After the first night of Kate not sleeping well by herself in the other condo, I decided it might be best if she just slept between me and Scott in our bed. Bad idea. She slept fairly well, but I didn't. Every time she would stir, it would wake me completely up, and I couldn't go back to sleep. After two nights in a row of no sleep, it was wearing me down. I woke up grumpy, and I couldn't shake it the entire day.
Nobody was motivated to get moving that morning. Everyone lounged around while I did all the work of getting things ready for the day. Finally we got on the road, but not before me letting everyone know how frustrated I was that it had taken so long.
When we got to Provo, we drove around and showed the kids where we had lived when we were first married, where Scott had worked, and where Scott was living when we met. They were not all that impressed. Then we tried to park on campus. The first visitor's lot was completely full. We circled it for 20 minutes, but there was nothing. So we moved on to another visitor's lot, and finally found a place to park. But it had just put me in an even grouchier mood, because instead of being out walking around on campus, I was listening to kids fight in the van while we found parking.
We parked by the WILK, and took the kids in to first use the bathroom, then to the bookstore to buy BYU shirts for all of them. Of course that was a disaster. Savannah and Sara tried on 20 shirts, and couldn't decide on a single one. The little boys found many they wanted, and couldn't decide between them. Josh only wanted tech fabric shirts (which were $30+), and I kept telling him he had to find a regular cotton t shirt (which was under $20). No one was happy, everyone was whining and crying, and we were in a crowded bookstore with carefree students happily walking about. There was a cute young mom trying to calm her screaming toddler, and we caught eyes. She could tell I could sympathize, and said, "They never tell you it's going to be like this. They say, 'Get married, have kids, it's great!', but they never tell you what it's really like". I smiled and told her I completely understood.
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| The boys in the bathroom. The ONLY picture Scott took that day. He was about 3 seconds too slow to get Nate matching Owen. I'm sure if there had been any college guys in there, they would have had a good laugh over seeing this. |
We finally left the bookstore, with shirts for all the kids but Savannah, and me grouchier than ever. We walked over to the Eyring Science Center. I wanted to take the kids in and show them the pendulum and the other cool science displays they have. But I realized that we had come on a weekday (Thursday), and there were classes going on inside the building. I knew Kate and Owen wouldn't stay quiet, so I suggested Scott take the older kids in, and I'd stay out with the little ones. Aaron and Nate designated themselves "little ones" for this activity. So I took the four younger ones over to the Tree of Wisdom statue and let them play while Scott and the older three explored the Science building.
Watching my kids play here was the first glimmer of happy I'd had all day. I knew I was ruining it for myself and my family by being in a bad mood, but I was having a really hard time turning my attitude around. But this made me happy.
We walked past the waterfalls in front of Heritage Halls, which is where I lived the first two years of college. This waterfall is new since I lived here, and so is Heritage Halls. They've torn down the old residences (which not only housed me, but also my mother), and have replaced them with huge new beautiful buildings. It made me sad. There were only three original building still standing (one of which was my Felt Hall), which will be torn down very soon to make room for more new buildings. So much of campus had changed since I had been there, it didn't feel like "home" anymore.
Of course we had to go to the Creamery. Their ice cream is so scrumptious. All of the kids agreed that this was the best part of the day so far. I found that getting some sugar in me and getting to sit down for a few minutes was a huge help. I left the Creamery happy, and wishing we could just start the day over and have a redo.
One of the things that I had really hoped to do while we were there, was to hike up to the Y. But when the trip turned from taking just the older three kids, to taking all of them, I knew it would be a difficult thing to accomplish. So, instead of hiking to the Y, we did just a small hike (stroll) up into Rock Canyon together. The sun was just starting to set, and the colors of the trees were amazing.
Poor little Kate was so tired. She hadn't napped at all the whole day, and had just fallen asleep minutes before we got to Rock Canyon. I debated letting her and Owen (he had just fallen asleep in the car too) nap while Scott or I waited in the car with them. But I really wanted this to be a family activity. So we woke them up, and she was a trooper being tired, but happy on my back.
As the day drew to a close, I turned to Scott and apologized for being such a grump all day. I said, "You know, I just had this vision of how this day would be so perfect. I envisioned showing the kids this place that I love, and them just being in awe of it all. But they didn't care. And none of it was like I remembered. I guess I just wanted to go back and have it all be just like it was 16 years ago, but it's not. And I'm not. Life goes on, and you change, and there really is no going back." He gave me a hug, then grabbed my hand and started walking.
I can't go back and live the carefree life that I used to have in Provo, but I've got a better life now. I've got seven amazing kids, and an amazing man to walk through life with. I am indeed a very lucky girl!
On the walk back down out of the canyon, the kids all picked me bouquets of wildflowers.
When we got back to the condo that night, Savannah offered to make mac and cheese for the kids' dinner (Kate had donuts for dinner), so Scott and I could go out for a little dinner date.
Kendi had given me orders to try her favorite restaurant, Cafe Zupas, while I was down there. So Scott took me there for dinner. It was yummy, and a perfect way to end my day--with my husband.
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