Palm Springs

Over St. Patrick's Day weekend Noah had to work in Palm Springs for a conference. The rest of us hadn't been there yet so we decided to make a family trip out of it. Especially since the Indian Wells tennis open was finishing up there that same weekend. Noah has turned us into tennis fans and we bought 2 tickets to take turns taking one of the kids into see a match. So we loaded up the car, pulled McKay out of school early and hit the road. The trip started off really well.

The drive was great. 

The weather was beautiful.

The kids were happy. 

When we got there we dropped off Noah at the conference and headed over to check into our hotel to change diapers, feed the baby, let the kids stretch their antsy legs and be in a place were I could manage all 4 kids on my own. I didn't worry much. I do that everyday at home. How hard could it be? Especially because Noah was sweet and called the hotel to ask them to watch out for us. 

Well, we followed the GPS to to the hotel only it wasn't a hotel. It was a whole time share/golf resort with several roads and different check ins. This was the only place available because of the Open. So I parked where I thought I should and got all the kids out. Of course hey were running around like crazy from being in the car for so long and as I was trying to rally them a man on his bike stops me and says wow you've got your hands full.

Me: Yes sir I do!

Him: Do you need any help?

Me: Oh that's kind of you but I think I'm OK. Thank you. Actually, are we at the right place to check in?

Him: To the villas?

Me: No the hotel.

Him: Oh no! You need to get back into your car and go out that way, turn right,  make another right and then one more right and you can't miss it.

Me: Oh thank you so much (but I didn't quite get it all with my diverted attention to the kids)!

Then he rode off on his bike and gave us a wave. 

I managed to chase and wrestle the kids back into the car with Cubby flighting every move, the baby starting to cry for food, Lyla and McKay dodging my pleas because they were too busy playing, and I really needed to go to the bathroom. We headed out in the direction the man pointed hoping I'd find a sign or something. I turned right 3 times just like he said but got stuck in a parking lot. Funny enough though, we ran into the same nice man on the bike again! He shook his head and smiled. Probably thinking, this lady is nuts! So he told me to follow him on his bike. He lead me out of the resort gates and told me to make the next 3 right turns. 

We found a gate that was a different entrance to the resort and stopped at the first place that looked like a lobby. I unloaded the kids again after a pep talk about sticking together and helping each other out only to find out that it was the wrong place too. But there was a nice lady there wiling to work with me/us. McKay was launching his stuffed animal way in the air over and over again. Lyla was climbing on the furniture. Cubby was b-lining for every door he could find and I was rocking Bennett in the car seat trying to coax him to sleep and have a conversation with the receptionist. 

Long story short, we had to load back into the car go back to where we stopped when we first saw the man on the bike (hoping he didn't see us again!)  and...our room wasn't ready yet. Classic! By this time the kids were unglued. I had to go somewhere. Everyone was tired and antsy. The kids needed to run around, I needed to nurse the baby,  and we all had to use the restroom, badly! So they sent us to a place in the resort called The Shade. A place where they have activities for the kids. That didn't sound so bad if I could just get there. So we got back in the car and drove to The Shade. I was thinking, OK you're fine. This will be great. Keep it together. 

Good thing we stopped to take a picture before we went in. Can't pass up the put-your-face-in-the-hole picture. Not even with an impatient mother, Bennett wailing, and Cubby wondering off. See the sign with The Shade on it? We were so close!

Oh and don't forget Lyla!

We made it in and headed straight towards the bathroom. All 5 of us filed into one small bathroom. McKay and Lyla took turns while I changed diapers and tried to keep everyone under control. I used up the last of the diapers and ran out of wipes. That would normally be fine but not today. Not after what was about to happen next. We went to wash our hands and the sink faucet wasn't working. So...we soaked our hands in soap hoping to kill some of the germs and wiped them with paper towels.  By this time I was telling myself OK. Everything is fine. Keep calm. But it was a little more intense.

We paraded out of the bathroom and went in to a room with a couch and toys. Phew! I could sit and finally nurse the baby while the kids are contained and entertained. Then about 2 minutes into the feeding McKay yelled, "Mom! Lyla is pooping her pants!" 

What?! 

That hasn't happened for about a year. He has got to be kidding.

Sure enough Lyla waddled around the corner with her undies down to her knees and her skirt to her ankles. Each full of poo and spilling a drop with each step. I was thinking, OH NO!! What is happening? How much mess is on the floor? How can I clean this up?

 So I tare the baby off the feeding, jump up, attempt to pull up her clothes while putting myself back together and holding the baby, beg McKay to help lure Cubby to come with us again to the bathroom and pray no more poo trails behind us. We filed back into the bathroom and I just threw her underwear away and tried to clean the rest of the mess with no running water and no wet wipes. It was not a pretty sight. I'll spare all the details but I was so ready to get out of there and into our room. But there we sat, at The Shade, in that room for another 2 hours before we could make it into our room. And that's when I decided that we were not going to make it to any tennis matches that night. 

Noah got back and jumped right in. I had never been so happy to see him!

We made it to the room and the next few hours was blissful. Really. After we cleaned up and settled in we had a lot of fun together. The kids were happy. I calmed down. We swam. Played on the golf course. Checked out the resort together. Watched the sunset. Had dinner at the pool. Then it was getting too dark so we went back to our room to get ready for bed. 

All was going well and we were almost about to say our prayers to go to sleep when Lyla slipped off the bed and cut her face open enough to need stitches. Oh wow! Luckily she stayed really calm and so did Noah so that helped keep the stress down. Sweet McKay started crying for her and said a prayer that the hole in her head would get better. So Lyla and I headed to the Emergency room and got there at 9:30pm. 

She didn't move her head from the towel once and stayed so calm. 

I've heard storied that people can wait for hours in the ER but have never experienced it first hand. I sat next to a lady that said she called before they got there and they told her it would be a 4 hour wait. No way, I thought. Then we checked in and sat there for about 30 minutes before they called Lyla's name. Wow! That was fast. But they got us back there and weighed Lyla took her blood pressure and sent us back out. Darn!

Then we waited.

And waited.

At about 11pm Noah showed up. His boss, Yadira, is the BEST and offered to stay with the other kids in the hotel room while we stayed with Lyla! We are sooo grateful for her!

Then we waited some more. Lyla finally dozed off to sleep close to midnight. 

Waited. 

This was at 2:45am.  At this point we were getting worried that if we wait too long the window to get stitches would close.     

But we still waited.

At 3:30am they called us back. 6 hours later. I caught her smiling in her sleep.

Waited.

4am.

Waited.

5:15am. They were finally able to see her. After they cleaned it we wrapped her in a sheet to she couldn't move. Isn't she so sweet just lying there patiently waiting.

And then finally after the 8 HOURS of waiting for a 2 minute procedure we were ready to go home at 5:20am. Bless her sweet heart. She stayed pretty calm through out the whole thing.

I got to the room a little after 5:30am to relieve Yadira and let her go back to her room and get maybe an hour of sleep! Man we are so grateful for her. I can't remember falling asleep but sometime shortly after that Noah showed up with Lyla.

What. A. Day!

The next morning was St. Patrick's Day and I forgot that McKay had written a book with lots of questions for the Leprechauns and set it out for them with some carefully de-shelled green pistachios. Oops! Our leprechaun must have been too tired to answer to the questions (until a few days later) but good thing he had stopped the day before to get some Lucky Charms!

Cubby has a marshmallow stuck on his chin!

Oh boy! I love these kids. They make me crazy but I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world.