Vacation Part I, Baton Rouge

After six days in a very, very quiet house (my little people were spending time with the Barrick grandparents), Brian and I set out on Thursday morning for a family vacation. We were heading toward Pensacola for my cousin Claire Bear’s wedding. We had 752 miles to cover, with a couple of detours set up along the way.

First, we stopped in Silsbee, TX (just north of Beaumont), where Grandma Evelyn lives. Diane was meeting us there to return the kiddos, and we also wanted to visit Grandma for a bit. We were about 1 hour out of San Antonio when Diane called us to let us know that a savage stomach virus had infiltrated her house and was taking them down one by one. Noah had it on Tuesday, Ben was hit Wednesday night, and Diane and Grace were struck early Thursday morning. I felt so sorry for her! She had a four hour drive, alone, with three small children (already a bit of a challenge). Then, one of the kids was recovering from being sick and up all night while another one was still puking (an absolute nightmare). On top of all that, she was sick, too. I do not know how she made it, but she did. We took the kids off her hands and once we were on the road she laid down on the sofa and didn’t get up until the next morning. :(

While the stomach bug was a problem in and of itself, we also had an issue because we were planning on spending the night with friends in Baton Rouge. They also have small children, and the last thing I wanted to do was to bring this thing into their house. I called the Ballards and explained what was going on and that we were just going to drive straight through to Florida and check into our hotel early. They were SOOO sweet and insisted that we stay at their house anyway. I don’t know if I would have been so gracious, but they truly treated us like family! I told them we would see how things went on the trip. By the time we got to Baton Rouge, the kids seemed to be on the upswing, so we kept our plans and stopped. Ernie had made us a delicious dinner of fried shrimp po-boys. YUM!!! Ashley, not to be outdone, whipped up some caramel stuffed brownies. The kids played and played and played some more. On Friday, we had breakfast together. Everyone was definitely feeling MUCH better. The kids played inside and outside while we visited some more and packed up our things to head out.

Boo for a foggy camera lens, because this was the cutest thing!

Fun times on the swing set.

Popsicles all around!

These guys are pros.

Fisher is concentrating pretty hard. Grace was, of course, holding a conversation while eating her frozen treat. Chatty Cathy.

After some quick sandwiches for lunch it was time to get on the road again.

Thank you thank you thank you to the awesome Ballard family. We’ve been able to visit with them when they were here in San Antonio, and they’ve also made an effort to get our kids together to play when we’re visiting my parents in Louisiana. We have really enjoyed their friendship, even though it’s long distance. It’s definitely a shame that we don’t live closer to each other!