On the road… with Monkey See & Monkey Do…

I sincerely apologize for not being here and updating you over the last week. I am so grateful for all of my readers, and I feel I have let you down… Let me explain why I had no time to write…

Sooo… we had this bright idea to take the girls on a long long road trip.. from our home to Phoenix, AZ… Now… see… they’re almost 3 years old. They have only been as far as Santa Barbara, CA which is about 7 hours away… and then they were still rear facing… and they slept most of the trip… This was going to be a much longer trip… and now they’re older, and really have to keep occupied… or else. We had Aunt B going with us… so we knew she’d be the back seat entertainment if/when all the movies ran out… LOL.. Meemaw and Peepaw bought the girls several coloring and activity books, and crayons. We bought snacks galore for the drive.. Yeah… if we got hit with a snowstorm in the middle of spring, we would have survived for a week… at least…

Once we were all planned, and pretty much ready to go, I started the packing process. The girls shared a little carry on sized suitcase… Daddy and I had our own big suitcases. I figured whatever room Daddy didn’t use, I could… tee hee… always a woman… must pack more than I need. Anyway, once I got all of our things packed and ready to go, it was time to tackle the rest of the house. I wanted to make sure the house was dusted, vacuumed, and cleaned. I had to have everything done before Friday when Aunt B was coming over to go with us. I got most of it done… not too bad for going it pretty much alone.

Friday evening snuck up on me so fast. Aunt B got here, only to announce that she was sick the previous night. Lovely… She swore that we wouldn’t get sick, since her hubby didn’t get anything. I had my doubts, but we would see. Saturday morning, we packed up the car, and somehow fit everything and Aunt B in the back… it was going to be an interesting drive….

We left a little later than planned, but we still got to Yucca Valley at a decent hour. We checked into our hotel, and made it to dinner just before our old favorite restaurant closed… Edchadas wasn’t as good as we had remembered it though. Probably because we got there just before closing… Oh.. and closing was 9pm, on a Saturday… Ahhh life in the desert.. Everything closed at 9pm. We ate our dinner, had our Mexican Fried Ice Cream, and skedaddled on back to Yucca Valley to go to bed. The girls fell asleep in the car on the way back… They had to be exhausted since they didn’t nap the entire way down… That’s an 8 hour drive! Oh well… We knew they’d pretty much crash when we got to the hotel.

When we got there, we wiped the girls’ faces and hands, and changed them into their new jammies. We laid them down in their new “Princess” beds, and crossed our fingers for a good night’s sleep. We had to be up early to visit with a friend from when we first lived there, and then get on the road to AZ.

No such luck. At about 2am, Monkey See was up puking… All over herself, and her new Princess bed. It was horrible. She was crying, and scared, and just grossed out. I can only imagine what was going through her mind. Monkey Do slept through it all. The 3 of us adults took turns between staying up, rushing her to the bathroom, cleaning up after her, etc until about 5am… when we all finally fell back asleep. It was an exhausting night. Thanks a bunch Aunt B…

We all woke up somewhere around 8am, and got some of the complimentary breakfast that was available to us. We tried to get Monkey See to eat something… but all she wanted was bread. Poor baby… We figured the worst of it was over…

After we all ate something, and packed the van back up, we started on our way to visit our friend and his wife. They lived just down the road from the hotel, and we knew it had to be a pretty short visit… The guy taught Daddy how to fly Radio Control Airplanes back when he was stationed out in Twentynine Palms… They’re such a nice couple, and so much fun. We visited for about 2 hours, and then realized what time it was. We still had at least 6 hours to go! Out we rushed, thanking them for letting us come by, and promising we’ll come back again sooner this time… I still can’t believe it was 7 years since we last saw them. Man I feel old.

We all piled back up in the car… this time I squeezed my butt in the back seat, since Aunt B swore she felt sick because she was in the back of the van for such a long drive… On we went… We stopped at a couple of rest stops along the way… ones that had signs up like “Beware of Rattlesnakes”, or “Poisonous snakes and insects inhabit this area.” Lovely.. Here I am on the lookout for some strange creature to jump out at me or my girls… I think this was one of the shortest stops we made along the way.

The freeway was long, and boring.. I think I must’ve taken 40 pictures of all the different cacti and other strange looking plants that grow in sand.. Finally, we reach the town of Surprise, AZ… It truly was! All of a sudden.. “SURPRISE!!! There’s civilization here!!!!” That meant we were only a little bit away from Sun City West.. Thank Goodness… I totally needed to hit the restroom… Hey.. I didn’t go at the rest stop because I was afraid a snake was going to jump out at me from the toilet!!! Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of it happening! Daddy called Grams and Gramps to let them know we were close… Grams gave us a shortcut, and we realized we were only about 10 minutes away! WOOHOO!

