what i did saturday and incidentally ruined my sunday.

Since we have traveled a bit in the last year or two, I have come to realize how lucky we are to live right next to such beautiful mountains. It is funny how you take for granted the things that make your "home" unique. We have friends that live close to the beach in California, and rarely go. We think they are crazy!

I think that is just how it is, that you know those things are always there, and living that close, you don't think often of how cool it really is. And maybe that whole last paragraph was just a rambling sleep-deprived mess. (We'll get to that one later.) Anyway, Saturday we took the Jeeps up to Mary Ellen Gulch, up American Fork Canyon. The trail is only accessible via off-road vehicles, and it really is beautiful.

Wild trees, wildlife, wild-flowers, wild kids....


It takes it all out of you, the whole jeeping thing. Plum tuckers you right out.


So needless to say, we were all exhausted. Sam had to work graveyards that night, so we busted home, and sent him off, and the kids and I fully planned (well, mom fully planned...) on going to bed early, at least by ten. And another half-hour would pass, and another, and another...until finally it was midnight.

All the kids haphazardly tossed around my bedroom in sleeping bags, giggling until we all fell asleep.

Just when I hit that good deep sleep, I hear Jayden asking Brendan what was wrong. And Brendan, very quietly sobbing into his pillow.

I am ashamed to admit. But I was so stinking tired that I was mad! Mad that every single night I get woken up for something. Just. One. Night. I would like to sleep!! I don't do well tired. So I get up, and check it out. Well, he has an earache. A bad one, and the poor thing has been suffering for two hours trying to sleep it off. Yes, if you are doing the math, it is about 2:30 am. So I give him some Advil, and we wait it out, all the while him writhing in pain...

Finally I can see that I have nothing to help him, so we load up, and haul over to the emergency room. After the traditional hour and a half wait, we get hooked up with antibiotics and...get this...Lortab. For my nine year old. I feel like quite the heel then, when the doctor assures me that he is in a whole lot of pain. The infection was horrible. The doctor was quacky, and I could go on and on about the emergency room doctors we have here, but that is a whole 'nother post. Brendan takes the meds and zonks on the way home. So now I have 70 pounds of dead weight to haul into the house. That was fun.

Poor kid slept until 1:30. He is feeling better. But, I, on the other hand, feel like the walking dead. I am going to bed early tonight.

Even if I have to drug the children. I will let you know how that goes.