There was a long lag in my blogging. So, now that I am back and settled in and my life is returning to some semblance of normalcy, I thought I would take a few blogs and just get personal. So, let’s pour ourselves a glass of wine/coffee/tea and have a chat.
My sister Kim and I decided to drive to Florida to visit my Aunt Vicki. Sounds like fun, no? Well, it was-most of it. For those of you who know my sister and me, you know that we are…a little crazy? So, it should come as no surprise that we thought it would a good idea to load her mini-van with our 5 kids: a 1-year old, two 2-year olds, a 4-year old, and an-8 year old – and drive the 23 hours to Ft Myers, Florida. The plan was simple: We would meet at my house, load the roof topper with as much stuff as possible and head out at 5am, Wednesday morning. Sounds good. What could possibly go wrong with that? Well, it started to unravel around 10pm the night before our doomed departure. I received a text from Kim that said “Damon puked on the wall”. Twenty minutes later, the news came that her youngest, Jasiri, was also puking. Good times! Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive about the 17 hours we had planned to drive the following day. But being true-blooded Nissly’s, the following day we bravely loaded our stuff…or should say, crammed our stuff and wedged our children into the remaining inches of free space and headed down the road – at 2:30 in the afternoon!

Now, we live about 45 minutes from DC. Oh yes – rush hour. We got 30 miles down the road and blam! We were at a standstill. Let me paint you a picture. I am 7 months pregnant. So about every 20 minutes I need to use the lady’s room. My two-year old is potty training, as is my sister’s two-year old. Her 4-year old had to go before we left the house and Kim had just finished a 32oz diet coke. Oh ya…problem. 3 hours later, we finally made it the 2 miles to the nearest exit with a bathroom.  That 3 hours should have tipped us off that this was perhaps a misguided trip and we would do well to tuck our tails and run for home. But again, the Nissly blood runs thick in our veins…that is to say, we are both stubborn mules who refuse to admit defeat. So onward we pressed. We made it to our hotel at 11pm, dragged our 5 children and a various array of stuffed animals, blankets and Pillow Pets into our room and passed out. We were up and on the road again by 10:30am..our planned departure time was 8am, but hey, 10:30 wasn’t too bad. After 8 bathroom stops in 3 hours, the kids finally fell asleep and we were able to “make time”.

We stopped for hot dogs at a roadside Dairy Queen stand around 7pm, made all the children use the bathroom and then packed back into the van. Figuring we would be to Ft Myers by 10pm, we hit the road with full confidence that we would be out of the car and sipping coffee with our aunt in just a few short hours. Again, warning lights should have been flashing in our heads. No sooner had we merged onto I-75, than we heard the tell-tale sound of muffled gagging. Next came a little pathetic groan and then – you guessed it – the heaving started. I peeked in the rear-view mirror only to see  my son covered in his supper. I will spare you the rest of the gory details, but will say that by the time we pulled up to my aunt’s house – at 3am -  Aidan was in the throes of a full-blown stomach flu and Jasiri had started puking, again.

Aidan and his "orange Spit" cup

This was the beginning of my “vacation”. Yay for me! Ugh!

[READ MORE: On the Road, Part 2]