote to the note: Had to take Davey to the doctor today cough was still pestering him and the rash was still spreading. Come to find out Davey has a respiratory infection but his bodies physical response to that is a thing called "viral exanthum" and of course his bronchial cough. So Davey is on breathing treatments 4 times a day and will have to stay away from school and church through the weekend. YEAH VACATION and then SICKNESS!
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