A Roadtrip to North Dakota

 We went to North Dakota to see my little brother and his family recently. My sister, Shelly, met us there. It was a short and absolutely chaotic trip, but simultaneously SO GOOD. 

Here is Daphne the day before we left. The vomit and crying will give you a good idea of how things went.

20 minutes into our 6am departure, Daphne vomited all over herself and the carseat. We pulled off the next exit, and (in freezing wind) stripped down our poor, screaming baby. Got clean clothes out. Cleaned up as best we could. And then decided we had to go back home to switch car seats and bathe Daphne. 

We left again at 7:30am.

30 minutes later we pulled onto the side of the road to put Luna up front so I could be with a screaming and miserable Daphne in the back. Her sad, wailing,”Mommeeeee” was more than we could bear. I questioned our sanity for going ahead with this trip, haha.

45 minutes later we pulled over to change a diarrhea diaper.

Later in the day we had another side of the road, freezing wind, vomit clean up with Daphne and I both stripping down and everything going into a trash bag that I had thoughtfully packed into the truck. My apologies to anyone who saw my hot pink underwear. I was under duress.

This continued for the rest of the day and what would have been a 12ish hour road trip turned into about 15 hours. But the good news is that Luna is a road-tripping QUEEN. She was the happiest, most excited girl in the world. She could not have been better behaved or more delightful for the entire day. She put herself down for a nap. 

She takes this neck pillow very seriously. 

We found her in bed like this one night.

And then she wore it to go to work with Aaron one day. It was part of her “tool bag” along with that doll. Is there anything cuter than a four year old going to work with Dada? No, there isn’t.

Anyway we finally made it to my brother’s, washed our trash bags of vomit clothes, showered, and fell into bed like dead people. 

Daphne had diarrhea TEN TIMES the next day. And I watched Luna like a hawk for any symptoms. I was rewarded for my vigilant efforts! 

We left the house once while there to go to brunch, and here is Luna having diarrhea on the side of the road on the way home.

Toot puddle was our catchphrase for a few days.

Thankfully no one was sick on the way home and trip went much faster. Although we had a scare with the car in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of an actual snowstorm. 

The car sputtered and nearly died. It was thankfully an easy fix, and we only lost one anxious hour. But as Aaron stood under the hood with snow swirling around him, and I sat in the backseat with a crying Daphne in my lap, I looked into an imaginary camera like Jim Halpert- resigned to my disastrous road trip fate.

But we made it home in record time and went to bed early.

Some trip highlights that I really loved:

We drove along the Enchanted Highway (where Luna had diarrhea). Which I am here to say is not enchanted at all, but it is a fun roadside attraction of giant metal works. The use of the word “enchanted” is part of the fun. We took a couple accidental fun poses which had to be continued for the rest of the stops. The live photos of these are great because you can hear my kids crying in the background a lot. We laughed a ton.

My kids playing with Jack’s kids was so sweet to watch. It was their first time meeting each other, and they all played so well together. Jack is a single dad with two little boys. Jack is also an 80’s parent. His boys were riding bikes down the road at 7:30am to wake up the neighbors and Jack said, looking out the kitchen window,”Where are those boys going to??” and it was no big deal. They ate frozen pb&j’s straight out of the freezer topped with 4inches of squirt cool whip. The little one ate ice cream right out of the tub with his bare hands. Shelly said,”I’ve seen that boy put his hands down the back of his pants! I’m not eating that ice cream!” We laughed about it to Jack later and he said,”Yeah I forget that they DO eat a little western at times.” They threw water balloons in the house, and carved sticks with a pocket knife at the table. 

At one point they were playing “you be the babies and I am the mom. My mom is Sunny”. The boys were both crying in the crib, and Luna was on the twin bed next to them. As I walked past the trio, I heard Luna say angrily,”Shut UP babies!! Mama is TRYING to SLEEP!!”. The “babies” went silent. I again looked into an imaginary camera like Jim Halpert.

On our return trip from our single outing, Jack bought walkie talkies for the kids to communicate since we took two cars. There were so many “I love you”’s going back and forth between those kids. Along with a lot of sass! But I loved how much they freely loved each other so quickly. I hope this is a core memory for Luna and that she never forgets how fun that was.