So... again I'm re-dedicating myself to exercise more. I'm also not eating as much now too... so hopefully I can see some results. I've exercised every day this week, and today I'm feeling very sore. I am so tempted to not go and to just stay home and take a break today- but I know that in my mind if I miss one day- it leads to two and on and on. For me routine is so critical. I did sleep in later that I should have this morning, so I will wait and go to the Y this afternoon when the childcare is available then. If I went now, by the time we got there we would only have an hour until childcare was closed- until later today when they open it up again.
I've gone to the Y on Mon, tues, and thursday this week. On Wed it was closed because of the holiday and I went over to the highschool and ran and walked on the track there. There was a group of people doing a workout with sprints and stuff when I got there and a few of them had artificial legs. It was really neat to watch them working out and running at such a great level- they were the ones leading the workout and you could tell that they pushed themselves even harder than they were pushing the other runners. It was really inspiring to watch. I also enjoyed being outside on the track. It was hot and humid and if I'm going to start doing it on a regular basis I'll have to go earlier in the day when it isn't quite so hot, but it was a nice change of pace to working out inside at the Y.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Monday, July 02, 2007
Our vacation
Our June 2007 Family Vacation:
We just got back from our family vacation and I thought I’d write up about it while memories were fresh in my mind.
THURSDAY
Thursday we left. We left in the afternoon so Rich could go to work that day and just come home early and not have to take a full day off of work. Alyssa and Ashley had their very last swimming lesson that morning at the YMCA and then we ran to the bank to get some cash for the trip, and to Wal-Mart to exchange some capri’s I had bought that were too small for the next size up (and then I forgot to pack them... oh well!), and the pharmacy to pick up a refill I had forgotten to pick up the previous day. Rich actually wound up getting home before we did, and then we quickly finished packing up the van and feed everyone lunch and we were off.
The first day of a road trip is usually realtively calm and quiet. The kids are cooperative and I can usually get a lot of reading done instead of refereeing. My mom called us sometime during the drive and we realized that we had forgotten to bring the wedding present I had bought for my sister- it was still sitting in the garage waiting to be loaded into the car. No bid deal though and we knew we could just pick up an identical present at Target when we got there. We made great time and got to our hotel at about 10pm. There we discovered that instead of what we thought we had reserved a double queen bed room, we had actually gotten a double- double bed room… no big deal though… we just would have a little less space in the beds. Then we unloaded all the suitcases and sleeping bags (with four kids- two get the priviledge of using sleeping bags at hotels), got all the kids changed into pj’s and then worked on getting them to go to sleep.
This is the one thing both Rich and I really do not like about going on vacation. Trying to get four kids to sleep all at the same time after having been cooped up in carseats for a long drive. It really just does not go smoothly- ever… So there we were with four kids in pj’s and two girls fighting over space in a shared bed, and one little girl giggling and laughing and refusing to stand still much less lay down… So I got dressed again and took the biggest offender (Angela) out to the lobby to let her wind down a little bit more, while Rich seperated Alyssa and Ashley to separate beds and sat and watched sportscenter- something that is sure to drive the girls to boredome and to sleep.
Angela and I stayed in the lobby for about an hour and a half until I felt like she was starting to get tired. She made friends with the desk clerk and had some crayons and coloring pages to play with and we looked at all the stuff that would be out for breakfast the next morning (empty serving stuff set up). We read newsweek (that was cute… too bad I didn’t have the camera) and she “counted” the apples in the bowl on the coffee table in the lobby. (counting… one, two, one, one, two, one, two, two, two, etc…) We headed back to the hotel room and it still took about ½ hour for me to get her to go to sleep. I think I went to sleep around 1:30am Albuquerque time… so 2:30am Oklahoma time.
We just got back from our family vacation and I thought I’d write up about it while memories were fresh in my mind.
THURSDAY
Thursday we left. We left in the afternoon so Rich could go to work that day and just come home early and not have to take a full day off of work. Alyssa and Ashley had their very last swimming lesson that morning at the YMCA and then we ran to the bank to get some cash for the trip, and to Wal-Mart to exchange some capri’s I had bought that were too small for the next size up (and then I forgot to pack them... oh well!), and the pharmacy to pick up a refill I had forgotten to pick up the previous day. Rich actually wound up getting home before we did, and then we quickly finished packing up the van and feed everyone lunch and we were off.
