After an insane(and slightly depressing December, filled with Covid tests and quarantines- we decided to take insane to the next level. Insanity in my mind=deciding around December 20th, after boys got out of a 15 day quarantine on the 17th, that we should road trip to Florida the day after Christmas at 4am. When I say it like that, it kind of sounds spontaneous. Yeah, we did that, all 5 of us plus a pup. For my 40th. Why? Because sunshine feels good, my kids and their cousins have the best time together, sunshine feels good, we could spend time with my dad, my sister and brother in law and all the nieces and nephews, and sunshine feels good.

We had a few issues along the way, like any good adventure story does. One issue was that one child woke up with a stomach ache. We kind of chalked it up to eating too much junk the week before Christmas and then not getting enough sleep that night. Well, perhaps we should have listened a little better to that child and maybe we could have avoided the vomitting that ensued within 5 minutes of leaving our house. Not to worry, we had plenty of barf bags, or so we thought. Well along came issue number 2… The pup helped herself to ALL of the chocolate chip pancakes on Christmas morning… ALL of them(my fault, mama guilt big time!)While we hoped that her stomach was made of steel, we were proven wrong, very, very wrong. Both boy and pup vomited for the first 6 hours of our car ride. Let me say that again to drive that point all the way home-6 HOURS!! Kenny and I didn’t know what to do. By the time we got to New York we were still contemplating turning around. But what would that leave us doing that whole week at home? A whole lotta nothing-so we did the next best thing. Dramamine at the first rest stop and hours later when it seemed like they had nothing left in them to make them sick, benadryl for the boy and benadryl in a scoop of peanut butter for the pup. And so began the rest of an uneventful and quiet car ride. Silver lining-nobody got car ride munchies as vomit is a great appetite suppressant. Don’t try to tell me any different because it is 100% true!

After 28 hours, overtired and slightly delirious, we were in sunny, gorgeous Florida for my 40th birthday. I rubbed my weary eyes as I’d been wearing my contacts for about 30 hours at that point, gave everyone giant hugs, started a load of laundry for every blanket in the car that could retain the smell of vomit, showered and felt brand new and ready to celebrate 40!

The rest of our week was filled with pool time, backyard trampoline, trying to keep two pups from wrestling 24/7, a trip to the zoo, an afternoon at the movies watching Spiderman, a visit with my best friend, some good Florida runs in 70 and 80 degree weather, mornings at the most amazing dog park EVER, trampoline park, scrabble, scattegories, card games, evening screen time and movie nights, an oreo Christmas house decorating contest, a fantastic and romantical date night away with Kenny, dancing under the stars to a song we never heard before, a beach day, spying Orion’s belt in a clear Florida sky, and a New Years Eve fire pit. I am sure there is more to tell. But that is a snippet of how my family and I rang in the New Year and the start of my 40th year. Blessings upon blessings and silver linings in all the spaces in between.

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