Fowlesapalooza
*Warning* This is a huge post, mostly containing drama.
PC's family unofficially gets together for a family reunion whenever his brother's family, who lives in London, comes to visit the States. Relative dates were set (ha!) and we gathered at PC's parent's home the weekend of August 14. We bought our tickets for Thursday the 12th so we could be there a day before everyone started pouring in. We were packed and ready and had our nice friends drop us off at the airport. When we arrived at the airport, it was pouring outside. We didn't think anything of it. Our airline thought differently. So differently that they couldn't get us to AZ until Sunday night. Turning our trip into one day....
That didn't fly with us. (The pun in funny now, but wasn't then :))
We checked with all the other airlines and finally settled on Southwest but wouldn't be flying out until the next day. Three car rides to and from the airport and twice the amount we had originally paid for our tickets later, we arrived in sunny, hot Arizona! We were grateful K1 finally got to meet his grandparents and try to get used to his surroundings before everyone arrived.
*Side note* I knew we were going to have a 3 hour time change and therefore tried to prep K1 a week in advance. Every night I gradually bumped back his bedtime but didn't notice that he was still getting up at 5:30am. My brain doesn't function that early (besides warming up his bottle) and it didn't register to me that he should be sleeping in, or that I should encourage him to go back to sleep. You can probably see where this is going. K1 did fine going to sleep every night, but got up at 2:30 every morning. We tried letting him cry, giving his bottle right away, putting him in bed with us... nothing worked. PC eventually would get up with him and go driving around to put him back asleep. Did I mention that my husband loves me?
Saturday everyone began pouring in.
Fact: There are 29 people in PC's family - 16 grandchildren all under the age of 11 and 13 adults.
Fact: All 29 people stayed in the same house and somewhat shared 3 bathrooms.
Fact: We ate our meals in the garage. :)
Fiction: Everyone got a good night's sleep- with several sick children and temperamental babies, I don't think anyone got a full night's rest.
The drama does not end there (at least for our family). K1 tripped over uncle A's foot and fell on the tile floor and cut the inside of his mouth. I freaked out because he was bleeding so much and I didn't know where it was coming from. I was afraid he knocked out a tooth. K1 also choked that same day. I was cutting up food and talking to the same uncle A and turned back to K1 to see his lips turning purplish- blue. I flipped out because I couldn't figure out how to get him out of his high chair. Thankfully (and obviously) he lived. We tried to lay low the rest of the day.
Sunday was fine. I left church after the sacrament because K1 was a mess sleep wise and wasn't going to deprive him of a desperately needed nap. Later that day I organized and helped the kids make 'lollipop cookies'. They got slightly crispy while baking but they still tasted okay.
Monday morning we took our scheduled family pictures. I will feature these in a later post. I thought the photographer did an okay job considering the size of the group. Most of the kids were done after 20 minutes of being outside in 100 degree weather. It made for interesting small family photos. We still look happy in ours :) K1 choked again that day. *sigh*
The drama doesn't end there.
We said our goodbyes Tuesday morning and went to the airport. I was feeling hungry and got a bite to eat at the airport. The first leg of our flight was to Denver, Colorado only an hour and a half away. We experienced turbulence on take off, in the air and on descent. Did I mention that I was in the worst part of my morning sickness during this trip? Right before we touched down, I started getting cold sweats and turned to PC and said, "I'm going to throw up". I grabbed my complimentary barf bag and you know the rest. Sadly my bladder was very full. I was holding it because I thought I'd just use the restroom when we got off the plane. Well... with every heave, I further wet my pants. :( Sad day. K1 was gracious enough to let me borrow his blankie to cover the damage. Our last leg went just fine and we made it home safe. WHEW!
