One Mom, Two Kids, 160 Lbs of Ice, 4 Cases of Ice Cream & One Yellow Bug

OK, no photos to go with this but I am sure you mind will conjure up one for you by the end of this so here goes . . .

I got up this morning knowing we had company arriving mid-day today. I also knew that Dave needed ice for the Tropical Snow machine at the store so the kids and I HAD to make a trip to Wenatchee this morning (a quick trip, mind you). Before I left, I checked with Dave to be sure that the only thing he needed was ice and he said yep, just that and vanilla coffee syrup from URM. You see, the kids love to ride in Mommy's yellow car (my fun car, a 2000 yellow VW bug - Daddy has the tbird, I have the bug) so with only those things and ink for the printer at my work to get, the bug was fine for this trip. So off we went about 8:30 am. We stopped in Entiat for the morning coffee for Mommy and the muffin for the kiddos. Well, let's back up, we weren't even to the tunnel (about 5 miles from town) when Dave called to say he notice he needed a "few more things from URM". I told him I would call him when I got better cell service. When I called he mentioned also needing 8 oz Tropical Snow cups and that I should just call him for the list when I got to Wenatchee - this is where I should have turned around and come back for the van, duh!

We went on and then got the aforementioned coffee and muffins and began our stops in Wenatchee for the Tropical Snow cups. This was a large box but fit nicely in the front seat, no problem, right? Nope, the "list" for URM when on to include 4 cases (each holding 6 half gallons of soft ice cream mix), a big bundle of paper bags, about 6 big boxes of assorted candy bars, 8 more flavors of coffee syrup (besides the original vanilla), large ice cream cups, and a #10 can of hot fudge. Once all of that was in the floorboard of the front seat and piled as high as possible (and allowing for any visiability for me - the driver), there was no longer room for the large box of cups (I think the box grew while we were in URM). The only choice for it's location was between the kids' car seats but the bug is only a two door and at this point only one of those doors was passable as the other was loaded against with the URM stuff. So in went Chase into his carseat, next went the box of cups between the seats, then went Kenzie into her carseat and then the strategically placed kids' church bags and Mom's purse (AKA catch-all bag) on top of the emergency brake to hold the big box in the back seat away from the gear shift.

Now the box between the kids was not all bad as they could not see, touch, look at, spit on, talk to or do anything to one another so I am thinking of making that a permanent part of all of our family trips - ha ha!

So off we went from URM to Office Depot for the ink cartridge. The funny part was getting the three of us out. Kenzie and I were not a problem but the pesky box had to come out everytime Chase needed to get out so out it came and then back into the car while we ran a 5 minute errand - yes it took more time to get the kids out and the box out and back in than it took to run the errand. Then we did the reverse to get Chase into the car and Kenzie and I back into the car. Thankfully to get the ice - what I thought was our last stop - the kids didn't have to get out. We got the Columbia Colstor to get the 16 rounds of ice (10 lbs each). I knew they fit exactly into the back of the bug as we had done that part before so we had saved the back of the bug for that. As I was taking them one round at a time and loading the back of the bug, Dave calls with a little "if you have time and room can you get at URM some dome lids". I laughed as if he was crazy. I compared our situation not only to the clowns in the bug at the circus but to the IKEA commercial with all of the furniture atop the VW bug.

Yes, the need for two sleeves of dome lids meant going back to URM and unloading the kids - and the box - after loading the car with 160 lbs of ice. Of course, as all good kids do when Mom is in a hurry, both kids had to go potty and then wanted something to drink, so the "quick stop" at URM took 20 minutes for the domed lids. Back to the car we go to unload the box and reload Chase, the box, Kenzie, the domed lids, and me - in that order. Off we went.

The air conditioning running on high as it was over 90 degrees by 10:45 AM. The VW is a hatch back so the ice is keeping it pretty cool but I have chocolate bars in the front seat - ones I can't even snack on :( - so I have to keep in cool. The kids are complaining of cold and I am just hoping we can make it up the tunnel hill to get back to Chelan with this much in the big.

I want so badly to take everything out of the bug and pile it up and take a photo to send to VW for an advertisement to show what all will fit in the bug as I myself am amazed but I do not have the time, patience or energy to do that by the time we get back to Chelan.

We did all of this, delivered it all to the store, took Chacho Ron a cold Pepsi, picked up cherries from Nanna Mary and were back in our driveway before 1:00 pm.

What a day to remember - I hope it brought a smile to your face as the morning experience did not do much for my migraine. I am just glad I could laugh about it as it was better than melting down in a parking lot somewhere.