The not-so-merry part of Christmas

Well, it was merry... except for the end...

12 hours of my life that I wish had gone a little bit differently...

The Saturday after Christmas, my Auntie Kimmy, Uncle Ken and my cousin Caitlin, who is going to school in Utah, drove to my mom's house from Atlanta, so I decided to drive down and see them. I left in the morning, just figuring I would make it a day trip... and oh waht a day it was.

My mom lives just past Charlotte in South Carolina so you really have to time the drive just right so you don't get stuck in downtown Charlotte traffic... that can be a real pain.

It was a Saturday, so I wasn't really worried about it, until I realized that Carolina was playing West Virginia in dowtown Charlotte. We hit just a little bit of traffic right in dowyown, but once they all exited to the stadium, the rest of the drive was fine.

We had a great visit and alot of fun and I remeber saying to my mom, this could be really bad because I'm going to be on the road with all the people going home from the game... little did I know just how bad it would be...

We were doing great until we were about 4 exits away from the Concord Mills. (for those of you who don't know, at Concord Mills if you're heading north, like I was, it gets really congested anyway because the highway goes from 4 lanes to 2). There was alot of traffic, but we were moving along just fine. Both kids were asleep, and were trucking right along.

Then it happened... I remember right where I was... exit 46-B, and we stopped, not crawling, but stopping. After about 10 minutes Jackson wakes up and starts crying, which makes Caroline wake up and she starts SCREAMING. I'm talking, SCREAMING bloody murder. After 45 minutes, guess where we were... exit 46-A. Thats right, not even a mile in 45 minutes. I call Cameron, and at this point I'm crying after listening to my kids scream for 35 minutes and I finally tell him that I'm just going to turn around and go back to mom's house. I call mom, still crying, and she tells me how I can get off the highway and get on an loop around the highway and get back to her house. I do that, but first I pull over so we can all calm down.

I was not prepared to stay the night away from home, so I found a CVS, they let us use the bathroom, and just walk around so my kids (and I) could get under control. I had to buy diapers for both the kids, and mom went to Walmart to buy pajamas for Jackson and Caroline. We got back in the and finally made it mom's house. Everyone ate and went to bed, seemingly happy, but it wasn't over yet...

Everone went to bad late, because we were in the car for almost three hours and only 30 or so miles from mom's house. And, we all woke up sick on Sunday morning. Jackson woke up at 3 am and never went back to bed because he couldn't get comfortable, Caroline had a terrible cold, I ahd a sinus infection, and mom had the flu. Are we home yet?!

they were sweet together on Nanay's bed Sunday morning

The best part?! We were leaving for Florida the next day... with sick mom and sick kids, but it was a wonderful trip!!!