These are the pictures I took...
I need to get better at taking pictures, but when I am by myself no husband for 4 days, picture taking is at the back of my mind...
So Wednesday morning my parents, Suzie and her kids, and Torrie and her daughter picked us up in the "party van" as the trip went on, this is what we called it. It was a 15 passenger van white, quite hard to miss us. It had the two front seats and then 4 rows of seats. the first row sat Suzie and two of her boys, and they were in front of the dvd players that were on the back of my parents seats.
Than second row, was Torrie, and her daughter and most of the time Sami, but it alternated. We found that if Sami was there she behaved a lot better especially when she became tired and inconsolable (challenge #1). Than came Me, Daphne and Ezra, and than the back seat was a pile of bags, and Suzie's oldest boy and Andy's oldest girl. I won't use there names, as I don't like to spotlight other kids on my blog especially if they don't approve. This is how we drove... for 7 hours... to West Yellowstone. Torrie chose to sit in between Sami and Reagan which made sense but I refused to sit between two carseats....
I have been hesitating to turn Ezra's car seat around because of all the new research. Sami and Daphne were turned at 1 and Ezra is over 1 and so this trip marked Ezra being turned.... sorry any of you pro keeping them faced backward til they are 4, I am not a fan and the law does not state that it is a must... just a suggestion... my two girls never had a problem and so I am not worried. Ezra loved being forward facing, he played a little, ate a little and slept a lot more... it was great. He had his blankie and a drink he was happy and more than that he had mom near him at all times.
I read this thing about babies at 14 months, where they are learning about there independence and so at times they want it and at times they aren't so sure and are shy and want there mom's and so this was us this week. He was happy with mom and that was it, his sisters were welcomed but grandma, grandpa, aunts... no no... (challenge #2)
So we got there Wednesday night and we drove 7 hours in the car, that's what goggle clocked it at from my house to West Yellowstone, but since we were a group of 14 and car pooled with my brother and the 3 others in the truck that held all the gear, we left my house at 9 and got to the camp site at 8:30... yikes. So we set to setting up camp... I had plenty of help even though I had practiced putting up the tent at home... so I knew I could do it, the family (extended) wouldn't think of it. My Aunt Trisha and cousin Carl were right there, while other family members were helping my parents etc... set up there places. We dropped off my sisters and there kids off at a cabin... they did not rough it like I did... I enjoyed my adventure camping.... for the most part.
Now comes challenge #3, 4 and 5 and probably I could give it lots more, but I will stop at that...
got Ezra to sleep but at home, he goes down, cries for a minute and than sleeps through the night, you enter his room, he wakes up, so when your in a tent it doesn't go over as smoothly, that and the fact that the temperature dropped quite a bit that first night and we were cold. I got the girls asleep and after about an hour Ezra was done in his bed. He woke up gasping for air, as if he had stopped breathing, by this time it was maybe 1 am and so I got him up crying and all and well he wanted milk... as you can tell by the foot print... there were bears in the area, so there was no food in our tent especially milk... after about a few minutes I think Ezra calmed down, I laid him back down and he fell asleep again, than he woke up again an hour or so later... I forget the time frame... I was tired I don't recall... and he wanted milk... so I was debating what to do, and than I hear my sister n law "Sara, can I help" I left the girls and my mom met us out side and we tromped to the party van and got Ezra some milk... we sat in the van me and NaDell talking and letting Ezra drink his milk... I don't know what time we went back to bed I think it was close to 3... I gave up on putting him in the porto crib becasue yeah right... and laid him on my chest and we fell asleep... we slept until the coyotes started howling and the girls woke up... I think I got maybe 4 or 5 hours... but Sara with no sleep is not a good thing. I ended up taking Ezra with me before the girls woke up and catching a shower in the one stall that was in our camp ground...
the day continued and it turned into challenge #6,7,8,9,10 I was emotional (crying a lot), a grouch and extremely sensitive the rest of the day. I was short with everyone and I ruined the day... I surpassed the record of getting people made at me in one day, I think everyone in my family with all my brothers and sisters mad at me all at different times that day... either than that, or they just ignored me and just could have cared less to be around me... I was not worthy of there presence... we went to Yellowstone that day, and it was a quick visit, we drove in saw "Old Faithful" and went back to the campsite... I wasn't driving we had no choice... we got back to the campsite my parents did there thing and I took my kids to the tent... where I broke down into tears sobbing uncontrollably and knowing I couldn't go to bed yet because we still had dinner and family talent show to get through... after getting a attitude adjustment from my parents and realizing that the real problem was my lack of sleep the evening improved a bit... but I had a lot of redeeming to do... (I probably still do, but if people are still mad at me, i don't live near them I can only do so much so whatever, I can't waste my life worrying about whether or not I make people mad, this trip was not my finest moment and won't be repeated)
After a good nights sleep, of just having Ezra sleep on me all night I was in a much better mood.
The next day we were planning on going into West Yellowstone and looking through some of the shops. We did that but it was closer to lunch time and so we had a whole morning of puttering to do. I took on the task of keeping my kids and Andy's oldest two entertained, we walked the long road from the campsite to the pond to discover the fun of frogs...
We at at Arby's... for lunch in the park...
We found these cute things to take pictures near...
I have a picture of Sami near this same bench when she was just two and I was pregnant with Daphne...
After West Yellowstone... we came back and went down to the pond and we were starting to have fun when it started pouring down rain, me and the kids got dropped off and so we jumped into the back of the truck to get a ride when the rain went away and the sun came out...
The camp ground is a ranch and has about 20 or more horses that take you on trail rides, We didn't get a chance but when they finished ridding they would just send them off and the horses would make there way back to there grounds...
My brother and the pond, and the car takers house...
It was a fun trip but the biggest challenge of all was not having David with me, I won't go on a trip like that again without David... It was ok when it was just me with 1 or 2 kids but me with 3 is just not feasible... I have to be realistic... my older sister did it, but her oldest is 9 and she didn't have to camp...
No comments:
Post a Comment