Well, yesterday I woke up at 6:00 so we'd be able to leave the house in time to make it to Travis and Steph's wedding reception at 5:30 in the evening. I never thought I'd be able to say this, but being a mom has turned me into a morning person. We decided to skip the ceremony, since I was worried that the kids wouldn't be able to make it through without making too much noise. We packed up and along the way realized that we didn't have everything we needed for the stay overnight. So we decided to stop in Mt. Horeb and try to find a store to pick up what we had forgotten. As we drove around trying to find a store, we happened to catch a glimpse of a sign... "Karikahl" Hey, that's the same name as the hotel we're staying at! Wait, that IS the hotel! And there in front of us was a hotel with a big pile of rubble in the parking lot, a backhoe and dump truck parked outside. It turns out they were in the process of demolishing the hotel, one room at a time, to make room for a Walgreens sometime in the near future. But in the mean time, they were still letting out the rooms. We pulled into the parking lot and found that Denise, James and Danielle had already started the party! There were birds swooping at our heads as we moved our stuff into the rooms, they had nests above almost every room door. The bathroom tile was pretty dated, and we found a bonus item that we hadn't expected - a bottle opener mounted to the bathroom wall next to the light switch! The hotel had definitely seen better days, but as Denise pointed out, the rooms were clean and really, what more can you ask for? We took a look around our rooms, put the drinks on ice, and then moved on to the reception.
Through winding country roads we made our way to the party, where the music was loud, the air was stuffy and hot and we had a great time! Archer and I danced hard until we were both exhausted and I had cramps in my legs, while Shelly was passed from one set of arms to the next. Considering the noise and heat, she did really well, we saw a lot of other babies that seemed pretty unhappy but I think she was just overwhelmed to the point of being in a daze.
When I sat down at the tables Archer started wandering off from us and I was a little nervous that he'd get lost in the crowd, but its then that his fascination with balloons came in handy. He was holding two balloons and as he wandered away we watched the balloons moving through the crowd and then out the door to the next room as he went in search of someone to give him quarters for the video games. He had no fear of getting lost or separated from us, I guess there were enough people he recognized around, and always someone following after him, that he didn't worry about losing us.
I saw Archer doing things that normally I wouldn't allow, but I have memories of doing those same things at weddings when I was a kid and I couldn't bring myself to tell him no - reaching into the dish of mints and grabbing a whole handful, and then shoving them all into his mouth at once. Running and yelling and being generally noisy but having a great time, and when we got back to the hotel drinking his fill of root beer (and sneaking a sip of beer from Denise). He learned the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Pokey and met his second cousin Sophia for the first time.
Once we got back to the hotel he was allowed to do something else which is usually against the rules - run in and out of the room, inside and outside, between the rooms of the hotel, opening and closing the doors, eating chips and drinking lemonade and root beer, jumping on the beds... It was general lawlessness that's not allowed very often but when it happens its the kind of chaos that builds great memories and stories for years to come.
Well, yesterday I woke up at 6:00 so we'd be able to leave the house in time to make it to Travis and Steph's wedding reception at 5:30 in the evening. I never thought I'd be able to say this, but being a mom has turned me into a morning person. We decided to skip the ceremony, since I was worried that the kids wouldn't be able to make it through without making too much noise. We packed up and along the way realized that we didn't have everything we needed for the stay overnight. So we decided to stop in Mt. Horeb and try to find a store to pick up what we had forgotten. As we drove around trying to find a store, we happened to catch a glimpse of a sign... "Karikahl" Hey, that's the same name as the hotel we're staying at! Wait, that IS the hotel! And there in front of us was a hotel with a big pile of rubble in the parking lot, a backhoe and dump truck parked outside. It turns out they were in the process of demolishing the hotel, one room at a time, to make room for a Walgreens sometime in the near future. But in the mean time, they were still letting out the rooms. We pulled into the parking lot and found that Denise, James and Danielle had already started the party! There were birds swooping at our heads as we moved our stuff into the rooms, they had nests above almost every room door. The bathroom tile was pretty dated, and we found a bonus item that we hadn't expected - a bottle opener mounted to the bathroom wall next to the light switch! The hotel had definitely seen better days, but as Denise pointed out, the rooms were clean and really, what more can you ask for? We took a look around our rooms, put the drinks on ice, and then moved on to the reception.
Through winding country roads we made our way to the party, where the music was loud, the air was stuffy and hot and we had a great time! Archer and I danced hard until we were both exhausted and I had cramps in my legs, while Shelly was passed from one set of arms to the next. Considering the noise and heat, she did really well, we saw a lot of other babies that seemed pretty unhappy but I think she was just overwhelmed to the point of being in a daze.
When I sat down at the tables Archer started wandering off from us and I was a little nervous that he'd get lost in the crowd, but its then that his fascination with balloons came in handy. He was holding two balloons and as he wandered away we watched the balloons moving through the crowd and then out the door to the next room as he went in search of someone to give him quarters for the video games. He had no fear of getting lost or separated from us, I guess there were enough people he recognized around, and always someone following after him, that he didn't worry about losing us.
I saw Archer doing things that normally I wouldn't allow, but I have memories of doing those same things at weddings when I was a kid and I couldn't bring myself to tell him no - reaching into the dish of mints and grabbing a whole handful, and then shoving them all into his mouth at once. Running and yelling and being generally noisy but having a great time, and when we got back to the hotel drinking his fill of root beer (and sneaking a sip of beer from Denise). He learned the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Pokey and met his second cousin Sophia for the first time.
Once we got back to the hotel he was allowed to do something else which is usually against the rules - run in and out of the room, inside and outside, between the rooms of the hotel, opening and closing the doors, eating chips and drinking lemonade and root beer, jumping on the beds... It was general lawlessness that's not allowed very often but when it happens its the kind of chaos that builds great memories and stories for years to come.
2 comments:
To my defense, it wasn't my fault that he sneaked a sip of my drink!! Honest!! As I was telling the family, I wish I could say that it's never happened to me before (a child drinking on my watch), but unfortunately, when you work in the restaurant business, some things just accidentally happen... I think it was one of the cutest things, being that Archer was so innocent and just thought...'well everyone else is drinking this stuff, why can't I?'...he was pretty embarrassed, but he quickly got over it and moved onto the next exciting thing whether it was dancing, meeting new people, or just running around like a little kid should always do!
It happen so quick. And if I hadn't startled him when I yelled "Archer no" across the table, it probably wouldn't have been so tramatic for Archer or for Aunt Niecey. Aunt Denise has DEFINETLY NOT lost her baby sitting privledges. Thank you all for helping out with the kids.
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