That Time We Ran Out of Wipes

Usually vacation recaps are quite boring, but this wasn't your typical vacation.  In fact, I'm not even sure you can fully classify it as a vacation.  Fun times were had of course, but there was a lot of behind the scenes action/work that Instagram just won't show...
Last week we flew to Montana for my best friends wedding!  Conor's dad is in the legislature and happens to be in session right now, so we went a few days early and drove to the capital to spend some time with Conor's family first.  Our trip started out perfectly with our TSA precheck status and quick easy flight, but upon arrival in Montana, things quickly went downhill.  In the rental car office Liam decided to just unload in his diaper!  We are talking to the edges full.  This was an official half-pack-of-wipes situation! (Note: there will be plenty of toddler poop talk to come, so if you can't stomach it, click away now. My apologies to grown up Liam for sharing... this was just too real life parenting not to capture).  So quickly & skillfully I took care of the situation and thanked my lucky stars that this didn't happen on the airplane.  We then piled into the car and were off to Helena!
While driving through the mountains, with no exit in sight, Liam starts yelling & asking for a clean diaper.  His urgent cries let us know we were in an emergency situation.  Conor found the best place to pull over on the shoulder of the highway, and then we slowly pried Liam out of his seat, not knowing the true disaster we were in for!  More poop.  More than we want to talk about.  Just hours into our vacation, Liam officially had a bad case of the "mud butt".  This time, it was a full-change-of-clothes situation.  So in the freezing cold and standing in the snow on the side of the road, we laid him down on the only flat spot we could find, the floor of the rental car, and got to work.  We quickly realized that after our earlier fiasco, we were down to 2 wipes.  TWO.  Surely I put a full pack of wipes in our checked luggage...surely?!  Wrong; I forgot!  So 2 wipes & a burp cloth were all we had for the biggest mess you've ever seen.  It was traumatic for all involved, but we survived and made it to Helena as quickly as we could.
This continued for the rest of the day.  And for many more days.  Every single day of our trip... mud butt.  About 7 out of 10 times it involved a full change of clothes.  Luckily, Conor's dad was renting a house, so we had access to laundry.  Those 3 pairs of jeans I packed, that initially seemed like an overkill, saved us!  While this whole situation was stressful for Conor & I, Liam was actually in great spirits!  He barely seemed phased by his upset stomach, so we tried to continue on with all our plans as normal.  We spent lots of time at the capital building watching "Senator Grandpa" at work.  Liam was in awe of the building.  He loved all the stairways, corridors, microphones, & gavels!

I was nervous to leave Conor's family (and laundry services) behind once it was time to drive to the hot springs resort for the wedding.  But we were armed with all clean clothes & clean diapers (oh yes, Liam was in cloth diapers for this trip).  We had to survive Friday-Sunday without laundry, and then we would be home.  I was determined to fully enjoy our vacation, so I tried not to stress and just hoped it would all work out!

The wedding was held at Fairmont Hot Springs which was just one big playground for Liam!  He loved the "hot pools" & ginormous water slide!  You may be wondering why on earth we let our child in the pool, but he always told us when he had to go, so I wasn't concerned about any pool incidents.  Plus, we never would have been able to keep him out of it!  A nice hot soak was relaxing for all of us!

After a perfect day at the pools, disaster struck again.  While having drinks with all the wedding guests in the lobby, Liam lost his balance and accidentally touched a hot glass panel on the lobby fireplace.  He was more upset and in pain that we had seen in him yet.  It was just heart wrenching for us to see!  He was immediately in pain, and you could see that a couple pads of his palm were red and beginning to blister while we scrambled for ice water to quench the pain.  I snuggled Liam & tried to distract him from all the pain while Conor drove into "town" for some pain reliever & burn cream.  Conor had a 15 minute drive ahead of him, and the closest pharmacy was closing in... 14 minutes! I was a stressed out mama-bear and just wanted to make all the pain go away.  I felt helpless, which was just the most awful feeling!

Luckily, he picked up a couple minutes of time on his drive and into the pharmacy he strolls, just as they are starting to turn off the lights.  Conor quickly finds what he needs and turns back towards the entrance to check out. Only then does he realize that the lights are now all dimmed, the security system is beeping to get out, and he is being locked in the store!  He had to bang on the first set of, now locked, sliding doors for a few minutes trying to get the worker's attention who was just about to turn the key and head for the parking lot!  We're in the middle of what feels like a medical emergency, and my husband is about to be stuck in a middle-of-Montana pharmacy all night!  I can't even make this stuff up!  Crazy night!  But alas, he eventually got the clerk's attention and made it back to us with all the necessities to make Liam as comfortable as possible!

Liam's hand actually healed very quickly and was looking better than we expected by morning.  We tried to keep him in good spirits with more time at the pool and some outdoor adventures with the llamas, geese, & miniature horses that were all on the hot springs property!  Fun was had and memories were made, but there was still plenty of mud butt!  Never-ending mud butt.

That evening I dressed Liam in the cutest outfit for the wedding!  We snapped a few quick pictures and then minutes later, just as we were heading out the door, another explosion!  Ruined pants, socks, & shoes in one quick second!  I had to leave Conor to handle the situation solo, since I wanted to spend time with my best friend before her big moment! Plus, I was a part of the wedding and absolutely could not be late!  My boys finally surfaced just minutes before the wedding started; Liam rocking some jeans, the one clean pair of pants we had left! His near Canadian tuxedo was a fashion disaster, but he pulled it off with a bow tie and obviously didn't care one bit!  I was a bit nervous to let him bust some moves on the dance floor, because you just never knew when another episode would hit, but he made it through the wedding & reception without any messes, phew!  At this point, we were celebrating any & all small victories!

While packing up to leave on Sunday, I realized we were down to one clean pair of pants (which Liam was wearing), some pajamas, & only 4 diapers.  We were really rolling the dice.  I was extremely nervous for our flight!  His situation was difficult enough to deal with in an ample amount of space...an airplane bathroom would just not cut it!  Yet somehow we managed a second flight with no issues, and again I felt like the luckiest girl in the world!
While this trip was filled with many disastrous moments in-between the great memories and times with friends, I am happy to be able to find the bit of humor in it all.  But I'm still a mom, a very concerned mom, and I hate seeing my baby hurting.  Liam is currently on Day 7 of this poor stomach virus which just hasn't let up despite two trips to the doctor.  Keep us in your thoughts and hopefully his cute little bottom will be on the mend soon!!!