Conference Weekend at the Cabin

We had the opportunity to spend Conference Weekend at the cabin with Grandma and Papa, Aunt Julie, Aunt Katie, and even Great Grandma Lovell.  Danny was literally counting down the days for a couple weeks in advance until we'd be back in Island Park.  The kids were almost as excited!  Every day for a week they'd ask, "Is this the day we got to Great Grandma's cabin in the woods?"

We left around lunch time on Friday, and made the trip in about 5 hours.  Which wasn't bad, considering we stopped in Idaho Falls to get groceries for the weekend, stopped again at a dairy to pick up 2 1/2 gallons of Huckleberry Ice Cream, and then stopped again in Rexburg to pick up some dinner at Papa Murphy's.  Believe it or not, not a single stop included a bathroom break!  Crazy.

We got to the cabin and got the heat started right away.  It was chilly in there!  We unloaded and unpacked while the pizza cooked and the kids watched cartoons.  Then we enjoyed some dinner and watched "The Muppets" movie.  We got the kids to bed without a single complaint (and all sleeping in the same room!), and Danny and I even enjoyed some wind-down time before Papa and his crew arrived.  After that, it was a quick goodnight.  Everyone was tired and ready for a good night's rest.  Little did we know how precious that night's sleep would be...

We enjoyed Conference on Saturday, in the quiet of Island Park, with an absolutely obscene amount of junk food.  Michael, Danny's cousin, was able to join us for the weekend as well, and it was nice to visit with him again.  Grandma did a lot of sewing, and we all ate a lot of food.

The men went to the Priesthood Session that evening, while us ladies continued to relax and eat.  We really did have an incredible amount of food there!  During the day, I had noticed that Johnny seemed to be running a low grade fever, and he was pretty low-key and cuddly.  I chalked it up to teething and put the kids to bed as soon as Daddy came home.  I don't remember what time Danny and I went to bed, or even if we got the chance to.  I just remember it was about 11 pm when Johnny started wailing.  I went to check on him, picked him up, and realized he was burning up!  I didn't have a thermometer on me, but I would guess it was probably 103 or so.  So, we gave him some cold water and Tylenol, and cuddled him for a bit.  After all, Johnny is my rock star sleeper...surely he'd be back asleep for the night as soon as the Tylenol kicked in.

Oh, how wrong I was.  Johnny didn't sleep for the entire night.  Literally.  He never even dozed off.  He would scream bloody murder if we put him down, or if we looked at him the wrong way, or sometimes I swear for no reason at all.  At 2:30, Sophie woke up and threw up.  She continued to throw up every 20-30 minutes or so until just before 5:00.  Danny took Sophie and dealt with her throwing up, and I did my best to placate Johnny so every else in the cabin might be able to get some sleep.  By 5:30, I was so tired I thought I was going to die!  I finally got Johnny to watch "The Lion King" on my phone and I laid down next to him and dozed in and out until about 7:00.  It was at this point that Grandma woke up and took Johnny and Claire downstairs, and we were able to sleep (mostly) until about 8:30.  

To say that Sunday was a brutal day would be an understatement!  Luckily, Sophie was feeling just fine by morning, and I have absolutely no idea what all that throwing up was about.  But Johnny still refused to sleep, and his fever would spike really high just as soon as the Tylenol would wear off.  Danny and I were barely functioning, and I honestly don't remember much from the two sessions of Conference.

But just because all the adults were exhausted didn't mean that Claire and Sophie couldn't have a great time!  They loved playing "Rock and Roll Star" upstairs with the keyboard.

To my recollection, Johnny slept maybe an hour or so that entire day.  We did get him to sleep in his pack-and-play at about 7:00 that evening, and he slept there until about 9:30.  When he woke up, Danny slept with him in bed for an hour or so, until Johnny woke up screaming and we couldn't calm him down.  Papa gracefully took a shift at this point, and kept him mostly quiet until about 1:00 so Danny and I could get at least a little bit of sleep.  Johnny then slept sounding with us until 3:30 or so, and then he started up his antics from the night before.  I was ready to pack the car at 5:00 and just head home!  

We did end up packing up that morning, and we left for home just before lunch time.  Johnny was asleep before we were down the hill!  He slept for a good portion of the drive, despite his sisters' in-car antics.  We made it home in good time and enjoyed a couple of days of having the house all to ourselves while Danny's family enjoyed some peace and quiet at the cabin!

All in all, not our best trip to the cabin! :)  But, we're glad we went.  We'd never go anywhere or do anything if we didn't accept the fact that sometimes the kids just don't cooperate.  And really 99% of the time, the kids are excellent.  Their amazing behavior as allowed us to create so many wonderful memories already, and we look forward to creating many many more.  Just hopefully with a little more sleep involved! :)