Unexpected Trip

So we were running some errands Thursday night and my sister, Carisa, called me and said, "So, you want to go to St. George with me? Tonight?" She then explained that she had a conference for music teachers and needed some company. I sat there stunned for a minute trying to figure out if really could swing it or not. She was taking her oldest, Sharice who is 13 and her youngest, 5 year old Evynn. We decided I'd better take Annie and Darren while Rick kept Carlyn. I had to make a couple of calls to rearrange things but with Rick's help I was able to go.


My sister is having a rough time right now and she needed some support besides needing someone to help drive. I took off as soon as I could and met them in Nephi and proceeded to St. George. Luckily, I'm a night owl and drove the whole way even though she slept almost the whole way. The other kids fell asleep easily but Darren didn't want to settle down. When we got there we crashed quickly but Carisa was wound up and helped D get to sleep about 2 am!


Carisa took off early and we ate breakfast at the hotel. After that we went swimming in the warm pool in the cold outdoors. Sharice wanted to take Darren, but put him down in the kiddie pool and jumped into the big pool. D immediately went face down and I had to run to him to pull him out. I was still kind of grumpy from lack of sleep and yelled at Sharice, though in my defense I was scared to death. We had some drama ensuing from that. No fun! We had some lunch and went back to the hotel. I wanted to make up for a bad experience earlier so we went swimming again. Poor little D was then terrified of the water. I felt so bad, but I didn't want him to be scared. So, I encouraged him to go in whenever he would, but mostly he wanted to play around the sides. He got hurt by falling so many times then and also in the hotel room. He's just at that phase. He was really cute with Carisa hugging her and wanting her over me. It was actually kind of nice because Annie was pretty clingy and everyone was grumpy from lack of sleep. We had a nice dinner at Pizza Hut and we all crashed pretty early.


The next day was a little colder so it was a little longer because the kids and I were trapped in the room more. It was colder and overcast with occasional rain. Sharice begged all day to go swimming, but I just couldn't take the little kids in that cold, plus I didn't want to. I guess I should have, because it would have made the day a lot more tolerable, but I just couldn't make myself. We did take a DVD player hoping to hook it up in the room, but the tv didn't have the hookups for it. Annoying! Because it was Saturday there was nothing on tv and the kids weren't that interested. We did go to the visitor's center at the temple before lunch and then for a long drive before walking around the temple in the afternoon, but we still spent too many hours in the hotel room.

At the time I was thinking of all the funny things the kids were saying and doing that I could blog about, but now, a couple days later, I can't remember. We went to dinner at a Chinese place Saturday night and Darren was so cute. He ate so well for Carisa, but only from her chopsticks. Then his fortune said, "You will soon be center of attention." I laughed so hard because he's always the center of attention. Annie's said, "Your hard work is about to pay off. Congratulations!" :) Too funny.

Carlyn and Anneliese had some really cute phone conversations. I heard:
Carlyn: I miss you Annie.
Annie: I miss you too.
Carlyn: What are you doing?
Annie: Sitting in a hotel. We went to dinner and had pizza. Mommy made it.
Carlyn: She made pizza? Wow.
Annie: Yeah we have a microwave in our room.
Carlyn: And a fridge?
Annie: Yeah.
Carlyn: Where's the fridge?
Annie: In the room
Carlyn: Well, I can't stick my head through the phone and see it. Where is it?
Annie: By the bathroom.
Carlyn: Oh.

To kill a little time Saturday afternoon I tried giving the little ones a bath. Darren normally loves baths, but didn't want to get in, so I had Annie get in first. She climbed in but Darren wouldn't so I put his diaper back on and let Evynn get in. D then tried to climb into the tub until I took off his diaper. Sharice said, "I think he wants a swim diaper." I never would have thought of that, but she brought it in and I put it on him. He then got in with the swim diaper. He also wouldn't let Sharice change his diaper while we were there. Crazy kid.

We were really missing Daddy and Linney and were happy to leave Sunday morning. The trip was long, but not too bad (maybe it helped having a 12 hour trip from CA to make a 5 hour trip seem short.) It was snowing some and I had to stop at my parent's house to trade vans, but we got home about 4. Rick had made some dinner in a crock pot and had done a great job with Carlyn and keeping up with the house. I am really thankful to such a sweet husband who let me go and helped so much.