After spending two fabulous weeks with my parents, it was time to head home. Unlike the trip to my parents' house, which was pretty flawless and took us 6 hours, this trip was from that really, really hot place and took us 9 1/2 hours. (And no, there are no pictures to go with it.)
We left right after Tyler's last swimming lesson. I was already exhausted before we even got in the van because the girls were at Tyler's swimming lesson. Emily, who didn't feel well (as you'll see), stayed on Kimberly's lap and just watched. Megan, on the other hand, was a little stinker. She would not sit still at all. She either wanted to take her clothes off and get in the pool and/or run around. The pool area is like a sauna so I was hot and tired as I wrestled Megan for the full 30 minutes. She screamed and cried at the very end because she wanted to jump off the rope into the big pool like the older kids were doing.
Then I took all 3 kids with me so we could get Tyler's clothes changed. Both family changing rooms were occupied so all 3 kids thought they'd run through the halls and out in the lobby while we were waiting. Finally I decided to wrangle them up and take them to the women's dressing room, hoping we wouldn't see any naked women changing out of their swimming suits. Luckily the coast was clear. The door to the handicap stall (the only one big enough for all 4 of us) wouldn't lock and the girls wanted to escape or get down on the floor and look under the dividers. When Tyler was dressed we went back into the pool area to say good bye to all of the cousins and to Kimbo. Tyler cried and cried because he wanted all of the cousins to come with us.
I got the kids loaded in the van and started a DVD. I gave each one a bowl with snacks and we headed out at 11:00 a.m. I was heading down the freeway when I saw a blown-out semi truck tire in the road. That reminded me that earlier when I was loading the van I had noticed that the left rear tire was low. I pulled off at a service-less exit to check the tire pressure. The tire only had 10-15 lbs. of pressure while the others had 45 lbs. of pressure. There was no cell phone service so I headed the 9 miles back into town. I got off the freeway and went slowly on the frontage road--just in case something happened.
My parents had headed out of town to go to my cousin's wedding so I hoped and prayed that I would be able to find my brother at his office. Luckily he was there and told me where the Les Schwab Tire Center was.
Normally I have the double stroller with me, but there wasn't room to bring it on the trip, so I was at the mercy of 2 "free" little toddlers and their big brother who thought freedom was worth every bit of stress it gave their mother. After I got Tyler and Megan out of the van I went to get Emily out. Tyler and Megan saw some huge tires and ran off through the parking lot to get to them. Then Megan saw a dog on the road and started running toward it. I luckily was able to grab her before she got to the dog or the road.
The waiting room for Les Schwab is NOT designed with kids in mind. All they wanted to do is run through the store and crawl through the tires. And I think the fake plant lost a leaf or two thanks to Tyler. The store did have complimentary popcorn which Megan and Emily both wanted. Then Emily thought it would be fun to dump her bag of popcorn on the floor. Megan thought that was a fabulous idea and decided to do the same thing.
My brother came over to the tire store to make sure we had made it and to keep us company for a little bit. I was very grateful for that. As the technician was pulling our van out of the garage to go take it for a ride to check things out Tyler saw him and started crying, "Our van! Come back here with our van!" He still wouldn't be consoled until it was back. The technician was SO nice and didn't charge us at all for fixing our tire, even though our tires were not from their store.
It was 1:00 p.m. by that time. So we headed over to the McDonald's drive thru to get lunch. I put fries and cheeseburgers in their snack bowls, filled the sippy cups up with chocolate milk and headed down the freeway again. I was about in the same place where I had noticed the blown-out tire when I hear Megan say, "Emmy spit up." And then I could hear the poor thing hurling. I pulled over at an abandoned gas station to assess the damage. Emily hadn't eaten any of her fries or hamburgers, but she had inhaled the whole sippy cup of chocolate milk. She had pieces of popcorn mixed in the 2-inch puddle of chocolate milk between her legs. I used swimming towels to mop up the mess and then got Emily out of the car to strip her down and clean her off with baby wipes. I had to unload quite a bit of the trunk to get to the suitcase for a change of clothes.
After changing Emily and cleaning her up, I took her bowl of cheeseburger, fries and throw up over to the weeds to empty it. When I got back to the van I noticed Tyler had eaten all he could, so I took his bowl over to throw his food in the weeds. When I got back I noticed there were little pieces of bread and hamburger on the floor. Megan had decided she was done and was breaking up her cheeseburger and chucking the pieces throughout the van--some even landed on the driver's seat and the driver's floor.
So we headed down the road again only to stop 20 minutes later to change the DVD. Because even though we hadn't gone 30 miles, we'd already gone through the entire Cars 2 DVD. Unfortunately, the stop made Megan wake up from her "almost nap" and she never did go back to the sleep the whole trip. Grrrr!
I pulled off a couple hours later to get a snack of peaches and grapes for the kids. When I opened the side van door to give Tyler's his snack, I was met with a pile of stuffed animals and toys on the floor that Tyler had unloaded from the box next to him. Grrrr!
