Monday, July 02, 2007

The weekend trip

Friday, June 29th, we hit the road around 4:50pm for Idaho Falls. I was impressed that we got the tent trailer and all our junk packed up for the weekend trip so quickly. We gassed up and were on the freeway at 5pm... an excellent start!

Tid bits from the 4-5 hour road trip TO Idaho Falls:

After finishing dinner at Cr@cker B@rrel, Liam had to rock each rocking chair on the veranda as we made our way to the car. Sometimes he would stop and check that the rest of the chairs were rocking before he went to the next chair.

While driving along, Liam started saying his high-pitched "poo poo." I said, "Liam, did you go poo poo, do you need me to change your diaper?" He kept saying it and Ian looked back to see Liam pointing to his "boo boo" on his knee and puckering up to kiss what was just barely out of reach. Oh those dang car seat straps holding him back from kissing his own boo boo...

After a 1.5 hour nap, Liam awoke with smiles. He didn't miss a beat to start groovin' to Dad's country music playing on the radio. It was the cutest car seat post-nap dancing I've ever seen.


We pulled into Snake River RV Park a little after 10pm. Liam ran wild while poor Dad set up the tent trailer by himself with minimal help from me. (And as usual, I am of little help for guiding large vehicles going backwards into a specific spots as well.) I was so scared I was going to lose Liam in the dark so I kept close as he darted to and fro.

Once we were settled and ready for bed, Liam wouldn't be left in his porta-crib. Uh oh. We fought him for a long time climbing all over us and such. Ian decided he would take him for a drive at around 1am. Apparently he fell asleep, but when Dad tried to transfer him, he awoke. Ian and Liam snuggled and he finally settled down. I think around 3ish he woke again and I resorted to nursing him and I slept in those awkward ways for fear of moving and waking him.

Liam woke us up early. We lay there and let him crawl all over us for awhile... We finally sat up and said, "What a great night of rest!" [hardee har har]



We got showered and/or freshened up and made our way to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple things and then we were on our way to the family reunion at Tautphaus Park. We found a couple people we knew, chatted and ate lunch. Liam found some folks to entertain and got a few people laughing as well as himself. He is such a clown! Not long after that, went to the Zoo located there in the park.



It was Liam's nap time, but he had a blast at the zoo even as exhausted and hot as he was feeling. I can't say what animal was his favorite. He thought the Lions were cool, the goats too. It was his first time in a petting zoo type of setting. He thought it was fun to brush the goats and he even tried brushing two at once! He liked pretty much everything about the place! I look forward to taking him to Hogle Zoo later in the summer.



We got him loaded in the car and not 2 minutes later he had his hat down over his eyes and he was out like a light. Completely ZONKED.

We drove around for a bit, got some treats at a drive thru and headed back to camp. Liam slept in the car with the door ajar as we sat at our picnic table and enjoyed our eats.

After Liam woke from his nap we went over to the pool and had some fun. Liam was so excited about the water! Dad was his favorite toy as usual. I jumped in a couple times, but I got a chill pretty quick and got out and dried off to take more photos. Liam was shivering by the time I got out and we tried to get him out to warm him, but he was too anxious to get back in with Dad. I love how he clung to Ian. It was very sweet. It was also cute when he'd jump off the edge into Ian's arms.



After getting changed and freshened up again, we headed to the mall to see if we could find a better pair of sandals for Liam. We lucked out at P@yless Shoe Source because they had a safety recall on the @irwalk (croc look alikes) and we got Liam new $14.99 shoes for 2 bucks because we got a refund for his old shoes. SCORE!

We found a couple shirts for Liam at Old N@vy and then got in the car to find a place to eat dinner. There were 3 BBQ places listed in the visitors guide we had. While at the gas station I rolled down my window and asked a local guy what restaurant of the three were best. He said Bubba's BBQ. Boy am I glad I asked! Those were some awesome baby back ribs!!! Even Liam chowed down on them! He also had bread and corn on the cob. We stuffed ourselves and our small boy.

We found ourselves back at the camp site trying to get Liam to go to sleep for the night. I thought after the long day outdoors he would zonk out pretty easily. I was wrong. He fought for 2 hours. He even got out of his crib and opened the camper door to sneak a peek at what we were up to. I had walked over to the park store to get us some ice cream on a stick and I came back to Liam in Ian's arms watching Baby Einstein outside the camper. Ian relayed how the camper door slowly opened and he saw a smiling Liam peering through. Cute, but infuriating at the same time.

Minutes later our new next door neighbor drove up and parked his old clunky SUV WAY too close to our car (he had to hold the door sorta closed as he squeezed out of the car). They had set up camp while we were gone earlier in the day, claiming our picnic table and setting up a couple feet from our camper (they had a TON of space on the other side, but decided to cramp our style instead of spreading out a bit). Little did they know they'd have a crying baby keeping them up in the night. I wish we could have stuck around to teach them a lesson, but with oblivious neighbors and a relentless toddler, we decided to NOT stay the night and started the long trip home after 10pm.

