third annual little america getaway

A few years ago, my parents surprised us with an experience gift -- a trip to the aquarium and a stay at the Little America hotel. It was so much fun that we did it again the next year. So this year, I kept asking my mom if we were going to do it again. She kept saying she didn't know because they had a lot going on this December, and at one point she even said that it was not going to happen this year. However, I must have shown that I really enjoyed it, because my parents worked their schedules so that we could do it again! I was so excited!

However, this was most definitely our worst experience yet (or at least mine). For starters, there was no pack'n'play in the room when we first got to Little America, so Ada had no way to take her second nap of the day. This really set me off. I do whatever I can to preserve naps, so the fact that I had no control in this situation and the hotel hadn't done what they'd said they'd do (and we called them like 3x over 45 minutes to try and get a pack'n'play to the room), coupled with the fact that ada was freaking out from being tired, left me so angry! It was rough haha. Luckily, Ada got a second wind, and I learned that Ada on a second wind is very calm, peaceful, and EASY. It's like she doesn't have the energy to cause chaos. So she was great all through dinner and temple square, and she went down easily (like always) when we got back to the hotel.

The second bad thing that happened was that Lydia (niece) was throwing up, so Michael (BIL) had to stay back with her at the hotel while the rest of us did dinner and temple square.

The third bad thing that happened was that after the buffet breakfast in the morning, I ate some weird cheese, so my stomach was NOT happy and I ended up throwing up (in the bathroom at least). Throwing up a complete buffet meal is pretty gross, I'll tell you that much.

BUT, other than those things, we had a good time together haha :) Dinner at Blue Lemon was yummy, we were all warm enough at Temple Square, and we adults love to stay up late playing games after putting all the kiddos to bed :)

Although I love the tradition of it all, someone made the point that what's really fun about it is staying up late together playing games (since we used to play games when we'd get together for Sunday dinners, but now with 7 kids (3 babies) between us all, games just don't happen). So next year, we'll just do late games and a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and then we'll go for a yummy breakfast with Santa at the country club. But I'm glad we at least had this fun tradition for the last three years :)