So 2016 has really turned into the year of the Road Trip for us. We have driven everywhere, all across the country both ways this year.

My cousin Christi and I had started putting the bug in our families’ ears back in the beginning of the year for us to all do Thanksgiving together, so when fall finally rolled around, I think everyone was so tired of us constantly bringing it up that they agreed to it just to make us be quiet. Ha! So, we got three families together – my Aunt Jill and her family couldn’t make it from Oklahoma and we dearly missed them. But it was so fun to see everyone else!

We decided to leave Tuesday right after Jon got out of work, hoping that we could get to Dallas around 1AM and that the kids would end up just sleeping for the majority of the drive.

So, obviously, Eisley woke up Tuesday morning with a super nasty diaper and proceeded to have diarrhea the rest of the morning.

I swear, we cannot just take three healthy children on a road trip. It’s just not in the cards for us. I called everyone freaking out and everyone agreed that we should just go ahead and come and they’d take their chances that maybe Eisley was just teething or something.

Little Miss looks so sweet and cute here but oy. We went through about five outfits on the way to Dallas. We had to stop multiple times just for complete outfit changes. And I was smart and lined her carseat with a plastic bag and then an old, thin but absorbent rag on top of that so she never exploded out onto the carseat. So nasty.

We drove through pounding rain and then saw some really beautiful rainbows. I personally was hoping this was a sign that the worst of the trip was over and we were in for an easy rest of it.

Or not. We got the kids into their pajamas around 8PM, got Eisley into yet another set of clothes and we were doing okay. Jon and I were doing a good job of staying alert and Christi was texting me games to keep us talking and awake. The rain and wardrobe changes had delayed us a little bit so at 1AM we were about an hour away from my Aunt Julie’s house still.

Then Nathan woke up and at the same time, threw up all over the backseat.

ALL OVER the backseat.

We immediately pulled over in the absolute middle of nowhere and it took us a good thirty minutes (in the freezing cold prairie wind) to get everything cleaned as much as we could clean with a box of baby wipes. Which, of course, woke everyone up. So Eisley just kept yelling, “DAD! DAD!” every time she saw Jon’s head pop up in the backseat.

We bagged up everything we could, I dug another pair of jammies out for Nathan and the poor guy. He was shaking so bad from the cold by this point. We bundled him up and sat him in the front seat with the heater going full blast while we finished cleaning.

We finally got back on the road around 1:45AM and tried to convince ourselves that he was just car sick from sitting in the very back for twelve hours. We had just pulled off the exit for my aunt’s house when Nathan told us he had to use the bathroom, so we pulled into a gas station that was still open and Jon ran him in. The people told them the bathrooms were closed after midnight, which is when Nathan threw up all over the floor. 🙁

We got to Julie and Clay’s house, carried Nathan in and spent the next four hours jumping out of bed every 30 minutes to get him to the bathroom in time to throw up. By 5AM, he was done dry-heaving and finally sleeping and this one started:

So, I just moved me and Parker into the bathroom. He threw up every few minutes until 9AM.

Guys, I think I cried at least three times, probably more out of exhaustion than anything by that morning. We hadn’t slept more than 20 minutes and I was just so sad for the boys. Once Parker finally stopped throwing up, Jon and I showered, washed the giant pile of sheets and towels started them a show while we went out to finally see the family.

The family was super sweet and basically just said, “If we are going to catch it, we’re going to catch it,” so we made the kids stay in the room until late Wednesday afternoon.

I was so excited – all the cousins made turkey shirts together this year! We set up giant tables in the backyard and then there were just shirts everywhere on all the patio furniture drying.

Happy Thanksgiving!! All of these cuties are kids of all of my first cousins – so I have no idea what that makes them to each other. We’re family. 😉

Three little turkeys – love this so much!

Sweet little first cousins – we missed Hudson so much!

My cousin Christi and me! I loved seeing her so much! We have done so much of life together – we grew up together, both started dating our husbands at the same time, got married around the same time, Nathan and her oldest, Trenton, are ten days apart and her younger two and mine are also super close in age. I am so thankful for her!

Silly heads at Thanksgiving lunch. Love this. Poor Jon was starting to feel bad by this point, so he spent most of Thanksgiving sleeping and not eating anything. Poor guy.

Aunt Julie and Uncle Clay live on the most idyllic property ever. We spent half of our time there just trying to figure out how we could put a house on the back pasture and just live there with them. 😉 The boys were up early every morning to go “pick the eggs” from the chickens and they basically lived outside the entire time.

Parker kept telling me, “I really wike this farm. I really wike it.” Ha! The weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire time we were there too.

Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner – my favorite part of Thanksgiving!

On Saturday, our last night there, we let Nathan stay up really late and play with all the older cousins. He was SO proud to be up so far past his bedtime. We had a big fire since all the babies were in bed and everyone roasted s’mores.

This was my favorite part of the trip – every night we would get the kids in bed and everyone would just sit on the porch with blankets under the heat lamp next to the fire and visit. We had the best time! On the last night, it was just the girls and I just loved it. I love all of these women so much!

Our trip went too fast and we were heading back home way before any of us were ready to go. Can’t wait to see our family again soon!