Our trip was pretty crazy, but we were glad to see our family, have them meet K1 for the first time, have us meet some new members (the twins!), take family pictures, swim in the pool, catch up a bit and, most importantly, PC receiving a beautiful Father's blessing. That right there made the whole trip worth it. :)
PC's family unofficially gets together for a family reunion whenever his brother's family, who lives in London, comes to visit the States. Relative dates were set (ha!) and we gathered at PC's parent's home the weekend of August 14. We bought our tickets for Thursday the 12th so we could be there a day before everyone started pouring in. We were packed and ready and had our nice friends drop us off at the airport. When we arrived at the airport, it was pouring outside. We didn't think anything of it. Our airline thought differently. So differently that they couldn't get us to AZ until Sunday night. Turning our trip into one day....
That didn't fly with us. (The pun in funny now, but wasn't then :))
We checked with all the other airlines and finally settled on Southwest but wouldn't be flying out until the next day. Three car rides to and from the airport and twice the amount we had originally paid for our tickets later, we arrived in sunny, hot Arizona! We were grateful K1 finally got to meet his grandparents and try to get used to his surroundings before everyone arrived.
*Side note* I knew we were going to have a 3 hour time change and therefore tried to prep K1 a week in advance. Every night I gradually bumped back his bedtime but didn't notice that he was still getting up at 5:30am. My brain doesn't function that early (besides warming up his bottle) and it didn't register to me that he should be sleeping in, or that I should encourage him to go back to sleep. You can probably see where this is going. K1 did fine going to sleep every night, but got up at 2:30 every morning. We tried letting him cry, giving his bottle right away, putting him in bed with us... nothing worked. PC eventually would get up with him and go driving around to put him back asleep. Did I mention that my husband loves me?
Saturday everyone began pouring in.
Fact: There are 29 people in PC's family - 16 grandchildren all under the age of 11 and 13 adults.
Fact: All 29 people stayed in the same house and somewhat shared 3 bathrooms.
Fact: We ate our meals in the garage. :)
Fiction: Everyone got a good night's sleep- with several sick children and temperamental babies, I don't think anyone got a full night's rest.
The drama does not end there (at least for our family). K1 tripped over uncle A's foot and fell on the tile floor and cut the inside of his mouth. I freaked out because he was bleeding so much and I didn't know where it was coming from. I was afraid he knocked out a tooth. K1 also choked that same day. I was cutting up food and talking to the same uncle A and turned back to K1 to see his lips turning purplish- blue. I flipped out because I couldn't figure out how to get him out of his high chair. Thankfully (and obviously) he lived. We tried to lay low the rest of the day.
Sunday was fine. I left church after the sacrament because K1 was a mess sleep wise and wasn't going to deprive him of a desperately needed nap. Later that day I organized and helped the kids make 'lollipop cookies'. They got slightly crispy while baking but they still tasted okay.
Monday morning we took our scheduled family pictures. I will feature these in a later post. I thought the photographer did an okay job considering the size of the group. Most of the kids were done after 20 minutes of being outside in 100 degree weather. It made for interesting small family photos. We still look happy in ours :) K1 choked again that day. *sigh*
The drama doesn't end there.
We said our goodbyes Tuesday morning and went to the airport. I was feeling hungry and got a bite to eat at the airport. The first leg of our flight was to Denver, Colorado only an hour and a half away. We experienced turbulence on take off, in the air and on descent. Did I mention that I was in the worst part of my morning sickness during this trip? Right before we touched down, I started getting cold sweats and turned to PC and said, "I'm going to throw up". I grabbed my complimentary barf bag and you know the rest. Sadly my bladder was very full. I was holding it because I thought I'd just use the restroom when we got off the plane. Well... with every heave, I further wet my pants. :( Sad day. K1 was gracious enough to let me borrow his blankie to cover the damage. Our last leg went just fine and we made it home safe. WHEW!
Our trip was pretty crazy, but we were glad to see our family, have them meet K1 for the first time, have us meet some new members (the twins!), take family pictures, swim in the pool, catch up a bit and, most importantly, PC receiving a beautiful Father's blessing. That right there made the whole trip worth it. :)
Comments
I am glad it all turned out ok. I hope you guys are back on schedule by now.
That was fun wasn't it, and even the parts that were not fun are good for future stories, right! Glad you documented it here. And glad you are home safe and sound for awhile!!