Friday night, my parents stayed with us. We made homemade pizza. Tucker came too and watched the Jennifer Lawrence movie. I went to bed as soon as the movie was over since we were getting on the road early Saturday morning.
Saturday, my alarm went off at 4am. I packed the car, got last minute snacks packed and everything in the car before venturing into the kiddos rooms to get them up. I was hoping to move them quietly so they would be able to fall back asleep in the car. I got Hailey first and plopped her in the car and then we headed out. I got gas and then we hit the highway. The kids did not go back to sleep but they did sort of coast. I was able to keep them without a tablet for over an hour and a half when we had to make our first restroom stop. We grabbed coffee, donuts and juice for the kids. We had to stop again in Worthington, about an hour later, for Hailey to go again. We were able to make it the rest of the way without stopping.
We got to Sioux Falls around 9am and picked up Bagel Boy for everyone. We went to Toby and Andrea’s house to see the baby! I took a few pictures and then we took Charlie (who now wants us to call him Charles…when did get grow up…) and went to Home Depot.
Home Depot does a kid craft every first Saturday of the month. This month, we made rescues float planes. I had to screw most of it in but let all of them help me hammer the nails in before they went crazy with paint. Miles LOVED painting, he was not happy when I made him put the brush away so we could give it time to dry.
After craft time, we went to McDonalds for the kids to eat and play. Hailey and Charles were such good older protectors for Miles – a kid tried to pull miles down the slide and Hailey and Charles stopped him and then came over and tattled on him.
I picked up Taco Bell for lunch for the grown ups – of course they messed mine up… After lunch, we decided to enjoy the nice weather and go to the zoo. Toby picked up Lily and I took the younger kiddos. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and the outside time was great for burning off more energy. Hailey did want to ride in the stroller a bit, but eventually enjoyed running in circles. If you ask anyone what their favorite part of the visit was — it was the bears! The bears were cranky. They were splashing in the little pond and throwing rocks at the windows. Miles and Hailey were staring in through the big window when one of the bears lumbered over, jumped into the pond and into the window! Miles got so scared he took off running and crying and needed to be held. Hailey was scared at first but then got a big smile on her face.
As the zoo was closing, we headed out and parted ways with Toby’s family. I took the the hotel to get checked in. After getting stuff in the room, we walked over to the mall. Everything was such long waits for food so we just grabbed some pizza from the food court. After dinner, we went to the hotel to wind down. The kids watched some TV while I tried to edit photos.
Bedtime – one word: awful. I had a king size bed and Hailey was going to snuggle me and Miles was in the pack n play next to the bed. Miles thought it was fun to jump up and down like crazy in the pack n play. He then started to drop his water bottle out of the pack n play and Hailey would hop off the bed, RUN over there and give him his water bottle… and repeat so many times. Finally Hailey fell asleep but Miles was still partying. I tried to bring him up into the bed to sleep and that worked for about 15 minutes… and then he wanted back into his crib. Then he was up about every 1.5-2 hours… Hailey was taking up the entire king size bed… I couldn’t fall back asleep after the 2am waking so read my book for about an hour… and then the kids were up before 6. It was a rough night. And it got even more chaotic.
We went down to the hotel breakfast when it opened at 7 and the kids decided that listening was not in their plans for the day. They ran back and forth on the bench… they didn’t want to eat but freaked out when I took the food away. Miles ate 2 greek yogurt tubs while also smearing them all over the table and chairs… they thought it was really fun to yell ECHO as loud as they could.. oooft.
We went back upstairs to get packed up to go. As we got off the elevator, I turned around and then Miles started SCREAMING. I look back and he has gotten his hand/fingers squished in the open elevator door and the pocket area it opened into – the gap was just big enough for his fingers to get squished and stuck. I couldn’t get them out, Hailey was panicking, I was panicking… somehow we got them out – Miles was screaming, Hailey kept saying “Miles! That’s why we don’t touch the elevator!” over and over… We went downstairs and got him an ice pack and then he was good to go.
I deserved a latte, as did Andrea so I stopped at Starbucks for PSLs. Side note, Caribou’s is WAY better – Starbucks is good, but it tastes like the one I can make at home with my Nespresso and pumpkin sauce.. Caribou’s contains some sort of magic.
I got to the house and took a few more pictures. We did some tasteful nudes of Alaina. After Andrea and I told Toby we should probably put a diaper on her, Toby took a few more pictures with her and he got drenched!!
I took all the little kids to the 10am Paw Patrol Movie. It was my kiddos first time at the theater and I was a little worried about how they would do, especially since it was one adult to 3 kids! The kids went to town on the popcorn. Miles was in awe of just staring at the screen and eating popcorn without taking his eyes off the screen. Hailey only had to go potty one time so all the kiddos came with.
After the movie, we went to Pizza Ranch with Kourtney and her family. It was a little hectic but so good to see them for a bit and catch up!
After lunch, we went back to Toby and Andrea’s to drop Charles off and get some more quick photos while Alaina was asleep.
We packed up and left – Miles fell asleep almost immediately. We had to stop at Worthington for gas. Unfortunately Miles woke up while I was getting gas but thankfully he fell back asleep once we got moving again. Hailey had to have the tablet almost the whole time, she was clearly overtired. We stopped about a half hour later when Miles woke up (he does not wake up gracefully to get snacks for the kids and Hailey to potty. We had to stop again an hour later for Hailey to potty again so I grabbed some chicken tenders for them for dinner – that was a mess, Miles had mustard alll over him. We made it the rest of the way home with having to call Joel and my mom so Hailey could do her pledges for them.
The kids were so excited to see Joel when we got home. I got unpacked while Joel got the kids ready for bed. I took a very needed break with a walk around the block while Joel got them tucked in. The air was so crisp, I definitely should have work a sweatshirt! But it also made me so happy to feel ‘fall weather’.
It was a jam packed weekend for us! I’m so glad we got to see the newest edition to the family! She’s perfect.
