Making Memories, Part III: Rain, Rain Go Away
Saturday morning I woke feeling terrible. Awful. The Headache was roaring, my stomach was cramping a bit, and I was just exhausted. But I dragged myself out of bed anyway. It was Saturday after all, and Saturdays I run.
Here is plain evidence of my insanity. Yes, I was on vacation. Yes, I felt horrific. Yes, I was going to be spending the day chasing a 4 year old and a 1 year old at a water park. However, I had to go on my run. Otherwise, I was going to gain 30 pounds on vacation and life as I knew it would be over. OK, that's completely irrational, but is it really a bad thing? After all, it motivated me to drag myself out of the tent and onto the road. I ran for six miles through downtown Kaysville and back. It was a nice run, the temperature was pleasant, and I loved looking at the houses. The homes in Utah incite some serious house envy for me. (Actually, homes in most parts of the US do that.) My absolute least favorite kind of architecture is southwestern, and I literally ache with longing when I look at houses with brick or smooth white siding and big porches. There was not a snick of stucco or wannabe adobe tile roofs to be seen! Beautiful!
I made it back from my run just in time to escape a downpour. (Terence, who went out for his run right after me, was not so lucky. He was drenched when he slogged back into camp.) Oddly enough, The Headache didn't appreciate my long run and decided to back off for awhile. Who knew that running might work as a pain reliever?
The downpour continued for awhile but eventually it tapered off into drizzling. We still headed out for the water park though. My kids had been working towards the Cherry Hill trip for months through their piano lessons and there was no way they were going to let a little rain stand in their way. It was perfect for younger kids. Not a lot of slides, but plenty of water to play in. My job was S while Terence had K, and I spent most of the morning following her around. Then I completely lucked out. S actually took a nap in the tent, and since my parents were hanging out with some of my other relatives at our campsite, I got to leave her and head back to the water park without her. She slept for the entire rest of our water park visit, and though I should have been nervous that she was sleeping so much, I just figured she was worn out from all the vacation activity and took full advantage of the break. A break! Fantastic!
Closer to dinner time we picked up S and took the kids to do some of the other Cherry Hill activities. Some of the kids played in the Hamster Haven (full of tubes and ball pits), while B and I attempted aeroball. If you've never heard of aeroball, I'm not terribly surprised. I've never seen it outside of Utah (though maybe that's just because I don't hang out at miniature golf parks) but it's a game like basketball played on trampolines. I learned something very valuable that afternoon: women who have given birth to five kids should probably avoid trampolines. Unless they've been diligently practicing their kegel exercises, I guess. Let's just say I was quite ready to give up on aeroball and run for a restroom long before our time was up. At this point it all became moot though because another thunderstorm rolled in and the water park shut down. Probably just as well. I guess I wouldn't want to be bouncing around in a metal cage while lightning strikes nearby!
It had rained off and on through our whole vacation but never for more than a few minutes at a time so I figured it would be short. How wrong I was! My parents were in charge of dinner and a program honoring my grandparents' 70th wedding anniversary at a pavilion at Cherry Hill-- luckily it was a large, covered pavilion! The rain kept coming and coming. My thin-skinned desert kiddos were shivering so I ran back to the tent to grab their jackets, only to find our tent surrounded by a lake. Uh oh. Inside I checked for water and found that we were starting to get some leaking through the seams around the edges of the tent. I tried to move stuff away from the edge, but crossed my fingers that a few drips of water would be all that made it in.
The program went well-- I think Grandma especially was touched. It's pretty amazing to make it through 70 years of marriage!
I wanted to get a picture of them cutting the cake and feeding it to each other but I was thwarted by my toddler. As soon as the rain stopped S refused to hang out. I spent most of the rest of the evening chasing her down. (I even had to quit playing the bingo game, which was definitely a bummer!)
When the program was over we took all the kids to play miniature golf. They'd never done it before so that was an adventure. Bryson (my 9 year old nephew) has natural golfing talent and he wanted to take it seriously. J cannot focus or wait, especially if he sees something he might be interested in, and the course was very backed up, even though it was near 10pm by that time. There was a little bit of a fracas with the group ahead of us (J took one of their balls thinking it was his), and luckily I didn't hear any of it. Terence fumed a bit though. It was a honest misunderstanding, and J is . . .well, J just doesn't think like the rest of us. But of course they didn't know that. After that our group split and Camie took the older kids and jumped ahead on the course (forestalling any more problems). That left Terence and K and I, which was just a blast. For the first half of the course, I wore S in the backpack and the second half was Terence's turn. Wearing a toddler on your back makes for an interesting kind of handicap!
Unfortunately, when our golf game ended (about 10:30pm) I was entering the delirious zone. It had been a very, very long day. The Headache had returned (it liked mini golf, apparently) and back in the tent we found that more than a few drops had soaked through the tent seams. Several of the pillows and blankets closest to the edge had gotten soaked. It was torture, trying to mop up water, rearrange bedding, and get the kids ready for bed, especially while my head was trying to split open. But eventually I made it onto my air mattress. It took a little bit to fall asleep (obnoxious Headache) but once I did I slept like a boulder. Terence and the kids must have been just as wiped out-- that's my only explanation for what followed. When we woke up in the morning, S was literally covered in dried vomit. At some point during the night she had thrown up and NOBODY had heard her. In fact, S herself must have gone right back to sleep because I doubt all of us would have slept through her crying. It was a disgusting mess, and she was still out cold right in the middle of it. Welcome, welcome beautiful Sabbath morning!
