A very Long weekend

I'm trying to decide where to start first.  It was such a long weekend and there seems to be so much that happened.  Well, I suppose the beginning would make sense.  We left Thursday night, later than was expected.  Mia, Shawn's dog, whined for twenty minutes because he made a big deal about her when we left.  I'm sure she thought she was never going to see him again because of it.  I had brought two pillows for me but ended up giving them to the dogs to use.  When we were just to the point of no return, Shawn calls and tells me I forgot my PURSE of all things.  He was already putting it in his car so that he wouldn't forget to bring it in the morning.  We stopped a few hours into the trip for some food.  I stayed in the car, thinking it would keep the dogs calm.  The second the door shut, they started whining and barking.  Mia, who was in her seat belt, began turning around and completely tangling herself.  I just unbelted her until my mom got back to the car, otherwise I knew she'd do it again.  A while later, I realized my makeup was in my purse.  My mom, who by this point was really in need of a nap, thought this was hilarious.  We got to the hotel somewhere around 11pm.  The dogs whined for a good hour after we arrived at the hotel.  It was impossible to get them to be quiet.  I realized later in the trip, that no one could hear the whining, only barking.  I stayed with the dogs while my mom brought in the things we absolutely had to have that night.  That just produced louder whining.  It took me quite a while to finally fall asleep.  I was worried about all the animals at home, worried that Shawn and Jason (my younger brother, 17) would get trampled by the horses when they tried to give Cody his antibiotics, worried they'd get lost on the way here.  Basically I worried about every single thing that could possibly go wrong.  I woke up sometime during the night to our upstairs neighbors making a TON of noise just walking across the floor.  It caused the dogs to start barking.  I got August on the bed and held her there the rest of the night.  I woke up to my mom moving around the room that morning.  The boys had called and said they would be there in about an hour.  An hour and half went by and of course, I had already been worried (Columbus is a VERY confusing and in my opinion, dangerous place to drive) and now I was even more so.  I called them again.  They were fine but had gotten stuck in lunch traffic.  The phone rang ten minutes later and of course I thought the worst, they just wanted someone to open the door so they wouldn't have to go around to the front desk.  After everything was finally in the hotel, we crated the dogs (gave them TONS of treats) and went to breakfast.  The first thing we heard when we walked in the hotel, were our dogs barking... a LOT.  *sigh* I'm sure they were doing the entire time we were gone.  Thankfully, that day, Shawn would be in the hotel with them, as he had yet to go to sleep.  (he left immediately from work to come meet us) My mom, Jason and I left for the Equine Affair shortly after dropping Shawn at the hotel.  In normal circumstances, our hotel would've been just a minute or two from the fair but due to the way Columbus is set up, it took us about ten minutes.  We had a VERY long walk from the car to the entrance.  By the time we even got into the fair, my feet were killing me.  It took us a little while to get our bearings.  Once me and my mom walked around once, we remembered where everything was.  We took my brother through the breed pavilion and then went into the building that has all the crafts and such.  Within two hours of being at the fair, my brother started to get whiney.  He was bored.  By this time I felt like I couldn't possibly walk any further so we headed back to the hotel.  We let Shawn sleep for a while longer, my mom and I also took a nap.  Now my brother was saying he was bored... again and hungry.  No one would make any decisions about what they were going to do, where they wanted to eat, etc.  My pregnant brain had had just about enough and I was becoming annoyed.  Finally, me and Shawn went and brought them back Wendy's and we went in search of some place to eat.  By this time, he had mananged to annoy me too (I expect him to deal with my many moods since he's not the one that will be pushing out his son in a matter of a few weeks) and we settled on Big Boy.  The food was awful but it was great.  The next morning, I woke up to Shawn taking the dogs out to potty.  He could only take one at a time and Mia began to whine when it wasn't her turn.  My stomach was in knots about leaving them for a full day.  I thought for sure we'd return and the hotel would've come and taken them to pound.  I left August out of the crate (she's not usually crated and I thought her snarls would deter hotel staff from stepping foot into the room) and put Mia in her crate.  (if she' s not crated and left alone, she will EAT the room, plus she's used to being crated for just that reason) I wore a different pair of shoes that day, hoping that it would prevent the aching.  Our first stop was the Columbus Zoo.  We went to every single exhibit.  I was a little sad that there were SO many people there.  Last year, when me and my mom went, it was deserted (awful weather) and you had a more one on one experience with the animals, and zookeepers.  I felt like the boys had been cheated out of that experience.  Plus, the adults were all very rude.  I don't mind rude children, they don't know any better but when adults run into a VERY pregnant woman and NEVER bother to apologize, that bothers me.  I wonder if they'd do the same thing to a handicapped person or someone using crutches, I surely hope not.  Even with my large tummy, I managed not to bump into anyone and yet, the rest of these people couldn't do the same.  We had to stop and sit several times because of the pregnant one.  I couldn't help it.  I was limping and at one point I was cramping so I had no choice but to sit.  (doc said I could go on this trip as long as I sat down the second I got any cramps) I took a few pictures (only one roll of film got used during the entire trip).  Hopefully they'll come out as good as they looked like they would.  By the last few exhibits, I was ready to run to the car.  I tried my best to let everyone else enjoy their zoo experience.  Shawn annoyed me a few times because he kept insisting we sit down.  (I was holding onto him and he could tell when I was limping or in pain and thought it would make me feel better to sit... it never did) I just wanted to get it over with by that point, not sit.  On top of that, it was a little warm out and even a little warm is way too warm for me right now.  Once we got to the car, again no one could decide what we were doing, so again, I made the decision for them.  We went back to the Equine Affair.  After walking through some of the breed pavilion, we found a restraunt and sat.  They were having problems with the electricity throughout the fair so the most places didn't have fountain soda so I first got a water and then a soda.  =) My mom went to look at the crafs but me and the boys stayed behind and sat in the restraunt for a while longer.  When we were a little more than an hour from the start of the Phizer Fantasia, I decided I wanted to go look at the crafts, as they'd be closed soon.  I didn't want to go all that way and not see everything, pain or no pain.  My mom and I got shirts, her's with a Morgan horse on it and mine with an Australian Shepherd.  Shawn and I both had to use the restroom so we went to wait in line for the show to start.  They met up with us a few minutes later.  My mom had bought the baby a cute bib that has a horse on it.  I wonder if it's possible to scan it and put it on here...  Anyways, we were one of the first people sitting in our seats.  I think the boys enjoyed the show.  It's hard to tell with them.  I don't think they fully realize how hard it is to teach those horses how to do some of the things they do during the Fantasia.  Last year I was upset because when one of the horses stepped out of formation, the rider punched him, ok I was a LOT upset.  I was glad to see nothing like that happened this year.  Even though several horses came out of formation.  =) We made our way back to the hotel and none of us wanted to actually go in.  I KNOW that my mom and I would've rather stayed in the car and let the boys go deal with the damage.  We all quietly made our way back to the room.  There was silence... gave us a little hope.  Upon first glance, the room looked fine.  *Gulp* But it wasn't.  It could've been worse, much worse.  August had pooped ON the bed (she's NEVER went to the bathroom on furniture before and rarely has an accident in the house) not only pooped but pee'd.  It was a LARGE puddle and it was on my side of the bed, even on my pillows.  At the time I was VERY pissed but now, I realize that it's going to make the trip more memorable.  (the only things that make trips last in your memory are things going REALLY right or HORRIBLY wrong) We took the blankets off the bed and tried to figure out what do to from there.  We really didn't want to go down to the desk and say, hey my dog pee'd all over your blankets, can I have some more?  Shawn let Mia out of her crate and then went to the bathroom.  She was sitting in front of me while I was petting her and I noticed she had gashes around her mouth and nose.  I figured she had been trying to get out and got cut up but I went over to look at the crate anyways.  I wanted to see what had cut her.  That's when things got worse.  Mia had moved her crate over to the bedspread... and eventually pulled some of it into the crate and began to eat it.  You KNOW hotels will charge you an arm and leg for what they paid very little for.  The damage wasn't repairable.  It looked like huge alien moths had come in and eaten many, many, many, many holes into the blanket.  