Ahhh...Traveling Adventures With The Ball's

Anyone who knows us already knows that we cannot take a trip ANYWHERE that doesn't involve complications. It may be a blizzard 3 days before Christmas that cancels our entire trip home, OR when we do get a flight out from the blizzard, we get stuck in Dallas in tornadoes, airport closed and we have to rent a car to drive 6 more hours to Mississippi, OR a crying 5 month old Carter who is teething, 2 howling beagles in the back, and blowing snow/ snowpacked roads on a 26 hour cross country car trip! Nothing is simple when we plan a trip. I mean, on our honeymoon, we missed or flight to St Lucia due to "sunny weather delays!" It was OK...we just spent the first day in Six Flags and went the next day! (Six Flags was all that was open on Easter Sunday in Atlanta!) Well, yesterday Carter and I were to leave at 6AM for Mobile for a trip home. I awoke about 3am after 3 hours of sleep, feeling a bit nauseated with a ridiculous headache (AKA... Migraine) I started vomiting and knew the trip wasn't going to happen...at least not at 6AM anyway! Brad called to cancel the departing flight and we were to call later in the day to reschedule. After vomiting for a while, I went to the doctor and got some IV fluids and nausea medicine and after a couple doses of Morphine for the headache, and I was ready to fly! (Or I thought I was anyway!) Carter and I got booked on the 5PM flight. (We either had to take that flight or it would be $900 more to leave another day...I don't understand airline thought!) So we left.
We had a 3 hour flight to Atlanta, and a 40 minute layover in ATL. But, we left Denver 30 minutes late because it had started snowing and we had to de-ice the plane. Ok, so that left me 10 minutes in ATL to got to my next flight! Nothing can be done in 10 minutes in ATL. I thought! My headache got worse thinking about it. The Morphine was definitely wearing off and the hangover headache from it was settling in! Carter was in the "I want to stand up the entire flight and jump like a mad woman mood!" I was hoping the breastfeeding before the flight would have just enough Morphine in it to calm Carter down and make her want to sleep for a bit on the plane! (hmmm...is that child abuse??) Luckily, I had a super nice 8 months pregnant lady sitting next to me who seemed to notice the greenish tint to my face and she offered to hold Carter for the entire flight! I felt so bad for her, but was so blessed to have her there! We arrived in ATL, and I had 6 minutes to get to the next flight! Sorry Carter, no new diaper for you! Be strong, I told her! Brad was watching all of this (the late departure from Denver, the 6 minute layover in ATL) at home from the computer. He had already called my parents and told them I probably would not be at the airport, becuase there was no way I could have made the flight. But I did!
We arrived in Pensacola about 1030pm. Ahhhh, 15 minutes early! Carter did great and slept most of the 2nd flight. I was asleep in the car before we got out of the airport parkinglot, I think!
I don't have many days that involve that much vomiting, Morphine AND a plane flight! It was definitely an adventure and I never ever want to experience it again! Luckily, Brad will be flying into town next Wednesday and we will be traveling back together!

COURAGE CLASSIC!

Mandy just flew home for the weekend -- I will join her there in a week. The flight home is another story to add to our lists of complicated trips home. That post will be the next one. For now, I would like to share that we are both training for the Courage Classic -- a fund-raiser bike ride in the Mountains around Copper Mountain. For those interested in donating, I have put the link to Mandy's donation site here. The raised funds go to The Children's Hospital of Colorado. If we can raise enough, we can earmark the funds to go to the Department of Oncology. Even if you can't donate -- check out the site. (the site is at the top of my blog) Thanks.

OH WHAT A NIGHT!!!

Tonight was memorably messy. Our 2nd anniversary is tomorrow and we decided after we had our pictures taken for the church directory we would go out to eat. We went to a place called Pappadeaux's Seafood, it is the closest thing we can get to decent seafood in this landlocked state of Colorado! Pictures went well, Carter was a ham as usual and they turned out great...no real disasters there (except the camera lady took a nasty fall while taking our pictures, but she was ok!) We got to Pappadeaux's, and as we were trying to feed Carter her Chicken and Rice baby food (which by the way smells like poo!), she is munching on a cracker and sticks it halfway down her esophagus and gags and vomits everything. "Ok, we can handle this", we thought. My white pants were still white, her super cute outfit her Grammy bought her was still pink and the bib and her socks caught most of the yuckiness. We were OK. We got our food...mmmmm...red beans and grilled tilapia for me and raw oysters for Brad. Carter is quietly playing with a toy, grunting like she often does during mealtime. (mealtime is also poo time for her!) She had thrown a leg up over the side of the highchair and looked comfortable until I looked in the highchair seat only to find a big pile of POO under her right leg! AHHHH! I wondered if she even had a diaper on! We had just been talking about how we thought she needed more prunes in her diet to help her poo. AHHH!! "What do we do", we kind of sat and looked at each other for a minute or two and then Brad reached for the baby wipes in the diaper bag. Oh no...we were OUT! I had used the last of them at the church for what I thought was the "poo of the night". Boy, was I wrong. Her pink outfit and both legs were covered in poo too! I went to the car, got her other outfit I had for backup in times like this, and luckily I had a box of wipes in there. I also disposed of the vomit filled socks and shoes while I was there. I came back in and Brad had cleaned the chair as best he could, but they has sat another couple right next to us. He looked like he was about to vomit from the smell! I got her to the bathroom as quickly as I could without being too obvious and trying not to get poo all over me! She got a wipe bath and we were back to the table like nothing ever happened. Except now she was super fussy because we had passed that critical time of 8pm when she either melts down or goes to sleep. She melted down. When we finally finished dinner, we were suprised to find that the bill did not include the hazardous waste removal fee that we expected! We are all good now, Carter had a bath and is sleeping well! (And my pants are still white!) We are happy to report we do not have any pictures to post from tonight's events!

Snow day!

It snowed here today, so Carter and I were stuck in the house all day. We have tons of pictures from our snow day! Bath time was especially cute!

8 Months Old!

Carter is now 8 months old! She is getting so big so quickly! She started crawling about 3 weeks ago and has not stopped since. She is pulling up in her crib to stand. It will not be long and she will probably be walking. We have had some good days in Denver lately. The weather is nice about 4 days of the week, it is freezing the other 3 days! On the nice days we go to the park and swing for a while. Carter LOVES the swings! While she swings, she claps her hands and is so proud of herself. We are looking forward to going home to Alabama and Mississippi next week for a much needed family visit! Brad and I hope to take Carter to the beach for her very first time! We have a swimsuit and hat all ready to go!

The Carter Crawl