Plans, Schmans

You know that saying "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."  No kidding!  Life happens.  Crazy.  Fun.  Random.  Sad.  Exciting.  Life. 

We try every year to take a family vacation - even if it's just for a few days.  This year, just like last year, we planned a trip down to San Diego.  But this time we rented a beach house so we had some extra room for the kids to run around.  And, we invited Rita to come join us.  She was going to come out anyway - we just thought it would be a good idea for her to come while we were all together down in SD.  Plus that means we had an extra set of hands... and got to  have a date night!  So, the plan was for her to fly out on Sunday morning and we'd head down to San Diego after picking her up.  We also planned to go out on a group camping trip the Friday and Saturday prior to leaving for San Diego on Sunday.

But, Eric got a phone call on Labor Day letting him know that his only living grandparent, his dad's mom, had passed away.  We kinda figured that the funeral would happen on Wednesday or Thursday so we planned on driving out to Texas, attending the funeral, and then driving right back.  Yea, drive!  That's really long drive - we figured on 2 1/2 days.  We got the call at 4pm and were on the road by 8pm.  That night we made it to Phoenix.  When we got on the road the next morning I called his family and found out that the funeral was actually on Saturday.  Well, we immediately pulled off the road because we wouldn't be able to drive back from Texas after the funeral in time to make it to pick Rita up from the airport and make it down to the San Diego rental house.  So, we turned around and made arrangements for a flight out for Eric on Thursday and coming back on the same flight as his mom. 

But, we were all the way out in Phoenix.  We couldn't just drive back without having done anything.  I figured the Grand Canyon was only an hour or two away so we planned to drive north a little bit and see the Grand Canyon for the first time.  Turns out it was a little longer drive than I thought but not much.  And for some reason Kayla decided she didn't need to nap and Tyler didn't need much of one either.  So when we finally made it to the Grand Canyon the kids were not well behaved.  We tried to corral them for a little while, so we could enjoy the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon.  But it didn't last long.  Visitors center, walk, go back to bathroom, walk, run, pull, grab, hold, walk, grab, hold, walk.... repeat 67 times. 

We saw the Grand Canyon but it was a very stressful event. 

And after about an hour we were back in the car.  We did stop at another visitors center to give the kids some more time to run around in a slightly less crowded, indoor, area. 

I was highly disappointed!  That is not how I would have planned my first/only trip to the Grand Canyon.  I wanted the kids to have napped.  I wanted to be able to take the little tour bus around.  I wanted to check out the stores up there.  I wanted to be able to walk along the edge of it for a while.  But when it's stressful it's not enjoyable.  So, we packed up, headed out, and were home by midnight that night. 
Eric's flight went out Thursday evening.  I decided against going on the camping trip on my own.  I do a lot of things on my own with the kids.  But Eric and I were both at the Grand Canyon and we had issues controlling the kids.  I didn't want to try that alone camping for 2 days.  Which I was also disappointed about.  We had been planning this with my friends for months.  But whatcha gonna do? 

So, I planned to have 5 of my girlfriends come over with their little girls and have a pizza, pj, and movie night!  They all had a ton of fun!  They had a few bites of pizza and then let loose in the house.

Every toy in the house was pulled out!  They were running around checking everything out.  We did manage to get the house cleaned up and the kids ready for a movie. 

They sat there and watched about 10 -15 minutes of a movie before they were up and running around again.  That was actually okay with the rest of us - we turned on My Best Friend's Wedding and watched that while the kids played.  And ate some delicious dessert way too late into the evening.  Ha ha. 

It turned out to be a great night but not at all what I planned. 
The only thing that did go as planned was the trip to San Diego.  But this post is long enough so I'll save the San Diego post for tomorrow (hopefully).
I love to plan.  I have to plan.  But life doesn't always go according to, um, plan.  Here's the proof!