Misery, take II

When we first learned that Mike's niece was getting baptized in November, we thought about it for about 1 second before deciding we would never make the trip to that place again. A few weeks later, I started talking with Kirsten about it, and when I found out everyone else was going, I knew we had to go.

Thanks to a friend's suggestion, I got the kids some surprises to open every hour we were on the road. We also didn't make the mistake of waking up the kids to leave in the middle of the night. Mike finished up something at school and came home, and we got on the road. Of course there was traffic on I-35 (ugh!) so we kinda got a late start. We ended up making pretty good time though. The kids did well. Really well. By the time they got tired of whatever toy I'd given them, there was only about 15 minutes left until the next surprise. We stopped 'somewhere' along the way (the name escapes me at the moment) for dinner and let the kids stretch their legs. After dinner, we changed the kids into their pajamas and started a movie for them. Things were going well, they were liking the movie and everything, but then they started to get tired. Hudson does pretty well when he's tired, he just... well, he just goes to sleep. *gasp* Shocking, right? Maddy? Notsomuch. She's always been kind of a high maintenance sleeper. She'll fall asleep, but riding in the car seat isn't super comfortable, and with her legs hanging, and her head falling everywhere (despite my attempts to stop that) - she was just in agony. She would fall asleep for 10 minutes, and then wake up a bit and scream and thrash about. I know. Aren't you jealous?

It was about this time {when I got really tired of turning around and trying to make her happy in some small way} when I started noticing all these signs for Branson. Now, having been to Branson, I was wondering why on earth there were all these signs so far north for Branson? Would they really expect people to pull over, turn around, and go back south to check out the sites Branson has to offer? And then it hit me. We were going south. SOUTH. When we were supposed to be going north.

We got turned around and made it there around midnight. We went in and chatted for a couple hours (!!!) and finally got the kids to settle down. Then I kicked Mike out because his snoring was beyond annoying and I had a peaceful 4 hours of sleep.

The next day we hung around their place, both Mike's brother and his wife had things going on, so we were on (little) kid duty for the few of their children left behind. They were having pretty fabulous weather so we played outside a lot. That night, Brian, Kirsten & Jenny got there, and we had pizza for dinner, played Wii, and chatted. We also had a hotel for that night, so we wrapped things up and headed to our sanctuary. ;) The kids slept fine, and the next morning Mike went to play soccer with his brothers and some people they know. Crazies. Jenny & Kirsten were nice enough to accompany me to the continental breakfast and we took full advantage.

When the boys got back, we changed and went back down to the swimming pool for our niece's birthday party. Her parents hired a clown to come and do balloon animals for the kids, and boy howdy did they have a blast! My sister-in-law's parents got a room right next to the pool, so the kids were able to use that as their potty station. After swimming came a catered lunch of fried chicken and potatoes, and present opening. And pie. It was fun! (But crowded.)






Little Will-I-Am





At that point we got to change to our other hotel room, the suite. (They didn't have any regular rooms available that night, and no other reputable hotel had any rooms available either, so we paid the extra $30.) It was amazing!!! The room was.. well, sweet! We put The Hud down for a nap and Jenny and I went shopping for the evening meal. We wanted to do something nice for their family, so we got all the fixin's for Honey-Lime Enchiladas. After the store, we hurried back to the hotel to get ready for the baptism.

The baptism was great, our niece did fabulous! We were all so proud of her. It was really cool to feel the spirit so strong. If you haven't been to a baptism in awhile, you should go. It's incredible.




Our family

Afterwards we raced over to Mike's brother's house to make dinner. Everything turned out really delicious. We had enough to feed an army, and an army we had! After we put most of the kids down (Hudson at the hotel with Mike's parents 'babysitting'), and the little girls were watching Tangled, we hung out and talked for a bit. We had to sensor a lot because our nephew, who is now almost ELEVEN, was up with us.

When it got pretty late, we dragged Maddy from her slumber back to the hotel and put her on the bed. We stayed up chatting with Mike's parents for a few minutes (and Maddy slept through that, which was totally weird) and then went to sleep. The next morning we got up for church, attended sacrament meeting, and then went back to the hotel to pack up. :( We stopped by their house one last time before making the long trek back to Texas. Things went pretty well on the way home. The kids were pretty tired and slept a lot, which was nice. But the last couple hours we got stuck in some freak thunder / lightening extravaganza, so that delayed us. Also, somewhere in Oklahoma, the freeway was shut down, and there were no detour signs or anything, so all of us were just following this one lone trucker. Scary, no?

After a few exorcism-like performances from Maddy, we made it home. In one piece. And safe and sound.

The End.




All the grandkids (but one). Look at my child. The tall, skinny one. She was such a punk!!!


The siblings