Craptastic Car ride

This past weekend, I had an experience unlike any other and I am so thankful my mom was here to help me cope with it.
Maeve had an explosion like no other and of course, it happened in her car seat on the hour trip home from my cousins' birthday picnic.
I have dealt with poo in various forms and states especially now having two kids in diapers. Unlike my husband who gags and actually has been brought to dry heaving from the odor of toddler poo, I view myself as a diaper champ.
Maeve brought me to my knees.
I still have no clue how the amount of poo escaped the diaper and landed on the seat itself. And poor Maeve, crying in the back of the car for over two thirds of the trip while my mom and I talking, singing, and playing music to her oblivious to her discomfort.
When we finally made it home, she had calmed down a bit and so I brought her into the house in the seat. My dad, Bry, and Mo were already here, having gone out together earlier, and so I gingerly give my hello hugs while Maeve still sits. As I walk over to her seat, I happen to look down and horror comes to my face as I see the mess!
I have no idea what to do first. Do I scoop out the remnants? Do I keep her in the seat and just hose her down outside? Do I put the entire seat, kid and all into the shower?
I bring her, in seat, up to the bathroom, take her out of the seat, and place her in her clothes in the bathtub. After calling for my mommy to help, we remove her soiled clothes and diaper and dispose of them in a plastic bag. I use some wipes to remove the pile of poo from the seat and then hose poor Maeve off in the bathtub. Within minutes she is back to her happy self, while my mom and I debate how to clean the car seat.
Bry comes up and the three of us decide that we probably have a 50/50 chance of actually salvaging the seat so my begins using the shower head and baby soap to clean up the mess.
As I type, the seat sits in our basement on a towel near the dehumidifier hopefully drying out. I intend to put it outside in the sun during the next sunny day. I made a trip all over (okay, it was only three stores) to find a new car seat. Silly me, I had to get the same pattern on the car seat as Moira's.
Why is that a problem?
Mainly because of the three stores I went, none of them carried the car seat, in the cowmooflage pattern, in the style I wanted. They had the seat in two other patterns OR the seat that was the step up in the correct pattern. What should I chose? As I stood with the cell in hand at the third store talking to Bry, he checked the web to find that we could get the seat in the right pattern but to have mailed in two or three days it would cost close to $50 in shipping.
Thus, I had a dilemma. What to do, what to do? Spend the extra money to get the pattern I desire or suck it up and get the other one in the cheaper seat.
I chose the first option and paid more for cow print.
Yes, it's silly. I know, but I wanted matching car seats. I figured it would save future arguments between Mo and Maeve over who gets what seat.
The seat is the step up, so in effect, Maeve got the pimped out car seat. Maybe that will be an issue in the future, but for now it works. She loves it and apparently so does Mo!
The best thing of this whole car seat fiasco, I got a 20% off coupon in the mail and so in the end Maeve's new car seat in the "right" pattern cost the same as the other "lesser" ones.