Food up

*Warning* This post may contain too much information for some

So Tuesday morning, the kids and I packed up the car and headed out to Spartanburg to meet up with my parents and then head up to Tennessee to see my grandparents. I called my parents early that morning telling them that I thought we would be ready much earlier than our intended departure time of 9 am since the kids had all been up since before 6! We decided to leave around 8:30 instead. As suspected, the kids and I were dressed, and ready much earlier than even 8:30, so I decided to stop at Dunkin Donuts on the way out and get them some breakfast. After picking up breakfast I realized I had forgotten something at the house, so I swung back by, ran inside and grabbed it, only to come back out to the car for Andrew to proudly announce that Mary Mac had spilled her chocolate milk all over her shirt. Great. So I pulled her out of the car and ran her inside for a quick change of clothes. (note: outfit change #1)

We get on the road and head down to Spartanburg to meet up with my parents. We get there, get their stuff loaded in my car, park their car, then get back on the road. We got on the interstate and had planned to go up about 3 more exits to where the cheaper gas was. As soon as we passed the first of 3 exits, Mary Mac threw up. Everywhere. The smell and noise of it in turn made Andrew lose his breakfast too. Awesome. We end up stopping at the 2nd exit and pulling over at a gas station. Luckily I still had a full thing of baby wipes in the car, so we could clean up most of the mess, the smell however wasn't extinguished. We change Mary Mac in the back of the car, and the only things I could dig out of the bag are her jeans and one of Emma's shirts (this is when it's a good thing that she and Emma are almost the exact same size). Note: outfit change #2. Luckily (?) Andrew had managed to get all of his on the floor, and not himself, so he was still alright. We took them into the bathroom and rinsed them off as best we could. Dad filled the car up with gas and I tried to get Emma to go potty while we were stopped, but she wouldn't. The kids are acting fine now, so I'm thinking it was just a little too much sugar for them between the donuts and chocolate milk. We start heading up the road again and get to Hendersonville (about 30 minutes up the road) and Emma says she needs to go potty. Of course. I look back at her and tell her that we will stop in just a minute, and then she throws up. Wonderful. Does it get any better? We pull up, I get her out of the car, same song and dance, take her into the bathroom (outfit change #3) and get her re-dressed, and cleaned up. Again, she's acting fine, laughing, running around the gas station, etc. So we get back in the car and hit the road again. We get to Tennessee and right around Johnson City (about 20 minutes from our destination) and Andrew says he has to go potty. We find an exit that has a gas station and pull off, only to find out that we are on another highway and the gas station is off an exit from there (is that confusing to anyone else but us?), so we miss it and have to drive about 5-10 miles before we find a place to turn around. Come back, get to the gas station and as we are pulling in, Mary Mac asks feebly for her water, I turn around and look at her, and she is white as a sheet. .2 seconds later, she throws up before we can get in a parking space. We get out of the car, I run around to grab her so she can finish throwing up in the parking lot. I go digging for her extra clothes, find them, take her into the bathroom, and change her clothes again (outfit change #4). I come back out and announce that the only clothes she has left are her pajamas. By this point we are so close to Kingsport, it's easier to just get there and get out of the car. We find something to give Mary Mac that she can throw up in, just in case she feels the need again before we get there (she didn't thank goodness).
We get there and she is running around, asking to eat, and acting like nothing happened. We gave her some crackers and water, and she seemed to do well with them, so we were puzzled. Luckily we were able to do their laundry when we got there, so she had some more clothes just in case.

We had a nice afternoon at my grandparents and the kids got some great presents. Around 3:45 or so we decided that we needed to go check into the hotel and hopefully get some little naps in before dinner. We get back in the car and when we get on the road MM starts to look pale again. She asked me to hand her the little bucket in case she "needs to food up again." (I thought the name was fitting) This is when we decided that she must have been carsick. We get to the hotel and get some good naps in, go to dinner, and she is exhausted, she eats a little bit, but really just wanted to lay in my lap the whole time.

She slept great last night, and woke up this morning like her normal self again. She still wasn't real sure about eating anything again, but did take a few bites of some breakfast. We gave her some Dramamine for the car ride home and she did great! We made it home safely with only stopping for 1 gas/potty break when we got into SC. Hooray!

I will post some pics after I get them loaded on the computer, and I promise, there aren't any of the "food up." ;)