Monday, October 24, 2005

Week in Review

My kids are sleeping right now. How great is it that they're sleeping at the same time. I've been using this time to read through others blogs, feeling a little sorry for myself, while I've been gone for a week the world has continued to revolve without me. But I did give notice of my absence so I guess its okay that I wasn't missed.

This past week has been fun and very eventful. My dad arrived last monday afternoon for his planned week long visit. He walked in and "W" was very excited. "Sy" on the otherhand wasn't too sure, papa is a big, tall, darkhaired, deep, low-voiced, mustached man. Everyone (as a child) thinks he's scary, and my daughter was no exception. It continued throughout the week as well. If Papa talked to her or even looked at her she'd start crying and searching for me.

We got a lot done while dad was here. We stumped my insurance guy. My dad's insurance person had requested that it be done a certain way and my guy had never heard of it before so had to call the office in Washington to get it figured out. He took the passenger rear door apart in search of the hiding penny. But he didn't find a penny, he discovered the slider that the window goes up and down on was broken and a spring had popped out and that was what was making the horrible noise. Its covered by warranty so he put it back together and I need to get it fixed this week. He cleaned the oven and the plates under the burners. He didn't do the microwave though, he said he cleans the microwave every time he's here and he refused to do it this time.

Wednesday morning he came in and said his visit would have to be cut short. He would have to leave the next morning on thursday rather than on friday like originally planned. He had to meet my mom in Salt Lake. My grandma's brother had passed away. That night we went out to dinner. Will had a wonderful time visiting with Papa all week. After we were done eating "W" got down from his chair and stood next to Papa. Very quietly, almost a whisper, he asked if we could go to the "tractor" store next. Papa said, "No, buddy, I don't think so." My son just said "Oh", but looked like he had just been deflated. He didn't ask again, he didn't whine, he didn't start to cry. Just looked crushed. I almost cried for him.

At 9pm that night my husband and I decided we were going to go to Salt Lake for the funeral as well. I had only met my great uncle a few times, my memory of him always involved Family History work. my husband had taken Thursday off anyway and already had friday off (he works 9 hr days and had every other friday off). We had been going a little stir-crazy for awhile and been wanting to go somewhere for months.

Thursday my son woke up with a runny nose. Doesn't that ALWAYS happen on vacations? Thursday involved mostly driving. Set up the DVD player and the kids watched movies. We stopped in Farmington, New Mexico to have lunch with my brother and then caravaned with my dad up to Provo. My dad continued on up to Salt Lake. As we were driving around Provo in search for my sister-in-law's or brother-in-law's apartments "W" declared he was ready for a nap. He was so tired. As he listened to us talk about Aunt "Br" and Uncle "G", and Uncle "St" in Provo, and "Auntie" "C" and "Uncle" "B" in Sandy, he started to cry almost hysterically. He wanted to see "Peoples". Meaning his aunts and uncles. I couldn't get him to calm down, so I finally just told him to close his eyes, and he would see them when he woke up. We were still driving around town looking for food and a hotel, he finally fell asleep.

We checked into a hotel, layed "W" down on the bed and called "S"'s brother and sister. We had left so suddenly that they didn't even know we were coming. "S" went on and on with his brother asking him what he had planned for the weekend, etc. his brother had no idea we were in town till he couldn't keep from giggling anymore and told him we were there in Provo.

Friday involved spending time with "S"'s brother and sister and her husband. His sister came by our hotel around 9am. We went and walked around the mall while trying to figure out what to do with our day. Both his brother and sister both work at Olive Garden so we decided to all meet there for lunch. His brother wasn't able to come because of a "Math Lab", but his brother-in-law was able to meet us. After lunch we checked into a different hotel with an indoor swimming pool and took the kid's swimming. "W" was a little cautious. My daughter on the other hand threw all caution to the wind. I had to keep hold of her at all times or she would just walk right into the pool if she could. Man was she mad when we left the pool!

