Road Trip

Last week, Jeff, Michael and I took a trip out to Colorado. Jeff needed a break from stressful work, and I'm always up for an excuse to visit my parents.

Unfortunately, the weather was against us. It seemed like we couldn't have planned a worse week to travel East. Not wanting to let a little snow and high wind deter us, we decided to drive I-80 through Wyoming for an easier trip.

With the promise of bad weather ahead, we took the drive slow and easy, stopping in Rock Springs, WY for the night when Jeff got tired. The next day (after a Terrible continental breakfast from Days Inn -they should be ashamed of themselves), we fully expected to get to Colorado Springs by early evening. Instead, when we reached Laramie, WY, we found all roads East closed down due to winter conditions and crashes.

After waiting on a standstill freeway (twice, because we are just that smart) we opted for a hotel room to wait it out. We all took a four hour nap and decided it would be easier just to leave in the morning. Even though the freeway was open by that point, it looked like the weather was going to clear up the next day. If we had a chance to drive in the sun, we were going to take it.

Finally, almost two full days after we started our trip, we made it to Colorado Springs. My family was very happy to see us.

My mom let us ditch Michael on her while we got the grand tour of their new house. It is absolutely amazing. Jeff and I were duly impressed. They should put up a picture tour on their blog the next time they're at a loss for a subject (hint hint). I'm excited that the next time we visit them, they'll be in that house. I'm not so excited for the dirt roads and hills we'll have to venture with our little car.

Michael loved playing with Ki and Tess again. Now that he can crawl everywhere, he's even more interesting than he was before. Tess kept running up to me to point out "baby Michael" as she followed him around the house. Ki did get a little jealous when Michael got too close to Amy. "My Amy", he told Michael, pushing his hands away from his favorite sister.

Unfortunately, with only a day and a half visit, we weren't able to find time to play shang hi rummy, but we did find time to visit the ER with our little boy. It sounds a lot worse than it really was. I had noticed Michael was a little hot earlier in the day, but it wasn't until evening that I felt the need to take a temperature. It was high enough the on call pediatrician thought I ought to take him in to an urgent care clinic, which were all closed. With us traveling the next day, we didn't want to take any chances and took him to our only other option, the emergency room.

They didn't know what was wrong with him. Maybe a virus. Basically all we could do was keep his fever under control with infant ibuprofen and tylenol.

We weren't looking forward to driving 10 hours with a sick baby, but what could we do? So we bid adieu to my family and started out. The good news is that we made the trip in less than a day. We did have to stop a lot to take care of a very cranky boy. Giving him medicine, trying to get him to eat, or letting the poor kid stretch his legs. Jeff and I switched off sitting in back trying to entertain him while he cried at us. My favorite part was when he slept.

To make a long, terrible trip short, we finally made it home. It took less than 12 hours and I only saw one deer. Thankfully, it was contemplating death from the other side of the railings.

I did bring my camera with me, but the only time I thought to get it out was when Jeff was bouncing Michael on the trampoline. I'm a little embarrassed that with everything that happened on the trip, this is all I've got, but you have to admit they're pretty cute pictures:

And a video!: