Our Trip's Summary

Okay, so here’s a quick recap of our trip. To start off, I will say that the girls traveled a million times better than we ever thought they would. Sure, they got tired of sitting in their car seats and they got tired and hungry and grumpy. But really- all of us were feeling the same way. It just so happens that their way of expressing these frustrations made those parts of the trip much more miserable. Having said that…

We really did have a great trip. It did start and end rough unfortunately, as I will explain now.

We were able to leave Illinois by 9:30 Monday morning. We had hoped to make it to Pittsburg by dinner time, but that was not to be. Instead we got to drive in concrete luges (sp?) in the rain for too long. We finally made it to Diane’s house somewhere around 9pm and we were all ecstatic. Ellie and Maya the dog sat under the table playing while the rest of us had a nice warm meal and got settled in. It was the next morning that the unbelievable happened. Keep in mind… nobody actually witnessed this event. Ellie was watching Maya (golden retriever- supposedly best family dog) eat her breakfast. Maya would grab a piece of dog food, take it into the living room, drop it, then pick it back up and eat it. Ellie was just going back and forth with her- quite enthralled with this methodology. The next thing I know I hear a quick, menacing growl (definitely angry), Ellie screaming and I look over to see her falling to the floor holding her face. I run over, pull her hands off her face and see blood. Okay… heart drops. Diane grabs a wet towel and I place it on Ellie’s face. When I take it off again I see the damage. Ellie’s poor little face had a couple good gashes in it. Breathe in… breathe out. My mind was racing a mile a minute, of course. Diane went to grab some antibiotic ointment, but I soon realized we were going to need to get it looked at. It was too close to the eye and too deep to just wait and see. Ken gave Ellie a quick blessing, which put my mind at ease from then on. Fortunate for us, there was a Children’s hospital about 40 minutes away and that’s where we went. Thank goodness for the portable DVD player that kept Ellie’s mind off her injury. We were blessed to be at this hospital. Everyone there was really nice and while it was scary, they were calm and great with Ellie. She had to get an IV for her sedative and she was quite the trooper. It took a really long time to see different doctors to make sure there was no serious damage to her eye. Then it took longer to coordinate everyone to do the actual stitching. Since it is a teaching hospital we had two ophthalmologists come do the sutures. And they were extremely careful to get it just right. I was able to watch and they did an excellent job. It was just strange to see my little girl sedated on that table. All-in-all she ended up with 15 dissolvable stitches. There were 4 different spots that needed sutures- 2 on her upper eyelid, one on the lower eyelid, and the noticeable one under her eye. Diane was there with me and I had to have Sarah along as well- since she needed to eat! Once Ellie finally came out of her sedative and ate and drank something to prove she could keep it down, we were finally released. Ellie was bit at 8:30 that morning and we didn’t leave the hospital until about 4pm. What an incredibly long day! Not the best way to start a vacation! Ellie seriously was a trooper and thankfully she is not afraid of dogs and was more concerned about why Maya had to move away (she was returned to the shelter where the Witzels had gotten her 4 years prior). It took her a couple days to fully recover emotionally from that incident. She was afraid to go to bed the first couple of nights without someone in the room with her. She pulled out of it in time to go to the conservatory and see the incredible glass sculptures among the plants and to have a fun day playing with Micah. We actually extended our time there an extra day just so we could really enjoy a day there. Katie and Ellie never were “themselves” while we were there, which is really a shame. They didn’t get to see the goofy, crazy Katie and the sweet, silly Ellie. Maybe next time? It was fun getting to know Maddie, Jonathon, Micah and Alex better. And really- isn't Alex just adorable?

Okay… so our next stop was New Haven, CT. Again, the trip took longer than expected and the girls screamed the last hour of the trip. Night hits and those girls can’t handle it! But once we were there it was great. Ellie attached herself to Geoff and didn’t let go until we left a few days later. Geoff was awesome with her. She made pancakes and macaroni and sliced apples and washed dishes with him. He helped her feed the ducks and pick apples. He was patient with her naughtiness when I had none left. He’s going to be an incredible dad! I actually took out a baby gift for Geoff and Emily’s baby (which we now know is a girl! Yay!) I love giving baby gifts. Anyway… Emily only had Saturday off, so we wore her out doing all sorts of fun things. That’s when we fed the ducks, picked apples, ate too many apple donuts and went home for Katie’s quick nap. The culmination of that day was going to Sally’s pizza. We got there at 5, waited in line outside in the cold until 6, then waited inside with our screaming girls for our food until 7. But boy, was that good pizza. Mom is still craving that pizza.