"S"'s brother and sister showed up at the hotel a little while later, and we decided we would all go out to dinner and then putt-putt golfing. We went to my sister-in-law's husband's favorite place. A Chinese Buffet. It wasn't the buffet that was appealing it was the Mongolian BBQ Grill that was in the restaurant! Oh Yum! "W" ate Egg Drop Soup, "Sy" ate my Super hot(spicy) stir-fry, and jello and mandarin oranges with her fingers. After dinner we went to the Minature Golf Course. My son got his own ball and putter. He had a great time! He loved trying to hit the ball, and actually did a pretty good job, every so often though he would think that one of us would need some help getting our ball into the hole. He'd pick up our ball and go drop it in the hole. My daughter would get passed around between uncles and aunt, mom and dad, but even she got a hole-in-one. At one of the holes she took her binkey out of her mouth and chucked it. It landed kerplop right in the hole!

Saturday was the funeral for my Great Uncle. We met my parents at my grandparents house and followed them to the church. It was in Holladay, Utah which is pretty much as close to the mountains as you could get. The service was very nice, my grandma sang "Abide with Me; Tis Eventide" with my mom accompanying her. After the service everyone loaded up in their cars to follow to the cemetary. While walking out to the car my son decided to run up a grass hill. I ran up the hill after him, picked him up and started walking back down the hill. I was wearing an empire waist type dress and dress boots with a 4 inch heel. I tripped near the bottom, held him out in my arms so he wouldn't get hurt, and fell to the ground. I heard a rip as I fell. My grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and parents had all witnessed this event. I stood up, made sure my son was okay, and looked for wear my dress had ripped. The seam that makes it an empire waist had torn from the middle of my back around under my left arm and almost around to the front of my dress. I couldn't believe it! I quickly got my jacket out of the car and wore it the rest of the day. After the cemetary we went back to the church for a luncheon. It was really nice to visit with family members I had never even met before. So many of them had only last seen me when I was a toddler myself.

Later on that evening we met our friends for dinner at Macaroni Grill. They live pretty close to my grandparents house so we try to always get together whenever we're in town. We sat down at the table, and ordered our food. As we were chatting, "W" got out of his chair and crawled up into my husband's lap. He put his head on daddy's shoulder and immediately fell asleep. He was a very tired boy, he was completely out the whole time we were at the restaurant. After dinner we went back to my grandparents house. We got the kids dressed in the p.j.'s, and said goodbye to my grandparents and my parents. We were heading back for Albuquerque that night. Will realized we were leaving and his papa and grandma were not coming with him when we were getting loaded up in the car. He started crying for grandma and papa. Nothing they or I said made any difference. All he knew was he was leaving grandma and papa. We closed the doors of the car and drove away, encouraging "W" to wave bye-bye. He continued to cry for a good 5 miles down the road. I cried with him. I know how hard it is to leave grandma and grandpa. Once his tears had dried up, he fell asleep.

We decided we wanted to go a different way back to Albuquerque rather than going through Moab, Utah and Shiprock and Farmington, New Mexico. Saturday night we left Salt Lake at 9pm, we got to Grand Junction, Colorado at 12:30am. We found a hotel and stayed there for the night.

Sunday we drove through Southern Colorado. Beautiful snow capped mountains, a crystal clear mountain lake, rocky passes, aspen groves in every direction, and areas that reminded us of Idaho. They even grow potatoes. We finally got into New Mexico and went through Santa Fe on our way to Albuquerque. We pulled into our driveway at 6:30pm after leaving Grand Junction around 9:30am.

My daughter caught her brother's cold Friday night. My husband started complaining of a sore throat friday afternoon, and I started to get a sore throat around Saturday night. Thursday night at the hotel in Provo, "Sy" wasn't tired so was wandering around the room. She tripped and fell and hit her mouth on something. She cut her gums (she still doesn't have any front teeth on top), and the little flap between your gums and your upper lip. So the whole weekend she was quite the cranky, sad, teary little pill. She had a cold, she was cutting 4 teeth all at once (the four upper front teeth), she cut her mouth so it was all bruised and sore, and she had stranger anxiety. My son on the otherhand was wonderful. We agreed that this was the best he has ever been on a trip.

I'm pretty sure we got our road trip fix now. We go on these long road trips and say we're not doing that again till the kids are 13. But we forget and got on a long trip and then remember why we don't go on road trips. Even now we're planning for our next road trip up to Idaho at the end of June for his other sister's wedding and his brother's missionary farewell. Hopefully by then our daughter will have cut a few more teeth and will be the happy girl we love. Cause baby, she wasn't on this one! :-)
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 10/24/2005 12:17:00 PM :: 9 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------