Our Crappy Vacation

From Beach trip 2013… Memories…

My kids are with their grandparents right now.

At the beach.

I’m at home, trying not to be jealous. (But really, SO excited for them, they have REALLY been looking forward to their trip!!)

Before grandparents left, Papa Phillips handed Annabelle some money and said, “Here. Tell your mom and dad to do something fun with you while we’re gone!”

Annabelle isn’t quite old enough to go with Grandma and Papa’s house, so Scott and I decided we’d use the money to take Annabelle somewhere on a little mini-vacation so SHE could have fun too!

The closest “fun” place to us is the mountains, so we booked a cheap hotel for 2 nights. Scott had taken vacation for Thursday and Friday, anyway, so left out for Pigeon Forge on Thursday, intent to have a nice, restful few days, do a little swimming in the hotel pool, a little site seeing, and some fun “cheap” things with Annabelle. (it’s amazing how much less a vacation costs with 1 kid vs 4!!)

I cannot BEGIN to tell you how excited I was about this. We have no plans for a real family vacation this year, and this Momma REALLY could use a few days “away.” I looked forward to it the whole week with giddy excitement.

Thursday came, the glorious day we’d get a wee bit of a break. Time to rest… relax… and just enjoy ourselves.

We left about 9ish in the morning and headed out for the 4 hour trip.

At about hour 2 1/2, this strange smell permeated the van.

We stopped at a restroom, and I went to get Annabelle out of the van, only to find a not-normal color of, well, I’ll just say it, of poop coming out the back of her diaper.

I rushed her into the bathroom and cleaned her up the best I could, but Mommy was not liking this.

Still, it was just a fluke right? Crap happens. Especially with Annabelle, who has a super sensitive digestive system.

An hour later, the smell came back. We stopped again….

This time, the carseat was covered with the green stuff, as was Annabelle’s clothes.

(please note appropriate title of this blog… crappy vacation….)

We got to the hotel and poor Annabelle proceeded to have horrible diapers about every half-hour to an hour for the rest of the afternoon/evening, then ran a fever.

We skipped lunch and dinner, as we were too busy cleaning up poop.

I called the pediatrician, and they recommended finding a walk-in clinic to take her too.

I called the walkin clinic, and they noted that they didn’t take our insurance, and her insurance was only accepted on the WEST side of the state, not the East, so our only option would be to go to a hospital.

I didn’t think we were hospital bad yet… but the poop kept coming, and then she started to run a fever.

At 9:30 pm, we walked into the local ER. I can handle poop. We’ve had MUCH worse before. But I was scared out of my mind going through it would so far from her home hospital, and feared she had another ear infection (she’s already had 2 in the past 2 months.) Last time she had an ear infection involved oxygen and 103+ fevers. Mommy was not willing to risk getting to that point in a strange city.

3 hours later, we finally left the ER. No ear infection. Probably just a GI bug as I’d suspected myself.

The next morning, we packed up and checked out of the hotel and requested a refund for the extra night. They were nice and gave it to us. We planned to head home with our sick little girl, but after stopping by the Knifeworks store to ride out a torrential downpour, it occurred to me that her every hour-diaper had stopped finally.

We piddled around for a while, and it did seem like she’d finally turned a corner.

Hoping that we weren’t making a mistake, we found ANOTHER hotel and booked it for the second night, because seriously? Driving 4 hours only to change poopy diapers, sleep in a strange hotel, and spend the night in the emergency room was just STINKY. (Pun TOTALLY intended.)

On trade ride… My poor sweet baby! We tried SO hard to have fun…..

So we went out to dinner that night, Annabelle seeming to feel much better. We took her to the ride place where we had prepurchased tickets for her to ride the kiddy rides, but oh my goodness. My sweet girl that usually LOVES riding the carrousel and kiddie rides cried almost the WHOLE time. The only thing she was a little okay with was the train, and that was because mommy and daddy could ride it with her.

Needless to say, we still have half the tickets left for a future trip.

The next day, we did took her to Parrot Mountain, which Scott was REALLY excited to show her, but while she was much improved by then, she was still not herself and did NOT care about looking at a bunch of birds. She cried and fussed pretty much the whole time,e ven though we carried her.

(Oh, I forgot to mention. She also decided she HATES strollers. Screamed every time we tried to set her down, so had to be held pretty much everywhere we went.)

Then we drove home.

My relaxing vacation was over… and pretty much non-existant.

I’m trying not to be bitter about it.

So many emotions overwhelm me.

• Frustration at all my expectations being blown.
• Mad at MYSELF for being so selfish to care about MY relaxing time being taken.
• Sad that Annabelle didn’t get a fun vacation that I know SHE needed, and instead spent it being sick.
• If I’m honest, a little miffed at God for not seeing that our NEEDS and making Annabelle well during this one little bitty period of time that we needed her to be. I mean, she’s been mostly healthy lately… WHY did it have to be THIS weekend??? I prayed and prayed and prayed…. and yeah. The poop still came. 

I was thinking about this last night, at home finally. About how I was a little upset for God not giving us the rest that we NEEDED…

And this thought came to mind. Mostly likely one of those God whispers that He loves to give me when I want it least….

Here it is:

WHY do I need a vacation or time away to get rest?

I’m not talking sleep-rest.

I’m talking emotional rest. Spiritual rest.

YES, I know God knows our needs and he DOES use time away for that. He’s done that numerous times for us.

But God reminded me last night that TRUE rest and peace won’t come until I climb into my Heavenly Father’s lap, let him wrap his arms around me, and rest in HIM.

“but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar
on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk
and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you
rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is
easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Rest for my soul.

Renew my strength.

Yup, those were the two things I sought. But God used our crazy minivacation to remind me that I was seeking those things in the WRONG place.


Discussion: What is the WORST vacation you’ve ever taken?

**Update** After I’d written
this… Annabelle turned a bit worse. She’d gone from playing a silly
game with me to being really not feeling well, another not-so-swell
diaper, and as I put her to bed, was gagging, trying to vomit.
(Annabelle has a nissen, which means she usually doesn’t vomit, but only
has horrific gagging/wretching when ill.) I’m hoping she’s better by morning when this post, but if you could keep my sweet little girl in your prayers today, that she licks this bug in the booty, we would appreciate it!!!