Graduation

Why is it that nothing ever really goes according to plan, whether it's good or bad? In my mind, I planned that we would leave at 10, Evan would fall asleep in the car, sleep most of the ride, and we would arrive in Flagstaff by 2, just in time for me to "report" to the Skydome. We'd stay the night and in the morning, we would get to play in some snow with E.

Well...

We started off Friday morning, by finishing our packing of clothes and food. My mom had taken E to their house the night before since Paul and I would both be home late. (He was at his sisters master degree commencement at ASU and I had a summative for my students.) Anyway, we were fortunate enough to have E gone so we could pack quite quickly.

My mom arrived with him around 8:30 and he had fallen asleep in the car. Grr. So now he was awake, but very grumpy from not getting a full nap. I made some chorizo and eggs for breakfast and while we ate, E decided to take two tiny nibbles of the eggs and ham. (Big mistake as you will read.) We had scheduled to leave around 10, but just before 9, we decided to head up to Flagstaff sooner. Good thing, because by the time we packed the car, changed a diaper, spilled water all over E's nice clothes, blow dried it, changed him into other clothes, and went to the bathroom, we were backing out of the driveway a few minutes after 9:30.

The ride started off well. Evan was enjoying watching The Jungle Book in the car and my mom and I were there to entertain him. About an hour into the ride, sweet little boy was getting crabbier - rubbing his eyes and yawning. An hour after that, he was whining and pulling his ears. Then all of a sudden I hear hacking. Hacking from vomiting. Little man was vomiting up all over him self and his car seat. I can guarantee it was the eggs. It happens every time. I should have known better. Good thing he wasn't wearing his nice clothes.

We stopped on the side of the highway to clean him off, change him, and try to wipe down his car seat. The tears, oh the tears! And the smell....oh the smell! (That lingered in the car until we came home and washed his seat.) We stopped in Munds Park to use the bathroom and dispose of the vomit clean up. When I got back into the car from using the bathroom, I see a red eyed, tear filled little boy. So tired and not feeling well. Poor baby.

We finally arrive to our hotel between 12-12:30. Paul tries to check in, but it's not until three. Great. They said there was a nonsmoking room available, but it was on a smoking floor. No thank you. The hotel receptionist tells him that there might be another room available around 1:30 or 2. While waiting in the lobby, we hear from one of the receptionists that there is an armed burglar on the loose on the NAU campus. Awesome. The news was telling people to stay away from the north and central campus and to stay indoors. Fabulous.

We head to the Denny's next to the hotel to have some lunch while we wait. Everything went smoothly there, but they brought us the wrong bill. Doh. Back the hotel, there still aren't any rooms available, so we take a handicapped room on the bottom floor. We throw out things in the room, do a quick diaper change, and are off to the Skydome.

In our parking lot, we quickly catch a van to the Skydome. Once we exited the van, I notice that I have on my casual flats, not my "nice" shoes. Those are in the hotel. Oh well. We enter the Skydome and walk around to the other side where I am supposed to be. As we start walking my mom starts crying. What a sap she is! I looked up at one point and saw Evan napping. I was told he only slept for about 20 minutes.

The graduation went well, I didn't trip or anything. I was so very fortunate to have my husband, son, parents, sister, best friend, sister-in-law, and her boyfriend in attendance. We took some photos outside and everyone else came back down to the Valley.

Paul, E, and I went to dinner at a yummy pizzeria. We headed back to the hotel to rest for the night. E had a ball playing with the air conditioning/heating unit! He fell asleep around 7:30. As it turns out, I slept at the foot of the bed, Paul was on the floor, and E had 80% of the bed to himself.

Giving himself kisses in the mirror...

The next morning, we had breakfast and packed up. I imagined watching Evan play in the snow, but after buying snow boots at Target that morning for Paul and myself, it started to snow. The snow quickly turned into just rain. Instead of heading to the snow play area, we just headed home.

Now, even though nothing went quite how I had planned for it to be, I wouldn't change the memories that I have from this trip. Well, maybe the vomiting part.