The first day of a road trip is usually realtively calm and quiet. The kids are cooperative and I can usually get a lot of reading done instead of refereeing. My mom called us sometime during the drive and we realized that we had forgotten to bring the wedding present I had bought for my sister- it was still sitting in the garage waiting to be loaded into the car. No bid deal though and we knew we could just pick up an identical present at Target when we got there. We made great time and got to our hotel at about 10pm. There we discovered that instead of what we thought we had reserved a double queen bed room, we had actually gotten a double- double bed room… no big deal though… we just would have a little less space in the beds. Then we unloaded all the suitcases and sleeping bags (with four kids- two get the priviledge of using sleeping bags at hotels), got all the kids changed into pj’s and then worked on getting them to go to sleep.
This is the one thing both Rich and I really do not like about going on vacation. Trying to get four kids to sleep all at the same time after having been cooped up in carseats for a long drive. It really just does not go smoothly- ever… So there we were with four kids in pj’s and two girls fighting over space in a shared bed, and one little girl giggling and laughing and refusing to stand still much less lay down… So I got dressed again and took the biggest offender (Angela) out to the lobby to let her wind down a little bit more, while Rich seperated Alyssa and Ashley to separate beds and sat and watched sportscenter- something that is sure to drive the girls to boredome and to sleep.
Angela and I stayed in the lobby for about an hour and a half until I felt like she was starting to get tired. She made friends with the desk clerk and had some crayons and coloring pages to play with and we looked at all the stuff that would be out for breakfast the next morning (empty serving stuff set up). We read newsweek (that was cute… too bad I didn’t have the camera) and she “counted” the apples in the bowl on the coffee table in the lobby. (counting… one, two, one, one, two, one, two, two, two, etc…) We headed back to the hotel room and it still took about ½ hour for me to get her to go to sleep. I think I went to sleep around 1:30am Albuquerque time… so 2:30am Oklahoma time.
Friday
FRIDAY
Well sometime around 6:30 am the kids started to wake up. I had wound up sleeping in a bed with Alyssa, and while sleeping she seemed a bit warmer than usual, but I normally don’t sleep with her and thought perhaps she was just warmer because of the shared body heat. I jumped in the shower and got myself ready and while Rich was showering I started getting the girls changed and ready. By then Alyssa was awake and I could tell she had a slight fever. She started coughing and wound up coughing up the yellow acid that sits in your stomach when it’s empty… oh.. the night before she really didn’t want to eat much for dinner- I guess that would have been a sign she wasn’t feeling all that great. So we drugged her up with ibuprophen and finished getting ready. We loaded the suitcases back in the car and went to breakfast. Sometime in there we lost Angela’s baby blanket. We went to breakfast and the kids behaved great. We actually got compliments from others on how cute and well behaved our children were. Shocking I tell ya! ;-)
Then we loaded into the van and hit the road again. We had driven 8 hours the previous day and had 10 hours on the itenerary for that day. The drive went relatively well. Alyssa had her fever and wasn’t feeling great, but she didn’t throw up anymore- until we stopped at the gas station. I had her out of her seat to go to the bathroom and she threw up again. Luckily my hand caught most of it and a bag was closeby so we didn’t have a huge mess all over the van and her. I gave her some tylenol to help the fever and lots of water (with a pull-up on so she didn’t have to worry about having an accident), and went back to driving (what else can you do? ) We wound up taking an alternate route by accident that turned into a fun drive. We had a map printed out we wanted to follow, but we also pulled up the car’s GPS system and had thought the map it pulled up was identical. Instead it was slightly different and took us by the north rim of the grand canyon. A scenic drive that was fun, but not really quicker than the original route. The kids did well on the drive and got along fairly well. Alex and Ashley cooperated and took turns choosing movies and didn’t complain when it was the little kids turns as well.
