You might know that this last week my family spent days on the sandy shores of Bear Lake. It is a time honored family tradition and one of my favorite parts of the entire year, despite our bad luck. I tell you, every year there is something that happens to potentially spoil our fun. Several years ago we were nearly rained out, my brother sleeping in a puddle on the floor of my parents' tent. Just last year Superman and I left our sleeping bags home entirely and there was a fearsome windstorm. So what, you might ask, was the sour luck on this trip? Honestly, the weather was good, the food was good, we had all of our supplies.Victory!!! So what was it? What was our bad luck? It happened on our last night and carried through our drive home. It was a sad, crying boy.
Our Littleman was a champ for almost the entire vacation. The drive up was, as expected, uncomfortable and a little whiney, but nothing unbearable. He stumbled and fell a lot around camp, caking himself in dust and dirt, but that never kept him down for long. He could spend hours on end sitting on the beach, in the sand, playing with the sand and his toys. Those first nights he got a full rest and so did his mommy and daddy. He ate. He drank a ton of water. He splashed. He was amazing. Then that last night, the day of packing up, and the drive home we were dealing with a mini-terrorist.
The horrible started around 2 a.m. when he woke up calling for me, getting louder and louder, until I pulled him out of his playpen and into my sleeping bag. I'll tell you this, sleeping with a toddler in a sleeping bag built for one is a nightmare. I was sweaty, I was tangled, I was twisted, and I was getting a mean kink in my neck. Around 4 a.m. I ended up being able to put him back in his bed, but by then I was wide awake for a couple more hours before nodding off.
Then came the meltdowns. Everything he couldn't have resulted in croc tears and banshee wails. Every trip or tumble was the end of the world. Every moment he was not in Bapa's arms was hellacious and teeth-grinding. I never thought we were going to make it through the morning. We had to get everything cleaned up and out of our campsite before 11 a.m. and with this tottering, weeping kid around no one was getting much done.
The car ride was next--the longest drive I have ever been on, and it was only from camp to the gas station in a town an hour away. Once we filled up I switched with Superman so I could drive and he could try his hand with the howler monkey in the backseat. I had almost completely lost it until I finally tossed another binky into the back seat. "Try this," I nearly hollered, while clenching down on my teeth. "He already has one," came Superman's desperate protest. "Yes, but it might distract him," I responded and changed lanes with a slight jerk. So he handed it over and the crying silenced. YES!!!
Turns out it was one of his molars coming in. Not my fave, but pretty good considering it was the only dark spot on our family vacation this year. We had so much fun bumming at the lake, making smores, and spending time with family. Despite all of the unlucky, it was another great trip--just like every year before it.
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