To sum it up we spent 13 days being pretty lazy. We were
house sitting while my in laws were stuck in a hotel room in Phoenix. My father
in law had eye surgery & couldn’t come home due to the elevation so they
were set put. I was thankful for the elbow room & ability to stretch out
& relax…for the most part. I’m sure little miss Emry was so glad to have
all kinds of crawling space. Since we were put down for a while I got back into
cloth diapers for the kids. Yay! I did some cloth diapering while we traveled,
but we didn’t always get a camp site with laundry facilities & I didn’t
want the diapers sitting for longer than 3 days so we mostly did disposables,
which made me cringe. I’m looking forward to getting into one spot for a while
so I can do the cloth again & hang them outside in the sun to dry.
I was hoping to get caught up on all kinds of sleep, but
that only happened the day after we arrived. I took Emry up to nap & I fell
asleep with her for 4 hours! I almost felt guilty, but it was so needed. I only
napped a couple more times during our stay, but should have done it every day
now that I look back. Oh well. Emry did
nap on her Abu a couple times & Dalton napped with his grandpa, which was
so cute. I kept meaning to get a photo, but kept forgetting. I hope someone got
one. The kids did bring back their game of musical beds. I would put them to
sleep in the loft bed & one by one they would come into the bed I was in
with the baby. I’d let them fall back to sleep then sometimes if I had the
energy I would take them back to their bed. There were some nights where I
would let them fall asleep in my bed then I’d carry them to their bed. Dalton
cried out several times in his sleep & he would walk around all confused. I
would ask him questions, but he just walked in circles. I asked him once if he
wanted water, but he said “no” then he proceeded to walk into my room &
grab my water cup then walk out to the hallway to drink it then walked back
into my room to put the cup back. I chalked it all up to a mild case of sleep
walking. It was interesting to watch him, but frustrating at the same time
because he was tired & I tried to help him fall back asleep, but he didn’t
want to be in my bed or his bed so I had to wait it out with him until he
decided. I’m just glad it wasn’t a night terror. I remember Annika had one of
those when she was probably 3 & it scared me. She had this blank look in
her eyes as she screamed uncontrollably. I couldn’t talk to her or hold her
since it made it worse. I just sat there & waited it out. She finally fell
back on her pillow & was fast asleep. That was her only episode & I’m
so glad it was. Hopefully I don’t have that experience with Dalton. It made me
feel totally helpless.
Another thing I didn’t do nearly enough was relax in the
hot tub. I did that one day with the kids & we all know that’s not really
relaxing. I think the only thing I did do a lot of was eating. Ugh! On our last
evening Annika helped her Abu make potato dumplings. She got her hands in there
& formed the potato balls. She sure loves to eat them, as we all do.
Unfortunately all that eating came at a price. My underwear started to shrink.
Blah! I had this big plan to exercise every day while I was there & I
sucked at that. I went walking 2 days & that was it. I seriously need to
get out of my funk & find some motivation. It’ll happen & hopefully
before next March when I hit the next decade in age. Oi. I not only want to,
but I need to be 40 & fabulous. I did do some tv time, which was needed on
my part. I barely get any adult tv time these days (and I don’t mean adult as
in dirty nasty, I mean as in non-cartoon). Since we didn’t have cable or
satellite tv I started watching Drop Dead Diva on Netflix from season 1 &
got to season 3. I’m so addicted & stayed up way too late on several
occasions trying to watch as many episodes as I could. I have one more season
to go on Netflix then I have to wait for the current season to be over so I can
get caught up. I did jump on the band wagon when it came to Candy Crush. I saw
& heard so many people talking about it so one night I downloaded the app
& gave it a try. That game has a mind of its own & half the time I
don’t know what’s going on. All I know is that I want to get 3 stars on each
level. I wouldn’t say I lose sleep on that game, but I play it when I have a
moment of boredom, which isn’t often.
