National Lampoon's Vacation...Coffman Style!

Wowza! What a dramatic road trip. I apologize for any typos and mispellings in this entry, as I'm blogging from my iPad, which isn't quite the same as a computer. On WednesdAy morning we packed up the new SUV and hit the road. Destination: Destin, Florida. I was totally excited about taking the boys to Florida and getting away from everything. Now, however, I'm thinking that we should have turned around less than two hours into the trip... To start out trip off, Chad was getting work phone calls left and right, which was quite annoying. An expletive came out of his mouth as we re driving thru Beaumont, TX...a huge rock flew up and hit the windshield. We were thankful that it didn't shatter it, but we stll have some lovely rock chips that need to be fixed when we return to Illinois ths fall. Less than fifteen minutes after this incident, while Chad is busy fixing work drama, a cop pulls us over. Yup...nothing like going 82 in a 65. Sigh... We did get lucky, because the cop was unusually cool and let us off with just a warning.WHEW! (he did ask chad if he owned the vehicle, seeing as it had a Texas plate and chad had an Illinois license) less than five minutes later we were back on the road. Chad made me drive around 9am, and I drove until we stopped after Baton Rouge. While I was driving on a creepy bridge surrounded by swamp for 30 minutes, chad sat in the back watching Coming to America. William was crying, Cappy was whining and I was freaking the you-know-what out. Not long after we switched (and I was sitting in the back watching Austin Powers with the boys) I decided to let Willie out of his crate. Ewww! Willie had peed in his crate ad all I could smell was cat urine. Icky!!!!! Then, it started raining...and not just raining - it was pouring. This added at least an hour to the trip. After Austin Powers was over, I started watching Beauty and the Beast, and that's when the real fun began... Willie tried crawling into the back ( wher the 3rd row seat is folded down), so I grabbed the stinker and put him back in his smelly crate. He was none too happy and loud, so I let him out...to which I found that he had crapped in his crate. We quickly stopped at a gas station where Chad disposed of the cat bag. I moved back to the front seat with Cappy while Will relaxed in the second row. Before chad got back into the car, willie had made his way into the 'trunk space.'. As we were driving along a horrific smell hit me...poop!!!!!! About an hour later we finally made it to our hotel, and I had to hand carry a very mad kitty in the pouring rain. Thankfully Da, aka Rick, was there to lend a hand. Sure enough, as chad and Da were unloading the back, they found cat turds. Thankfully, William was smart enough to shit on some towels. After getting somewhat settled in, we found that Cappy had pissed on the comforter to our bed. At this point, I was really thinking that we should have just stayed in Texas. We went to the Hilton at Sandestin, where chad's parents were staying to eat dinner and enjoy the fireworks. Cindy and I stood on the balcony singing along with the music and we all did our fair share of dAncing. The fireworks were amazing, though they did frighten me at times ecause they were so close. It took us awhile to get back to our hotel, especially since we couldnt seem to find our car. (I guess this is what happens when you have a car that looks like everybody else's.) we slept in until 630, which is actually late for us and headed back to. The Hiltontogo to the beach. The beach is absolutely beautiful, but it was definitely crazy. We had the pleasure of sitting by a family with two young boys, one of which had Downs Syndrome...upon further notice, I'm pretty sure he was also autistic. I cannot even begin to describe how much I wanted to talk to him and play with him...he was so stinking cute. (thanks to Teri and Kevin who helped me become interested in special needs. Children.). I really forgot how much I miss helping kids. :-( side note...I do love my job, though. Chad and Da went golfing, and this girl doesn't have much of an attention span, so I came back to the room and took a nice long nap with my boys before we headed to Baytowne Wharf for dinner at Poppy's. We all got tshirts in Poppy's memory. It was pretty special. The piano bar no longer had dueling pianos so we came. Back to the hotel and went to bed. This is where yesterday got interesting...chad fell asleep quite quickly while I tossed and turned u til the phone rang... The had received complaints about our dog barking. Humph. Cappy was sound asleep. Yes, Cappy did bark a few times during the day - when we left him and when there was a lot of ruckus outside of our room, he's just protecting his territory for Gods sake. It was a bit irritating that they called us at 10pm regarding thus situation, especially after we heard a dog barking not long after the phone call. Definitely not Cappy, so there! It stormed pretty bad last night and we even lost power, but we finally woke up around 9am. Since it was pouring down rain, and showed no signs of stopping we made many phone calls trying to schedule couples massage for us. When we showed up, they promptly brought us mimosas and we saw an almost flaming guy who appeared to be a LMT. Yup, guess who got him!? Me, pretty sure I felt his junk a few times, but hedid a great job. The setting wasn't nearly as good as it was in Utah, but it was just what we needed. By the time we returned to our hotel, our package from the vet arrived..,no more kitty tinkle or poop in my car! Whew! I know it cost a pretty penny, but it's definitely worth it in my book. We took brief naps enforce heading to dinner with Rick and Cindy at a mexican plAce. The old was awesome. Margaritas tasted like limeade with ice...disappointing. I decided to come back to the room to be with my boys, and chad went to his parents room to hang out. Hopefully, the weather holds out tomorrow so swe can enjoy the beach on our last day. We plan on eating dinner at the beach as well. We just need to remember to pick up a new cat crate for Willie at some point tomorrow. I'm really hoping the last day goes better than the first two did, and I hope I can enjoy the beach for quite awhile tomorrow...I must get a tan!!!!!!!!! I'm sure relaxing would help me, anyway, seeing as I go back to work on Monday and have a doctors appointment on Friday. I'm excited, because I know I will be starting Clomid, but I'm nervous at the same time. As much as I want a kid, I don't want to feel like crap forever....