We got to St. George and the hotel where my parents, and three sisters and their family, fiance, and boyfriend were staying at. I checked in at the front desk for a key and they gave me a key to room 241. Angela and Alyssa had fallen fast asleep so Rich and Alex and Ashley took a load of suitcases up to the room and I stayed out in the car with them. I called my parents to let them know we were there and unloading and my dad came out to greet us. Of course Alyssa woke up and being sick I had my dad take Angela and I took Alyssa and we went into the hotel. (It was 105 degrees outside so sitting in the parking lot was not comfortable). Rich came around the corner with the kids and told me there must be a mistake because he opened the door to the room and someone elses suitcase was sitting on the bed. So I went up to the front desk and at the same time my dad realized that the desk had gotten things mixed up. Our entire party was all registered by my mom and dad and they had given us the key to my sisters fiance, and boyfriends room, instead of the adjoining room to my sisters hotel room which we were supposed to have. So we got that all straightened out and suitcases deposited into the room.
In the meantime my dad was holding Angela and she woke up and got frantic that she had no idea where she was, or who she was with and cried so much that she threw up… all over herself and my dad. I took her and calmed her down and changed her clothes. Then we went and ate pizza that my parents had gotten delivered to their room. Rich stayed in our room with Alyssa since she had the fever. I made a plate up with some pizza and fruit and took it over to him and he had realized that we had forgotten to put the garment bag into the car when we loaded the car. The garment bag had all of our church clothes for the entire family in it, and Rich’s dress shoes. Luckily I had stashed dress shoes for the kids and I into our individual suitcases because the garment bag was full.
So… my sisters family and my other sister were planning on heading to the pool. Alex and Ashley wanted to go and I just put Angela in her swimsuit and sent her with them too. Rich and I took Alyssa with us and we went on a shopping trip. My sister Nancy had made new skirts for she and I, so I needed to find a shirt that would go with the skirt for me, and dresses for the girls and shirt and pants for Alex and the expensive stuff was Rich’s shirt, pants, tie, belt, and shoes… Kohls really is a great one stop shopping place and we were able to get a shirt for me, dresses for Alyssa and Angela, and shirt, tie, pants, belt and shoes for Rich. Ashley is at such a hard age to find a dress for. There were absolutely no dresses in her size at Kohls. We did find one cute shirt that was nice and I knew I had seen lots of skirts at the wal-mart at home, so we got the shirt and then went to wal-mart to look for a skirt for her and get pants and a white shirt for Alex. At wal-mart it was easy to find Alex a shirt and pants… then we went to the girls section and started looking for dresses. The only dress I found at all was one with a halter style neckline- no sleeves of course. The skirts they had were like denim shorts cut offs, with a lace ruffle… and they were short… not something I would find appopriate for a six year old to wear. So we decided that she had a pair of gaucho’s that could kind of pass as a skirt and she would just have to wear that.
We went back to the hotel and went to our room and our room key wouldn’t work. So I went to the front desk again… and we figured out that my sister with my kids had gotten into the room through her room (which was the point of having connecting rooms) and when they left someone had turned the deadbolt on our door, so the key won’t work. My kids were hanging out with my parents, since my sister and her boyfriend and our other sister and her fiance had taken off to go watch a movie- so we didn’t have the key to my sisters room either… so the front desk opened up her room and we got into our room through the connecting door. That night luckily the kids went to sleep relatively easily and quickly. The time in the pool helped wear them up and we all got to sleep before midnight.
