So the title of this post makes it sound like I daringly trekked the country in a car with only a few provisions to sustain me....that is definitely not the case. A few months ago I decided I wanted to go to Florida for the BYU vs. FSU game. It was kind of a long shot because tickets were so expensive and as it got closer I thought all hope was lost until when my aunt and uncle graciously gave me some of their frequent flier miles to come with them to the game. During this time my sister asked me if I wanted to go to Disneyland with them as their nanny of sorts. Of course I said yes to that one in a heartbeat. As plans were made and flights set I realized these two events fell in the same week. How crazy is that???
So the week started with a trip to Disneyland. Because of the second trip of my week, I was going to have to leave Disneyland earlier than everyone else so I headed up to Salt Lake and met the Paulson family at the airport. Getting through the airport with children is always an adventure no matter what the child/adult ratio is. (ok that's not necessarily true...if the ratio is like 4 to 1 you should be good) We made it to LAX and then took the shuttle to the Disneyland Hotel. This was the first time that I had stayed in a Disneyland property and it was very cool.
So the week started with a trip to Disneyland. Because of the second trip of my week, I was going to have to leave Disneyland earlier than everyone else so I headed up to Salt Lake and met the Paulson family at the airport. Getting through the airport with children is always an adventure no matter what the child/adult ratio is. (ok that's not necessarily true...if the ratio is like 4 to 1 you should be good) We made it to LAX and then took the shuttle to the Disneyland Hotel. This was the first time that I had stayed in a Disneyland property and it was very cool.
We headed into the park the next morning and I didn't know what to expect.....I mean I've been to Disneyland plenty of times but never with little kids so I didn't know how they were going to react. We had so much fun!! So many rides and so little time...Nikki had planned the trip so that we would be in Disneyland with her friends Kelly and John and their two kids. So basically there were five adults and six children. We weren't with Nikki's friends the whole trip but it was fun for the kids to go on the rides together.
So now we get to the major theme of trip....the bathroom. For those who are a little queasy (or a lot queasy) you may want to skip this paragraph. So on the trip we had three kids who went to the bathroom (Kate, Ashley, and Rachel) and only one diapered child (Sophie). Turns out having the diapered child was the easiest to deal with. Now Kate didn't have any problems but it seemed that as soon as we got to the front of any line Ashley or Rachel had to go to the bathroom. Okay that's a bit dramatic but it seemed that way. We had other miscues, including a crying child on the plane who decided she needed to go to the bathroom right as we starting taking off, one having lack of pooping troubles, one wetting the bed, poop on a bathroom floor, and someone having to wear a 3-6 month jumpsuit who wasn't Sophie (some happened after I left).
So after that adventure...which included 4 rides on Dumbo and fabulous water show at California Adventure, I packed my bags and headed back to Salt Lake to start on the second leg of the adventure.
The next adventure dealt with a lot of flying, a lot of humidity, and a football game.
Early Friday morning Aaron, Kaylee, and I drove up the Salt Lake airport for our trip to Florida. We spent most of the day on a plane or in an airport. From Salt Lake to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to Tallahassee (one educational thing that came out of this trip was that I am now able to spell Tallahassee, yep it counts as an educational trip then). We got to Tallahassee in time for the football team snack which is their last meal before bedtime. It was about 8:30 in Florida but I was still on California time so it was a perfect dinnertime for me. We ate and then my aunt invited the Samuelsons and Brother Atuaia to come see a laughing alligator she had purchased at the gift shop in the Tallahassee airport. It was one of those things where you walked by it and it starts laughing and rolling around. It was a hoot and a half.
Anyway.....we get in the elevator to go up to our room and two other people join us in the elevator. One of them, an offensive lineman from the team, joked about how when he was in the elevator previously and it had gotten stuck....we all chuckled and I hoped the same thing wouldn't happen again.....yeah of course it got stuck. It was kind of an awkward moment. There we were in the elevator with no A/C it was like one million percent humidity and we were all sweating bullets. We called the people downstairs and luckily we were in there too long. As we got to the bottom of the elevator our two new friends (or awkward acquaintances as the case may be) left and the rest of us continued up to the room looked at the alligator and continued to bed.
The next day was game day. Now Saturdays in the fall always have a special place in my heart because it means you can watch college football pretty much all day long. So we got up and ate breakfast, chilled for a while and then headed to the football game. Because of ride situations, we ended up on one of the team buses to the game, which meant we got there like two hours early. As we drove through Tallahassee it was interesting to see the fans realize who was in the bus and then either flip us off or do the "tamahawk chop". The stadium was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was like a shrine built to college football. I had no idea. As we were pulling up one of the players sitting behind us said "man, I should have brought my camera". It probably wasn't a good sign that the players were as mesmerized by the stadium as we were.
It was an amazing experience to watch something that you see on TV in real life. I loved it!! It was so hot and so humid that I'm surprised more players didn't go down with cramps or something. As we were getting to our seats, FSU fans just kept telling us to drink water....and lots of it...and they were so right!! I'm glad I had had a lot to drink that day (even if it did mean frequent trips to the bathroom). The game, as we all know, was not so great. I didn't expect us to win so that wasn't a major disappointment. Even though it was a lousy game it was fun to see all of the BYU fans that showed up in support. Even Coach Edwards was out there battling the sun with us. It was awesome!!!!
