This year was an Earl year for Thanksgiving and we convinced everybody to meet in Las Vegas which meant a much shorter drive for us- hallelujah. It also meant that we would have both sides of our family in relatively the same place and so we came up with a plan to get everybody who could make it over to St George afterwards for Ada's blessing.
Stephen and I were both super nervous for the car ride to St George because, as I have mentioned before, Ada HATES the car. We left late at night after Stephen had finished work in hopes that the girls would sleep most of the time. Rory the road trip champion opted to watch movies the entire time, but she was mostly silent so we were cool with it. Ada seemed to do a little better with me sitting right next to her where she could see me, but I still had to hold her to calm her down a couple of times. There was a moment when she had finally fallen asleep that Rory started yelling because she wanted another movie and I was ready to toss my first born out the window if her yell woke Ada up, but thankfully for all of us it didn't. We made it to Las Vegas very late but very relieved that our drive hadn't gone any worse.
Brad and Jules's crew, Kendall, Michael, Ethan, and Curtis were all unable to come, but everyone else was there. Courtney and her kids plus my family all stayed in Jon and Kacey's new giant rental house and everyone else stayed at their old house that they now use as an AirBNB. It was a little crazy, but really not as bad as you would think. By the time we got there most of the cooking was already planned for, fifteen pies had already been baked, and everyone was just enjoying a little family time before the festivities. Stephen decided to go for a run with Jon Wayne and I stayed home with the girls. Scarlet came and asked me if Rory could play outside with them and I sent her out happily. Ada was napping so I had just started to get ready for the day when I hear, "Kylie!" in a tone that you do not want to hear from your teenage niece whom you've just entrusted with your child. I came rushing to the kitchen to find Rory crying and screaming while blood poured out of her mouth. It was a horrible and I was a wreck and thankfully Kacey, mom of all moms, was right there in a minute. She cleaned Rory up while I held her and tried not to cry. It was determined that Asher had somehow ran her over with his bike (or knocked down? who knows! poor kid was a wreck and couldn't talk about it) and she had split her lip open pretty badly. We cleaned up the blood and then Kacey ran to the store for superglue, tylenol and popsicles. I held her and tried to distract her with Doc McStuffins, but the poor girl was in so much pain. Kacey got back with the essentials and then Dad finally made it over from the other house to glue her lip together. She was very brave through it all which somehow just made it even more sad. After her lip was glued and she was back to watching TV on my lap (while everyone else took turns taking care of Ada who was now awake) Stephen finally got back from his run. Someone had given him a brief version of events on his way up, so by the time he made it to us he was already a little bit of a wreck. Rory, if you ever doubt how much your dad loves you then you can have me describe the pain on his face at seeing you hurt because that image is burned into my brain. Stephen took Rory in his arms and became her official nurse for the remainder of her injury's heal time. At one point we had to re-glue the cut because it would come apart any time she tried to talk or if she would pick at it, but my Dad assured us it would heal just fine.
Her lip was so swollen she looked like a little Cindy Lou Who in her little Thanksgiving dress. She wasn't really interested in eating anything but popsicles, and she mostly just wanted to be with Stephen and watch Olaf's Frozen Adventure roughly one million times and rule is in our family that when you are hurt you get whatever you want because she did just that. Stephen was the best caregiver and stayed by her side regardless of any festivities it might mean missing. I on the other hand was technically still eating for two since I was nursing and I took that job very seriously. It was alright though, because that morning we went and did a High fitness class at the church altogether and it was so fun and totally negated the eight slices of pie I ate later.
Ada was there too and it turns out she is pretty happy as long as she is not in a car and has someone to hold her all day long.
The next day we hung out a little with everyone, but it was a little nutty because Kacey had a ton of things she needed to get done at the school for their production of Wizard of Oz. She was glad to have so many adult helpers on hand, but all of the helpers came with a lot of children so there was a lot of babysitting shifts and scenery painting shifts and food making shifts going around. Rory was still having a hard time with her lip injury and Stephen was having a hard time watching his baby be sad. We decided to drive to St George a little bit earlier than planned to give Rory some time in a quiet house all to herself and it ended up being a very good change of pace for her recovery.
She loved being the only kid and having all of Grandma and Poppop's attention to herself, plus all the toys and none of the sharing. We had a lovely and relaxing day and prepared for the following day when everyone else was driving down to join us. When the rest of our crew got there the next day we all met up at the children's museum and let the kids run wild, along with every other family in St George so it was a little crazy, but mostly fun. For lunch we stopped at our favorite corn dog truck and now I'm drooling a little thinking about it. We did a little shopping (because I once again forgot to bring any pants with me- how does a person pack zero pants twice in their life?!) and then prepped to go see the long awaited Frozen II. My mom came back from a Target run with matching Elsa outfits for the little girls and then we all got to battle our strong willed daughters into changing their outfits (which was shockingly hard considering they were sparkly AND had Elsa on them- go figure). Rory had woken up from a nap right before we left for the movie and with that on top of her injury I was worried that this movie experience that we had been looking forward to for months would be totally wasted, but thankfully it was not! We all loved the movie and Rory sat happily on Stephen's lap and was enthralled the entire time. We even managed to share popcorn and soda among our herd of children with minimal fighting. When the movie had finished and we were waiting to see what surprise would lie at the end of the credits the kids all ran around and went crazy and it was the happiest we had seen Rory since the bike incident. She turned the large empty bucket of popcorn over on her head and thus, Bucket Head was born. It didn't make for a very Instagram-worthy moment for Grammy, but it did make Stephen and I laugh super hard.
Finally Sunday rolled around and it was time for Ada to get some much deserved attention. Stephen gave her a beautiful blessing and it was so special to have so much of our family there together. Not pictured are Nate and Linne's group, Courtney and kids, and all the Nielsens. We did better at taking pictures this time but still not great. Third baby's the charm, I'm hoping.
After everyone made their way back home, Stephen drove back on his own (bless that man) and Courtney and I stayed at Kacey's house for one more week for some sister time. Kacey was knee deep in play work so Courtney and I helped with kids and meals and just enjoyed hanging out together. We were able to have a few adventures as well. When we took Ridley to dance class we had planned to eat at a yummy ice cream and waffles place that turned out to be closed. so we found a french cafe nearby that just so happened to have the most delicious Brioche French Toast I have ever had. We also got to go to a fun kids place and let the kids work out all their pent up energy, especially Rory who was missing her dad. In one of the pictures she has her arms and legs all tangled up in a little spider web and it was too funny to see her all stuck like that. The flight home was calm and easy and I even got to watch a movie! When does that ever happen when you're traveling with two kids alone?
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