This last weekend we put another 1000 miles on the Santa Fe as we headed out to Ohio for Shane and Beth’s wedding.  Before I write anything else, I just have to say that I LOVE road trips with my husband.  I remember when we were dating, we decided one time to randomly head out to Colorado.  We were just getting to know each other then and Stephen had never been further west than Kansas City at that point… so we headed west and it was a trip I’ll never forget.   I began to discover the depths of the man I am in love with on that trip.  Eventually, months later, Colorado would be where Stephen would take me to ask me to marry him… and of course, where we got married.  Our road trips, from the beginning, have always been an adventure.  First off, we are NOT good packers.  A point that has only worsened with Noah, who seems to be the worst packer of the three of us.  So we always have tons of stuff and it takes a ridiculously long time to even leave town.   Second, I can’t really think of a road trip that didn’t have some sort of “hitch” in it… as it fitting for us anyway… from flat tires to running face first into handicap signs to falling off cliffs.   But from the beginning, road trips have always been romantic adventures for me.  I love listening to music, worshipping and praying, holding hands, and long hours of talking about everything and anything or just sitting in peaceful silence with the roar of the road underneath… and of course, eating tons of unhealthy snacks (most of which don’t even belong in the food pyramid).    I guess I just love any opportunity for uninterrupted alone time with Stephen.  And the same is true with the addition of Noah in the back seat.   I love just having him there in one place… just Noah being Noah (the gift that he is to our hearts).  This was the first road trip with him in a forward facing car seat.  And it was so hard not to turn and look at him the entire time (I even had to take the wheel a couple times for Stephen so he could turn to look at him). 

Anyway, Ohio…. wedding… old friends… new friends… it was awesome.  We had a great time.  We felt so blessed to be a part of the first page of Shane and Beth’s marriage story.   What a beautiful couple.. and a beautiful story told.   

We decided to head back to Kansas City on Sunday morning.  We had to make the trip in one day (even though we had split it into two days on the way there) because Stephen had to be back for meetings and class on Monday.   We were tired, but the first part of the trip went okay.  It was the last few hours that fell apart on us… poor Noah had a melt down.  We actually stopped in the middle of nowhere and walked around with Noah in a random dirt parking lot until he stopped crying.   Finally (after a lot of tears), Noah fell asleep.   Fast forward about 45 minutes and Stephen (driving) is also falling asleep.  So we have to pull off the highway… an event I won’t totally go into, but in and of itself, because Stephen was so sleepy, was interesting.  As we’re turning around, because we missed yet another turn, we hear this awful sound from the back seat.  It was the sound of my biggest parenting dread come true at the worst possible time (in the car, far away from home and in the middle of nowheresville Missouri)… it was the sound of Noah throwing up.

I looked back and my eyes confirmed what my ears knew to be true.  And before I could totally freak out, it happened again… only this time with more force and much more volume (too much for a little one year old for sure).    So we pulled into a gas station with our little sick baby boy and a back seat and car seat FULL of vomit.   Usually in a crisis, I am very calm and know exactly what to do, but this time, I was out of sorts.  I kept saying, “I don’t know what we’re going to do…” and my faithful hero came to the rescue with a quick ‘this is what we’re going to do’ list… and we were off.   There is a really funny part of the story to be told here, but I can’t write it in a blog, so you’ll have to ask me later.  Anyway, we got Noah cleaned up, but the car seat was a loss… everything was covered and every nook and cranny of that seat had puddles of… well, you can imagine.  

Poor little Noah.  I think he just got car sick OR because he’s had a cold this last week, he just got sick from that… but he hasn’t been sick since fortunately.   

The moral of the story is that it wouldn’t have been the fullness of a Venable Adventure without the vomit… sad, but true.   Valleys and mountains, my friends.  That is what we vowed on our wedding day… and oh, how the Lord leads us through them all – in big ways and little ways like this.   But the point is that we kept driving… and we made it home.

The wedding was so good.  I think our favorite part was being with everyone at the rehearsal dinner and hanging out at the Bed & Breakfast with Shane, the Barnards and the Everetts.   Beth was absolutely stunning… I mean STUNNING.   I am so grateful for who she is and how she has profoundly enriched all our lives just by her presence and the truth with which she lives in every moment.   There are some great photos of Shane and Beth already posted at http://www.benharrisonphotography.com/news/

Noah was so cute… see pictures below of my two handsome boys, of Erika Dunham (dear friend and I think Noah’s first crush) and Noah, and of Shane B. and Noah.