After the game we got a ride home from someone who works for BYU and trekked up to the Waffle House for dinner. Little did we know alot of BYU fans had the same idea. It was kind of fun to see the post game crowd come in still wearing Cougarblue and still smiling. By the end of the day we were tired, sunburnt, and craving more college football. Since we were on the east coast, football games lasted until 2 in the morning so we all fell asleep to the sound of college football....and what a pleasant sleep it was!!!
The rest of the trip was not eventful. We got to the airport in Tallahassee with all of the other remaining BYU faithful and staff (including I might add Greg Wrubell, who was also on our flight to Tallahassee) stopped in Atlanta and then headed back to Salt Lake.
After such an eventful week it was nice to be back in the comforts of Provo. It took me a couple days to get back into normal life and I had tons of work to catch up on but I wouldn't have traded that week of experiences for the world....
So now we get to the major theme of trip....the bathroom. For those who are a little queasy (or a lot queasy) you may want to skip this paragraph. So on the trip we had three kids who went to the bathroom (Kate, Ashley, and Rachel) and only one diapered child (Sophie). Turns out having the diapered child was the easiest to deal with. Now Kate didn't have any problems but it seemed that as soon as we got to the front of any line Ashley or Rachel had to go to the bathroom. Okay that's a bit dramatic but it seemed that way. We had other miscues, including a crying child on the plane who decided she needed to go to the bathroom right as we starting taking off, one having lack of pooping troubles, one wetting the bed, poop on a bathroom floor, and someone having to wear a 3-6 month jumpsuit who wasn't Sophie (some happened after I left).
So after that adventure...which included 4 rides on Dumbo and fabulous water show at California Adventure, I packed my bags and headed back to Salt Lake to start on the second leg of the adventure.
The next adventure dealt with a lot of flying, a lot of humidity, and a football game.
Early Friday morning Aaron, Kaylee, and I drove up the Salt Lake airport for our trip to Florida. We spent most of the day on a plane or in an airport. From Salt Lake to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to Tallahassee (one educational thing that came out of this trip was that I am now able to spell Tallahassee, yep it counts as an educational trip then). We got to Tallahassee in time for the football team snack which is their last meal before bedtime. It was about 8:30 in Florida but I was still on California time so it was a perfect dinnertime for me. We ate and then my aunt invited the Samuelsons and Brother Atuaia to come see a laughing alligator she had purchased at the gift shop in the Tallahassee airport. It was one of those things where you walked by it and it starts laughing and rolling around. It was a hoot and a half.
Anyway.....we get in the elevator to go up to our room and two other people join us in the elevator. One of them, an offensive lineman from the team, joked about how when he was in the elevator previously and it had gotten stuck....we all chuckled and I hoped the same thing wouldn't happen again.....yeah of course it got stuck. It was kind of an awkward moment. There we were in the elevator with no A/C it was like one million percent humidity and we were all sweating bullets. We called the people downstairs and luckily we were in there too long. As we got to the bottom of the elevator our two new friends (or awkward acquaintances as the case may be) left and the rest of us continued up to the room looked at the alligator and continued to bed.
The next day was game day. Now Saturdays in the fall always have a special place in my heart because it means you can watch college football pretty much all day long. So we got up and ate breakfast, chilled for a while and then headed to the football game. Because of ride situations, we ended up on one of the team buses to the game, which meant we got there like two hours early. As we drove through Tallahassee it was interesting to see the fans realize who was in the bus and then either flip us off or do the "tamahawk chop". The stadium was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was like a shrine built to college football. I had no idea. As we were pulling up one of the players sitting behind us said "man, I should have brought my camera". It probably wasn't a good sign that the players were as mesmerized by the stadium as we were.
It was an amazing experience to watch something that you see on TV in real life. I loved it!! It was so hot and so humid that I'm surprised more players didn't go down with cramps or something. As we were getting to our seats, FSU fans just kept telling us to drink water....and lots of it...and they were so right!! I'm glad I had had a lot to drink that day (even if it did mean frequent trips to the bathroom). The game, as we all know, was not so great. I didn't expect us to win so that wasn't a major disappointment. Even though it was a lousy game it was fun to see all of the BYU fans that showed up in support. Even Coach Edwards was out there battling the sun with us. It was awesome!!!!
After the game we got a ride home from someone who works for BYU and trekked up to the Waffle House for dinner. Little did we know alot of BYU fans had the same idea. It was kind of fun to see the post game crowd come in still wearing Cougarblue and still smiling. By the end of the day we were tired, sunburnt, and craving more college football. Since we were on the east coast, football games lasted until 2 in the morning so we all fell asleep to the sound of college football....and what a pleasant sleep it was!!!
The rest of the trip was not eventful. We got to the airport in Tallahassee with all of the other remaining BYU faithful and staff (including I might add Greg Wrubell, who was also on our flight to Tallahassee) stopped in Atlanta and then headed back to Salt Lake.
After such an eventful week it was nice to be back in the comforts of Provo. It took me a couple days to get back into normal life and I had tons of work to catch up on but I wouldn't have traded that week of experiences for the world....