I think me and my mom must have really been stressed because we started laughing and couldn't stop.  I really just wanted to cry but it came out as hysterical laughter.  No, I wanted to go home and leave the hotel like it was.  Anything so we didn't have to deal with the staff.  Eventually, the boys came up with the bright idea to pour pop on the spots of pee and say that we spilled pop on our bed and needed new blankets.  Shawn went to get the blankets and I held my breath, hoping they wouldn't want to come to the room to get the other ones.  Not only did they not come to the room, she DIDN'T ask for the room number but gave him the blankets.  That led to the idea that we take the chewed up blanket and smuggle it into the car, along with any other extra blankets so they wouldn't know that WE were the ones the woman had given extra blankets to the night before.  (notice there's no mention of the NAME of the hotel we stayed at) Me and Shawn went and got burgers and ate them at the hotel.  Then everyone went to sleep, except me.  Once again I was unable to fall asleep.  It was after three by the time I finally was able to go to sleep.  I woke up and vaguely remember Shawn's alarm going off. (he originally wanted to get up a 5:30AM and leave for home) He must have fallen back to sleep because I didn't wake up again until after 7am.  I had really bad heartburn, probably from the VERY greasy burgers we'd eaten the night before.  I woke him up, figuring he wanted to leave.  He just laid there, he was awake but not by much.  I think started to feel like I needed to throw up.  I think the stress had finally started to affect me physically.  I went into the bathroom and Shawn fell back to sleep.  I never did throw up and after walking around the hotel room for a while, my stomach started to settle down.  I eventually went back to sleep.  The next time I woke up, it was to my mom telling Shawn what time it was.  (I don't remember what time we got up though) and then we all started to get ready to leave.  Once the room was cleaned of our stuff (and a few of their blankets) my mom went down to the front desk to check out.  We were worried they were going to say something about the dogs whining/barking for only god knows how long the day before.  They didn't say a word.  Either no one complained or the staff figured there was no reason to say anything since we were leaving.  Only when we were on our way, could we all breathe a sigh of relief.  Now, like I said before, Columbus is not a fun place to drive.  It's confusing, everyone is driving at least 70mph, and that's in the slow lane and no one LOOKS before they switch lanes.  So when me and Shawn missed an exit, it wasn't a big surprise.  I had to get out the map and figure out how to get us back to where the directions were leading us.  My mom and brother didn't miss the exit so at least they weren't half lost.  Eventually, we got back on track and were making really good time.  We got to I-80/90 (ohio turnpike which leads straight into the Indiana tollroad) and started looking for police.  And to the sky.  Why would we would we be looking at the sky?  Well, when Shawn and Jason were on their way to Columbus, Friday, they had gotten pulled over... by an airplane.  Yes, an airplane.  Apparently, Ohio is a little more advanced in catching speeders than we are in Indiana.  They have a plane circle above and point out speeders to officers waiting further down the road.  That airplane got us a nice sized ticket.  So if you're ever in Fulton County, Ohio and on the Ohio Turnpike, I wouldn't reccomend speeding.  Just because you don't see a squad car, doesn't mean you're not being clocked.  Eventually, we saw the plane, it was so high in the sky that it looked like a hawk circling for food and then the radar detector started squawking, we weren't speeding.  When we got home, I immediately started checking on animals.  I'm sure Paul thought I didn't trust him but I had to see that they were all ok for myself.  Everyone was fine.  And after my mom and brother got home (we had beat them home, despite the fact that we had to drive an extra 30 miles when we missed our exit earlier) I could finally relax.  Apparently, that meant the baby could too.  He had shoved himself into my rib cage and spent the entire weekend there.  After a few hours home, he started moving around and kicking like crazy and has yet to stop.  Jason got to see the baby move for the first time last night.  I've never seen him so freaked out.  haha  It just so happened that while he was watching my stomach move, the baby stuck either his elbow or his knee straight into my side and it was VERY obvious that it was one of those two things.  He had no idea that anything like that happened.  That caused me to laugh for a while.  At any rate, I'm glad to be home.  It will be a long time before I can go on any kind of vacation again.  Now we know we can't take the dogs with us on vacation so I'd have to find another alternative.