Birthday in two takes...

Earlier this year Clare had to have her birthday celebration on a road trip home from Utah.  We thought Adell needed to have a turn celebrating in the car.  Really, her birthday just fell on the Sunday after Thanksgiving when we needed to drive home from Ben and Charity's house.  

To set the stage, Will and I were up all night with Colter.  He had a tummy ache and was threatening vomit all night.  We were up and down and up and down again.  After the second round, I told Will to stay asleep as he was going to be the driver the next day and I could sleep in the van. Colter and I stayed up with his tummy ache.  He kept asking me to stay with him and I kept insisting I wouldn't leave.  At one point he thought a bath would help him feel better.  I got him in the tub and gave a big yawn.  My sweet boy said "Mom, you can go to bed and rest.  I can take care of myself now."  So sweet, but there was no way I was leaving him to take care of himself.  It was a long night.

In the morning, I suggested we stay at Ben and Charity's for the day and let all of us rest up.  Traffic would be awful and we all had crappy night's sleep.  Will thought it would be better to get on the road so off we went.

We left early so we could make it to Vegas in time for breakfast.  We went to a place called Hash Hash a Go Go.  We got there just before the breakfast rush.  It was perfect timing!  We all ordered and nearly ate too much food.  Colter still was feeling bad with his tummy ache.  We ate, wished Adell a Happy Birthday and got back on the road.

To no one's surprise, traffic was horrendous.  Every couple of hours we handed Adell a present to open for her special day. 

Colter threw up a few times...sorry environment, I had to throw a barf bag out of the window once.

Adell ended up getting two birthday meals on our drive, breakfast at the hash house and dinner at Panda Express.  The whole drive ended up taking 14 hours...it was hard.  Adell was pretty depressed about her birthday.  We hoped to be home (leaving at 7 am) by 8:00 or so with time to give Adell a little celebration at home.  It was not meant to be.  We rolled in just before 10 pm, exhausted and sick of the van.

Since Adell was so sad about her birthday in the van we recelebrated Monday night.  She reopened her presents and we had cake and ice cream.  She was happy with the do-over.

Happy Birthday Adell Becci, nine years old looks good on you!