Ian and I had to switch off driving duty way too many times. We were so exhausted. We rolled into our hometown at 3am Sunday morning. I was so grateful we said a prayer before hitting the road. I prayed a lot as I was falling asleep when Ian would take the wheel too. Both of us would wake if the other would hit a bump or swurve just a little too much... "Are you okay?" We were scared to death that sleep would take over us as we traveled in the night.

Sunday was a TOTAL day of rest. Liam allowed us to sleep in until 9:30am. Then when he took a nap at 12:45, we both went down for naps too. Liam slept for 3 hours... Ahhh! We didn't start unpacking the car until close to bed time. The camper is still waiting to be unloaded... ;)

15 comments:

Cheryl said...

Sounds like you guys had a good time, despite the lack of sleep. Kids camping and out of their own environment, always makes for a long night. I'm glad you made it home safe and got to rest on Sunday.
I am equally excited about the Airwalk recall. I found that out myself yesterday and got 4 pair of shoes for 4 bucks! Ditto on the SCORE!

Suzanne said...

It's so hard to keep a routine for kids on trips, especially nap and bedtime! How hard that you had to come home in the middle of the night, but I'm sure it was prefferable to having another night of no sleep.

When we took "D" on his first camping trip (18 months old), he fell asleep fine, but woke up scared about midnight. After he screamed for over an hour straight, we'd had enough and drove down the canyon and crashed in our own beds. "D" fell asleep right away and Dad went back up the next morning for the tent! LOL!

utmommy said...

We are heading up to Rexburg on Sunday. Sould be a fun trip.

Hopefully my kids will sleep. Vacation and kids and sleep don't mix I've come to discover. But, at least you got a nap on Sunday!!

Robin said...

I am glad you got home safely! How frustrating to have a happy little guy when you know how badly he need (and you need) to sleep!

jolibe said...

So glad to hear you arrived back home, safe and sound! Camping always been a hit or miss experience for me and my hubby too - even before having a baby! Sometimes it's just not meant to be! But at least you guys had one really fun-filled day together!! Yea!!

Terry said...

Wow, Gina. Good for you for going camping in the first place. I do not consider camping a vacation. Poor David because he enjoys camping. I was getting sleepy just reading about your trip with the wakeful little one!

Daisy said...

I'm glad you guys made it safely. I DO NOT like traveling at night so I understand all the praying.

I love those cute pictures at the zoo with him brushing the goats! What is that on his back in that pic of him on the lion. It looks like a doggy backpack or something, cute!

I just noticed too that Luke has that same exact orange monkey shirt. They'll have to both wear it on one of the days when we get together in Utah. Can't WAIT!!!

Anissa said...

Um, that doesn't sound fun at all. What was the occasion? Family reunion? I saw a brief mention of a family reunion but wasn't sure.
I would never be able to drive at night like that. It would have had to have been DJ or stay where we were. Luckily DJ is a lot better at driving at night, even when he is tired. He says he can never fall to sleep sitting up.
I am glad you made it home safe and sound. I guess it will be awhile before you go camping again, huh? :)

Heidi said...

Sounded like a very fun trip, but I got exhausted just reading it. All that fun and driving with no sleep... jeez! I really liked the picture of Liam flying in your arms.

David said...

I was scared for you driving like that I was sitting here knowing you lived to blog another day! Yikes! It sounds like a fun trip overall. And, if you can convince Terry to go camping with me I'd be grateful!

Kari said...

I'm glad you had a fun time, and sorry that you had a not-so-fun time mixed in there. ;) How rude of your camping neighbors to kind of crash your site. You should have stayed there so they could listen to Liam cry all night. Oh, did I just say that? I mean, what a nice thing you did by thinking of others! Glad you made it home safely.

I like Liam's little hats, they are fun! I think he is getting even cuter and cuter as he grows older!

Katie said...

I agree, Bubba's is great BBQ! I love camping with the kids, and this last year has been lots better than before. Maybe when Liam is three we can all head out somewheres!

Klin said...

Well, I agree with Kik. Liam's crying would have been just what the neighbors needed for a wakeup call. HELLO. . . rude people taking over a family's campsite and putting others in a position where they had experienced enough frustration.

Unfortunately they won't ever know how you sacrificed out of courtesy for them when they chose not to extend courtesy to you.

I love camping by the way. I remember that I had to lie down with AJ when he was Liam's age. After he fell asleep then I could join the adults IF they were still up and sitting around the campfire. Keep trying. It does get better. It is an acquired environment for little ones.

Jessica said...

What a crazy, but fun weekend! Thank goodness for Sunday naps!! Can't wait to see you in 2 or so weeks!!!

Angel Baby said...

So, I'm not really sure if you had a great time despite everything, or had the trip from hell with some highlights.

It would be neat to do a gal pal trip with you and meet halfway somewhere or something like that! Some place that we can get a couple cheap hotel rooms and plenty of kid friendly stuff to check out around town? But this is only an alternative to figuring out how to get you two HERE!