Well sometime around 6:30 am the kids started to wake up. I had wound up sleeping in a bed with Alyssa, and while sleeping she seemed a bit warmer than usual, but I normally don’t sleep with her and thought perhaps she was just warmer because of the shared body heat. I jumped in the shower and got myself ready and while Rich was showering I started getting the girls changed and ready. By then Alyssa was awake and I could tell she had a slight fever. She started coughing and wound up coughing up the yellow acid that sits in your stomach when it’s empty… oh.. the night before she really didn’t want to eat much for dinner- I guess that would have been a sign she wasn’t feeling all that great. So we drugged her up with ibuprophen and finished getting ready. We loaded the suitcases back in the car and went to breakfast. Sometime in there we lost Angela’s baby blanket. We went to breakfast and the kids behaved great. We actually got compliments from others on how cute and well behaved our children were. Shocking I tell ya! ;-)
Then we loaded into the van and hit the road again. We had driven 8 hours the previous day and had 10 hours on the itenerary for that day. The drive went relatively well. Alyssa had her fever and wasn’t feeling great, but she didn’t throw up anymore- until we stopped at the gas station. I had her out of her seat to go to the bathroom and she threw up again. Luckily my hand caught most of it and a bag was closeby so we didn’t have a huge mess all over the van and her. I gave her some tylenol to help the fever and lots of water (with a pull-up on so she didn’t have to worry about having an accident), and went back to driving (what else can you do? ) We wound up taking an alternate route by accident that turned into a fun drive. We had a map printed out we wanted to follow, but we also pulled up the car’s GPS system and had thought the map it pulled up was identical. Instead it was slightly different and took us by the north rim of the grand canyon. A scenic drive that was fun, but not really quicker than the original route. The kids did well on the drive and got along fairly well. Alex and Ashley cooperated and took turns choosing movies and didn’t complain when it was the little kids turns as well.
We got to St. George and the hotel where my parents, and three sisters and their family, fiance, and boyfriend were staying at. I checked in at the front desk for a key and they gave me a key to room 241. Angela and Alyssa had fallen fast asleep so Rich and Alex and Ashley took a load of suitcases up to the room and I stayed out in the car with them. I called my parents to let them know we were there and unloading and my dad came out to greet us. Of course Alyssa woke up and being sick I had my dad take Angela and I took Alyssa and we went into the hotel. (It was 105 degrees outside so sitting in the parking lot was not comfortable). Rich came around the corner with the kids and told me there must be a mistake because he opened the door to the room and someone elses suitcase was sitting on the bed. So I went up to the front desk and at the same time my dad realized that the desk had gotten things mixed up. Our entire party was all registered by my mom and dad and they had given us the key to my sisters fiance, and boyfriends room, instead of the adjoining room to my sisters hotel room which we were supposed to have. So we got that all straightened out and suitcases deposited into the room.
In the meantime my dad was holding Angela and she woke up and got frantic that she had no idea where she was, or who she was with and cried so much that she threw up… all over herself and my dad. I took her and calmed her down and changed her clothes. Then we went and ate pizza that my parents had gotten delivered to their room. Rich stayed in our room with Alyssa since she had the fever. I made a plate up with some pizza and fruit and took it over to him and he had realized that we had forgotten to put the garment bag into the car when we loaded the car. The garment bag had all of our church clothes for the entire family in it, and Rich’s dress shoes. Luckily I had stashed dress shoes for the kids and I into our individual suitcases because the garment bag was full.
So… my sisters family and my other sister were planning on heading to the pool. Alex and Ashley wanted to go and I just put Angela in her swimsuit and sent her with them too. Rich and I took Alyssa with us and we went on a shopping trip. My sister Nancy had made new skirts for she and I, so I needed to find a shirt that would go with the skirt for me, and dresses for the girls and shirt and pants for Alex and the expensive stuff was Rich’s shirt, pants, tie, belt, and shoes… Kohls really is a great one stop shopping place and we were able to get a shirt for me, dresses for Alyssa and Angela, and shirt, tie, pants, belt and shoes for Rich. Ashley is at such a hard age to find a dress for. There were absolutely no dresses in her size at Kohls. We did find one cute shirt that was nice and I knew I had seen lots of skirts at the wal-mart at home, so we got the shirt and then went to wal-mart to look for a skirt for her and get pants and a white shirt for Alex. At wal-mart it was easy to find Alex a shirt and pants… then we went to the girls section and started looking for dresses. The only dress I found at all was one with a halter style neckline- no sleeves of course. The skirts they had were like denim shorts cut offs, with a lace ruffle… and they were short… not something I would find appopriate for a six year old to wear. So we decided that she had a pair of gaucho’s that could kind of pass as a skirt and she would just have to wear that.
We went back to the hotel and went to our room and our room key wouldn’t work. So I went to the front desk again… and we figured out that my sister with my kids had gotten into the room through her room (which was the point of having connecting rooms) and when they left someone had turned the deadbolt on our door, so the key won’t work. My kids were hanging out with my parents, since my sister and her boyfriend and our other sister and her fiance had taken off to go watch a movie- so we didn’t have the key to my sisters room either… so the front desk opened up her room and we got into our room through the connecting door. That night luckily the kids went to sleep relatively easily and quickly. The time in the pool helped wear them up and we all got to sleep before midnight.
