Trip From HELL-O Granma and Granpa

It's been a long week of travel. Not the cross country or airplane kind, but the many hours in a car traveling around Michigan kind. I love to drive and take the children places but I fear I over did it and we are all exhausted.

Last Thursday (June 5th) we went to St. Clair to visit my Grandparents. They just returned to Michigan for the summer. The four hour round trip was a breeze and the children did wonderful, including Noelle and her completely toilet trained self. This was my Grandparents first meeting of Max and a wonderfully successful one at that. Maximilian was charming as always, engaging everyone around him in multitudes of smiles. Noelle explored the condo checking everything out. The joy from watching the freighters and boats go by was too cute for words and a big topic of conversations for days to come. This was a good trip and we are all glad that we got to spend time with them.

Sunday rolled around and we headed out to Sturgis to celebrate Granpa Roehrig's birthday and Father's Day with the whole Roehrig Clan. Busy schedules prevent everyone from getting together on a regular basis so it was a very wonderful get together with many smiles and laughs going around. Noelle fell in love with her cousins, Chloe and Tessa and followed them around most of the day.

The dreaded "owie poops" creeped up towards the end of the day and took their toll on Noelle again. The pain she was in was very obvious as she was stiff as a bored and whinnied. We made it home and finally got her settled down after much screaming and crying.

Monday, was our planned trip up to Traverse City. Aunt Ceecee came to our house and took the place of Tom, who had to work. That morning I packed and we tried desperately to get those darn "owie poops" out before the long car ride. No such luck and we headed out knowing it was going to be a long drive. Half way through we stopped for lunch. Noelle was in a lot of pain and would only go to the bathroom in the car on her little potty. New toilets really freak her out when she is going to through a spell of constipation.

Because they car ride wasn't all ready hard enough, I locked the keys in the car! The diaper bag, travel potty, two cell phones, and coveted night-nights (Noelle's blankets) were also locked in the car. We were at McDonald's and they were kind enough to let me use their phone to call Tom and get the number for our road side assistance. The whole time we waited Noelle was screaming out in pain, stiff, and aching immensely. She wanted her blankets and to just sit on her little toilet. It was a long wait! Luckily we were in air conditioning and had an abundance of options for food and drink (the picture is of a somber Noelle and I awaiting the arrival of the car unlocker guy). After an hour and a half total time in McDonald's we were unlocked from our car and headed out.

We had to make two more emergency stops as Noelle finally got her constipation out. She would scream she had to go and bite her blankets and held it in. I sped to a spot where we quickly jumped out and I grabbed Noelle from her car seat and Charlotte set up her potty on the passenger seat of the car. It was a mad dash that would have left observes laughing out loud! Noelle held it very well and honestly if she just would have went in her pull up (I put one on her during travel so she can go if we are unable to stop for her) it would have been easier but she refused to. Maybe I shouldn't have had her get toilet trained!

We made it safe and sound on Monday and all seemed to be well. Tuesday we had plans to visit the beach but the chilly, rainy weather prevented that. We were able to play outside a lot, between spotty showers, go to a play-place in Burger King, and have some quality time with my Mom, sister, and brother.

Tuesday night we had many meltdowns by Noelle and it made for a very stressful time. The trip back on Wednesday was long as well. Long is a really nice way of saying that there was much screaming and frustration by all in the car. We made it home safe and exhausted. Despite all the challenges we did face, mainly that of a cranky two year old, I'm sure I will be making the trip soon again. We did have a very enjoyable time overall and I can't wait to see my parents and Uncle Alex again.

It's Saturday and we are home recovering enjoying the nice weather.

More pictures of the Roehrig Family get together and our TC trip to come once I get them. A lot of times it's hard to remember the camera while caring for the kiddos.