Pinetop Post, Part 1
So last week we headed up to Pinetop for our kinda-annual family reunion. It was a welcome break from the heat-- if you are not in Arizona you may not know that we are having a scorcher of a summer. For whatever reason, monsoon season was late rolling in this year which meant sky-high temps a lot longer than normal. (Usually our highest temps for the year are all in June, before the storms and moisture of the monsoon bring it down a notch.) Anyway, Pinetop is up in the mountains, with actual forests of pine trees. It's awesome! (Well, except to M, who complains about the trees because they crowd around and she "can't see." A true desert child if ever there was.) It wasn't going to be a long trip-- less than a week-- but I have had too many experiences with vacations going slightly awry so I packed a whole lot of stuff I never used to consider. Extra first aid supplies. Medicine of all kinds, including a chewable form of dramamine. A stash of laundry detergent because no matter how short the trip, it's seems like I always end up doing laundry.
Now I can add a few more things to my list for the future: a tool and ratchet set, extra feminine products for the teenager, gatorade.
Certainly we had another memorable vacation!
The drive up went fine. We left Saturday morning and missed the traffic rush of everyone else trying to escape the heat. The kids ate nothing but junk food really for both lunch and dinner, which turned out to be slightly unfortunate. But we got checked into our room and settled in without any problems. Saturday evening the kids enjoyed a treasure hunt that Amy and Livvie had planned, which wore them all out traipsing up and down from one end of the resort to the other over and over.
Sunday morning we planned to attend a local ward at 9 am. I managed to have everyone ready to go and in the van in plenty of time (necessary when you attend church in Pinetop near the 4th of July because the chapel ends up packed wall-to-wall with visitors). However, when Terence started to back out of our parking space, we heard a terrible scrape and pop. Turns out Terence had parked with the front bumper over the curb, and when he backed out it caught and popped the bumper off. While Terence was looking at it and trying to figure out if it could possible be fixed, K threw himself out of the car with a declaration that he had to go to the bathroom right now. Of course, he couldn't get back into our locked cabin, so he collapsed on the porch like he was about to throw a tantrum. In his church clothes mind you. About this time, my dad pulled up to see if we were ready to leave, which distracted me for a minute. In the end, my dad decided to take J with him and save some seats for us at church. By the time I sent them off and returned to opening the cabin door I had to drag K off the ground. He was complaining that he had fainted. (Honestly, I don't know about this one. K does faint. But it didn't look like fainting to me.) I was more irritated than anything because his white shirt was now filthy. He raced for the bathroom and disappeared for a long time while Terence tried to hunt down a screwdriver. There was no luck with a screwdriver, and eventually I was at the point of pounding on the door for K. When we finally got him back out I attacked the black smears on his shirt with a wet towel (useless), while K complained that he was going to faint again. Terence started giving him the stern adult "quit trying to get attention, K" lecture, just in time for K to throw up all over the floor.
Lovely.
So much for the family going to church together. I left K with Terence and took the girls to church by myself, with the van bumper still hanging partially off. We walked in during the opening hymn and found that my dad had managed to save a small bench, with J sitting next to an older couple in the bench in front of him. Well, that was a disaster waiting to happen! I directed the girls in next to my dad and slid onto the bench between J and the older lady. J has a tendency to sprawl all over, so I was the barrier. I spent the hour service with my 5'8" son slumped on my shoulder.
Originally we had planned to stay for the whole three hour service. But at the end of Sacrament meeting M complained that she had killer menstrual cramps and no Midol on hand. (Apparently her period had shown up-- surprise!-- the night before and she had had a miserable, restless night.) So I bailed on the rest of church and herded my flock out to the van. The engine struggled a bit to start, but I shrugged it off as nothing to worry about (probably not the best idea). As we headed back up the road to our cabin, M declared that Saturday had brought her period and monster cramps, Sunday had dropped a sick K into our laps and a yanked off bumper, and she wondered aloud what disaster was going to strike Monday.
"Don't say that!" I interrupted hastily. "Don't curse us!"
Too late. We were already cursed. (To be continued....)
Now I can add a few more things to my list for the future: a tool and ratchet set, extra feminine products for the teenager, gatorade.
Certainly we had another memorable vacation!
The drive up went fine. We left Saturday morning and missed the traffic rush of everyone else trying to escape the heat. The kids ate nothing but junk food really for both lunch and dinner, which turned out to be slightly unfortunate. But we got checked into our room and settled in without any problems. Saturday evening the kids enjoyed a treasure hunt that Amy and Livvie had planned, which wore them all out traipsing up and down from one end of the resort to the other over and over.
Sunday morning we planned to attend a local ward at 9 am. I managed to have everyone ready to go and in the van in plenty of time (necessary when you attend church in Pinetop near the 4th of July because the chapel ends up packed wall-to-wall with visitors). However, when Terence started to back out of our parking space, we heard a terrible scrape and pop. Turns out Terence had parked with the front bumper over the curb, and when he backed out it caught and popped the bumper off. While Terence was looking at it and trying to figure out if it could possible be fixed, K threw himself out of the car with a declaration that he had to go to the bathroom right now. Of course, he couldn't get back into our locked cabin, so he collapsed on the porch like he was about to throw a tantrum. In his church clothes mind you. About this time, my dad pulled up to see if we were ready to leave, which distracted me for a minute. In the end, my dad decided to take J with him and save some seats for us at church. By the time I sent them off and returned to opening the cabin door I had to drag K off the ground. He was complaining that he had fainted. (Honestly, I don't know about this one. K does faint. But it didn't look like fainting to me.) I was more irritated than anything because his white shirt was now filthy. He raced for the bathroom and disappeared for a long time while Terence tried to hunt down a screwdriver. There was no luck with a screwdriver, and eventually I was at the point of pounding on the door for K. When we finally got him back out I attacked the black smears on his shirt with a wet towel (useless), while K complained that he was going to faint again. Terence started giving him the stern adult "quit trying to get attention, K" lecture, just in time for K to throw up all over the floor.
Lovely.
So much for the family going to church together. I left K with Terence and took the girls to church by myself, with the van bumper still hanging partially off. We walked in during the opening hymn and found that my dad had managed to save a small bench, with J sitting next to an older couple in the bench in front of him. Well, that was a disaster waiting to happen! I directed the girls in next to my dad and slid onto the bench between J and the older lady. J has a tendency to sprawl all over, so I was the barrier. I spent the hour service with my 5'8" son slumped on my shoulder.
Originally we had planned to stay for the whole three hour service. But at the end of Sacrament meeting M complained that she had killer menstrual cramps and no Midol on hand. (Apparently her period had shown up-- surprise!-- the night before and she had had a miserable, restless night.) So I bailed on the rest of church and herded my flock out to the van. The engine struggled a bit to start, but I shrugged it off as nothing to worry about (probably not the best idea). As we headed back up the road to our cabin, M declared that Saturday had brought her period and monster cramps, Sunday had dropped a sick K into our laps and a yanked off bumper, and she wondered aloud what disaster was going to strike Monday.
"Don't say that!" I interrupted hastily. "Don't curse us!"
Too late. We were already cursed. (To be continued....)
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