Act 3; Scene 13: Vacations are Exhausting

We did it! We had our first family vacation with our baby.

And boy, was it exhausting!

We started out last Thursday and headed down to Cedar City right after I got back from teaching class at BYU (and after Tommy had a magnificent blow out just as we were leaving...). We only had to stop once, so the drive took about 4 hours, maybe a little longer.

As soon as we got to our hotel, I sent Robert to pick up some Subway for us while I got ready for the play and fed the baby. We crammed Subway down our throats, then dropped the babe off at our friends' hotel room (they also have a wee babe--William) and headed off to Les Miserables. 

As we rushed in the almost-rain into the play, a little travel weary, Robert purposefully grabbed my hand. We both looked at each other and realized, hey, we're on a date. A real date. It was fun to hold hands in the theater and enjoy each others' company. Especially when Robert enjoyed it so much, and even got a little choked up at the end :-).

Tommy slept the whole time for the sitters, except for the five minutes before we got back. Perfect. And then when we put him to bed, he discovered a new trick in his pack-n-play. If he moves around, the bassinet part of it rocks a bit with him. So of course he decided to thrash all night long--even in his sleep. I was sleeping--well, attempting to sleep--right next to his thrashing bed. Oy. Tommy slept from 11:30pm to 6am, and I'm pretty sure he thrashed the WHOLE time. That will tell you how much sleep I got after the play (already late night) to prepare me for the next day's adventure. 

Thomas loving his moving pack-n-play

If I thought working around one baby's schedule was hard, trying to work around two babies' schedules while on vacation is definitely hard. It was a day of calling back and forth, asking "Ok, I'm feeding him now, do you want to go to that shop in like 30 minutes?" and "Not quite ready yet" and "Freaking out baby" etc. Add the fact that Tommy doesn't particularly enjoy sitting in his car seat, whether in the car or the stroller, made the day very interesting. We did manage to get to continental breakfast at the hotel (who knew that would be considered an outing?!), a forum about the production side of the festival, some cute shops around town, and a pizzeria for dinner. Then it was our turn to watch William for the evening so his parents could enjoy Hamlet.

Dun dun dun....

William and Tommy were both champs at the start. Both went down for their evening naps well. William woke up--we fed and changed him, then Tommy woke up and we fed and changed him. Then Tommy went down for the night (no worries--this time we put the pack-n-play in the bathroom and shut the door so I didn't have to hear all of that thrashing). Then we tried to get William to go down for the night. And tried. And tried. We even had his blankie to prop him and his favorite stuffed animal, and his binky. Nothing. He started getting very fussy. By this time it was 10pm, and I could hardly see straight. Running on so little sleep, I couldn't even function or speak. So I lay down for a bit while Robert (graciously) rocked William. After 30 minutes of this, Robert thought he should try burping him again, but that must have frightened Willliam, because he started screaming. I got up and took a try. After about 20 minutes of holding and rocking him, he fell asleep in my arms. About two minutes before his Mom and Dad got there. Yeah, he knew how to do it. Exhausted, Robert and I fell into bed.

The next morning we made it to continental breakfast again (hurray!) and then we realized we had to check out of the hotel. Wait....we were still watching William so his parents could see Les Mis  matinee on Saturday...we didn't even think of not being able to stay in the hotel! What would we do? We decided that the stroller tactic would be the best way to go, and hoped that it wouldn't be raining that afternoon.

After checking out we headed up the canyon to find Cedar Breaks. It was a gorgeous, misty morning, and as we rode higher and higher, the show became thicker and thicker until it looked like Christmas. It was absolutely gorgeous, but a little frightening to drive on, so we headed back down a little sooner than anticipated. Here are some favorite pics from the drive:

Ggggorgeous! 

After checking out the pumpkin festival in Cedar City and grabbing lunch at The Pastry Pub (cute!) we headed out for our second round with two babies--this time stranded and hotel-less. Fortunately the day was beautiful, so we pushed the strollers all around campus and then some. We thought it was pretty comical--walking around, a stroller a piece, and a baby a piece at some points.

By the Adam's Theater (rep of the Globe) with both babies

After an hour or so of this, we lost interest in walking around campus. It's pretty small, and we had done the whole thing twice, with tangents and everything. So we headed to the theater to check out the lobby. And guess what? They play through the speakers into the lobby what is happening onstage! So we parked the strollers in the lobby, and fed the babies while listening to the second half of Les Mis. That was a sight--us and the ushers, hanging out in the theater's lobby, while we fed and changed the babies (never did I think I would use the hooter hider in a lobby--but, there you have it). 

And with that, we took out tired and worn out bodies, but them in the car, and drove home to Orem, arriving just after 9pm. Oh, and then ran to the store to buy diapers and wipes.

Whew! So fun, but it might take a while for us to recover!