It was fun... I'll say that, but getting there was a different story. We headed out the Wednesday prior to Easter to stay for four days at a beach cabin in Ft. Morgan, Alabama with Jason's family. And no, you're not remembering incorrectly, none of the family actually lives there but it was a good middle meeting place.
Our goal was to leave at 6 a.m. to get a jump on traffic. Well make that 6:30 but we did well getting out of Houston until we arrived in all of Baytown when Noelie chimes from the backseat... I want to go home (my first concern as she's asked me every day and every hour for the prior two weeks of when we were going to the beach); Noelie doesn't feel good (ok maybe she needs some attention) and BARF. Yep, at best still had 8 hours in the car ahead of us - not 45 minutes from the house and she got carsick. Poor bug! So we had to quick change in the Flying J's since my master plan of rinsing out the dress and holding her under the hand dryer didn't go as planned unless we wanted to arrive a day late. Of course we had to pack a ton of stuff because we were travelling with a baby and yep her suitcase wasn't exactly on top, but we managed to find something... but there was resistance because through her sickness she was able to protest that she liked the butterfly dress she got sick on to the blue and green stripes she now had to wear.
And can I be so bold as to say there are some freaky looking folks that hang at a Flying J's even at 7 a.m. on a weekday. Particularly the hitchhiker that resembled a rough version of Janis Joplin with a sign that said "2 Louisiana"...I'm thinking if ya smell like ya look, then you're not going to have much luck.
Anyway, back on the road and made it to Beaumont. Noelie has to potty so we stop at the Cracker Barrel (which was one of many Noelie stops to the Cracker Barrels along the way that we fondly begin to refer to it as the Crapper Barrel). Then 45 minute stand still traffic in Vidor... We're thinking we'll never make it out of Texas and mind you we make this trip to visit family in Orange often and it's never been quite so eventful. Finally going again and stop for lunch in Lafayette (not a bad stretch)and then another good run to Dauphin Island as we're told the 'ferry route' is the way to go... I think that is assuming the ferry is actually there waiting on you when you arrive... not so, so we wait and wait and hear the first fuss out of Eli from the entire trip... guess he didn't like that we weren't making process. Then 11 or so hours into the trip we finally arrive at the beach.
It was a nice big house and we filled it to the brim! It was good that the beach was right there as we had five kids under the age of five in the house! Thank goodness for those three cousins that are older that helped us out!
Noelie and Eli got to spend some QT with "Grandma Ricky and Grandma Khaki" and got to meet great "Grandma Trudy" for the first time.
Also - about 20 miles down the road - the same weekend, my cousin Mal got married so Noelie and I got to sneak over there for the festivities. Jason, noticeably absent from this event because, like most men, Jason forgot that his feet do not typically see the sun. So our first day it wasn't too bad but by that evening his feet had swollen so big! We kept joking he looked like Fred Flinstone with square feet! Hilarious now, not so hilarious to him at the time. At least I knew if we had an equally eventful trip home and our engine went out in the car we could rely on Fred to stick his feet through the bottom of the car and help us out the remainder of our journey. And all this worry of travelling so long with Eli and he was the easiest one of the bunch!
We attached some pics. We're saving some for the Christmas card (planning ahead - that's the way I roll) so no spoilers on the full family pics!
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