They were waiting for us as we pulled into their driveway. I know we were all so happy to see them! We warned them about Monkey See being sick the previous night, and explained how we thought it might just have been what she ate, since Aunt B swore no one would get whatever made her sick the 2 days prior.. Grams had dinner waiting and ready for us! We all talked about how the trip was, and what the plans were for the next week while we were there. Little did we know, almost none of it would happen…

Night one, in the AZ house… Everything went well. The girls LOVED sleeping in their princess beds.. I washed Monkey See’s bed up when we got there so it would be dry in time for bed time. We all hung out outside for a bit, and enjoyed the cool night air. We knew it was going to be pretty hot the next day. We planned a day in the swimming pool. Everyone was pretty excited.. The girls woke up before we did on Monday, Monkey Do was ready to go swimming… Breakfast wasn’t even on her mind. Monkey See was awake, but not happy. She didn’t want to eat, she just kinda moped around. My poor sweetie looked like she was hit with a pillow.. No smiles, no laughing, hardly any talking. She only replied by nodding her head or whimpering. We asked her if she wanted anything to drink, and all she wanted was water. We tried to get her to eat some cereal… She turned down the “Honey Bee Cheerios”… which shocked us all. We let her go back to bed, and she slept for hours… Every time we tried to get her to eat, she cried. She complained of a tummy ache.. so I called the dr… They had no clue, of course, because they couldn’t see her. She gave me all the warning signs of appendicitis, but nothing was matching up. We figured we’d just keep her drinking water, and she’d flush out whatever bad bugs were getting to her. We tried waking her up to join us in the pool, she said she didn’t want to swim. Poor little sweetheart.. What else were we to do? We let her sleep. We took the monitor outside with us, and we took Monkey Do into the swimming pool.

She wasn’t too sure at first, but we got her more and more comfortable, and soon enough she was swimming between Daddy and me in the pool… Water wings on, of course. After a while in the pool, we all decided it was time to get out and get started with dinner. Grams made some awesome pork tenderloin… YUM!

We got the girls to the table, and Monkey See was actually ready to try a few bites of potato, and veggies. Monkey Do, on the other hand was fighting it. She kept telling me she had a tummy ache, and she wasn’t hungry. We couldn’t figure out if she really felt badly, or if she was looking for sympathy since she’d been watching her sister get wooed all over while being sick. We really pushed to get her to try something, and sure enough.. it was her turn to be sick… Luckily everyone had finished their dinner by this point. I rushed her into the bathroom, after getting puked on… yummy… and made sure she was all cleaned up. We felt so bad about trying to make her eat something. Lovely.. This was going to be another long night.

Daddy and I agreed that I would take care of Monkey Do that night, and if need be, he would take care of her the next night. Just another moment in motherhood.. We got a bucket ready, just in case, and I was super glad we did. I think I was up with her 4 times over the night. Ugh… I really hoped I wouldn’t catch whatever it was that had invaded my healthy children. We finally got to sleep around 4am. I think we all woke up around 7am. Needless to say, this day was going to be a wash. Both girls were down for the count, and now Daddy woke up sick. Only he wasn’t puking… I won’t say any more than that… We also found out that Gramps was sick after he got up. Same as Daddy… not puking, but sick… lovely again… Well, this day was going down the tubes, rapidly.

Aunt B, Grams and I were ok for now. We went out to the stores, and checked out a few places. Grams gave us a short tour of the community, and then we went back to the house. We were all just trying to figure out what we could give everyone to make them feel better. The nurse was no help, because she said they don’t give 3yo’s anything. Normally I would agree with them, but this was crazy. Nothing but tummy aches, puking and not eating. UGH. Something HAD to be done. We went out and bought some Pedialyte for the girls. Grams actually asked if we’d give the girls Children’s Dramamine. She swore that it was the best thing for nausea… Normally.. I don’t give the girls medicine unless I absolutely have to… but at this point, I’d do just about anything to keep them from puking, and get them eating again. We gave the girls each a 1/2 tablet of children’s Dramamine, and prayed …

Sure enough, the next morning, they were feeling a little bit better. So here it was Wednesday, and we only had Thursday left, and we left Friday Morning, to head to Santa Barbara to see Auntie C & Uncle B “The Godfather”. UGH! The weather was crappy, so, it was going to be Thursday or nothing to see if Monkey See wanted to get in the swimming pool… We actually tried to work out one more day in AZ, just in case, but then I’d miss out on a day with my sister. Thursday had to be a perfect day darn it…

Wednesday was pretty good. We did some driving around, and had Sonic for lunch. Yes we were pushing our tummies to the limit, but you just can’t turn down a Sonic Burger! Poor Grandpa was still feeling ill. Man I hated how everyone got so sick. I seriously wish that Aunt B would have called us before hand and talked to us about her being sick rather than just showing up sick, and acting like it was no big deal.

