Every year the kids and I like to spend time with my sister Em and her family in Missouri. Em and I are only 18 months apart in age, so our kids are pretty close in age too. We did not grow up with close cousin-friends, and when our big kids were babies, we decided that we want our kids to be as good of friends as we are. The flaw in this plan occurred when Jeff and I moved away from Missouri all the way out to Washington state when I was pregnant with Jay. How do you cultivate cousin-friendships across 2,000 miles? The answer is simple [on paper]: VISIT!
Over the past few years, I have driven 2,000 miles alone with my kids three times to visit our Mo-fam, and this year the kids were already making plans for our visit to Missouri the minute our family reunion ended this summer. Mission accomplished: the cousins are BUDDIES. Problem: that drive is HARD. I started feeling anxious and stressed about it MONTHS in advance.
Part II. Solution
An unplanned/last resort internet search revealed a set of plane tickets that cost the same as driving for 30 hours. The low fare was only available during January, though, instead of our usual visit-time of March. I can work with that! After a quick conference with Jeff and a phone call to Em, I purchased four plane tickets to fly from Seattle to St. Louis, staying from January 13-20. My anxiety melted away in anticipation of our week-long visit. Thanks to Martin Luther King Day, Jay and Rose only had to miss four days of school instead of the extra week we had to take off last year to accommodate the drive.
Part III. Flying
Jeff drove us 3 hours to the Seattle airport on Saturday, January 13th. Our flight was only 3 hours and 40 minutes! So half of the travel time was spent in the car. Who cares! We left home in the morning and arrived at the cousins' house nine hours later. I call that a win, although poor Jeff got the short end of the stick since he had to drive himself another three hours home after he dropped us off at the airport, then repeat that six hour round trip in the car the next Saturday when he picked us up. But his patience is boundless and he didn't even ask me to drive once. It was such a novelty to go all the way to Missouri in nine hours and without ever sitting behind a steering wheel. I'm hooked, Alaska Air!
For our luggage, we each carried one backpack with clothes and entertainment inside. I avoid checking bags because it's such a hassle, and I was pleased that we all managed to bring what we needed for the week (with one laundry day) in our small backpacks. Even Amber carried her own pack. I mostly pushed Amber in an old umbrella stroller to keep her contained in the airport, and it turned out to be just what her tired sick little body needed.
It was Amber's first time on an airplane and she was happy as a clam. Jay and Rose got shuffled to seats a few rows in front of Amber and me, but they did so well and I was impressed with their independence. The last time we flew in an airplane together, Rose was only 2. But she handled the experience like a pro. Big kids are awesome. Amby carefully read all of the flight safety information cards and then snuggled onto my lap for a 90 minute nap. She was hot with a fever for the rest of the flight, which was sad but also convenient for me. I had nearly four hours of quiet reading time all to myself! (one of my favorite parts about flying)
Part IV. We learn why January plane tickets are so cheap
No sooner did we arrive at chez Broadbent than the sicknesses attacked. Rose got a fever, Amber kept her fever for a day, and I came down with strep throat. Rose and Amber felt better after a day, but I didn't. After two days of misery, I went to urgent care and found out I had strep throat. They gave me a prescription for some very effective antibiotics and I started feeling better soon after. Two days after their fever, the girls broke out in a strange blistery rash on their faces. Rose got one blister, but Amber was slammed with a face-full. Google helped us determine that it was hand-foot-mouth disease, and there was nothing we could do except wait it out. Amber kept scratching her rash and making it bleed till she looked like a burn victim. Poor girl!
Meanwhile, cousins Steve and Chase both came down with different sicknesses: Steve got influenza B and Chase got strep throat (Em took them to the doctor). We picked up an impressive package of medicine at the pharmacy! Our sister in law Dani was planning on joining us for some sister-time, but we warned her of the plagues circulating the house and she cancelled her flight to protect herself and 2 year old Derek. It was a bummer! We resolved never to get together in January again!
Em took care of her sick sister and four sick kids, miraculously staying health herself. Jay, Dan, and AJ also avoided the sicknesses somehow, but the rest of us sure were miserable for a few days there! We laid around watching endless episodes of Scarecrow and Mrs. King while the kids had free range on the Wii upstairs. It was a very chill week--literally for the first half: the temperature hovered in single digits and the wind chill was negative for the first four days of our visit. So we would not have gone outside even if we had been healthy. I have to say, hanging out with my sister was the most fun I've ever had being sick!
Part V. Emerging
By Thursday, the temperatures were on the rise and we bundled the invalids outside for some fresh air, half an hour at a time. Friday was even warmer and they were healthier, so they played outside longer. Saturday they were outside the longest. It got up to 60 degrees and we were all loving life in the sunshine. I even went on a convalescing half hour jog because I couldn't resist the weather! At one point, poor scabby-faced Amby managed to faceplant off of the play set in the back yard, and came sobbing back to the house dripping blood from all of her facial sores. It was a mess. She was in rare form, just in time for our flight home.
