Jeremiah's First Road Trip

My mom, cousin Sabrina, her son Matthew, Jeremiah and I (Christel) all took a road trip to Tyler Texas to see Sabrina's best friend, Amanda, and her family!

We left Sunday, April 7th around 7pm and drove all the way there. My mom drove, and Matthew, Jeremiah and I were in the back. We weren't too far along when we had to pull over because Jeremiah pooped his pants. Well, that was the first thing I forgot to plan for. What do I do with dirty diapers? The diaper was horrendous so I threw it in the ditch. Some poor, poor animal is going to get quite the treat when they rip that diaper open haha! At one point I was driving and hit some animal...it looked like a cat. The stupid thing had no chance. I didn't see it until it was at the bumper and then I felt the bump.

 Because I didn't want to add too many hours to our already 15 hour long trip, I just fed Jeremiah his bottles in the carseat without stopping to burp. Which we later learned, was a big, big mistake. Jeremiah had a pretty rough night with lots of screaming. I had to go back in the backseat to calm him down and then put him to sleep. Our first stop after driving quite a few hours, I laid Jeremiah down on the changing table to change him and he stretched all the way out for a good 5-10 minutes

That night is mostly a blur, but we arrived in Tyler at like 3 I think. Before getting to tyler, we had to stop and get out for a bit because Jeremiah was not calming down at all. We pulled over at a cancer hospital campus. It was really pretty there though with tons of flowering plants, and a water fountain. We sat in a gazebo for a while and then walked up to the water. After about a half hour we continued on and we went to Eric and Amanda's house for just a bit and then went to Amanda's cafe and cake shop. It was so amazingly cute!! Amanda looked pretty tired after working all day and being 7 months pregnant! So, we let her go rest and we got checked into the hotel. The first thing I did was laid Jeremiah on the bed and laid right next to him! Boy did that bed feel good!! Then we all changed into our suits in hopes of going swimming. Little did we know, the pool water was ice cold. Jeremiah cried with just his toes in it so I wrapped him up in his robe and towel and cuddled him. The freezing water didn't faze Matthew around and he was splashing all over! Sabrina got up the guts and jumped straight in! After they splashed for a bit, we all went up to the room and took showers. That night, Sabrina went out to eat with Amanda, Matthew ate with Eric and their boys and then my mom and I were going to get Chik-fil-a but the place had a mile long line so we went to Quizno's instead. We bathed Jeremiah, fed him, and then he fell asleep around 8:30 and so we went to bed too. 

He only woke once to eat and then didn't wake for the day (Tuesday) until 7:45am. After a bit, my mom and I went to Walmart for a few things and then we waited to see what the day would hold. 

We waited for awhile for Amanda, Sabrina and the boys and we all got lunch at Chik-fil-A and then headed off to the zoo. It was a beautiful place! I thought it kinda funny that the zoo had Texas Longhorns in it even though we were in Texas! The cutest thing was seeing an Anteater with a baby on it's back. There was also a spot that had tons of parakeets and cockatiels in it. You could go in and for a dollar get a stick with bird seed on it and the birds would come and feed. It was fun! Jeremiah loved watching all the birds and then passed out on Grandma's shoulder! He woke back up near the end. He loved looking at the bright red ibis and getting to pet the goats. 

After the zoo, we met up with Eric and another lady and her 3 kids and ate at Stanley's BBQ. We ate on a deck and we thought it was funny that they had the heaters on in there, even though it was close to 80 outside at that point. The BBQ was a bit spicy for me but it was still good. After dinner, we went to Amanda's shop and had ice cream! Then we parted ways and went back to the hotel. 

We left the hotel around 9:30 Wednesday and then drove to pick Sabrina and Matthew back up to head home. Poor Matthew was pretty upset so Sabrina and I swapped places. Matthew cried hard for awhile and then ended up getting sick in my mom's cup. After he threw up, he passed out. When he woke up, he said he felt much better!! We ate lunch at Golden Corral and also fed Jeremiah. On the way back, we stopped each time Jeremiah needed to eat so he didn't end up with a major tummy ache again. It went much better!! He fell asleep around 9pm and then woke at 2am to eat. He thought it was party time and stayed up until 3am and then fell asleep and didn't wake again until Thursday 7:15am !

On the way back, my mom drove a few hours and then I took over. I drank a 5 hour energy even though I knew I'd react to it. I started itching about an hour after drinking it. After 6 hours of driving in hard rain I was getting pretty wore out. I wasn't feeling good. My stomach hurt. I had pulled over in one town to get gas but the pumps were shut off. I got upset and cried on the way to the next town. When we got to the gas station, I was so tired, tummy upset and the gas fumes did me in. I had gotten out to pump gas but had to run into the gas station where I lost my lunch and dinner. I came back to the car shaking. My mom took over and I fell asleep for a few hours. I then drove the last leg of the trip back. I think I drove about 10-11 hours on the way home! The only other time I have ever driven that long was after a trip to Nebraska when Matt was sick and I drove 9-10 hours home. We dropped Sabrina off at work, went to my mom's so Jeremiah could eat and my mom took a shower. Then we loaded back up, grabbed breakfast and got to my house around 9am. 

It was a quick trip, with some stressful times but all in all it was nice to get out of town and in some warm weather for a bit. Now, I'm just waiting for Wisconsin to get the warm temps. I also know now how to help Jeremiah for when we go to Nebraska this summer!