Day 6

Can you tell even I am getting bored with chronicling this trip?

So Day 6 begins with bathing the children. Day 5 ended with the fireworks carbon shower, and us putting our little charcoal encrusted children to bed straight from the party, fully dressed and filthy. They all fell asleep in the car and we just plunked them down on their bed.

A note about our sleeping arrangements: I'm sure you are all dying to know how
we managed to fit 7 people in one hotel room (2 queen beds) every night. Well,
it is a fascinating lesson in organization and provident living, so I
don't blame your inquisitiveness...
Tommy sleeps in a pack-n-play, diagonally. He is too big for the thing but has to go somewhere. Some of our hotel rooms were so tiny, the pack-n-play barely fit between the two beds. Pie and I sleep in one bed and the four big kids get the other. I strip the bed (except for the fitted sheet) and shove it up against the wall. Then I line the kids up crosswise in the bed in this order from top to bottom: Josie, Calvin,
Jon and Sid. Order is important. Certain children must be used as buffers in
between certain other children. Hint: Calvin and Jon are buffer children.

So back to hosing the kids down...
After we ate our muffins and got the fireworks off the children, we headed out to see Grandma Pedersen at her rest home. She looks amazing and is sharp as a tack and doesn't seem to miss that hip one bit. It was fun to watch her watch the kids. After saying goodbye, we headed to the cheapest gas we could find ($4.37 a gallon!) and then over to Smith's Bakery for some much anticipated smiley faced sugar cookies. Can you believe it, they were closed for the holiday weekend! They are my favorite cookie and taste like memories. Mommy was seriously disappointed. I then promised the kids that we would get donuts later on. Because I believe being a good mother means ensuring delicious baked goods are provided, no matter what. We headed out of town on our way to St. George, our stop for the evening.

(these are the very cookies)

Lunch was in scenic Barstow, at a very over-priced and unsatisfactory Popeye's Chicken. Lessons learned. On our way out of town I spied a donut drive thru (we heart drive-thru's)...attached to a Chinese takeout. Donuts and Chinese food are a natural pairing, and I am surprised that our great land doesn't have more of these little shops. We ordered a lot of donut holes and fully fashioned donuts. We ate them until we were sick of them, and then kept going until we had finished them off. I'm always telling the children it is important to stick with a task until it is done. (We may not be in the mood for more donuts for quite a while.)

We made it to St. George and Dave and Becky's house. We swam in their gorgeous pool and ate their delicious dinner and wished we could move right then to St. George. The night was perfect for sitting out by the pool and watching the kids swim. The red rocks are beautiful and the houses are all ranches (my favorite!) We won't be able to move there for years, but we will be missing it. I want to live in Tuacahn!

(after publishing this post I want to tear my hair out. My formatting, which is never brilliant, is a total mess on this one. Argh!)