Thar She Blows!

Just to back up briefly, this is our kiddos with their Great Grandpa. I love it.

And then...

If your dad gives you a dollar in the morning before you ride through the Smokey Mountains in the back of a minivan, and you use that dollar to buy two bags of gummy worms, one package sugar-coated, and you eat the whole two bags--minus one half of one worm (only because your mom glances to the back of the van and tells you not to eat all your candy at once), then you just might start to feel very ill very soon.

Your mom may offer to let you sit in the front seat, and you might even start to feel better, until she needs to take the seat back to help dad navigate.

Now this is when the story takes a nasty turn. I think it was the movement of crawling to the back of the van again, but in NO TIME AT ALL, he was screaming for the puke bag. It was ugly, it was stinky, and we ALL suffered with him. Gertie, who was sitting next to him, was very scared. She started screaming. Ethan was crying. Mayhem had broken out.

But John and I remained calm. We got through it.

We arrived safely in SC in time to make it to a ball game with the cousins. Janine bought the kids some delicious ice cream. (Ethan had recovered enough to eat it!) It was actually a breezy night, a good night for a game. I know we were losing when we left (early), and I realize now I have no idea what the name of the team we were rooting for was. It was a great time, though.

We woke up, had a nice morning before we headed off for our final day of travel to the beach. We ate lunch at Chick Filet. It was good, and we'll definitely go back (Ryan).

Heather bought Gertie this Magna Doodle, which turned out to be a frequent life saver--all except for the part about her not being able to erase it by herself, so I kept craning back to grab it every time she cried out, "Rase, rase, rase, rase." Needless to say, I eventually did what it takes to teach her to do that for herself . My opinions have changed about my little Gertie. She's not such a bad traveling partner after all.