Camping Comedies Part 2

So we made it home around 4 pm from Liwa - sandy, happy and hungry. Our neighbors invited us over for a fantastically yummy steak BBQ to celebrate our return to civilization (I know it was only one night, but it felt like a lot longer :) We left our stinky campfire bags and ginormous piles of dirty clothes in the front entryway, too tired to think of laundry - I'd get to it tomorrow, I promised myself. That night, the power went out. And stayed out. Things like this aren't totally uncommon, so the next morning we called maintenance. Somewhere around 5 pm, it became obvious the problem wasn't going to be resolved quickly.

So, we packed up an overnight bag with clothes and school assignments for the next day, and took off to the hotel Ken's office was gracious enough to put us up in. At first, the thrill of adventure was overwhelming - dinner was on them! TV at the hotel! I tell you what, that thrill lasted approximately 5.2 minutes into dinner. Taking the 5 kids out to a restaurant is not something we've perfected yet… Still, we tried to keep an upbeat attitude.

Night 1: Italian food

Lemon with mint - my favorite!

Testing out the hotel lobby chairs. We told the kids this would be a new kind of camping, just with actual bathrooms and beds. They were all over it, especially when Tyler discovered there were sports on the TV.

It must be nice to be a kid sometimes - everything is a new and exciting adventure! And people let you climb and ride on things they wouldn't otherwise :)

Getting ready to sleep - don't be deceived by their angelic faces, it took 2 hours to get everyone to go to sleep that night.

Our first morning involved some public humiliation in the form of asking for a container to stuff some breakfast buffet food in for the boys to take as a school lunch, missing the school bus, and Ken being super late to work on a day he shouldn't have.

Due to car troubles, the younger kids and I were marooned at the hotel, which isn't nearly as fun as it would have been if I could have had my swimsuit at the pool instead of 3 little people. It wasn't my finest handling of difficult events.

The definite plus side was all the new restaurants we tried. One night we tried a new Lebanese place. 

Not only was the food great, but our server volunteered to hold Colby right there next to us while we ate, and then the manager assigned us two more extra servers, since he didn't want the baby disturbed. This place takes service to a whole new level!

We spent 3 days hauling clothes and homework back and forth, and were overjoyed when the problem was resolved. Without my wonderful next door neighbor, I'm pretty sure I would have lost my sanity - she saved all of our freezer food, made the kids meals during the day, and let us live at her house when we didn't want to be at the hotel. Eventually, we laundered all the piles of dirty clothes and banished the smell of rotten fridge food from our house. 

As a plus side, we can now look back on the situation and laugh - kind of. Well, when we see this picture anyways. Owen found his own quiet spot in our hotel suite!