After traveling another hour or so I decided to stop at a rest area for a break. There are two rest areas fairly close to each other. One is in a "travel plaza" hooked onto a gas station and convenience store. The other is located on the side of a mountain and is only surrounded by parking lot which could be dangerous to kids on the lamb. I weighed both options and decided to go to the convenience store.
The handicap stall was not available so all 4 of us squished in a tiny stall and I kept telling the kids, "Don't touch the toilet. Don't touch ...(whatever gross thing they wanted to touch.)." I couldn't see a drinking fountain so we went out to the convenience store area so I could find a place to fill up my water bottle and the kids sippy cups with water. The only thing I could find was a button on the soda machines that said "water." Well, it turns out the button only gave shots of water. It would have taken 50-100 shots to fill up my water bottle. I thought, "This is ridiculous," and as I turned around to find something better, I found Megan and Emily stacking up souvenir shot glasses on top of each other. Both of them had nice stacks going. Thankfully nothing broke.
I herded all 3 kids to a random sink to fill up our bottles. We were heading out when I decided to buy the kids a treat. All three of them do really well with popsicles, so I thought I'd try something like that. After all, it was super hot outside. I got three sherbet push-up pops and headed to the counter to pay. While waiting in line, Megan and Emily decided to poke the available saran-wrapped pieces of cake in the display case and Megan got a hold of a banana and dropped it. On the way out the door to the parking lot I spotted the drinking fountain by the bathrooms--nice!
There's a grassy area behind the travel plaza where the kids ate their push-up pops. What a mess! They melted so quickly and made an orange, sticky mess everywhere. Plus the girls just wanted to run to areas where they weren't supposed to go. After cleaning all three kids up with baby wipes we were on our way again.
At dinner time I pulled off so the kids could get out and play at a germ-infested McDonald's playland. I went through the drive thru to get our meal so I wouldn't have to keep track of all three kids while I was ordering at the counter. I herded all 3 kids from the van to the tables at the playland to have their chicken nuggets and boxes of apple juice (which spilled out of all 3 straws and made a sticky, sticky mess everywhere.)
We finally made it home at 8:30 p.m. Ugh! What a long, long trip. I let Darrell give the kids baths while I unloaded the van. I was one exhausted momma by the time bedtime came along!
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
4th of July
We just stayed home and took things easy on the fourth of July. We did go out around 7:30 p.m. (yes it was still very light out) to let off fireworks so we could get the kids to bed around their normal time.
The Boy Scouts put out a flag for us on the major holidays.
Throwing those little white popper thingies.
Getting ready to watch our $10 assortment of fireworks. It was still light out so we didn't get the whole effect, but the kids still thought the fireworks were pretty cool.
Tyler doing sparklers. We used a cup to shield his hand, but then the cup started to melt. (The girls didn't do sparklers because I was sure they would get burnt.) Once the cup melted it was the perfect time to call it a night. The girls (especially Megan) are attracted to the street like little magnets so we were constantly telling them to get away from the street (yay for fenced in back yards where they normally play) and then the girls just wanted to play in the bucket of water that we had to extinguish the sparklers.
It was sooooo hot out, that popsicles were the perfect end to the day.
The Boy Scouts put out a flag for us on the major holidays.
Throwing those little white popper thingies.
Getting ready to watch our $10 assortment of fireworks. It was still light out so we didn't get the whole effect, but the kids still thought the fireworks were pretty cool.
Tyler doing sparklers. We used a cup to shield his hand, but then the cup started to melt. (The girls didn't do sparklers because I was sure they would get burnt.) Once the cup melted it was the perfect time to call it a night. The girls (especially Megan) are attracted to the street like little magnets so we were constantly telling them to get away from the street (yay for fenced in back yards where they normally play) and then the girls just wanted to play in the bucket of water that we had to extinguish the sparklers.
It was sooooo hot out, that popsicles were the perfect end to the day.
Family Reunion
This year the family reunion for my mom's side was held at Camp Taylor near Pocatello, ID. It was a camp/lodge located in a beautiful mountain valley.
Unfortunately there was a fire nearby that destroyed over 60 homes and closed the road to the camp. Instead of meeting up at Camp Taylor for dinner on the first night, we met at a park instead. The kids had a blast on the playground equipment.
Tyler and Kyle, Megan (the brave one) and Emily and me on the tall, metal slide (a blast from my past since they don't make them like this anymore.)
Another blast from the past: the merry-go-round
Megan found a basketball and wanted to play "catch 'em"
We found out we could get to Camp Taylor the back way. Here is the roadblock to the back way, but we were still able to go around it.
The lodge
The reunion had lots of yummy food.
There was lots of space and lots of time to:
play games (my grandpa even got in on some foosball)
ride bikes (side note: our tent is the gray and red one on the right)
relax and visit.
The kids loved the water activities.
Emily with the sponges.
Daniel, Tyler and Darrell with the sprinkler
These blocks were a hit for sure.