The next day was church. Even the church building was cool. Katie, Sarah and I only lasted through Sacrament meeting then I took Katie home for a much-needed nap. After lunch we went to the Yale campus. WOW!!! That’s all I can say about that place. Wow! It was absolutely gorgeous. The buildings are incredible. I’ve seen them in movies before, but it just doesn’t do them justice. The architecture is phenomenal. We got to see the school of medicine where Geoff studies, the beautiful grounds where Ellie, Katie and Geoff chased squirrels, and the magnificent church and library buildings. Awesome. We also took a quick trip out to the beach to see the ocean. Even though it was extremely cold, it was a beautiful sight and the girls enjoyed it. We were yet again exhausted by the end of the day.

Unfortunately we had to leave the next morning and head out to R
ochester, NY. Another long trip got us there right before dinnertime. We ended up in a motel instead of at Uncle Al’s house as originally planned (don’t ask…). So that meant we had to eat out since Aunt Paula was trying to nap before her night-shift at the hospital. We picked up Grandma and went out to eat at a pretty nice restaurant. Unfortunately the girls were over-tired and over-obnoxious. They squirmed and screamed the whole time. My food would have been awesome had I been able to sit and eat it. Instead I ended up with heartburn and indigestion and took the 3 girls to stand outside until Mom, Uncle Al and Grandma were done eating. I was not happy! Mom stresses out around her mom, so once we got back to the hotel I was sent on an errand to find something evil to eat to drown out our day. After needlessly searching for a grocery store I ended up at Kmart and some grasshopper cookies and milk. Mom and I did some serious damage on those cookies. But it made us feel so much better!!! Chocolate is a wonderful thing! Since we had all 5 of us in the same room, the girls didn’t get to bed until late.

The next day was rushed yet again. We went to grandma’s storage unit to pick up a few things (mostly Carrie’s apple dishes) to bring home with us (therefore jam-packing the van). Then it was off to pick up Grandma and out to eat again. The girls did a million times better this go-round. Paula did not join us for lunch either. We saw her a total of 2 minutes the whole time in Rochester. Yet again, no comment. After a short visit with Grandma we headed off to Palmyra for some spiritual regeneration.

I had never been to Palmyra before. What a beautiful place. We made a quick stop at the farm/sacred grove since we were short on time and daylight and went up to the Hill Cumorah. What an incredible place. The peacefulness and the view… gorgeous. I am so glad we made that quick 20-mile detour. The girls were impressed with the Christus, which was neat to see. I enjoyed telling Ellie the Joseph Smith story again and to have it mean a little bit more to her as we were there in the actual setting. It gave us the energy to hit the road once again. We had planned to stop near Cleveland, but murphy’s law- it took an extra 1 ½ hours to find a hotel. We were all going nuts by the time we finally stopped. Another late evening with the girls jumping from bed to bed to bed. Thankfully they slept in the next morning. We were home by 5pm the next day.

Now, while that was a long explanation, it really does not do our trip justice. We are so grateful for the chance to spend time with Diane and her family, Geoff and Emily, and Grandma and Uncle Al. It was a ridiculous number of miles on the van, but we are happy we made the effort and were able to see everyone.

On a completely different side note…

Even though we had just gotten home Wednesday night, we had to travel the hour to and from Monticello for Sarah’s well-baby appointment. Everyone had to go because I wanted us all to get flu shots. Sarah’s doing great. She was 16 pounds, 13 ounces and 27 inches. That puts her in the 50% for weight and 75% for height. She’s doing great! The girls weren’t too thrilled about the flu shots and even my shoulder is still sore. But, after reading about Troy’s near miss with the pneumonia going around his Ward, it was definitely worth it! Yesterday was nice so we were able to do some serious leaf-raking and get the yard cleaned up. The girls LOVE jumping in the leaves. That makes it fun for us as well. I am still exhausted from the trip. Sarah’s sleep schedule is still off and she’s not reacted well to these shots, so I’m not getting a whole lot of sleep. We’re working on it. Sarah is pulling up on her hand and knees and is pulling her knees forward. Just need to get the hands moving and she’ll be crawling any day now. These girls are just growing up too fast! Ellie had her eye examined Friday morning and the doctor said it looks great and should heal with no noticeable scarring... what an incredible blessing!