Schultes Family: Texas

This post is a few months overdue...but in May we went on our second family "vacation". I have put the word vacation in quotes because it ended up being the farthest thing from a vacation as humanly possible. But I think enough time has passed and hopefully I will find some humor in the story!

I was traveling to Grapevine, Texas to attend a conference to get a few hours of continuing education credit for my CPA license. The conference was at a very large and very nice resort - the Gaylord Texan. So I thought, heck - why not bring the boys and Noi?

Insert {bad idea} here.

The story continues.

On this trip they had their own seats on the airplane and it was great to have the extra space. The boys did really well on the flight. They loved the airplane and other than refusing to use their inside voices, they did really well.

The flight and trip to the hotel went very smoothly. As soon as we arrived in our room and started to get ready for bed, Mason did this:

He laid down on the bed and said he was tired and ready for bed.

HUGE red flag!

The rest of the story involves the worst case of Montezuma's Revenge that you can imagine! I'm not sure how the boys picked it up, but thankfully Ben, Noi, and I did not get sick. I can't even tell you how many diapers we went through. Each diaper lasted seconds, or minutes. Not hours. When it first started, we set the first few diapers in the hallway because they smelled so bad. I guess others thought they smelled bad as well because the front desk called shortly thereafter and said there had been complaints about the smelly diapers.

The next morning, we took them to the minute clinic. That was a waste of time!

Poor guys, they didn't feel good and we were away from home. Their little bottoms were so sore that we couldn't even use wipes. Each changing involved the bathtub. And there was vomiting too. So we did a few loads of laundry during our "vacation" as well.

This lasted a few days. Ben had left to go to Chicago for work. (Important note: He took the rental car back to the airport with him).

By this time the boys were lethargic and acting dehydrated. Me, the first time mom that I am, started to worry. It wasn't a crazy thought either - because it had been days since they had kept anything down.It was during one of the overnights that I thought they were getting really dehydrated so I called for the closest pediatric clinic. It was nearly an hour away. And I didn't have a car. The other option was an urgent care but they didn't open until 11 am. (It was 6 am). So Noi, the boys and I headed downstairs to take a cab to the closest ER. On our way through the gorgeous and fancy hotel lobby, Prior puked evvvverywhere. I can still hear and see the vomit splattering all over the porcelain tile! Yuk! Don't worry, we quickly cleaned it up and headed to the cab.

By this time, nursing duties took priority over my education classes....

The doctor gave the boys some zofran and we headed back to the hotel. The medicine helped the vomit but not the diarrhea. That continued. The next morning we headed to the airport to catch our flight home. I had wanted to fly home earlier but was waiting for the boys to get better. This part is my favorite. We debated on how many diapers to pack in the carry on bag. Noi and I agreed on 8. That had to be enough, right? Well, between the cab ride to the airport and when we actually boarded the plane, we were on #8. There were no more "spares"! This lady has some serious anxiety as I boarded that plane. Yikes!

Thankfully, the boys slept most of the flight and we made it home successfully. I've never ever ever been so thankful to be home!

{Vacation #3 has not yet been planned!!}

Despite the sickness we did get a few pictures of the trip - most are from the beginning of the trip. The boys still talk fondly of our trip to Texas and our ride on the airplane. I guess the trip only scarred me for life - thankfully not them!