Last weekend, we had our first family vacation with Ethan. Theresa, Mom, Dad, Shell, Jon, Ethan, Otis and I all headed to the Dells for a weekend getaway. It was a lot of fun with just a few missteps along the way. We lucked out with perfect weather. The house we rented was beautiful and was on a private lake. The only issue I had was that the pictures made it seem like it was on a sandy beach with a swimming area, but in reality there were 50 + steps down to a murky area with one board thrown out to get to the paddle boat. Not like we were going to go swimming, but I had visions of plopping Ethan down on a blanket in the sand in his new little swim trunks and dipping his little toes in the water. Next year... :)Of course, nothing can go completely smooth. At the last moment, Jon found out that his vacation request had been declined due to a last minute meeting that popped up with the President of the company. That sucked. It meant that I was alone to pack up the car and Ethan and myself, pick up Shell and head out of town. We decided that it would still make sense for me to leave at 10 am as we had originally planned and get there when Theresa and Mom and Dad were due to arrive, and Jon would take Amtrak straight from work and we'd pick him up.
I woke up at 5:45. Got a shower in before Ethan woke up. Right on cue, Ethan's eyes popped open at 6am and we got the first bottle of the day put away. I had packed most of our stuff the night before and Jon had brought the suitcase out for me, but I still had some odds and ends and also had to pack the car . Ethan usually is the best napper, but that morning, he decided he didn't need one. I couldn't get him to sleep. And b/c he missed his nap, he got cranky. I was starting to get a little panicky when it was 9am and I was supposed to be out of house by 10. I had managed to pull myself together, but I still had to pack the car with the cooler and misc stuff. I stuck Ethan in his crib screaming, and started to pack the car. Otis, seeing all of the stuff going into the car, figured out what was happening and got all nervous, not wanting to leave my side, thinking we were going to go somewhere without him, so I was tripping over him. I was really hoping the neighbors weren't trying to sleep in, b/c we had a screaming baby for 20 minutes while I loaded the car. I finished loading the car, got Ethan calmed down and fed him again, changed him and called Shell to tell her I'd be there in 20. I was only running about 15 minutes late that time, which is really good for me, b/c I usually was always 1/2 hour late everywhere I went B.E. (before Ethan). Proud of myself, I got Otis into the truck, cracked the window and went upstairs to load up Ethan, I picked up his car seat and noticed something was leaking all over my foot. I had trailed the car seat into the living room and up onto the ottoman, then looked back and noticed the trail. Although, I knew this couldn't be good, like a dumb ass, I stuck my hand in, pulled it out and smelled. WTF?!?!... Cat PEE!!!! I was furious. Ty is getting old and had been throwing up a lot, much to our frustration, but if he started peeing on things. That was it, I would have to do something about it. Once I calmed down a little, I realized that Miriam, our nanny, had washed the floors the day before, and had shoved Ty's litter box tight into the corner. Ty wasn't able to get to it. It also helped clear up the confusion on why Ty had whined at us the whole entire night before. Suddenly, I felt bad for him b/c he probably held it as long as he could then found the one thing that looked closest to his litter box. I was also relieved as he wasn't purposely peeing on our stuff. Didn't make the situation any easier, but at least Ty wasn't losing it. Again, I called Shell and told her I was going to be late.
If I would have had a way to get to a store with Ethan in tow, I would have just scrapped the entire car seat and bought a new one. Since I had no options and Jon was working. I set to work cleaning it. I pulled it all apart, soaked the cloth parts and cleaned it by hand, then stuck in the washing machine in hot water. Then I took the base, threw it in the sink, and filled the sink with hot water filled with Lysol. After a Lysol rinsing came detergent for the straps and then after the detergent I washed with color safe bleach. The thing was as clean as it was going to get. I set it outside to dry in the sun.
At this time it was 11:30. I had high hopes that we would be able to get out the door by 12pm. So called Shell, told her that I'd be there in 1/2 hour and then went to get the cloth parts out of the dryer in order to put the car seat back together. In my frenzy of finding the cat pee, I forgot how I took it apart, so had to go on line to figure it out. Got the directions, got it together, then realized that the stuffing inside the cloth was still wet. Not to be deterred, I came up with a plan to put a plastic disposable changing pad down, then a blanket, to keep Ethan from getting wet. Sounded good at the time and I was desperate to get out of the house. Of course, once I shoved Ethan in, I realized that the little guy would not be comfortable and he was all crackly. I couldn't bring my self to put him through all that and the possible wetness seeping through when we had a 3 hour drive in front of us. Crap. Out came Ethan.
OK, OK. Called Shell, told her it was going to be a little longer. By this time, I was 3 hours late. I saw that Jon was on line, so caught him on IM. He was surprised to see that we were still home. By this time, we were only 1 hour away from when he was going to catch the train, so it made sense to wait for him and during that time, dry the car seat completely through.
So, Jon gets home, we get Ethan fed again and loaded up; got Otis into the car and were on our way to Shell's ... only 4 1/2 hours late. I was exhausted before even leaving Chicago. Of course, we then had to call Theresa and Mom and Dad to let them know that we were going to be late :) Theresa got to the cabin early and got a little down time before everyone rolled in and Dad and Mom found a casino. All was good, for the moment.
That wasn't the end of our issues. Next, the GPS's. Jon and I and Dad have these wonderful little gadgets. And I love ours. I depend on it to get me everywhere and I rarely get lost around Chicago anymore. But, I learned last weekend that I'm a little too dependant on it. Thinking that the GPS can get me anywhere, I thought I wouldn't need the directions that were emailed to us earlier in the week. I believed in the power of the GPS. So, I found out, did Dad. Needless to say, Theresa, the only one to bring the directions with, had to come and find all of us on the back roads of Oxford, WI, as we were all lost.
Finally, at 6:30pm...4 1/2 later than expected ETA, we all had arrived and settled in and the rest of the weekend was stress free. As I mentioned, we had beautiful weather, Ethan was on his best and cutest behavior, flirting with all of his ladies. Jon and Dad got some fishing in...although no actual fish were caught. Otis got to go swimming and caused mayhem, but enjoyed himself thoroughly. He tried to follow Jon and Dad out by swimming after the paddle boat. He also swam up to our neighbor who was trying to fish and tried to 'fetch' his bobber. Thank god the neighbor found humor in the situation. We played some games, had some drinks and ate really well. Poor Theresa and Jon were subject to the Kruse rules while playing 500 rummy. What, doesn't everyone count the jokers and 2's as wild and count the queen of spades as 40 points?? Mom swears that this is the official 'rule book'. But no one could produce said book or remember the last time they saw it. There was also a crazy game of golf lasso, which Mom proclaimed Kruse's against the Koelsch's. Quickly following, I was unceremoniously dumped by my parents since I am now a Koelsch. I wish I could say the Koelsch's won, but those Kruse's are a mean bunch and we lost in overtime. There was heckling involved after. Just wait until next year.