Saturday
SATURDAY
Saturday morning we all woke up and Rich and I got ready for the wedding. My youngest sister and her boyfriend were watching my kids and my sisters three kids at the hotel while we attended the wedding at the Temple. It was a beautiful wedding. After the ceremony my sister and I and our husbands (Rich and Jacob) went back to the hotel to pick up the kids and bring them over to the Temple for pictures. Nancy and I made a quick bouquet with some flowers my mom had bought the day before, while our hubbies got the kids changed and into the cars. We didn’t take too many pictures because it was unbelievably hot… 105 or something like that. Then we went over to a luncheon at a church building. The kids got to run around and play a bit more and we could relax in the air conditioned building.
We left St. George around 2pm and drove up to Midway Utah. There would be a reception down in Orderville, Utah for my sister and her new husband that night, but we were going to be going to the reception the following Saturday up near my parents house, so we skipped that reception that night. The drive from St. George to Midway was 4 ½ hours. In Midway we went and got some McDonalds for dinner and let the kids get rid of some extra energy in the play area. Angela had a blast climbing up and going down the slide over and over and over and over again. Then we went and meet up with Rich’s parents and sister Sharon and her family over at the house we had rented for the whole family to stay at.
The house was a great house for a reunion. There were six bedrooms. One master bedroom with a king size bed, four bedrooms with queen size beds in them, and one large bedroom with three daybeds in it. Under the daybeds was another mattress that we could pull out and we had six twin size beds in that room. There was a good size kitchen/dining/living room upstairs, and a large game room downstairs with a pool table and fooseball table and big screen tv. Rich’s brother showed up and the kids all loved playing with their Uncle Dave until it was bedtime and we got them all in bed. Alex and Ashley and Elijah (Sharon’s oldest) got to stay up a little later, but when it was bedtime they still had to be reminded a few times to be quiet and not to talk. Three of our kids and three of Sharon’s kids all slept in the room with the six twin beds. The best part of renting a house and all staying together was in the evenings. We would get the kids in bed and we could sit up and talk or play games and have some adult time together.
Saturday morning we all woke up and Rich and I got ready for the wedding. My youngest sister and her boyfriend were watching my kids and my sisters three kids at the hotel while we attended the wedding at the Temple. It was a beautiful wedding. After the ceremony my sister and I and our husbands (Rich and Jacob) went back to the hotel to pick up the kids and bring them over to the Temple for pictures. Nancy and I made a quick bouquet with some flowers my mom had bought the day before, while our hubbies got the kids changed and into the cars. We didn’t take too many pictures because it was unbelievably hot… 105 or something like that. Then we went over to a luncheon at a church building. The kids got to run around and play a bit more and we could relax in the air conditioned building.
We left St. George around 2pm and drove up to Midway Utah. There would be a reception down in Orderville, Utah for my sister and her new husband that night, but we were going to be going to the reception the following Saturday up near my parents house, so we skipped that reception that night. The drive from St. George to Midway was 4 ½ hours. In Midway we went and got some McDonalds for dinner and let the kids get rid of some extra energy in the play area. Angela had a blast climbing up and going down the slide over and over and over and over again. Then we went and meet up with Rich’s parents and sister Sharon and her family over at the house we had rented for the whole family to stay at.
The house was a great house for a reunion. There were six bedrooms. One master bedroom with a king size bed, four bedrooms with queen size beds in them, and one large bedroom with three daybeds in it. Under the daybeds was another mattress that we could pull out and we had six twin size beds in that room. There was a good size kitchen/dining/living room upstairs, and a large game room downstairs with a pool table and fooseball table and big screen tv. Rich’s brother showed up and the kids all loved playing with their Uncle Dave until it was bedtime and we got them all in bed. Alex and Ashley and Elijah (Sharon’s oldest) got to stay up a little later, but when it was bedtime they still had to be reminded a few times to be quiet and not to talk. Three of our kids and three of Sharon’s kids all slept in the room with the six twin beds. The best part of renting a house and all staying together was in the evenings. We would get the kids in bed and we could sit up and talk or play games and have some adult time together.
