Once Upon a Time....

Once upon a time, there was a lovely family that decided to take a trip to Salt Lake City. This is their story. Well, this might be a long post, so don't start reading it if you are short on time. I figure I am going more for quantity than quality.
So we left Friday morning, about 1 and 1/2 hours later than we meant to, but deep down didn't we really know that was what was going to happen? The kids all started the trip with a bag of goldfish, animal crackers, gummi worms and a string cheese. I think they are very spoilt. They don't think so.

First we headed to Logan to get the oil thingy on the truck fixed so that it could run on oil again. Danny dropped me and the kids off at the McDonald's while he took the truck in to get fixed. First of all, I have to say that I love Logan! It's so cute and clean and everybody seems so nice. Anyway, I don't know where I put my brain, but when Danny dropped us off, all I grabbed was my wallet, and I barely remembered my cell phone. Hello!? You know how long it takes cars to get fixed! So here we were at McDonald's and I didn't think to get the kids' coats, extra diapers, the stroller, anything that might be nice to have. And of course, as soon as Danny pulls away I look at Alaina and her face is all red with concentration. We all know what that means. Now we stink.

The kids ate and loved the playland there, but after a while they were getting bored. So back we went and got ice cream cones and the Spider-Man toy from the Happy Meals. Did you know that you can buy just the toy and not the whole meal? But the toy costs $2, and a Happy Meal only costs $2.80, so I'm not sure it's such a great deal. But it was definitely worth the $4 that day. So Alex and Tristan were very happy running around with their Spider-man toys and Alaina was just happy to be stinking up the place.

I was starting to get really tired of McDonald's (it had been about an hour) so I called Danny and they had just barely started to look at the car! What!? Then I looked over and saw that Alaina, who only moments earlier had been happily drinking her water, had now spilt her water all over the bench and had completely soaked her pants! Well, now I was happy to have the stinky diaper, because otherwise she would be naked! I kept looking around at the other moms and trying to pick one out to maybe ask for a clean diaper, but it looked like no one had diaper bags! What was the matter with them?!

After two hours I couldn't stand it anymore and decided we would go for a walk, no coats and all. It was nice outside and we needed a change of scenery. I had already watched 3 sets of customers come and go. This decision was the equivilant of the person stuck in a snowstorm deciding to get out because they are tired of being in their car.

I wrapped my coat (yes, I had brought my coat) around Alaina's bare legs and had the kids all hold hands and figured if we could just walk to some store like Smith's that had shopping carts, we could easily kill an hour looking around. Well, it was sunny outside, but I didn't realize that it was so windy! And we were walking along the edge of a four lane road with no sidewalk! Luckily, there was a large shoulder and so I held Alaina in one hand and was holding Tristan's hand on my other side, who in turn was holding Alex's hand. We must have looked pretty desperate because it wasn't long before a nice Mom stopped and asked if we needed help. We had only just began our adventure, and so I said that we were all fine and just going on a walk. I should have gotten a ride!

After a while we stopped to put Alaina's pants on and when we sat on the curb Tristan put his feet up and said, "This is so comfortable."

My arm was about to fall off from holding Alaina with one hand, but I could see a sign for a Big 5 store ahead and thought that it looked big and surely they would have shopping carts. Who cares at this point what we are looking at? So we all waited and at just the right moment ran holding hands across all 4 lanes. The kids were very good and ran very fast.

For your own future reference, should you find yourself in this situation, Big 5 is very small and has no shopping carts. Very disappointing. I asked the cashier, "Where is the closest store that would have shopping carts? My husband is getting our car fixed and we just need to kill some time." She just looked at me and said, "Yea." Ummm... I asked again. "Do you know somewhere close that would have shopping carts?" She kind of smiled sheepishly, clearly thinking I was crazy, and said, "Ummm.. yeah." That was it. Am I not speaking English here?!

So off we went again, none the wiser for our questions. Tristan looked up at me and smiled and said, "This is a fun adventure!" By the way, I had a small paperback book with me and my wallet and didn't have any way to carry them, so I stuck them in my pants in the back. I saw my reflection when we passed a storefront and I looked like I had the biggest, roundest bottom you have ever seen! I don't know what peole thought who were behind me. I'm surprised we didn't have people stopping every few minutes to offer help!

So, on we walked. And walked. And walked. There was nothing but small, independent stores with lots of breakable things in them. Where are all the super chain stores when you need them? I kept having the refrain from "Climb Every Mountain" run through my head. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that all the stores are on that busy main road, and so I had to hold tight to all the kids. I put my coat on Alex, since he was the only one wearing short sleeves, and now the picture was complete.

