Derek had a conference this weekend on campus, and Hannah was flying into San Diego for a concert, with Eleanor driving down to meet up with her, so the kids and I decided to drive down to San Diego, too, and spend a couple nights in a hotel to hang out with our friends. While I had a lovely time hanging out with Hannah and Eleanor on Saturday and visiting the McBride’s church on Sunday (and visiting Helen and Anna in Del Mar and Natalie in Irvine on the way home!), I’m still not sure it was the wisest move on my part.
Friday, we left later than we should have and hit LA at the beginning of rush hour. It ended up taking us 6 hours to get to down there, which was all kinds of horrible. Then Janie was up ’til midnight, and Susie was up at 5:30. I’d anticipated that people without children who are on vacation sleep in much later than parents and are usually ready to start the day when my kids are ready for lunch, so I thought I had planned enough to keep us busy that morning, but I had not really thought through how difficult it is to keep four children quiet in one room for six hours, even with a brand new movie to watch. Maybe it’s possible when everyone is fully rested, but Tommy was the only person who hadn’t screamed or threatened violence by the time the girls met up with us. And I won’t even go into how Susie got out of the hotel room without anyone noticing and was wandering around by herself or how one of the kids wet the bed that three of us were sleeping in. Or how it took us even longer to get home. I’m not sure that it’s wise to put myself into situations like that…I won’t be staying alone in a hotel with all the kids again any time soon. Just trying to remember the good talks with my friends and that we all are still alive!
The kids did like getting to watch Frozen in the hotel room both mornings.
Del Mar is beautiful.