The kids loved
spending time with their Abu & Grandpa. They were assigned chores (put
peanuts out for the blue jay, feed the Tom cat, water their fairy gardens,
& feed the fish in the pond). Of course every day I had to remind Annika
& I got the usual “do I have to? I don’t feeeellll like it”. I would then
remind her that if she can’t take care of the small things then how would she
take care of the big things like a pony or miniature horse. That usually got
her going.. So much happened in those 13 days, but of course I failed to
document it & I’m sitting here staring at the ceiling wracking my brain to
remember it all or at least part of it. I did take them to see Despicable Me
part 2 & oh boy it was an experience. We haven’t been to the movies in a
while for obvious reasons, but I braved it this day. I had all 3 of them with
me & Dalton didn’t want to sit in his chair so he stood next to me &
kind of squatted near my feet as well the whole movie. Emry decided to take a
big dump & I couldn’t leave the kids in the theater alone & I didn’t
want to take them all out & miss a portion of the movie, so I did what I
had to. I changed her in my lap. But you see she’s kind of long so her head was
hanging over my knees as I changed her. To keep all the blood from rushing to
her head I leaned backward & lifted my legs up so my shins could support her
head. Hey a workout & a diaper change at the same time. Yes I’m that good.
I had to be sure to disinfect my hands real good because the hand I wiped her
with is the same hand I grab popcorn with. Ewww I know, but I used several
disinfectant wipes on my hands too.
My in laws live in a cul de sac across from the library
& a big community park. There’s Frisbee golf, soccer, tennis, skate park,
and a couple kiddie play ground areas. I took them one day (we should have gone
more often) and they enjoyed it. Both Annika & Dalton are very sociable.
Whenever they see other kids they are usually the first to say “hi” and ask to
play with the other kids. I’m usually hesitant because I know how kids can be,
but I sit back & watch what happens ready to encourage or comfort when
needed. I was hoping they would wear themselves out, but I was the one
constantly bending over picking up their horses as they threw them off the top
of these big plastic climbing rocks. Eh I could use the workout. Thankfully no
injuries occurred. Whew! On our walk back to the house we passed by a port a
potty & it was stinky. Dalton got a whiff & started fanning his nose
then stuck out his tongue & began to gag. It’s so funny watching him do
that. On the last home stretch we spotted some bats flying overhead & in my
opinion they were flying a bit too low. Rabies!!!
Since Annika is in her cowgirl phase I took her to a
western wear store to get her some cowgirl get up. She got a red & white
shirt & a belt. She has a hat already. They had the cutest pink blingy flip
flops at 40% off so I got her a pair. She’s not the only one that likes them.
Dalton likes wearing them too. He put them on one day to go outside &
Annika kept yelling at him to take them off, but he kept walking then turned
around with this sly look on his face then told her “no stop it” as he waved
his hand at her. It was so funny. He cracks me up & yes I got a picture of
him in his get up. We also found some boots for Dalton, but so far he hasn’t
shown much interest in wearing them. I
haven’t gotten Annika any new boots since it’s so dang hot & I know she’ll
wear them frequently (I don’t want her feet getting all sweaty). I figured we’d
wait until we got to our new home & did the whole school shopping thing. I
can already tell school shopping is going to be pricey, unless of course her
school has a dress code/uniform, which I think would be great.
We did have our share of boo boos during our stay. Emry
for one got to the stairs before I could put the gate up & she fell
backward after climbing a couple. I hate it when they fall off stairs & now
they have all done it. I just hope it’s the last time for all of them. After
hearing about my friend’s untimely death from falling down her stairs, I worry
about any of us falling. I vowed to not have stairs in our next & hopefully
final home, but we have to have a basement so that’s ruled that out. Can I just
put bubble wrap all around my kids to keep them safe? Annika is the queen of band aids & has
been for several years now. The smallest scratch & she wants a band aid.
I’ve put my foot down & have told her if there’s no blood then there’s no
band aid. Dalton is getting into the band aid stage now, but he’s not as bad as
his sister. The day after any of his boo boos he shows it to me & says “boo
boo all better” in the sweetest voice. Of course there was the one day when his
daddy took the band aid off before giving him a bath & he screamed bloody
murder the whole time. I finally figured out what was wrong with him &
replaced the band aid. Tada! He crawled up & went to sleep. Sheesh.