Thursday morning, Grams and Gramps had to work, so we took it upon ourselves to do a little sightseeing… to the local Fry’s… Hey… We’re geeks.. we have to see all the Fry’s Stores that we can! We walked around a little bit in awe.. We found a USB Cable that we needed for Grams, and looked around at the video game consoles. We saw a Wii… They had them in stock. We didn’t buy one… Darn… Their deal just wasn’t good enough. We also stopped and got a gift card for Grams and Gramps to dinner at a local steak house that they said they had loved. Just had to give them something as a “thank you for having us, and dealing with all this sickness, and getting Gramps sick” gift. We got back shortly after Gramps got home. He took a short nap, and then took us out on another tour of the area. We got to see the wood shop!!! Oh man.. I could live there… The smell of fresh cut wood… Brings back memories… We also got to see their fitness center, indoor track, bowling alley/pool hall, Arts and Crafts center, and where Grams works. I tell ya, this place looked like it was a fun place to live! We got back, and the girls were all excited, and ready to go swim in the pool. Yes, this time BOTH girls were going to swim! YAAY!

Monkey See had no problem jumping in. It was like she had swam all of her life… Well, all 2 and a half years of it. Monkey Do swam around like she did on Monday. It was so cute, and super exciting! YAAY! They love the swimming pool! The rest of the day, we enjoyed out on the back patio. Grams and Gramps made some baby back ribs, and I made salad. We all ate till we dropped. The girls actually ate ribs too! It was awesome. Dessert was s’mores over the fire pit in their back yard. What a perfect way to end a week in AZ. We all went to bed to prepare ourselves for the long drive back into CA on Friday.

Friday morning was a little slower than we had planned, but aren’t they all? We packed up all of our things, and Daddy packed it all in the car. I started driving… It was a very cool drive. Daddy and I switched somewhere around Los Angeles, I think. The way we went took us straight through Hollywood! We saw ABC studios, and the home of Ellen! I was so mad I couldn’t get a picture of Ellen’s studio… It just excited me to see where one of my favorite day time shows was filmed! We also saw the Disney Channel Studios, and I was on the lookout for famous people. No such luck. Oh well… We still had a way to go to get to Santa Barbara.
Once we got to my sister’s home, Aunt B went with one of her friends to spend the weekend. We ate some of the leftover ribs, and set the girls’ Princess beds up in their office. Everyone was pretty tired, so we all just crashed. On Saturday, Uncle B had to go to work from 4am to 12noon. The rest of us were sleeping when he left, and just waited for him to get home so we could go out and do something. Auntie C and I played their Wii… Man I KNEW I should’ve just gotten it in Phoenix.. It was so much fun… She kicked my butt in Tennis… I kicked Daddy’s butt in Golf. But it was so much fun!

When Uncle B got home, we all got ready to go out. We all went to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. I was hoping to see Dinosaurs, but later found out the exhibit wasn’t going to be open until May… Oh well… It was fun anyway. The girls did get to see mammoth bones, and we all had fun in the Astronomy section. After the Museum, we took off to the beach. The girls got to play in the sand for the first time! Auntie C & Uncle B got them some really cool sand toys before we got there. It was so much fun.

Aunt B and her friends showed up just after we got there… I have no idea why, and Daddy and I have argued about this whole thing… but I was under the impression that she wanted to be with her friends, and I was getting my family day, since we had a whole week with his family… But oh well.. Am I being greedy??? I didn’t think so.. since we only see my sister 2x a year… again.. oh well… The beach was fun. The girls had a blast, and that’s what was the most important thing.

We took them back to the house to give them a quick bath so we could go out for dinner, and then bowling. We checked out this pretty nifty pizza joint, which unfortunately was on it’s last night. They were closing down for remodeling, and reopening as some Fresco Cafe… no idea… The pizza was ok. It was no Original Pete’s… but it was ok. Monkey See actually crawled up next to Daddy and fell asleep! Shocker!!! We picked up and went across the street to the bowling alley.. only to find that there was over an hour wait for a lane… Um No… We went home. The girls were asleep anyway, so it worked out just fine. I think everyone was pretty exhausted anyway. We all fell asleep fast.

Sunday morning, we once again had to pack up and load up the van. This time, it was to go home. I hated leaving. I felt like I didn’t get enough time with them. I always feel that way though.

We said out good byes, and loaded up. I drove first, and Daddy took over before it got dark. I hate driving in the dark. We got home, and unloaded a few things before Uncle K showed up to get Aunt B… Somehow we got talked in to ordering pizza, and I ended up picking it up, and paying for it all… Don’t ask… I wanted delivery, but everyone thought it was going to be too long… I still don’t know how we paid for it all though… ugh… go figure…

We did set up our Wii that we got on the way home, in Santa Maria and played a few games… It was so nice to be home… I loved sleeping in my own bed again… Now I just hope the girls can get back into their routine, and we can get back to the gym!!! I NEED MY YOGA!!!!

I’m sorry this was so long.. I had so much to tell… I’m so upset about so many aspects of this vacation, but I have to remember to look at the good parts of it…