Saturday afternoon, we packed up and Em drove us back to the airport (with an obligatory stop at Chick-Fil-A on the way), and reversed our journey homeward. It was harder heading home because:
- The pre-trip excitement was gone
- I got seats for all of us to sit together, so my four hours of quiet reading time was punctuated with a million wiggles, questions, and comments from my three tagalongs.
- Amber was not sick, but she looked like she had been dragged across a gravel road facedown with her oozy red rash. Thankfully I only had to field one question about her condition!
Jeff picked us up at the Seattle airport at 10pm local time (midnight central time, which we had acclimated to over the week). Jeff manfully drove us straight home three hours through the dark mountains. We stumbled the kids into bed at 1am local time (3am central time) and then collapsed into bed ourselves. Morning came all too quickly. But tadaa! We did a MO-trip in one week!
Part VI. Pictures
Possibly the only perk of being sick for half of our trip was I took less pictures and therefore had far fewer images to sort through when I got home. I still think I got a good photographic sampling of our trip. You know you take too many pictures when 45 pictures in a week counts as "hardly any." Hah!
Picnic lunch on the floor of the crowded Seattle Tacoma airport. Probably where we picked up all of our germs, come to think of it.
Riding the shuttle train to our gate at the airport.
We met up with the cousins at Chick-Fil-A on our way home from the airport. Em didn't tell her kids that we were coming, so it was fun to surprise them. And then the kids had ice cream for dessert, of course. Ah, the sweet calm before the storm of sicknesses. This was the last time we all went anywhere for the rest of the week.
Video games by day. It seems so lame and boring to me, but these kids have the best time talking and discussing and inventing when they play these games together!
Video games by day, movie by night. That was our pattern.
Dan ate endless quantities of these triple decker Eggo waffle whip cream syrup sandwiches and never got sick. He schooled Jay in the fine art of waffle-wich construction and Jay never got sick. Maybe they were on to something: immune system boosting waffle sandwiches!
Another day: video games by day...
...movie by night. Uncle Jesse is such a fun guy and piled as many kids as wanted to into his bed and watched a movie with them one night.
The Rash of Doom begins. I texted our doctor more times during one week than I have during the past three years combined!
Bandaids and neosporin protected the worst of the scabs.
Seriously! It was a massive rash and Amber would not stop scratching it.
Rose must've had the same Hand Foot Mouth disease as Amber, but Rose only got one little blister on her face. So delicate. She judiciously resisted scratching it and it faded much faster than Amber's affliction.
Every time I put the bandaids on Amber's face, I thought of Dr. Poison from Wonder Woman. Poor little girl!
The rash yesterday and today. Slowly healing.
The cousins-twins. I have no clue how AJ did not catch Amber's plague. This visit was the first time these two actually played nicely together for brief spurts of time. They have never gotten along before! I was hoping that AJ would teach Amber the fine art of using the potty while we were together, but alas, Amber's sickness made her unwilling to absorb new information.
Breakfast buddies. Crazy hair, sunshine, and a few days of antibiotics in my system finally induced a morning smile. And AJ smiles every time a camera is pointed at her--the true daughter of a professional photographer. Em has trained her well.
We went to the movies one night and saw The Greatest Showman. It was fantastic! We had to document the event with a selfie because it was literally the only time we went OUT all week to a non-doctor/pharmacy destination.
You know it's been cold when 30 degrees feels warm.
These sisters: it did my heart good to see them smile in the sunshine.
Amber loved AmyJane's sports car. It was hilarious and a tad stressful watching her figure out how to drive it. Let's just say the concept of a steering wheel was not intuitive for Amber.
Em only got out the big guns (aka her pro camera) once, for a quick cousin picture before we left on Saturday.
Jay and Dan were not in the mood for a group picture on Saturday, but we forced them into it for posterity.
And this was the best we could do. Jay dropped Amber and she started crying. Since she was recovering from sickness, she was extra sensitive and would not stop crying once she started. So this is the picture of the year right here. I can't help but think it kind of describes the week quite well: not feeling great, but glad to be together.
Photo shoots with seven kids fall apart quickly.
The girl-cousins had to have a picture. Em took all of these on her professional camera, so eventually we'll have prettier ones than my background snapshots.
Photo-reward: cookies!
Sister Selfie! We are so different: both physically and personality-wise. It really makes no sense why we are such good friends, but we are. I love my sister!
Also of note, Em had to take over the selfie operation because I have issues making my face look normal while I'm concentrating aiming the camera in the right direction. Hah!
On our way through the airport, we happened upon a roomy family restroom, and took advantage of it, luggage and all. Nothing says family bonding like taking turns on a single toilet.
Amber climbed all over the seats while we waited for our plane.
Rose sat across the isle from the rest of us on the flight home. It was a pretty empty flight, with tons of empty seats.
Amber, eating all her snacks before take-off. Typical.
We were the last ones off the plane since we sat in the very last row. It was actually kind of nice not to feel that unspoken pressure from people waiting on us to get off the plane. We took our time and waved at the captain on our way out.
