Things Remembered

So, this weekend found us once again ON THE ROAD.  Are we gluttons for punishment, or what???  Hahaha.  This time it was for an opportunity we felt just couldn't be passed up -- the Kansas City Temple open house.  Our ward decided to plan a trip over there for all the Youth, and since Scott is the Young Men's president and was supposed to go with them, we decided to tagalong and make it a family affair!

The plan was to leave Thursday evening, check into a hotel for the night, and tour the temple the next morning.  Well, let me just say that it seemed as though the adversary was working overtime to keep us from going on this trip and it's a good thing we're not easily deterred!  Hahaha. Aside from the normal hustle and hassle of getting all of us ready to go, trying to clean out the car from our LAST road trip, and getting all our stuff packed for THIS trip, we also experienced the following setbacks:

Setback number one -- Grace.  Well, Grace's wipeout that is.  While riding a little tykes bike down the hill in front of our house {when she should have been packing up and getting ready to go} she wiped out hard and skinned up her knees pretty bad.  Which ended up taking quite a bit of time to get her cleaned up, consoled, and contributing once again to our departure preparations.  Okay, scratch that.  She never really contributed before the accident much less after.  Hahahaha.

Setback number two, you ask?  Oh, that would be Sophie.  Because apparently monkey see, monkey do.  Even when monkey number one limps outside to scream at you that you need to get off the bike so you don't hurt yourself like she did.  Apparently we have really strong-willed monkeys in our family, because Sophie didn't want to listen.  Grace had followed me upstairs to my room where I was helping Scott finish up our packing when she walked over to the window, looked outside, and informed us that Sophie had just wiped out, too.  Are you kidding me??  Let's just say that I had a bit of hard time feeling sorry for monkey number two when her accident was 100% preventable.  And in fact had been strongly discouraged and in fact, prohibited.  

From here on out, it just seemed as though everyone was moving slower than molasses and when we finally hit the road (for our 3 hour drive) it was almost 8.  In the end, the timing was probably for the best, as the settling darkness induced the 2 little ones to sleep and the borrowed DVD players were put to good use with the older kids choosing from amongst the newly checked out movies from the library. By the time we got to the hotel it was after 11, Jane had just woken up from a refreshing late evening nap, and all the kids were wired.  We had to divide into 2 rooms, and I apparently lucked out with my combination of Grace, Sophie, and Alex who all fell asleep pretty quickly a little after midnight.  Scott, on the other hand, took one for the team with Jane -- who didn't fall asleep until after 1 and then woke up a couple more times after that before morning.  {We've been experiencing quite a few night time issues with Jane, just in case you're wondering.}

The next morning got off to a good start -- mostly thanks to the free continental breakfast -- and we made our way over to the temple in plenty of time for the Open House.  The temple itself was BEAUTIFUL, and even though it had turned COLD and very windy and the kids were NOT a fan of that, they were fairly well-behaved throughout the morning, all things considered.  I think they really enjoyed the tour (or at least they did once they were inside and away from the elements) and I'm hoping that the memories and feelings from the experience will stay with them for a long, long time.

The Parkway Ward Youth plus some of the leaders and families.

After the temple tour we joined the youth once again for a trip to Liberty Jail, a nearby Church Historical Site where the prophet Joseph Smith was once held for several months along with other church leaders.  And here is where the perfect storm of a super late night plus our spirited children began to spew out and spatter everyone around us.  Grace was fairly embarrassing at the jail and while none of the children had to be dragged out kicking and screaming -- unlike our trip to Historical Kirtland from a couple of years ago -- we nonetheless decided it was time for our little family to part ways with the rest of the group.  This was made possible {fortunately} by the fact that none of the young men from our ward ended up going on the trip.  With no boys to help chaperone, Scott was able to bail from the group without feeling guilty and we were able to leave for home a LOT earlier than we were anticipating.  Which was a good thing.  After stopping a meltdown in its tracks by going to eat lunch, we were able to hit the road and travel in peace for MOST of the time until everything began unravelling with about 30 minutes left in our drive.  Grace was still the main culprit but rest assured that the others put their 2 cents in as well.

Most memorable exchanges of those final moments going home include:  Sophie wiping her ear wax on Grace; Grace whaling on Sophie almost non-stop;  Sophie cowering under her quilt in an attempt to buffer Grace's blows; Ethan intervening with a pounding or two; Grace shrieking crazily, "I'm going to kill you!!!!!"; Ethan responding, "You're going to pay for this!!!!!!"; Jane screaming for everyone to "STOP!!!!"; and finally Grace yelling, "I'm going to slap your face and shove a tack down your throat!!!!" to Scott when he was trying calm her down.  Apparently no sleep + hunger = very disgruntled children.  All-in-all it was a trip to remember -- although, for the record, I'm not going on any more road trips for a long, LONG time!