Ok so there aren't more pictures to go along with this post however, here is the rest of the story. Regardless of the fact that Grace and Charlotte had a good time during the trip, there was definitely more to the story. About two or three days in, Paul took his dad and Dean out fishing. As they were heading out for the day, Paul briefly took his hand off of the motor and before he could fully grab the handle, the boat lurched to the side. Paul tried to steady the boat causing Dean to fall and Paul's dad as well. Paul's dad tried to keep Dean from going in the water, and because of that he hit his ribs on the side of the boat. Paul broke several blood vessels in his hand from grabbing back onto the motor, Dean had a few bruises but the worst of it was that Paul's dad ended up breaking three ribs. He was not able to go out fishing for the rest of the vacation in the boat and even took a trip into International Falls (the closest town) to get xrays and meds. After that the trip just seemed to be a little more depressing. On top of all of that a few days into the trip, I went to take Grace to the visitor center to get her Junior Ranger badge and the truck was dead. We hooked up the battery to our battery charger (which you need for fishing so we had it) and we charged up the battery and was able to drive it. The day before we were set to leave to come home, the truck died again. Well we put it on the charger again, but Paul was out fishing. He didn't end up getting in until about 7 and we couldn't get the car started. Well then people started getting crazy asking me what I wanted to do, what my back up would be if we couldn't get a battery, etc. Paul and his uncle went to one store looking for a battery, Paul's mom and aunt went to a second and we were able to get a battery for the truck before all of the stores closed. Well now it was dark and the battery was in and guess what, the truck didn't start. I had three kids sleeping in three different rooms of the cabin, thank god so they did not witness all of the chaos. Paul ended up on the phone with his uncle back in Illinois who is a mechanic and he determined that he thought it was the fuel pump. Paul was told to get under the truck and bang on the fuel pump with his heavy stainless steel massive coffee mug and sure enough that got the car started. We left it running for a while, packed up all of the cars and got to bed. The only other car that we had that would fit all three car seats was Rita's and she wanted to leave at about 4:30 in the morning to drive home. Paul said he wanted to leave a little later in order to get some sleep because it was already really late. Needless to say, when we woke up the next morning all ready to go with the kids in the car, guess what? The car wouldn't start again. At this point, Rita had already left so our only option was to bang on the fuel pump again, and cross our fingers that we would make it home.
Paul's uncle told us that once our car was started, that we could not turn it off so we had to drive the entire drive as hurried as possible. Well good thing I had pumped enough milk throughout the week because we could not stop for me to feed Julianne and would have to give her bottles. I will tell you though that I was unable to pump in the car so yeah... imagine the state I was in by the time I got home. Anyways, we obviously had to stop for gas several times and so we kept the car running when we ran in to get snacks, go to the bathroom, etc. We decided to stop at Subway for lunch and Paul was going to drive around while I got the food. Grace wanted to come in with me so I took her out and brought Julianne and her in with me. When I entered with Paul's mom there was no one in line. Perfect... well not for long because simultaneously, Grace said she had to go to the bathroom and Julianne decided that it was the perfect time to poop. The poop was coming out of her diaper on my shirt (keep in mind, I didn't bring in my bag) and I had to get out of line to go to the bathroom with Grace. At the same time, Paul's dad came in the restaurant with Charlotte who walked in with no shoes. I mean, you have got to be kidding me. I took all three with me to the bathroom, told Mark to call Paul to come back to get a diaper and wipes and had all three in the bathroom. It was ridiculous. Grace went potty while I changed the other two as fast as I could while wiping my shirt. Of course I didn't have a change of clothes for me. To make matters worse, as soon as I got out of the bathroom, there was a huge line and I had to proceed to wait to get the food. This is why people go through the drive through of McDonalds.
We got the food, got back in the car and kept going. We made it until we were about at Black River Falls, WI which is just North of the Dells and about 4 1/2- 5 hours away from home when our truck started to die on 94. Paul remained very calm as he pulled the car to the side of the highway. His parents pulled behind us and we had to figure out what to do next. Well we couldn't get service on our phones to find the nearest mechanic so we called 911 to which Paul explained that we had three babies on the side of the road. Seriously the fastest I've ever seen a tow truck and state trooper pull up. So Julianne got her first ride in a tow truck. We put the two other car seats in Paul's parents car while Paul, his dad, Julianne and I rode in the tow truck to the mechanic's garage. At this point, Paul's Uncle, Aunt, Cousin and Grandparents found out what happened and came to where we were as well. We got a quote for our truck but of course it couldn't be fixed until Monday and we didn't really want to come back 5 hours to pick it up. The truck cooled off and we determined that Paul and his dad could nurse it home. They got it started. So Julianne and I rode in the back of Paul's uncle's car, while the girls rode with Paul's mom and Mark, and Paul and his dad rode in the truck. It ended up adding an extra hour onto our drive and eventually we made it home. It took us from about 5:30 in the morning to about 7:00 at night. Obviously when I got home I pumped immediately because I was in pain from 13 hours without feeding or pumping. The girls were absolutely amazing the entire time. I didn't like having everyone in different cars but what could we do. Needless to say, I was happy to be done with this vacation and we ended up getting a new fuel pump that following Monday. Eh...
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