Tradition! Tradition! (To the tune of Fiddler on the Roof)

This might be a little overdue, but who's keeping track? So, one of our family traditions is to go down to Salt Lake and march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade with our kids in their kilts and cute get-up. Last year Emme was only like 12 days old and had only been out of the hospital for four days, so it was kind of hard. But what a difference a year can make! The kids get funner every year and enjoy it and look forward to it, too. I wonder if and at what age they will start not wanting to go? Personally, I think they will always want to go, we will just do different things (like Lagoon!!) and that will be great when it comes, too!

We left on Friday, and it took us about an hour just to get out of town- and that was after we were in the car!! A stop at Wal-Mart for a new booster seat explains a lot about that.

Of course, the first place we had to visit was the Christus Statue on Temple Square. Alex loves it sooo much and we always have to ask the sister missionaries to play the narration several times. The kids also had fun just running around and Alex took a trip up and down the escalators.

After that it was like four o'clock, so we drove forever away, but closer to our hotel, and ate at Golden Corral. Now, we like Golden Corral, because where else can one kid get pizza, meatballs and barbeque sauce, another salad and mac and cheese and another one cottage cheese and peaches? Poor little Emme had not slept at all in the car and was sooo tired. She kept putting her head on the table to rest.

The kids were so super excited to get to the hotel and go swimming. Tristan said, "I'm going to be a shark! Mommy, what are you going to be?" To which I of course replied, "I will be a mermaid." Lainey laughed and said, "No, Mommy! You can be the whale!" Thank you, Alaina.

Tristan talked up a storm with our waitress and told her everything we were doing and invited her along, as well. He tried to invite the diners around us, too, be we convinced him not to ask them.

 

At the hotel, all ready for swimming. Yes, Emme stayed awake and looved it!!

It's really nice now that they are all big enough to swim around on their own with their jackets on. (Except Emme, of course.) We can just sit in the hot tub and watch them.

There was another Mom there watching her kids swim, too, but she wasn't wise enough to change into swim clothes. Sensing her vulnerability, her two year old waited until his life jacket was off and jumped into the pool, which meant that she jumped in, too. Poor girl! She was dripping wet, as was her cell phone, but at least the kid was all right!

Then we put Emme to bed and watched some tv in our room and made microwave popcorn. Oh, we stayed at Residence Inn, which we love and have always regretted if we stayed anywhere else. We get two rooms, a 24 hour pool and a free hot, buffet breakfast. It's the best!

Kids zonked out.

This is Alaina, singing her "parade song" the next morning on our way over.

When we got to the start of the parade route, it took a minute to find our group. Never one to miss an opportunity, Alex couldn't resist dancing his best Irish Jig, like he saw all the other dancers doing.

Look how huge this Irish Wolfhound is!!

The kids were soo great during the parade (sorry, no pictures) and all walked and waved the whole time and thought it was great. My favorite part was when Alex started yelling loudly, "Merry Christmas everyone!!" I heard a lady on the side say, "Well, it's never too early."

By the way, did I ever tell you that sometimes when we have been driving Tristan has randomly asked if we are in a parade? Don't ask me why he thought we were. At which point Danny slows down the car and says, "Yes,we are! Everybody wave!" and rolls down the windows and all the kids wave and think it was great that we were in another parade. I think all this parade stuff has gone to their heads.

After the parade, we had a big decision to make. It was time to checkout from our hotel room and we would head home that night. But it felt like we had barely gotten there! So, after finding out that if we stayed two nights, we got a free night later sometime, we decided to stay one more night. And I'm soo glad we did. It made all the difference in feeling like a "real trip" and not just a jaunt.

So, we went to the $1.50 theater in Sugarhouse, spent 30 minutes parking, found out the movie was sold out, bought tickets for the 3:30 showing, played at Toys 'R Us,  and then I convinced Danny that in the 45 minutes we had left we should drive to Ikea and I could look around and get some food for the kids. We didn't have anything else to do, so he said okay. By the time we got there, I had literally 15 minutes to go through that whole, huge place. It was like torture. Beautiful, wonderful torture. I love that place, because it isn't just stuff. It's things to make your stuff better. Anyway, bought some of their delicious food and fed it to the kids in the car as we drove back to the movie.

We saw Tangled and all just loved it. The only bad part was that Emme knocked over the whole bucket of popcorn 3 minutes into the movie, so Danny had to get it refilled, and then when he came back someone had to go potty, naturally. And Emme was sooo tired the whole time. I found that the best thing to do to keep her entertained was to let her lean back in my lap and feed me bites of popcorn from the bucket, even though I didn't want any popcorn.

Despite these setbacks, we all loved the movie. It kind of made us tear up at the end, I don't know why. We're just big saps. Alex just couldn't resist the music and went dancing down the aisles. Danny thought we should stop him, until I pointed out that no one cared or noticed. If you look carefully in this video, you will see Alex has made his way through the crowded aisles and is dancing down at the front.

Other kids joined in soon, too and that made Alex even happier. He's so darn happy with music, it tugs at my heartstrings every time. What are we going to do with that boy?

After that we drove around all the massively huuuuge houses up on the hill in Bountiful and I tried to look in their windows as we drove past. The kids didn't think that was very fun, but we did use a whole quarter tank of gas just getting our huge truck up and around the mountain. How do people afford the gas to live up there, let alone the houses?

Then we got 5-buck pizza to eat in our hotel room, at which point we realized that my wallet was gone and had probably fallen out at the theater.

Back to hotel, eat, call theater- Yeah! They had my wallet and they held it until the next day.

Then Danny stayed in the room while Emme was sleeping and I took the other kids swimming again.  All was going well, wonderful in fact, until Tristan started coughing. Tristan should be a super-hero. He could be called "Throw-Up Boy" and puke on you on command. That boy throws up more than anyone I have ever known in my entire life.

So, he started coughing in the hot tub and when he couldn't stop I made him get out, thank goodness. Yep, all over the tile floor. And again. And again, until I got him outside and some fresh air. The lady who dived in after her kid was there, and kindly kept an eye on Alaina and Alex, while I went to the front desk and got tons of sanitizer and paper towels and sacks. Oh, it was everywhere. But at least it wasn't in the water!! The poor guy that had just gotten in the hot tub right before all of this started, got out and left just a little bit after. I kept telling him sorry. He was really nice about it, but I felt bad.

Soon after I got it all cleaned up and sent Tristan back to our room (even though he insisted that he felt better now and wanted to swim more), the other family left. We sure know how to clear a room.

This was after everyone was gone.

  Back to the rooms a while later, as it just wasn't as fun anymore. (I promise, this post is almost over.) Sleep.

Everyone kind of cranky the next morning, which proves that it doesn't matter how much fun you are having or what you are doing, you can still be in a bad mood. We couldn't figure out why they had barely any food at the breakfast buffet, since it was open until 9:30 and it was only 9, and then we found out that it was Daylight Savings Time and it was actually 10 am! Whoops!

Also, while we were eating breakfast we noticed Alex playing with something long and red and rubbery. He was rolling it around and putting it on his face and eyes. I couldn't figure out what it was until I leaned in closer and realized it was an old piece of gum!!! Ahhh! As soon as we took it, he started reaching under the table for another! Danny practically screamed at him to stop. Oh, Alex.

Then we got loaded, drove down and got my wallet and then drove home. Yes, we drove home on a Sunday and missed church, which we really never do, but it really felt like the right thing to take more time with our family. And it was.

We loved being together and having fun and the kids loved it so much. And, we got a free hotel stay, which Danny and I are using in a few weeks to go down by ourselves! Woo-hoo!

All in all, so much fun together and more great memories made!!