Sunday
SUNDAY
Sunday morning we all got up bright and early and got ready for church. It started at 9:30 am and we were lucky that it wasn’t far away, or we might have been late. We went to church with Rich’s grandfather- my mother in law’s father. During the middle of the service I had to get up and quickly go to the bathroom because I had a nose bleed… fun fun… Rich’s youngest sister meet us at church with her family- their flight had gotten in late the night before and they decided to stop at a hotel instead of driving all the way down to midway that night. After sacrament meeting was over all of us kids and grandkids headed back to the house while Rich’s parents stayed to attend the other meetings with his grandfather. We had a nice afternoon at the house with everyone playing and reaquainting themselves with each other. Then we loaded up and headed down to Mona, Utah.
Rich’s uncle bought the little house that his dad’s dad grew up in and it has a wonderful yard that makes it a perfect gathering place for large family gatherings. We were there and starting to wonder where Rich’s brother Dave was when he drove up. Ashley had ridden in the car with him and they had left at the same time we did. It was a good 20-30 minutes later when he drove up and surprised us by having his girlfriend with him. She had driven up with him from Arizona and stayed with some cousins in Orem the night before, but decided to come and join us for the dinner.
We had a traditional Newton taco dinner with all the cousins, and extended family that could come and visit. The kids had a great time running around and playing in the yard. We brought out some toy helicopters that my dad had given my kids and they all had fun chasing those around and launching them. We even had it get stuck up high in a tree and on a roof and Sharon’s husband- James had to climb up and get it down. Through this all Alyssa still had the fever, so we were trying to keep her away from others and since she wasn’t feeling well that was fairly easy to do and she clung to Rich or I almost the entire time. We stayed till it was starting to get dark and then left. I was in charge of an activity the next day and had to print out some stuff, so we stopped at my parents house on the way back to midway and printed off the stuff I needed- and then got back to the midway house. All of Sharon and Laura’s kids were already in bed and it made it much quicker to just change our kids into pj’s and have them go to sleep without cousins to lay and giggle with late into the night.
Sunday morning we all got up bright and early and got ready for church. It started at 9:30 am and we were lucky that it wasn’t far away, or we might have been late. We went to church with Rich’s grandfather- my mother in law’s father. During the middle of the service I had to get up and quickly go to the bathroom because I had a nose bleed… fun fun… Rich’s youngest sister meet us at church with her family- their flight had gotten in late the night before and they decided to stop at a hotel instead of driving all the way down to midway that night. After sacrament meeting was over all of us kids and grandkids headed back to the house while Rich’s parents stayed to attend the other meetings with his grandfather. We had a nice afternoon at the house with everyone playing and reaquainting themselves with each other. Then we loaded up and headed down to Mona, Utah.
Rich’s uncle bought the little house that his dad’s dad grew up in and it has a wonderful yard that makes it a perfect gathering place for large family gatherings. We were there and starting to wonder where Rich’s brother Dave was when he drove up. Ashley had ridden in the car with him and they had left at the same time we did. It was a good 20-30 minutes later when he drove up and surprised us by having his girlfriend with him. She had driven up with him from Arizona and stayed with some cousins in Orem the night before, but decided to come and join us for the dinner.
We had a traditional Newton taco dinner with all the cousins, and extended family that could come and visit. The kids had a great time running around and playing in the yard. We brought out some toy helicopters that my dad had given my kids and they all had fun chasing those around and launching them. We even had it get stuck up high in a tree and on a roof and Sharon’s husband- James had to climb up and get it down. Through this all Alyssa still had the fever, so we were trying to keep her away from others and since she wasn’t feeling well that was fairly easy to do and she clung to Rich or I almost the entire time. We stayed till it was starting to get dark and then left. I was in charge of an activity the next day and had to print out some stuff, so we stopped at my parents house on the way back to midway and printed off the stuff I needed- and then got back to the midway house. All of Sharon and Laura’s kids were already in bed and it made it much quicker to just change our kids into pj’s and have them go to sleep without cousins to lay and giggle with late into the night.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)