Making Memories

My family and I had the opportunity to travel to New Hampshire this weekend to attend a family wedding. In light of my mother-in-law's recent passing, attendance was important for my husband to be around family. I wasn't happy about the trek, especially since my oldest son had been sick just a day or two prior to our scheduled departure. When he gets sick, he's really sick and it usually takes him longer to kick something. The idea of making him travel so many hours in a car was not comforting.

A scheduled trip to the doctor confirmed he was ok at present and there was no reason he couldn't make the trip. Call it mom knowing best but I still was not confident when trying to make a decision with my husband about who should attend. Should we all still go? Should I stay behind with the kids? My husband made it clear that he really wanted us to go together. Under normal circumstances, I'd be fine. Afterall, I loved this side of his family and knew it would be a lot of fun. My babies are a different story though.

We braved the roads on Friday evening and much to our surprise, traffic was fine and moving. All was well except for the baby who was crying and awake for several hours. Despite our best efforts to entertain, feed and change him, we were not successful. Exhausted, we arrived at our destination at 12:45 am reassured once again, that our infant son does not like to travel. He still wouldn't go to bed once we were getting settled and once he did, he only slept for about 2 or 3 hours.

We managed to get to the ceremony, albeit late. We made it to the reception and the older one was having a blast, the little guy was looking tired. He eventually fell asleep. Whew! One down. Only one to chase! We made it through dinner and all of the sudden the little one woke up and was crying and burning up with fever. I took both boys back to the hotel and we no sooner were under way when the little guy started vomiting after I had made a stop at a drug store for some fever medicine.

I saw this coming! I was bummed that I had made them travel. My oldest still looked so run down even though he was having fun. My little one was so sick and just wanted to lay down on my chest and not move. I settled them into bed and snuggled with them both. My husband stayed behind at the wedding. I wanted him to be there. I am not going to say I was thrilled, but it was the right thing to do.

In the morning, everyone was fine. No fevers, no vomiting. We attended a picnic at my husband's uncle's house where the bride and groom and more family were gathering. It was great to see my oldest son running and playing with other kids and the baby was gaining adoring fans with each smile. My husband was thankful and so were his uncle, aunt and cousins that we were able to stick it out despite the circumstances.

We started our way back home and stopped off in North Jersey to see my sister (who graciously fed us) and to stretch and change the kids into pajamas. In the end, it was all worth it. It meant so much to everyone and we all got to enjoy being together. I am sure my oldest son will have fond memories of it all. He doesn't seem to forget anything. We have to keep on keeping on and sometimes it's hard with little ones, but in the process, we're carving out our family tapestry and it will be beautiful, even with some not so perfect pieces.

It was labor well worth it for this holiday weekend!

Happy September!
-Andrea