Trip to KS...twice!

Labor Day weekend we traveled to Kansas to visit Grandma and Grandpa!  Darin's mom was recovering from surgery and we were really looking forward to visiting them at home since being released from the hospital.  

It's about a 6 hour drive from our house to theirs.  We had wanted to try a trip some time where the kids could sleep...you know, leave later...they sleep the whole way, we put them to bed when we get there...etc. etc.  Well, let's just say, we will NEVER attempt that again, for sooooo many reasons.

We had a wonderful time with family once we finally got there and I almost hate to post anymore than that and take away from our precious memories...but this post just wouldn't be complete if I 

didn't tell the w-h-o-l-e story.

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Isn't this picture so sweet?!  All three kiddos sounds asleep.  So peaceful.  

Success, right?  Wrong!

This picture was taken in our driveway at 2:30 a.m. after we had driven 6 hours...nowhere.

Yep.  

See the bag below, sitting on our kitchen counter...all alone in the dark at 2:30 a.m.?

Well, we made it 3 hours into our trip and when we stopped to give Tessa her night-time meds...there were no meds...there was no bag.  

The ONE BAG...out of all of the bags that got put in the car...that can't be left behind...indeed, was inadvertently left behind.

For starters, we left waaaay too late in the evening.  Somewhere around 8:00 pm.  Packing for us is no joke.  By the time we get all of Tessa's necessary equipment, bedding, medicine, etc. it's hard to even care if we got what we needed for ourselves.  Traveling with stuff for an infant is hard enough...traveling with all the necessary stuff for Tessa makes it all just a wee bit harder.  It kept getting later and later, but Darin and I both still had the energy to go, so we just went ahead with it.

The first hour was torture.  For Weston.  Poor little buddy must just be terrified of the dark in a moving vehicle.  He could not get a grip.  After 40 minutes into the trip, we found a gas station and stopped and got our little buddy out and walked around.  I mentioned to Darin that this all felt wrong and that it felt like we should just go back and try again in the morning.  But again, we both had the energy, we were already packed and already on the road...so we plunged ahead.  We made a couple more stops for feeding and potty breaks and then made it to about our 1/2 way point around 11:45 p.m.  Making what we hoped was our last stop before we finally finished up the trip, is when it happened.

Parker and I ran into a McDonalds that was still open, while Darin was going to get Tessa's night-time meds ready to give her  in the car so we could just put her straight to bed when we got to KS.  As Parker and I are walking back to the car I see Darin - white as a ghost - with his hand on his head.

D: "Did you get the bag?"  Me: "What bag?"  "OH MY GOSH are you KIDDING ME?!?!"

D: "I can't find it anywhere. It must still be on the kitchen counter."

Me: "Wow."  "Oh my goodness, wow." "Well, let's go."

There was no decision to be made.  There's was nothing else to talk about.  Tessa had to have her night-time meds and we had to have that bag of all her meds for the weekend.  The contents of that one bag cannot be replaced...and we cannot do without it.

I couldn't even talk, because it all just made me want to cry...and if I would have cried, I wouldn't have been able to see to drive and it was already challenging enough to drive in the pitch dark after midnight.  I said lots of prayers that God would help us get home safely.  At that point, that was really all that mattered.
At one point I think I muttered; "I don't know if I can do this all over again tomorrow...I just don't know."  

Well, tomorrow came with a bright shiny sun and a very perky and well-rested Parker running in our room saying "Get Up" "Wake Up" "Do some exercise or whatever you need to do to get up and get ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa's!"  "Get-up Get-up!!"
We can ALWAYS depend on our Parker Gage to get things moving in the right direction ;)

A picture of the medicine bag IN THE CAR might just become a thing!

We arrived and the very first moment was captured and priceless. 

The rest is beautiful history and memories :)

~Whitney