Charles & Charles Red Wine

Sarah says:  I didn't like it.  It was a few days ago - so I'm not exactly clear as to what I didn't like about it, but I didn't go back for a second glass, and we ended up dumping about 1/3 of the bottle - something I would NEVER do at home.  But, we tend to do things differently on vacation.  Anyways - I just didn't like it, and I'll leave it at that.  There also wasn't a description on the bottle... where's the fun in that?!  I will add that I was drinking this bottle with Jon and my Dad - both of them claim to have liked it, but that begs the question why didn't they drink it if they liked it so much - so I'll stick with it wasn't that great.

Overall rating: Thumbs 1/3 of the way up

Sarah says:  We got home at about 1:30 am from a 11 day 10 night vacation to Oregon.  We spent 2 nights in Portland, 5 in Redmond, and 3 along the coast.  It was fun and exhausting.  There are lots of things I loved - and I have every intention about writing about those in another post - but tonight I'm tired, jet lagged, a little cranky, and sort of feel like complaining... hence the decision to post about the one bottle of wine I didn't enjoy on the trip (trust me, there were many drinks enjoyed!).  My body is rebelling against me today.  After days of eating like crap (when I say crap, I'm not referring to the taste - it was all amazing food, but wasn't exactly healthy), drinking (everything but water!), and not really working out (but I tried to do it a little!  More on that another time), I feel flubby, and my stomach refuses to take anymore.  I spent half the day consuming nothing but water - and the second half eating only grilled chicken and salad.  It was wonderful. 

Speaking of stomachs rebelling - apparently Liam has a weak stomach.  I'm not really surprised by this, but I wasn't prepared for it.  During my 11 day trip - I dealt with throw up 4 times - that's a lot.  Luckily one instance involved 2 children at the exact same moment - so, if you were the type of person that looked for the good in things, that would be it.  At least that cut my throw up occurrences down by one, but I still had 4 kids to clean.  

Liam might kill me for this one day - but here goes:  the first was at my Grandparents house.  Liam has no self control when we are at family gatherings that involve a large amount of sweets just sitting around (ie. the dessert table).  Sure enough, after a few too many M&M's, taffy's, and chocolate covered pretzels - Liam threw up.  Luckily for me - he happened to be going to the bathroom at that exact same moment, so, most of it landed right in his shorts.  This made clean up simple, just run the shorts outside and rinse them with a hose.  Unfortunately - this also meant Liam had to stand in the bathroom naked for 15 min while Jon went back to our place for some clean shorts.  I really blame myself for this one - this is so not the first time Liam has done this - I've said it over and over that I need to watch him a little closer when we are at these types of get togethers, yet time and time again I fail to do that and end up with a sick kid by the end of the night.

The next throw up I was totally unprepared for.  We were driving from Redmond to Florence (ie, from the middle of the state - to the coast), we basically have to drive through a bunch of mountains.  The views you'll see while making this drive are beautiful - it's impossible to put into words or to capture with a picture - you'll just have to go check it out one day.  It's also not for the weak stomachs.  It's sharp curves with zero shoulder and a straight drop down are terrifying.  The altitude changes as you go up and down are deadly.  About 30 min into our 4 hour mountain drive Liam said he felt sick; about 15 seconds later - he threw up - all over the inside of our super clean rental car - on a mountain where you can't exactly pull off to the side of the road.  Yup, some things ended up in the garbage by the time we got out of that one.  And air conditioning was eliminated in favor of windows for awhile.  I have to say, I'm glad I was in the front seat.  Poor kid - the next 3 hours must have been horrible for him.  We were at a point where there was no turning back.  There aren't stores for miles - so we couldn't get any anti-nausea drugs for him.  Every 2 minutes someone was asking him if he was ok, if he needed to stop, and shoving an already throw up filled garbage bag in his face.  He's quite the trooper.  We did finally get to the coast (a little later than planned) and breathed in some much deserved salty ocean air.

For the rest of the trip I made him carry around a cleaning bucket we picked up from the dollar store.  Of course, he didn't use it.  It's one of those irony's that once you have the insurance you don't need it... or so we thought.  We left the bucket our last morning because it wasn't really something you wanted to bring on a plane.  We figured he's survived flying without any problems before - it was just the crazy mountain driving that got to him.  Plus - if he got sick on the plane - there were barf bags.  We were set.  What I didn't anticipate was getting through all of our flights without a single problem, but while waiting at the baggage claim having Liam start throwing up without a single warning peep.  My poor EMU hoodie took the brunt of this one - another piece of clothing in the garbage. :-(  Jon grabs a garbage can and Liam is doing a great job of going at it in the can... next thing I know, Mary takes one look at Liam, starts to gag, and is now also throwing up in the can.  Thank god it was a big can.  What a sight.  It's the middle of the night - everyone is exhausted.  Actually, several people just complimented me on the good behavior of my kids.  And now they are each at one end of a garbage can puking into it, and Jon and I are just standing there what that "what do we do now" look on our faces?  We have a bazillion pieces of luggage and two kids covered in puke.  Of course we park at the airport off-site parking - so we have to take a shuttle bus to your car. Not exactly a smooth ride, I was terrified!  Long story - but we got them cleaned up and home.

Lessons learned:  Eat better during family functions - this goes for all of us.  Even it we don't throw up - we feel it the next day.  There is no need to eat as much crap as you can just because it's there!  Always carry extra clothes - I've gotten out of the habit of doing this, since we are out of the baby stage and the potty stage - but it has come back to haunt me several times.  Just when you think you are in the clear, that's when you need those clothes the most.  Don't ever leave your bucket behind, those things always come in handy.

Even with all that - they had fun!