Finally, after about an hour and what felt like miles, we came to a Joanne's fabric store and they had carts. At which point, naturally, Danny called me and said he was on his way. We were rescued by Daddy, changed Alaina and wiped noses. The kids all seemed to think it was a great adventure, which shows how much a parents spin on something can change it.

The good news is, the truck is fixed and is running on oil again! Yea! Oh, on the way out of town, I checked the odometer to see how far we had walked. About one and a half miles. I was so sure it was 10.

I'll try to summarize the rest of the trip now. We went to Salt Lake, on oil, got Alex a new kilt, and then went to the Temple Visitor's Center with the Christus, which Alex loooves. The kids loved that and I loved that there are already flowers blooming on Temple Square! Color!





Next we went to this dive called Pat's Barbque that we had found on-line. They had a live jazz band and a cool atmosphere. As for the food, they had a cooker break and were out of 2 of the three things we wanted to try. We got ribs and meatloaf. The kids ate pretty well, Tristan loved their cornbread and Alaina loved throwing their spoons, but Alex accidentally got some of the hot barbeque sauce and started crying and holding his throat and saying, "Owie!" Eventually we had to ask for ketchup for Alex. How insulting! All in all, the food was quite good, but I've had better.

The kids were getting really tired and Tristan was falling asleep in the car, but they all woke up when we got to the hotel. It was so cool!

We stayed at Residence Inn and got it on Priceline for $50. We got a one-room suite, which means it had a little kitchenette, a fold-out couch and tv in one room, and then another room with a big bed, another tv and bathroom and vanity! It was sooo cute and comfy and nice! But the best part was that their pool is open 24 hours! So we all changed and went down to swim at 9pm! The best part was, we were the only people in the whole pool area! We brought the kids' lifejackets and so Tristan and Alex were pretty independent the whole time, swimming around on their own and Alaina looked like a little frog in the water. I liked the hot tub the best and spent most of my time in there. It was so fun and relaxing! We got out at like 10:15.

Then we put on jammies, put Lainey in her porta-crib and, believe it or not, Alex and Tristan slept together on the pull-out couch! They were soo tired and fell asleep facing each other. It was sooo cute. Then Danny and I went and watched Minority Report in our room! Yea!

I forgot to say that Tristan thought the hotel was sooo cool and kept saying, "This is our house! It's so cute!"


Next morning we were up early, got dressed and then went down to breakfast. They had a great hot breakfast with eggs, toast, bagels, waffles, potatoes, cereal, muffins, juice, hot chocolate, you get the idea. The kids all ate really well, even Alex who put sooo much salt and pepper on his eggs that you could actually see the salt on his eggs. He ate a muffin, too. Weird.

Then we went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade and marched at the beginning of the parade and the weather was perfect! The kids were so good and Alaina kept waving and blowing kisses at people and Alex waved funny with both of his hands and Tristan waved his Scottish flag. Good fun. Glad when it was over.

Next we went to a St. Patty's Day party, then hit a few decoratey stores. We went to Ikea and got another one of my bookcases for the downstairs. We ate at the restaurant there and it was soo good! I got pasta with marinara, garlic toast, salad, and chocolate milk, Tristan and Alaina shared mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, and swedish meatballs, Danny had meatballs (hehehe... the meat balls are very small tonight.. hehe.. sorry- inside joke) with potatoes and Alex ate a big buffalo chicken burrito with blue cheese. I know, weird, huh? He said that was what he wanted and he ate it all. It was all soooo good and hot and all together cost like $20. It was a very good deal for a lot of food.

I am liking Ikea more and more. They are so kid-friendly. They have a big play area where they will watch your potty-trained kids for free, at the food area they have toys for the kids to play with and the family bathroom has toys for kids in it and complimentary diapers and wipes! I was really glad about that, since Alaina had a huge blowout and I had a diaper but no wipes with me.

Anyway, we left Salt Lake at like 6:30, stopped at Pat's on the way out and got some of the brisket and pulled pork they had been out of to take home and got home around 10:30.

It was such a fun trip and the kids were all sooo good! (They are making up for it today.) Sorry this was so long. Mommy is probably the only one with enough time and patience to read it. I won't normally put on such long posts, I just wanted to get all this down, partly for my own record.

It was so much fun, but it was great to get home, where not only do each of our kids have their own bed, but their own room! I looove traveling, and I looove even more coming home!

And they all lived happily ever after. Well, at least they slept well that night. The end.