A Trip to Remember

Home sweet home. Good Lord, I never need to leave here. :) We just got home from a wedding in Yakima and by "we" I mean me and the kids. I might have succeeded in taking four kids under the age of four to Yakima, going to a wedding, sleeping in a hotel room and then driving home, but it doesn't mean it was fun. Ok, some parts were fantastic, but on the whole, something I'll never ever do again with kids this little!

The trip started off great, for the first 5 minutes. Because the boys had gotten up at 5 AM, all 4 kids were asleep by the Medical Lake exit (about 15 miles out of town). I was so proud of myself. And then it all fell apart. The girls started crying and I mean crying to the point where it woke up the boys. I finally stopped in Tokio (just pulled over on the exit ramp). The girls were livid. The boys were crying because they were tired. It was HOT outside! I fed both girls and then set them on the passenger seat to change them. As soon as I opened my wipes, ear wigs came out (ick!), then my instructions to the hotel flew out of the van and into a field. ARG! I got everything back together, but the girls were still VERY upset. Molly looked like this:

I decided to get the boys out to pee in a field because by golly we were not stopping again. Once everyone was loaded, I took off. My friends, the Shefflers, had just caught up and passed me at that point. Korry commented that I flew by him at 90 mph. Not too far off. I figured that if I was going to intentionally speed to get to Yakima sane, I'd better make it so that if I got pulled over, I wasn't losing time.

We arrived in Yakima in one piece. Only one problem. You get everyone out of the car to check in. Then you load them back up and drive to your room? Not a chance. The girls were not getting back in those car seats if their lives depended on it. We took what we needed and walked to our room. Luckily the Shefflers arrived and Suzy drove my van around for me. We had a few hours before the wedding, so we let the kids get in the pool. I, of course, forgot my swimsuit, so I ran to Target and got one (cute, I might add) and got some pool toys for the kiddos as well. What a welcome relief to be in the car on my own for a few precious minutes. The boys LOVED the pool. Until Thomas fell. Not just a small fall, but through a chair where he bit through his cheek. blood everywhere. Babies, of course, crying to be fed. Ridiculous. We got the bleeding stopped (by making Thomas suck on a cold pop can and then promising him he could drink the pop after it stopped bleeding), and then I dosed him to keep him happy. It worked. He was off swimming again within the hour. And today, it looks alright. Here's the boys swimming.

We then got ready for the wedding. I got the boys dressed first and then got them non-stainable snacks to fill their tummies and keep them happy. Then I fed the girls and dressed them. I then got dressed myself. The order of this is very important as Katie is bound to puke on something! :) 3 seconds before I loaded them into the stroller, Suzy pointed out that Katie was smelly. Not just smelly, but had blown out of the diaper and even the diaper cover. The poor dress that she was wearing for the first time. Yuck!

The wedding was beautiful. It was my friend Nate, that I've known since I was two years old. It was HOT! We stood outside for the most part, in fact I missed the actual wedding ceremony part, because the people who provided liquor also provided misters. Good for all of us! The boys played in a grassy area and I nursed and stood under the misters. One of my friends' dads is amazing with kids and had the boys entertained for nearly an hour teaching them how to eat clovers (yes the boys ate SO many clovers) and teaching them to whistle using a blade of grass. It was adorable. That portion of our trip went really well as there were tons of people willing and able to hold the babes. The only mishap was when Joshua fell on the cement on the walk there and skinned his knees and palms. Not too shabby!

That night we swam some more and more! The boys were loving it, unfortunately my camera did not. After swimming (at 10:20) I put the boys down, gave them some milk and they were OUT! The girls, however, had plenty of crying left in them. They stopped around midnight and woke up every hour to eat and cry. Yuck! One tired mama here now! Today the boys slept in until almost 9:30. I had to wake up Molly...she was tired!

We had one more swim and then took off for the drive home. The girls made it about 15 miles out of Yakima before crying. Ugh! Luckily, I had decided to get to at least Ellensburg before pulling over, and eventually the girls went back to sleep. We DID pull over outside of Moses Lake (between Moses Lake and Ritzville) at a rest stop to feed and change and stretch. It was nice and breezy so I didn't have to sit in the car. Phew! It's amazing the people you meet when you have babies. Not sure if it's because I have two sets of twins and people flock to them or if it's because of Katie's hair. :) I met a lovely family from Arkansas and visited for a long while. Joshua climbed trees with their little guy. I met a fun woman and her family from Holland. She was just enamored with the babies and held them and sang to them. It was a neat moment. They loved her! She even sat in the car and talked to them while I got stuff together. I think she would've come home with us! :) The boys bummed free cookies, muffins, and lemonade off the little vendor that was there. They kept running over to "chat" and kept coming back with food.

We did make it home after that stop with minimal crying and maximum speed. EVERYONE is happy to be home. The girls have played in their exersaucers and are now beside mem on the floor chatting up a storm. The boys are exhausted and resting still.

Note to self. Never do this again! Some great memories, but one exhausted mommy.