A few weeks ago I made my traditional post-tax season treck up to Minneapolis in order to "get away" for a few days. You would think that by now I would know that taking three kids on a four hour trip by myself really doesn't fit into the definition of "get away". Although there were fun and exciting moments, on the whole, it was kind of a wreck of an extended weekend.
We left Wednesday morning and I should have known what kind of trip it was going to be when we weren't even 20 minutes outside of town and I heard the first of thousands, "Are we almost there?" By the time we hit Charles City I was literally banging my head on the window. I figured it would be a good chance to stop and feed the kids. "Certainly they must be tired by now", I thought. "And filling their bellies will only help." Uh, duh. That merely gave them more energy and by the time I hit the Minnesota border I was ready to dump two of the three on the side of the road. Thankfully my iPod can blare music louder than three children can scream. I'm not sure whether the migraine that followed was brought on by the music or the shear amount of sound my brain was trying to compute. Nonetheless, we continued onward. Lauren was in a singing type of mood. So she sang. For two hours. Driving her brother crazy. And even Ella threw her the glare of death. It is hard to tell a smiling, giddy, little, soon-to-be three year-old to stop singing God's praises but really....at some point even God would like a little peace and quiet I'm guessing. ;-)
After arriving safely in Minnesota I quickly realized that I had not sufficiently packed for the weather. Uhh....it snowed Wednesday night. Wednesday night I got about three hours of sleep. Lauren kept waking up and I figured it was just because we were someplace different. Thursday was our big shopping day (Yeah, me and three kids. Again, what was I thinking?) so I wanted to make sure everyone was well rested. That did not happen. And thanks to my own stubborness...I refused to throw in the towel.
So I got all the kids ready and we headed to the mall. Yeah. Disaster. We rode the elevator more than anything else. I think I found one shirt. Ugh. And by the time lunchtime arrived I realized that between the lack of sleep and hungry tummies I need to feed them. Stat. So we went to The Cheesecake Factory. Let's just say....is it bad when the waitor comes up to the table, assess the situation and tells the only adult at the table what page of the menu lists the drink menu? Double ugh. After barely surviving lunch and a disasterous trip the bathroom I decided to abort my shopping mission. Let me paint a picture for you.....
As we're trying to leave the restaurant I am carrying Lauren on my hip as she is in full-on meltdown mode. Tears. Sobbing. Whining. Then I'm hollaring to Josh to grab Ella's hand as we walk through the parking lot. Well, she is in a full-on independence mode and wants nothing to do with help...or authority, for that matter. On top of that I'm trying to carry my one shirt, my purse, the diaper bag and the leftovers from lunch. My one ray of sunshine at that moment was when I waited to hold the door open for an older woman in the midst of all of this. She stopped and looked at Josh and Ella and said, "Your mommy is setting a very good example for you children. She has her hands full and she was kind enough to wait to hold the door open for me."
After the door shut Josh looked at me and said, "Who was that lady?" My response: "I don't know, hun. Stay there and DO NOT MOVE...I've got to throw your sister in the car." A good parenting moment immediately followed by a not-so-good parenting moment.
There were two things I was looking forward to doing in Minneapolis - ironically both did not involve my children - and the first was Thursday night. A book reading. I had been looking forward to it for weeks. So when Lauren woke up screaming from her nap because her ear hurt I was certain I would end up missing it. The four of us headed to the Children's Hospital and sure enough, a nasty ear infection. I will save you the details but let's just say Ella is really big in to repeating people and when you're sister keeps saying "owie. owie. owie." and you repeat her....she thinks you're mocking her. That did not help things.
After getting the Rx and dropping the kids at dad's Katie and I bolted to the book reading. It was amazing. And exactly what I had hoped for.
Totally worth the rest of my hellish day. And the Cranberry Mojitos I had afterwards didn't hurt either.
Friday was our morning with Papa Adam. We went to our favorite breakfast place, Bryant Lake Bowl. After promising the kids they could bowl if they ate a good breakfast, we found that the bowling alley was closed for cleaning. Go figure. So given that it was the only beautiful day I had seen so far we decided to head to a park close by.
After the park we headed to Papa Adam's work downtown. There is a neat Wells Fargo Museum that was totally free and the kids had a blast. We got to make checks with the old punch machines and, of course my favorite, the old calculator. :-)
Saturday was supposed to be our day at the zoo. But the rain clouds came in and completely ruined our plans. We made a last minute decision to head to the Minnesota Children's Museum instead.
Somewhere in all of the chaos of the museum Josh picked something up: strep. And by the time Sunday morning hit he was very, very sick. I was sad to have to leave....but soooooo ready to get these kids home. It was a great time but next time...I'm giving the kids meds BEFORE we get up there. It'll save me a trip. :-)
