more vacation

Okay, I better catch up a bit. Autumn and Warren are gone at camp this week. Actually I pick them up tonight sometime although I have forgotten when so I'm expecting a phone call saying "mom, where are you." It'll be Autumn by the way. They left Monday afternoon. I honestly haven't had a chance to miss them much as I haven't been home either pretty much working all week. Elexis has made a lot of money although I don't think she really cares. She'd rather do nothing than make money babysitting - completely unlike Autumn. To back up a bit, on Wednesday we decided to let her go with a friend and her sister to Mankato and then sleepover at her house for a break. I called her about 3 or 4 times that day and texted her several times to make sure she was okay. I will go insane when the kids start driving and riding with their friends.
Okay, back to vacation as I know everyone is anxiously awaiting the rest of the story. So I believe we just finished with Wednesday and excitement over what should be a good campground situation. On Thursday, we got early. Actually Warren got up first (the one and only day all week) and made us breakfast - bacon and hashbrowns. We got the kids up about 7:00 as our goal was to be gone by 7:30. Everyone was still so tired they didn't want to eat though so all his hard work was for naught. But, no poop this morning! We had read that we needed to be at Mount Rushmore early to park in the lot or else we'd be walking miles uphill and we had already decided that there was no way this would happen. So we got there shortly after 8 and just as we were pulling up to enter the parking lot (there was a line), the traffic guy told the motorhome beside us there was no room left. I almost started crying at that moment but then he let us and all the cars past us in so we realized it was just motorhome room that was full. Whew! We decided to stay in the van awhile when we got there because what were we going to do all day there?! It's a nice place but only so much to do. So Warren got in a nap and in the meantime, Bethany managed to have her morning poop and leak all over pants. Not to get off on a tangent, but I've always used Luvs and never had problems with them leaking before so I don't understand what the deal suddenly was. But, I was prepared! I had a change of clothes along for every kid under 5 so she got her change early. Eventually the kids got restless and so we decided to go look around and see what was going on. We had seen people carrying in coolers, lawn chairs, backpacks, etc but thought we'll just come back to the van to eat so why would we need all that stuff. As we got in, we realized what was going on. People stake out their spot bright and early for the day and don't leave it. We wanted a spot in the shade but more importantly wanted a good view for the fireworks that night so Warren found us a spot in the ampitheater actually right down front. People had already filled it up from the top down but the bottom 5 or 6 rows were empty. We were a little leery as we wondered what they knew that we didn't but took what we could get as much of the surrounding grassy areas and hill and walkways were already full. It turned out to be a fine option minus the sun. So we staked out our spot at 10 that morning and stayed there all day. Warren and Autumn and little Warren all went back to the van and got our cooler, lawn chairs, blankets, and a few toys. The kids did amazingly well actually all day. Everyone got hot and several us had pretty severe sunburns but overall it was good. They had different entertainment starting at 1pm in the ampitheater so there were so things to keep everyone entertained. I thought the best were the army band that played that evening and then there were several flyovers by a B1 and B2 bomber and I don't know what else. Those were pretty cool.
So then we get to about 45 minutes before the fireworks were scheduled to start. Everyone was in a better mood again as the sun was going down and it wasn't so hot. We were enjoying the army band and all the sudden Warren says to me, "Alynda, Sam is throwing up." I look over and Warren is covered, and this isn't Anissa exaggeration, in vomit. It's on his shirt, pants, all over the ground beside him, and on the blanket from the people in front of us. Thankfully, the lady from that family was very nice and got up immediately and asked how she could help. I told her I didn't know where to start so we used babywipes (our lifesaver for the day) and wiped off Warren's arms and Sam's face and took Sam's clothes off. At that point Warren said he was just going to take Sam to the van and wait for us. I did start crying then as I told him we waited all day for the fireworks and there was no way he could leave now. He said there was no way he was going to sit in vomit filled clothes. Then I remembered we had brought with a pair of shorts for Warren too (I guess I thought maybe he would poop too) so we used the garbage bag the lady offered us and put Sam's clothes in it and Warren took it and his vomit filled chair and went back to the van to change. We just wrapped Sam up in a blanket. I took babywipes and put them down on the ground over all the vomit to try to cover up the smell (it was concrete in the rows). Then we just waited. Shortly after Warren left, Bethany burped and acted like she was going to throw up and it smelled like it so I got a plastic bag ready just in case and tried to face her in a safe direction. Warren made it back right before the fireworks so we all got to sit and enjoy them (as much as you can when you're afraid your kids are going to spew all over the whole crowd). Actually, they were pretty awesome. They were like a small town finale the whole time and then the real finale was awesome. It was impressive to see them above Mount Rushmore as well. I took a couple of pictures so maybe I'll be able to share them soon.
One funny thing to us, although not to others, was after the fireworks we knew it would be a wait before we could leave so we took our time getting out of there. Warren decided to drain the water from the cooler to make it lighter to carry and did it over the vomit to try to clean it up a bit but there was one set of people two rows down from us. We quickly realized the water and vomit it collected would reach them and so started to hurry out of there as we heard the girl say her bag was getting wet. For reference for anyone thinking of doing this someday, we waited until almost midnight before we were let out of the lot. That gave us plenty of time to think though and we decided that despite the problems, it was worth it but we probably wouldn't do it again for several years.
Quite honestly, I've already forgotten all the details but I know we had more vomit that night to deal with. I believe it came from Eli about 5 in the morning. Little Warren thought we were awful for making him continue to sleep where Eli vomited but I put a pillow over it and said to go back to sleep. Sam seemed okay until later that morning we were just getting going and all the sudden he started throwing up all over the ground again. We, especially I as I had gotten a pretty good burn on my arms and couldn't stand the sun hitting them, decided we just needed to get out of there that day and be cool. Eli gave me the idea when he was playing in the van and I asked him what he was doing and he told me that stuff we used when we were feeding Warren's cousins, it fell on the ground and he was getting it. What he meant was he was playing with the hand sanitizer (which we made the kids use after feeding the donkeys) but I found it funny it recalled them as Warren's cousins, not donkeys. So I decided everyone seemed to like Custer State Park so we would go back and be cool driving around in the van. We stopped by Walmart on the way and got gatorade, pedialyte, crackers, and popsicles as I was trying to feed the sick ones only easy stuff on their stomachs. We never did find Warren's cousins that day but did find the buffalo herd again and while it wasn't quite as much as we remembered, it was cool. On the way back though to the campground, Elexis was feeling sick and pretty soon she was vomiting too. We were somewhat prepared though and had a bucket along so she was able to use that but then she had to hold it for 45 minutes until we made it back.
I hate to cut it off for now but Bethy is pointing to her butt saying "stink" so I better investigate before it is too late.