Emily
Tyler found the ashes from the fire pit made for some fun "dirt." Unfortunately we were never able to have a fire for s'mores because of the high fire danger (Obviously!)
The older kids had fun with marshmallow guns. Here's a bunch of us sweeping the area to clean up the marshmallows.
Tyler is enamored with babies. Here he is loving on his second cousin.
We went to sacrament meeting in Pocatello and then stopped at a park for lunch before heading home.
Megan and my mom.
I always look forward to family reunions. I love seeing aunts, uncles and cousins. We've grown to over 100 people on my mom's side and I love that we still get to see each other once or twice a year. Can't wait for next year!
Unfortunately there was a fire nearby that destroyed over 60 homes and closed the road to the camp. Instead of meeting up at Camp Taylor for dinner on the first night, we met at a park instead. The kids had a blast on the playground equipment.
Tyler and Kyle, Megan (the brave one) and Emily and me on the tall, metal slide (a blast from my past since they don't make them like this anymore.)
Another blast from the past: the merry-go-round
Megan found a basketball and wanted to play "catch 'em"
We found out we could get to Camp Taylor the back way. Here is the roadblock to the back way, but we were still able to go around it.
The lodge
The reunion had lots of yummy food.
There was lots of space and lots of time to:
play games (my grandpa even got in on some foosball)
ride bikes (side note: our tent is the gray and red one on the right)
 |
| Darrell and Emily |
 |
| Darrell and Megan |
relax and visit.
The kids loved the water activities.
Emily with the sponges.
Daniel, Tyler and Darrell with the sprinkler
These blocks were a hit for sure.
Emily
Tyler found the ashes from the fire pit made for some fun "dirt." Unfortunately we were never able to have a fire for s'mores because of the high fire danger (Obviously!)
The older kids had fun with marshmallow guns. Here's a bunch of us sweeping the area to clean up the marshmallows.
Tyler is enamored with babies. Here he is loving on his second cousin.
We went to sacrament meeting in Pocatello and then stopped at a park for lunch before heading home.
Megan and my mom.
I always look forward to family reunions. I love seeing aunts, uncles and cousins. We've grown to over 100 people on my mom's side and I love that we still get to see each other once or twice a year. Can't wait for next year!
Friday, July 6, 2012
We Love the Mountains
One Saturday afternoon in June we went up into the nearby mountains. The kids loved being in the mountains. (They didn't necessarily love learning the consequences about running on uneven mountain paths though.)
Emily, Tyler, Megan
We went on a short hike and all three kids did really well on the mountain path. Tyler ran up ahead and we held on to the girls' hands.
The view was spectacular.
I don't know who enjoyed throwing rocks into the creek more--the kids or Darrell.
Trying out the camping chairs
Our friends met us up at the campsite for dinner. There was a campfire restriction, but we still roasted hotdogs and had s'mores using a gas stove. Yum! Yum!
The highlight of our excursion for the kids was probably the dirt. They had so much fun playing in it. They were COVERED in dirt. (They didn't appreciate their baths at 10:30 p.m. after they had fallen asleep on the way home.)
We love being in the mountains and can't wait to go again soon.
Emily, Tyler, Megan
We went on a short hike and all three kids did really well on the mountain path. Tyler ran up ahead and we held on to the girls' hands.
The view was spectacular.
I don't know who enjoyed throwing rocks into the creek more--the kids or Darrell.
Trying out the camping chairs
Our friends met us up at the campsite for dinner. There was a campfire restriction, but we still roasted hotdogs and had s'mores using a gas stove. Yum! Yum!
The highlight of our excursion for the kids was probably the dirt. They had so much fun playing in it. They were COVERED in dirt. (They didn't appreciate their baths at 10:30 p.m. after they had fallen asleep on the way home.)
We love being in the mountains and can't wait to go again soon.
Summer Snippets
Here are a few things that we've been up to so far this summer.
Swimming
Enjoying lunch outside
Swimming at Seven Peaks
Megan eating ravioli. She LOVES it, but what a mess!
Trying out our new tent in the backyard.
Megan loves playing catch with me. Here are Emily and Megan both playing with balls.
Enjoying the splash park on a VERY hot day with friends.
The girls moved out of high chairs and into boosters at the table (although Megan has since decided she would rather sit in the high chair than to have to stay sitting on her bum.)
A neighborhood get together bbq at our house. (This tiny patch of grass was the only shade in our yard.) We love that we have such great neighbors.
Swimming
Enjoying lunch outside
Swimming at Seven Peaks
Megan eating ravioli. She LOVES it, but what a mess!
Trying out our new tent in the backyard.
Megan loves playing catch with me. Here are Emily and Megan both playing with balls.
Enjoying the splash park on a VERY hot day with friends.
The girls moved out of high chairs and into boosters at the table (although Megan has since decided she would rather sit in the high chair than to have to stay sitting on her bum.)
A neighborhood get together bbq at our house. (This tiny patch of grass was the only shade in our yard.) We love that we have such great neighbors.
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