Organized Chaos: Road trips, Oumas, and Bucket Lists

A while back I mentioned our little family trip to the Free State. Boy, it was fun! One of the best parts of the whole trip was that I got to knock a target off my Bucket List!

We met Ouma Pop!! This was actually the selling point on the whole trip for me. The idea of being in a car for 6+ hours, at the beginning of summer, headed to a funeral for people I don’t know was a little bit off setting for this pregnant momma! Lil Mister was pretty well behaved in the car I must say!

However when they idea came up that since we would be a mere 200km from Bloomfontein we’d have to drive through to see Ouma, I was all in! I had just spoken with Ouma Pop early that week on the phone and had promised we would make a plan SOON! This seemed perfect!
Plus it was an added bonus that we’d get to see our Tannie June and Oom Derek! This is the amazing tannie and oom who’d done the photos at our wedding and took a beautiful photo of me during pregnancy with Lil Mister. We hadn’t seen them since before Lil Mister was born!

I was overjoyed! Idea sold! Now to let work know…uh oh! I will admit I was quite nervous about that and promptly decided that we (Lil Mister and I) unfortunately would have to sit this trip out! I had already taken Thursday and Friday that week as half-days because Lil Mister had been ill. I was in negative leave days at work and still have gynae appointments and maternity leave. Nope, sorry, nada chance.
Of course, Pa and Hubby Dearest reacted in a very courteous challenging way. Hubby Dearest would not attend if I did not as it would be embarrassing to our side of the family. After all I am his wife and I am expected to be with him at such events. Ok point taken. So then we don’t go. Pa and the boys can go. Then Pa says no but Hubby Dearest is the oldest and knew the Oom that had passed the best and has the most memories with the kids. If he’s not going then Pa isn’t going! Are you friggin kidding me?? Are we junior high girls that attend the bathroom together?
After much convincing I finally subside. I can’t be the reason that our Pa regrets not having been there and the reason our family is looked down on! Jeeze, I’m already an outsider for being American! (I’d better start working on my accent!)
Work wasn’t happy and between Hubby Dearest and I we paid a pretty penny for this little trip. But in the end family is the most important thing and it was well worth it!