My grossest road trip

Karen over at Pediascribe is doing a contest where you have to enter by submitting your 'dirtiest' story - or at least a good story explaining a time when you really, really needed a shower from something your kids did. Ok, well here's my best attempt!

My friend Mary and I visit back and forth several times a year. We have a whole schedule worked out, based on kids' birthdays, holidays - it's actually quite complicated but generally we see each other every month or two, either here or at her house, which is about 2 hours away.

Now there are a few stories I could tell about various times when our kids have gotten sick at each other's (or their own) houses during one of these visits. Like the time that her daughter Emma threw up all over me while I was holding her on my lap. Or the flu/reflux that Becca had on and off last Christmas and afterward which caused her to throw up without warning several times while we were at Mary's house. I kind of figure that those two cancel each other out. ;)

The 'best' story though, is one that took place during the drive to Mary's house last March. We had bought a new (not NEW - it is 9 years old, but new to us) minivan just a couple of days earlier and my girls had only ridden in it a couple of times for short trips to daycare and such. My girls have always done well on car trips and I can't remember any of them ever getting carsick. Well, there's a first time for everything. Hannah fell asleep on this trip and she woke up abruptly about halfway to Mary's. She sits right behind me so I couldn't see her through the rear view mirror. I just heard her wake up and then say, 'Mommy - I threw up!'.

So expecting just a little, simple mess, I stopped at the next exit and found a gas station. Well, Hannah was right - she had thrown up. A lot. All over herself, her booster seat and her winter coat. So I get her out of the van and find the wet wipes that I carry in the diaper bag. Ok. I clean off her coat as best as I can but wet wipes aren't doing the job too well. Off comes the coat. This is the first day of March and it's freezing out. Hannah is standing outside with no coat while I'm desperately trying to use wet wipes to clean off her booster seat and seatbelt - at least somewhat. She's crying and hanging on me and therefore getting the mess all over my coat and clothes. I finally have to just buckle her back into the van, give her the grocery bag I was using as a garbage bag in case she threw up again and just head back onto the freeway. Hannah is still crying because she was so rudely awakened by throwing up, plus she's cold, wet and stinky. Becca is now awake and screaming because she's still strapped in her carseat, and Abby is asking every 2 seconds, "are we there yet?", "what happened?", "is Hannah ok?", "did Hannah throw up?", "why did Hannah throw up?", etc.

I was now covered in vomit myself and between that, the smell and the crying/noise, the rest of the trip was one of the longest hours of my life. I was ecstatic to get to Mary's and her washing machine and shower! Thankfully some scrubbing and Febreze got the van looking and smelling fresh again too and we added an empty ice cream bucket for our trip home, which - thankfully - was not needed, nor has been since.