Drop off at the Airport

Hi. Here are Katharine with Corey yesterday morning. Safe in her father's arms.

She looked so peaceful and beautiful! What a pretty baby.

Now it is Sunday and today truly was a day of temporal rest. I came home after church and took a nap with Katharine from 12-4, with a few interruptions from kids, but it was good and I think I've recovered. I needed recovery because I was up driving home from Las Vegas yesterday and arrived very late last night early this morning at 3AM. This is how that happened. Yesterday Abi didn't have GMS and the boys didn't have soccer, so it started off with the feeling of being a low key Memorial Day weekend. Other people had plans, but not me. But Corey was one of those others who did... a few days ago he finalized plans to go to Guatemala with Mel, Abi, Lily, Sophi, and Natalie. It's something he's wanted to do for over two years (and why we got current passports for Abi and Lily in 2021). Mel texted Corey earlier this week asking about it, and it seemed like a good opportunity to make it happen. But before they left, Lily had an audition, so CMALSN and I took P&K with us and we all went down together to Lily's audition. O&D were at a friends house. I waited in the car with kids, and then we were going to drop them off at the airport for their flight to Las Vegas, where they had a connecting flight to Miami, and then a day long layover there, aka all day today, until they fly to Guatemala in the early Monday morning hours. So, on our way to GMS, Corey got a text or email saying that the flight to Las Vegas as overbooked, and it offered a $250 travel voucher to anyone who rescheduled. Corey saw this as a chance to fund their next adventure, especially since he had gotten a great deal on that flight (less than $200 for the 6 of them! This was an opportunity to come out with a $1500 profit!) so he was texting someone as we drove to GMS, he looked for a rental car so they could drive to Las Vegas, I took him to the airport to get he rental car while Lily finished up her GMS application, then I went back to GMS to get the girls and bring them out to Corey so they could quickly be on their way and I could be done... but then Corey said there was a very very long line at the airport car rental place. 

He made NO progress moving closer in the 40 minutes that I was driving back and forth to save them time. They needed to leave really soon if they were going to make the drive in time to catch their flight. His back was against the wall now cause he had cancelled their flights and there was a 3 hour wait for the car rental he had booked. And I'm also sad to report that he didn't actually end getting the voucher money either, cause he pushed the wrong button, so he just got refunded his $200. So that was unfortunate. I had the girls all with me, and still Peter and Katharine too, and we were waiting for Corey at the passenger pick up parking lot. I checked in with him. 

"I don't know what to do..." I called to see if Joseph could maybe drive them down. He and I talked, I called Corey again, I told him we'd come get him and start to head out and figure out what to do as we drove. Then it was decided: I would drive them to Las Vegas, Joseph would watch all the kids - Joseph was at Corey's parent's house helping his cousin with math, so he went back home to get Owen and Daniel, we hurried by there to drop off Peter and Katharine, and Joseph got to play "dad" for the next 12 hours while I went along to bring back our car after dropping them off. The girls were lovely and pleasant on the drive down. 

Corey drove and I tried to sleep but didn't get much rest. I slept briefly until Santaquin. We listened to the High School Musical "Don't Stare at the Sun" and then followed that with all the Star Wars Bad Lip reading songs, which are legit awesome music with absolutely ridiculous lyrics. And then killed another hour of the drive listening to Nate Bargatze Full Time Magic Comedy Special, that was funny. The girls took advantage of the chance to play pranks on sleeping Abi - 

I got another few minutes of rest between Mesquite to Vegas. Then we were soon arriving in Las Vegas and dropping them off. 

We got to Vegas at 9 and I was on my way back, will take me 6 hours and 2 minutes to get home. Take a deep breath, I got this. Corey filled up the car before they left, and I filled up a little more in Fillmore. Singing my heart out to Brandon Flowers and the Greatest Showman kept me awake. Plus a dozen phone calls with Corey and my parents. My mom checked in with me every 30-50 minutes. I arrived home at 3:01 am, feeling very ready to nurse Katharine. I would have stopped to rest had I not been a nursing mother. My body was letting me know that it had been well over 15 hours since I fed my baby. I got home, texted my mom that I was safe (she was watching me on Life 360 the whole time too) and then brushed my teeth, put in my retainer, drank some water, woke up K and let her relieve me. I've been recovering from the stress of that drive, I still feel very tense in my shoulders, going to try and stretch. I digressed to old habits and ate too much today. I am going to go on a bike ride tomorrow morning. I am glad I arrived safely home and would like to thank my mother and Corey and the girls for their prayers. They all agreed that if I crashed and died, they would all feel really bad. I'll probably be recovering from that all week. I'm going to try and do thought work and coach myself, it was kinda stressful and crazy. But things are good. Wes woke me up today asking for a little help preparing for his talk today (he was speaking in church), but then I didn't actually help him much. He helped get the boys ready and out the door. I thought the hair was a bit irreverent for church, but Wesley insisted. 

It was brotherly bonding, so I had to let him do their hair. (They need haircuts. I was going to do that yesterday, but did the Vegas drive instead)

All done. Wesley said this up and voluminous poofy look is what is cool right now. So, ya gotta do it. 

But Peter in a mowhawk spike... Hmm. I didn't have the will to fight on it today, so, that's fine, whatever. We checked in with people this evening. I missed most of the conversation, talking about dating sorrows and stuff. E is feeling sad, Joseph's been through the rigmarole and sounded like Corey did to J in the advice J was giving to E. Mel offered to try to interpret what the girls' thoughts might be, but women are confusing, so who knows.

Corey and Mel from Miami, J in Provo, E in North Caroline, and Wes and I here at home. It's been a crazy busy Maycember, I'm still glad it's almost over and will be relieved when it actually is.