Our Weekend Away that Wasn't

Ryan had Saturday off so we thought it would be a fun time to get away for a night. We had a card for a free night at Crystal Inn and chose their Brigham City location so we could actually get out of town. Things seemed to be working out great . . . . Jenny & Brent were going to take Ashley and Alexia, and Ryan's parents were going to take Andrew and Austyn. The baby, Adalyn, would come with us. Friday arrived and we are getting ready to go. I was running a little late so I was quite thankful that Paul called and offered to pick up the boys so I wouldn't have to go drop them off. (Good News!) Then, Ryan was able to get off work early and was home by 2:00. (More Good News!). As I am getting my clothes together I am trying to find an outfit that looks "nice" for going out to dinner, however I am not yet small enough to fit into my "nice" clothes so I have to hurry and wash some "almost nice" clothes so I have something to wear besides sweats. The plan from here is to get out the door by 4:00 (when Brent is supposed to be off work) then drop the girls off with Brent on our way out of town. Well, we are out the door by 4:30 and give Brent a call. Unfortunately, Brent is working late out in the field and won't be back to the office for another hour. (Bad News!) No problem, we'll just drive up to Fruit Heights and meet Jenny at the house after her workout . . . . with traffic we should all get there at the same time. We make it to their neighborhood by 5:15 and still haven't been able to reach Jenny on her phone, but Brent gives us the address of the house, which we are able to find and park in the driveway. The weather is pleasant and breezy so the girls play in the yard and we sit in the car comfortably with the windows open, listening to some stand-up comedians on the radio. (Not too Bad.) By 5:45 we still haven't heard from Jenny and the kids are getting anxious. I decide we should probably call the hotel and let them know we won't be there before 6:00 but we are still coming. When I call the hotel I am informed that they are above 80% capacity so we cannot use our free night (however they would hold our reservation if we want to pay $70 to stay there). (Way Bad News!!!) No, we don't want to pay $70 to stay, that was the whole point of going there!! Jenny finally calls back at 5:55 and is on her way home. (Good News!) She offers to make a couple calls to see if she can get us a discounted stay at another place. (Good News!) All those possible places are booked up, so we're back where we started. (Bad News.) Jenny makes it home by 6:25 and lets us in the house. We get on the computer and go to Priceline to try to get a last minute deal on a hotel stay. After all the bargaining we get a $35 deal to stay at the Marriott at University Park in Salt Lake City. (Good News!) So we are off again, looking forward to our night away, even if we aren't really very far away. We pick up some Chinese take-out from our favorite restaurant (The Ho Ho Gourmet) on our way to the hotel and look forward to a relaxing evening of dinner and movies. The Marriott is beautiful, (but apparently more stars means less stuff.) Our room has a Queen size bed, but that should be fine for just one night. But wait, there is no mini-fridge, where are we going to put our Chinese leftovers? (I hate wasting food, especially good food!) Well at least we can watch movies, but there isn't even a VCR. That's okay, we brought a little DVD player to hook up anyway, but wait . . . . there is only a coaxial hook-up, we can't even hookup the DVD player to the TV. There ARE two HBO stations, I'm sure there will be something good on one of those stations. It's 9:30 and we have found something to watch, but the baby is crying apparently disturbed by the noise, so we turn it off and everyone goes to sleep. (Almost Everyone, meaning I DON'T.) Ryan slept quite comfortably on the Queen size bed, taking up his usual amount of space, leaving just inches for me, and only if I sleep on my right side the whole time. I finally get to sleep just to be woken up by a baby crying in the room next to us at about 11:00. After I get up, put some rolled towels in front of the crack under the door and cool the room off a bit, I am able to get back to sleep until Adalyn wakes up hungry around 7:30 in the morning. Another thing to note about these "nicer" hotels, they don't offer the continental breakfast I was looking forward to. But, today is going to be a good day . . . . I shower and get some clean clothes on and feel refreshed. We check-out just after 10:30 and go to Village Inn for breakfast. Then we start up the canyon and find a shady place to park so I can feed the baby. We drive up to the outlet stores at Park City and do a little walking and shopping, which was fun. We found a couple cute things for Alexia's upcoming birthday and a Mother's Day present for me (mini muffin pans :-). Then we head back to town and back to our house to drop off the presents before we pick up the girls. There we enjoy some ice cream before we head back up to Jenny & Brent's place. Jenny and the girls made pizza for dinner and there is enough for everyone, so we stay and enjoy a little visit there. After dinner we head home and get home about 30 minutes after the boys get home. So, the kids go to bed and we're back to normal.