When you gotta go...

When you gotta go you gotta go. I know that for the most part this is a true fact of life but my kids take it to the extreme. I am not sure what it is with bodily fluids but they sure seemed to flow during our vacation.

Anna gets car sick pretty often so I was prepared for some throwing up. Surprisingly enough she only did once. She had been fine all week and then on the way home she started to look a bit green. She said she needed some fresh air, I told her we would stop in just a few minutes. I was a bit worried but kept watching here. Finally we arrived at the St. George temple. We all got out and I breathed a sigh of relief. She got out and walked around a bit and then walked over and told me she didn't feel to good. Then she proved it by throwing up in the middle of the road. I was trying to get her out of the road before she got ran over without getting thrown up on when the other kids noticed. They all thought it was hilarious and made sure the whole city knew about it. I am sure the bride getting her pictures taken was thrilled to have throwing up going on in the background. Anyway all in all it wasn't too bad, it was all outside. I gave her some Dramamine after that and she slept the rest of the way home.

Monday morning we were excited to get into Disneyland. We wanted to get in the park as early as possible. Before leaving, like we always do, we had everyone go in and go to the bathroom. Everyone went and all was fine until we got through the security line and in line to go into the park. Then Ryan came up to me and said, Mom my tummy hurts, I think I have to go the the bathroom. I wasn't too happy. I asked him if he could hold it. With a very worried look he shook his head, "It's poop, he said. Great I thought, a little wet underwear I could deal with but who wants to clean up a poopy mess. So we got out of line and headed for the bathroom. Rick wasn't there so I sent Taylor in the bathroom with him. After what seemed like two eternities later they emerged and Ryan said he felt better. I was relieved until he admitted that he hadn't gone. I knew I was in for a day in the Disneyland bathrooms - and I was right. Every 1/2 hour to hour he all of a sudden desperately needed to go, and he was always careful to make sure I and everyone else around knew he had to poop. Well after several failed attempts he was finally successful and he got to enjoy the rest of the day in the park and not the bathroom.

I say he got to enjoy because I wasn't off the hook yet. Rachel discovered that Disneyland bathrooms are, in her words, "amazing". The toilets flush by themselves, the water turns on the by themselves and the paper towels come out with a wave of your hand. She was truly impressed. We provided a bit of entertainment and amusement for our fellow bathroom users as Rachel was always very vocal about how amazing the bathrooms were. The first time the toilet magically flushed I heard a few chuckles as she loudly exclaimed, "that's amazing". Her delight in the automatic sink and paper towels was also amusing.

The bathrooms on our vacation were also a eye opening experience for all of our boys. One of the many public restrooms we visited gave our boys there first experience with "the trough". Now being of the female persuasion I myself have not personally had this experience or got to be present the first time my boys did but Rick told me it was a bit funny. Dallin refused to go, Taylor got "stage fright" and Ryan thought it was great fun. I'll have to admit this is one situation where I am glad I was born a girl.

On the way home Rachel discovered a new phenomenon. We got tired of stopping at every rest area and gas station between Utah and California so we told the kids we were only stopping for gas and they would have to take advantage of the toilets at that time or go by the side of the road. Well Rachel took us up on the side of the road option and had her first peeing without a toilet experience. She thoroughly enjoyed it and begged to do it every 1/2 hour the rest of the trip. Anna decided it looked like fun too and tried it too. I was the lucky one who got to hold them up while they peed. It didn't go to good at first, Rachel got it one the car door and my shoe the first time but with a few tries we were pros.

Despite the frequent bathroom breaks we had to take I was pretty happy with the outcome. While at home Rachel (and sometimes others who shall not be named) frequently provide me with "soaky" underwear to wash. She usually does pretty good, but sometimes (about once a day) she doesn't quite make it in time and "goes a little bit" in her underwear, or is too lazy to leave what she is doing to go to the bathroom and soaks her underwear. So I was prepared for this while on vacation. I took extra clothes around with me everywhere I went. But surprisingly enough I only needed them once. Although that was a bit embarrassing. It happened to be the day my cousin Becky met us at Disneyland. She watched Rachel while we rode Space Mountain. When we got off she led Rachel over to us by the hand apologising that Rachel had a little accident. Well the funny or irritating thing was that about 15 minutes before this happened I was carrying her and she leaned over to me and quite out of the blue said, "It is gross to go potty in your underwear huh." I told her it was, and asked her if she needed to go potty, she said no and for some reason I believed her. But apparently she was lying.

Anyway all in all I count myself pretty lucky. It could have been a lot worse, 10 days away from home with only 1 pair of wet underwear, 1 throwing up episode isn't all that bad. Plus we got lots of new bathroom time experiences .