So on Friday morning I had the bright idea that we should get a hotel room and stay the night. I found a hotel that was on the same street as the place we were attending the work party and it was less than a mile from Temple Square so we booked it. I'm not usually spontaneous like that but I'm glad I was a little flexible with myself that day.
When the girls came home I had put a slip of paper in our advent calendar that said, "Pack your suitcase and a swimsuit...we're going to Salt Lake for the night!" Meg was completely ecstatic, jumping and screaming and giving us hugs while saying "thank you! thank you! thank you!"; Brita couldn't decide if she even wanted to go, and Leah was ready for an adventure because she always likes doing something out of the ordinary.
The work party was nice and Meg made friends with Matt's seven-year-old daughter Sarah. Brita and Leah were my sidekicks and I met some really nice people who work with Jared. Matt's 102-year-old neighbor played the marimba for us and he let the kids help him. (We tried getting a picture of Leah but it didn't turn out).
This work party was a little more casual than most work parties and I liked it that way. We left shortly after 8:30 and walked to Temple Square.
The night was perfect. Meg didn't even wear a coat most of the time we were outside. We strolled through the temple grounds and stopped at the reflecting pool for a minute. It's so beautiful there at Christmastime.
Then we walked through City Creek and I let the monstrous Christmas tree there take my breath away for a minute while everyone else walked on ahead. They've set up some beautiful lights at City Creek as well.
We let the girls go at their pace, which was pretty quick, but I stopped and savored as I could. I remember being painfully bored at temple square as a kid when my mom would want to take a long time to look at everything and to listen to every choir and to watch every movie. Even now, I still don't have a long attention span for it, so the kids' pace is actually pretty good for me.
On our way out, the girls wanted to take the escalator up and then run down the stairs. When they were almost at the top of the escalator, Jared decided to give them a run for their money and he tried to catch them on the way down.
On our way back to the hotel I second guessed my idea of making a "fun" night of dad's work party when the girls started pushing and yelling at each other while we walked along the sidewalk. I swear they make up reasons to fight with each other and once one of them gets started the other two instinctively pile on. Then they start defending their case to me of all people, as if they will even accept a final judgment from me if I choose to give one. Of course they are all completely justified in physically and verbally abusing their siblings and if I even dare suggest otherwise they direct their venom my way. I started to think that each of us in our separate corner of the house doing our own thing might not have been so bad after all.
Vacations are hard for us. We have people in our family who need their space (I happen to be one of them and I've got a kid or two who take after me) and there isn't much of that on a vacation, even if it is just for one night. I was grateful we got two hotel rooms because we were at least a little more spread out that way. And I was impressed that my girls didn't fight over who got their own bed and who had to share. Meg was the only one who fussed over that and I can handle one as long as the other two are being reasonable and mature.
Once pj's were on and we started settling in for the night, things started getting better again. Saturday morning we woke up early enough to be in the pool by 8am. When you go swimming that early, you get the whole pool to yourself.
Meg couldn't touch the bottom anywhere in the pool, so she and I stuck close together. She swam from the steps out to me over and over again. Then she started getting brave enough to swim from one side to the other as long as she was close to the wall and could grab it whenever she got tired.
Jared, Brita and Leah raced for almost an hour. Jared kept coming up with these detailed relays and rules that annoyed me a little bit, but Brita and Leah were fine going along with his plans. Jared doesn't throw competitions for anyone and these races were no exception. He won every time. Then he'd brag about it to me and then I'd remind him that he just beat a 12 and a 13 year old. He's such a champ. He was so proud of himself for showing two young girls who's boss.
They talked me into swimming the last relay with them, but first Jared made me swim a lap of each of the four strokes to practice. He took pleasure in critiquing my form of strokes I haven't used since I was a teenager myself. When I was good and exhausted, that's when the race started. I came in dead last, panting and completely spent, and I was swimming my hardest. Looks like I've got some brushing up to do if I want to compete in the family races in the future. And next time I'm not going to wear myself out before the race. Perhaps I'd also like to show everyone who's boss. Oh yeah. Swag. (Swag is something the kids say these days and I don't get it, but I still throw the word around a lot because it makes my girls roll their eyes at me).
We still hadn't eaten anything when we checked out of the hotel around 10:30am. Our plan was to go visit Eric and Lon at this home in Sugarhouse that they are remodeling - it's an investment project for all of us and Jared wanted me to see the place. So while we were looking for a McDonald's, Jared spotted a Whole Foods Market and suggested we go there instead to find stuff for breakfast. I was happy to go along with that plan because I love that market. The girls wanted Greek yogurt bars, I wanted sushi and baguettes with cheese, and Jared picked up some sweet rolls and muffins. When we were walking to the car with our groceries in our arms, Jared said, "I've never spent $60 on breakfast before." Brita kept making fun of him because it was his idea to go there and he ended up wishing we would have just found a McDonald's instead.
We took our breakfast to the house and had a picnic on the floor. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy for this 45 year old lady to get up after sitting indian style on the ground for an extended period of time.
Eric gave us a tour and talked about the plans they have for the place and he gave Jared a rundown on what they had done so far.
After Jared, Eric and Lon argued about whether it was okay to lose money on this investment or not, we were on our way home.
On the drive home I reflected on our quick overnight trip. I've come to accept the fact that making memories can be hard and sometimes it's a lot of work. But now our family has a memory of a night in Salt Lake that will be much different from the night we would have had at home doing our normal routine. I believe that even if we fight because kids are walking too close to each other or because one doesn't get the bed she wanted, the memories from doing something different are worth creating and the experiences bring us together as a family even if it doesn't feel like it in the moment.
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