Worst Vacation Ever?

I don't even know where to begin with this post. I thought that I would have been summing up our LA vacation much differently when we planned this trip. I thought I would have used the words, "insanely awesome" to recap our trip. Insane it was, but in an epically disastrous way. Even though every vacation with kids seems to have mishaps, hiccups, and things that go not as planned this particular one seemed to reach a pinnacle for us.

Let's first start with before we even left for LA on Saturday morning. Friday night, Whitaker came down with a fever. He was out for the count, asleep on our bed by 5:30 pm. I was crestfallen that he got sick the night before our vacation. I asked Pearson if we dare cancel and he was emphatic that that was silly. I did agree at the time. When we woke up on Saturday morning at 5:30, Whitaker seemed in decent spirits. We got off to the airport without a hitch. The flight was a breeze and we landed in LA to beautiful weather. Pearson and I thought we had this one in the bag. Looks like fate had other plans in store for us. 

The next day and half we had the opportunity to hang out with our friends Adam, Sigrid, and their son Felix. It was great to see their house, catch up with them, have some great California food, soak up lots of vitamin D and see what life would be like with young kids in a sunny climate. 

After we landed we headed to the Rose household. After a great lunch at Oinkster, we headed to Pasadena to where the Rose Bowl is housed to go to a great park that had a pirate ship and water feature. That night we got to have some adult time by going out for dinner and drinks. All in all a pretty great day. 

The only big disasters on the first day were a couple of poop problems - totally understandable when flying. Mae pooped in her underwear at the park. Since I had no new underwear for her I had to put a diaper on her, where she proceeded to take the nastiest smelliest poop in a diaper. Why did she poop in the diaper? I don't know but it was disgusting. Whitaker had the opposite problem. He couldn't go to the bathroom and was quite upset by it all. Pearson and I had to go in and help him get it out. Again, disgusting but necessary. Once he passed his poop he seemed very relieved and was his old self. 

Mae pooping. I knew she was doing it by how she decided to squat and her face. 

Whitaker excited about the minivan we got. 

Sunday, despite waking up at 5:30 am with Whitaker, was another sunny and 70 degree day, which equals a great time. I went for a run and then we all headed to Griffin Park to go to the Travel Town Museum. It is a great park, where kids can play on real trains and take a ride on a miniature train. Although as you can tell from the photos below, Whitaker developed a rash on his face. I was pretty concerned but Pearson brushed it aside as some zits. I agreed that I was probably being a little hyper worried about it. 

Trying to get a group shot. 

Ruby, the Rose Family dog. When Whitaker met him for the first time he freaked out and cried and cried. I don't think he knew that it was a dog and wondered what the heck it was. He wouldn't even go near him and freaked out every time he came in the room. 

After a day and a half they were friends. 

We took the Rose Family Christmas card photo. 

Then Sunday night came and never ended. Whitaker was a little out of sorts and didn't want to go to sleep despite repeated attempts. We threw everything we could at the problem. Lots of back and belly rubbing, lots of rocking, even trying to get Whitaker to sleep with us. I thought no biggie we will keep him up much longer than expected and let him play. I thought he was just having a hard time settling down. At about 9:30 pm, we tried to put him down for the 3rd time, and we tried and tried and tried. This was so out of character for him. Everyone else was in bed and asleep. We knew we were keeping everyone else up. Did I mention that Sigrid was pregnant and that they both are teachers and had to go to work the next day? 

After Whitaker crying for an hour and half straight and us walking the house and going in various rooms, I told Pearson that maybe the best thing would be to put him in the car and drive him around. Ok, I don't think I told him I am pretty sure I yelled at him. Pearson did it and he fell asleep for a few minutes but when they stopped so that Pearson could sleep he woke right back up. I was convinced he had an allergic reaction to something because he kept grabbing his feet so we decided to hit a 24 hour CVS to purchase some kids allergy medicine. We left the house and I was stressed the whole time that if Mae woke up that she would freak out since we didn't tell anyone we were leaving. We gave Whitaker some of the medicine, went back to the house and tried to settle him again. He managed to doze off for a half hour, then awoke in a craze. We were able to calm him down after 30 minutes and got him to sleep for another hour, after he woke up again in a crying fit. 

At 5 am, we said eff it and went to find ourselves an urgent care. We were there for about an hour and half to be told that Whitaker has hand, food, and mouth disease. A virus that Mae has also had but not nearly as severe as Whitaker's case. The best thing [insert sarcasm] since it is a virus there is NOTHING they can do for them. 

Even though we only slept a total of 2 hours Pearson and I agreed to push our sleepiness aside and get ready to enjoy the happiest place on earth for Mae. We were both so excited to see her reaction to the home of Mickey and Friends and all the princesses that we ourselves were giddy. All seemed ok when we parked and waited for my cousin to get us into the park. (Did I mention we were getting in for free because a family member of ours works there). Mae didn't seem as excited as I would have expected but I brushed this aside as her being overwhelmed by all the sights. 

This sign says, "Let the Memories Begin." Yeah, you bet ya Disney. 

On the monorail. 

And then this happened.

Mae started getting feverish and became totally unresponsive. She fell asleep on Pearson's shoulder while waiting for our first official ride - Dumbo. She kept repeatedly kept asking to go home. 

Whitaker on the other hand screamed the entire ride of Dumbo and tried to jump out. It took everything I had to hold him. I did manage to get one photo of him trying to get off. 

We managed to carry her throughout the park for another couple of hours while Whitaker screamed  hysterically in the stroller. We didn't ride on any other rides and Mae freaked out when Goofy came up to us to say hello. We did manage to meet Ariel and the Fairy Godmother, which was at my insistence but Mae was totally mute the whole time, which is so unlike my child.

Mae drinking some lemonade. I was hoping all the sugar might pep her up. 

Whitaker was enthusiastic for this car that was about the only thing. 

Meeting Ariel. 

Meeting Cinderella's Fairy Godmother. I wish she could have whipped up a spell to  make both of our kids healthy. 

Here are photos of Mae seeing her idol, Mickey, as we were making our way out of the park after only 3 hours. As you can tell, she didn't even care despite her talking about meeting the real Mickey the whole way to the park.

We decided to buy Mae a Minnie doll because we thought she deserved a souvenir to remember her trip. This is us waiting for the tram to head back to the car.

We then had five hours to kill before our flight home. I gave Mae a big dose of medicine and she took a two hour nap in the car. She seemed to be a bit better when she awoke and we actually managed to hit a park for 30 minutes. By the time, we got to the airport she was a mess again and after the plane took off she collapse into a chair by two random folks and passed out. Whitaker was an animal on the plane for the first hour and half and was generally disruptive. About 30 minutes before landing we were FINALLY able to get him to sleep.

The icing on the cake of the trip. After we landed and were taxing to the gate, Mae woke up from her fever induced sleep (mind you she was back in our row). She started uttering a million things, including that she needed to use the bathroom. Before we knew it, she peed all over herself, us, and the seats. Thank god for pashmina scarves! I soaked it all up and put a new pair of pants on her. She then cried all the way through the airport, to baggage claim, to getting on the shuttle to get our car. She then conked out again on the shuttle.

Pearson and I got home, threw the kids in bed, and poured ourselves some drinks. We said, "If we can survive that vacation, we can survive any other vacation." I am just hoping this is the worst of "any other vacation."