Let’s see the kids did get crafty & made crowns one
night. Annika also made a chain necklace. She drew some pictures for both her
grandparents then rolled them up with ribbon & placed them on their bed so
they could be surprised when they got home. She’s so thoughtful & she was
so proud of herself. She does this jumping up & down thing when she’s
excited & that’s just what she did. There was lots of coloring going on &
I finally had to get Dalton his own coloring book because Annika didn’t want to
share hers. Now that he has his own he doesn’t seem as interested. Go figure. They
watched their share kidding when I say he probably watched the “Car-toons Mater
Tales” 100 times. First it was Toy Story during our travels now Cars. I don’t
see how they can watch the same show over & over & over again. I tried
to encourage other movies, but he wasn’t having it.
Hubby did his fair share of chores. He took the carpet
out of the trailer, which was nice. That
cuts down on some vacuuming & just icky dirt trapped inside. The only
carpet left is the stuff under the couch, which isn’t really exposed & the
stuff under the table, which is probably really gross but he steam cleaned it
before we left so now it’s ready for more food droppings & stains. What I’d
really like are some black out curtains to block out the morning sun. When the
sun rises Dalton is like a rooster ready to wake everyone up, but since we are
close to the end of our travels the curtains will wait until our next camping
trip.
Oh we did venture down to Phoenix to visit with the in
laws & help them break up the monotony of the hotel room. Man it was hotter
than hot down there. The temp on our suv showed 106 & 108. I don’t know why
anyone would want to live in that heat. We went to Butterfly Wonderland, which
was a new exhibit. We saw a 3d movie that talked about the life of the
butterfly & their migration. Dalton wasn’t interested in wearing the 3d
glasses & Annika had them on then off then on then off again. I noticed
Emry had decided to poop so after the movie I had to walk all the way around to
the end to get back to the beginning to get to the bathroom. There had to be an
easier way. There was also a small aquarium inside with sting rays, but no one
wanted to touch them. We went inside the butterfly area & woah it was humid
in there. It was beautiful seeing all the many butterflies. Dalton would squat
to see them, but would jerk back if they looked to mobile. If one got near him
he would kind of jump/run away & head towards an adult for safety. Annika
would say “aaaww cute” but she too would get freaked out if they came near her.
One landed on hubby’s head & one landed on Dalton’s sleeve, but he didn’t
see it. I can only imagine how he would have reacted..hahahaha! We of course
had to walk thru the gift shop to get out (they’re tricky like that) & Annika
finally decided on these really neat fabric butterfly wings. We talked about
how it would make a great Halloween costume. Dalton got a wind up caterpillar.
Next stop, lunch at Red Robin. Of course along the way I spotted a
What-A-Burger & gasped in awww, but hubby doesn’t understand my fascination
with my hometown burger. Hey it’s better than his nasty White Castle. Gag. But
the restaurant had been pre-picked so I sucked it up & drank lots of
strawberry lemonades at RR. We decided to head back home since it was later in
the afternoon & there wasn’t much to do in the area for kids. I was glad to
get out of that scorching heat.
Every Saturday there’s a local farmer’s market there in
Payson & they have pony rides. We went that first Saturday & Annika was
loving it. Dalton went too, but daddy had to walk beside him & make sure he
didn’t fall off. They were both so cute. I found some delicious tapenade. I’ve
looked for so long for the right olive tapenade that doesn’t have capers &
this one didn’t. Simply had green & black olives & roasted red peppers.
Yummo. I almost ate the whole container in one day. The next Saturday I wanted
to go back & stock up on olive tapenade for the remainder of our trip so it
was just me & Annika. She did another pony ride & I talked to the owner
about his miniature horses. Oops thought they were ponies. He said mini horses
are better mannered & actually not that expensive to care for. Hmmm might
have to look into that. Of course I don’t want to be stuck doing all the horse
care & I’m afraid that would happen. I think we’ll start with a puppy first
even though I’m not wanting a dog, but it’ll be a good alert to us if strangers
approach & it’ll occupy the kids & teach them some responsibilities.
Anyway back to the market. I also got some yummy peanut butter that’s honey
flavored & natural. As we were leaving there was a guy who had cannolis. I
love cannolis & get one every time I come across them, but this one was by
far the best. I also got some yummo cranberry/orange bread & Italian olive
oil bread along with some crazy good cookies.
Oh how I love farmers markets. I can’t wait to get our house so I can
start my own garden. Got lots of plans brewing in my head.