(Next part to follow soon....)
Here is plain evidence of my insanity. Yes, I was on vacation. Yes, I felt horrific. Yes, I was going to be spending the day chasing a 4 year old and a 1 year old at a water park. However, I had to go on my run. Otherwise, I was going to gain 30 pounds on vacation and life as I knew it would be over. OK, that's completely irrational, but is it really a bad thing? After all, it motivated me to drag myself out of the tent and onto the road. I ran for six miles through downtown Kaysville and back. It was a nice run, the temperature was pleasant, and I loved looking at the houses. The homes in Utah incite some serious house envy for me. (Actually, homes in most parts of the US do that.) My absolute least favorite kind of architecture is southwestern, and I literally ache with longing when I look at houses with brick or smooth white siding and big porches. There was not a snick of stucco or wannabe adobe tile roofs to be seen! Beautiful!
I made it back from my run just in time to escape a downpour. (Terence, who went out for his run right after me, was not so lucky. He was drenched when he slogged back into camp.) Oddly enough, The Headache didn't appreciate my long run and decided to back off for awhile. Who knew that running might work as a pain reliever?
The downpour continued for awhile but eventually it tapered off into drizzling. We still headed out for the water park though. My kids had been working towards the Cherry Hill trip for months through their piano lessons and there was no way they were going to let a little rain stand in their way. It was perfect for younger kids. Not a lot of slides, but plenty of water to play in. My job was S while Terence had K, and I spent most of the morning following her around. Then I completely lucked out. S actually took a nap in the tent, and since my parents were hanging out with some of my other relatives at our campsite, I got to leave her and head back to the water park without her. She slept for the entire rest of our water park visit, and though I should have been nervous that she was sleeping so much, I just figured she was worn out from all the vacation activity and took full advantage of the break. A break! Fantastic!
Closer to dinner time we picked up S and took the kids to do some of the other Cherry Hill activities. Some of the kids played in the Hamster Haven (full of tubes and ball pits), while B and I attempted aeroball. If you've never heard of aeroball, I'm not terribly surprised. I've never seen it outside of Utah (though maybe that's just because I don't hang out at miniature golf parks) but it's a game like basketball played on trampolines. I learned something very valuable that afternoon: women who have given birth to five kids should probably avoid trampolines. Unless they've been diligently practicing their kegel exercises, I guess. Let's just say I was quite ready to give up on aeroball and run for a restroom long before our time was up. At this point it all became moot though because another thunderstorm rolled in and the water park shut down. Probably just as well. I guess I wouldn't want to be bouncing around in a metal cage while lightning strikes nearby!
It had rained off and on through our whole vacation but never for more than a few minutes at a time so I figured it would be short. How wrong I was! My parents were in charge of dinner and a program honoring my grandparents' 70th wedding anniversary at a pavilion at Cherry Hill-- luckily it was a large, covered pavilion! The rain kept coming and coming. My thin-skinned desert kiddos were shivering so I ran back to the tent to grab their jackets, only to find our tent surrounded by a lake. Uh oh. Inside I checked for water and found that we were starting to get some leaking through the seams around the edges of the tent. I tried to move stuff away from the edge, but crossed my fingers that a few drips of water would be all that made it in.
The program went well-- I think Grandma especially was touched. It's pretty amazing to make it through 70 years of marriage!
 |
| My grandpa, my uncle Ron, and my Grandma |
When the program was over we took all the kids to play miniature golf. They'd never done it before so that was an adventure. Bryson (my 9 year old nephew) has natural golfing talent and he wanted to take it seriously. J cannot focus or wait, especially if he sees something he might be interested in, and the course was very backed up, even though it was near 10pm by that time. There was a little bit of a fracas with the group ahead of us (J took one of their balls thinking it was his), and luckily I didn't hear any of it. Terence fumed a bit though. It was a honest misunderstanding, and J is . . .well, J just doesn't think like the rest of us. But of course they didn't know that. After that our group split and Camie took the older kids and jumped ahead on the course (forestalling any more problems). That left Terence and K and I, which was just a blast. For the first half of the course, I wore S in the backpack and the second half was Terence's turn. Wearing a toddler on your back makes for an interesting kind of handicap!
Unfortunately, when our golf game ended (about 10:30pm) I was entering the delirious zone. It had been a very, very long day. The Headache had returned (it liked mini golf, apparently) and back in the tent we found that more than a few drops had soaked through the tent seams. Several of the pillows and blankets closest to the edge had gotten soaked. It was torture, trying to mop up water, rearrange bedding, and get the kids ready for bed, especially while my head was trying to split open. But eventually I made it onto my air mattress. It took a little bit to fall asleep (obnoxious Headache) but once I did I slept like a boulder. Terence and the kids must have been just as wiped out-- that's my only explanation for what followed. When we woke up in the morning, S was literally covered in dried vomit. At some point during the night she had thrown up and NOBODY had heard her. In fact, S herself must have gone right back to sleep because I doubt all of us would have slept through her crying. It was a disgusting mess, and she was still out cold right in the middle of it. Welcome, welcome beautiful Sabbath morning!
(Next part to follow soon....)
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