In The Beginning....

(**Please scroll to the bottom and pause or turn down the volume on the music player.  There's a few little videos to watch.)

Oh my gosh.  It's like I've fallen off the wagon.  I have so much to catch up on.  I'm gonna do my best, starting from the beginning.  Well, the beginning of the chaos anyway.

So, when I last left you hanging, I was dreading my early wake up to start our road trip to South Dakota; with the kids and our good friends, the Spencers.  Well, I wasn't wrong with my predictions.  As difficult as it was, I got the kids in bed at a decent time.  That left me with quiet time to finish packing.

I don't know why I say "finish" packing.  If you know me at all, then you'd know I hadn't even started yet.  My problem is, in my mind, it really doesn't seem like there's that much to do.  A few items of clothes, some shoes, good to go.  Well, I forget that I have to do this x6 (me and 5 kids) and unless I want to look and smell like a hobo, I probably should throw a few personal items of hygiene in there.

By the time every last bag was packed, double checked, re-stuffed, zipped, and sitting by the front door, it was 3am.  I was wishing I had a 24 hour window before I actually had to get up but unfortunately, reality came at 5am.

Our drive there was pretty uneventful.  Hailey rode with our friends and the remaining kids got along really well, which surprised the heck out of me!  It wasn't until we reached the state lines between Wyoming and South Dakota that our luck took a turn for the worse.

(Sorry the video is sideways.  Sometimes I don't remember how to work my phone.)

Again, sorry for the sideways-ness.  Notice though that my earlier prediction (reference a previous blog posting) was correct.

Jett seemed fine the whole ride.  It was in the middle of nowhere that his little guts decided they couldn't take it anymore and let loose.  We'll just say there was so much "sludge" his car seat couldn't even contain it all.  There we were on the side of the road, in BFE, with me stripping my poor baby and his car seat, while Clint and the kids tried to stifle dry heaves.  (I can assure you, the smell was horrific.)  He rode from this point forward in just a diaper with a garbage bag secured around his bottom half.  And a small blanket to try to provide some kind of padding.  Needless to say, within minutes he was sweating like a little piglet.  Poor baby.

This was the atmosphere for most of the ride.  Even after the above mentioned poo-tastrophe.  Notice he's in a bag and blanket in the video.  : (

We got to the hotel around 1:30pm.  Check in wasn't technically until 3pm, but you know how it is.  Sometimes these places are just on their game.  Well.......this wasn't one of those places.  We know we were early so we just decided to let the kids run around and stretch their legs in the grass while we waited.

Now, I'd like to sidetrack you for just a minute.  While we're waiting in the heat in the parking lot I decided to see if my cell phone signal had come back into range yet, since I lost it right as we got into Wyoming.  No such luck.  Clint's phone, however, was working just fine.  Not even roaming.  I resorted to calling Sprint to try to resolve the issue.  After about an hour on the phone with them, (no worries, we were still waiting for our rooms) it turns out something was wrong with my internal antennae.  Lovely.  At least Clint's phone still worked.

Back to the waiting game.....You'd think since this was a hotel it'd be obvious that we were from out of town, and seeing that we tried to check in, it would also be obvious that we were just hanging around waiting for our room.  Well, the common sense fairy doesn't go to SD.  After asking several times, and migrating to the lobby to make ourselves more visible, cranky baby and all, we finally were able to check in at almost 5pm.  Ridiculous.

After the long day, we didn't care what time it was.  We just couldn't wait to eat and go to bed.  Clint, me, and the little boys stayed in one room, our friends Krissy and Dale stayed in another room, and then their two girls and our two girls stayed in another.  I'm sure they were lovin' it!  I didn't care.  I couldn't wait for my head to hit the pillow.

This is only the beginning.....please stay tuned for more.