The Tulip Festival

 These are for you mom. . .the girls thought they'd be your favorite if you were with us this year!

Family vacations are so relaxing and fun and bonding . . .okay who am I kidding . . .family vacations with young children are exhausting and messy and full of so many surprises that you have no choice but to bond together or die!  This past weekend we took a quick trip to the Tulip Festival and since I was trying to be a less controlling overly organized boo hoo bore of a mother I didn't make many plans.  This of course was amazing because my husband planned everything the beginning of one hot mess!  So here's a quick run down of how the weekend went:

1. Abigail cried for the whole first hour of the trip because she hates hates hates her horrible terrible carseat . . .I contemplate pretending we're living in 1980 and I don't have to have her in a carseat. . .I'll just hold her tightly in the backseat and throw my arm across her chest if Scott slams on the brakes.  Hey, kept me safe as a kid!
2. The Tulip Festival was BEAUTIFUL . . .and muddy and cold and rainy and I really wanted to just see all the pretty tulips but Avonleah decided to spike a fever and was shivering uncontrollably and hating every minute of this gorgeous day. . We still made it fun though and had everyone pick out their favorite colors and trying to just be positive.
3. Since I didn't do much planning I didn't know that our yearly destination stop to Cowtown would result in a shut down CowTown . . .cue the tears of disappointment from the kids.  "what do you mean we can't milk a cow.  .this is the Wooooorsssst vacation ever!"
4. Drove around. . .argued about what to do . . .drove around some more. . .Avonleah starts looking seriously carsick along with a fever that is high enough to make her shiver . . drive/stop/nurse the baby/argue with Scott/nurse the baby/search for public restrooms/drive/park the car and put on Rise of the Guardians and pretend we're at the theater/nurse the baby again!

And then the heavens opened and I remembered something from my childhood.  Whenever things got out of control my mom would start to act silly and make us all laugh and forget everything else.  So I started singing ridiculous made up songs about anything and everything and soon everyone was laughing . . .well not Scott (he was still a little touchy because I forgot to pack extra shoes for him and he was shoeless after the mud at the Tulip Festival) and of course Abigail who hates hates hates the car and must cry whenever we even get near the car seat.  We drove home crept home in rush hour traffic and then we went to bed and started our vacation over the next day with a surprise trip to . . .wait for the next post