Post-travel blues

 I'm not exactly down, actually, but I am SO tired. 

I took my kids and took the two-hour trip to Portland to visit my parents. My mom and I wanted to do fun things together! But then of course the first night my baby woke up screaming at 3 AM... I got a little nap between 8-10 (because apparently my baby was tired enough that she crawled into bed again and fell asleep), so that wasn't so bad. BUT! We went to swim in a pond, and I had to be hyper vigilant about my baby (she's three) and she kept trying to wander over to the deep end and I was constantly moving and that was exhausting. Normally my family is pretty good at helping out, but I think everyone was a little tired this visit. Also, being 3, she doesn't necessarily go along with others well when Mom is present. 

We were supposed to go to the beach the next day and I dragged my feet, thinking I should have planned for Monday instead, but we headed out the door quite a bit later than planned, and ran into traffic because there was an accident. We hadn't eaten lunch (there's a place we like to eat right on the beach), so we promised we would head to the beach Monday and do some fun things to make up for it. We had a little tea party, we went to a splash pad, we even prepared a special pizza for the kids to have for dinner (that was the post-beach dinner plan). As you might imagine though, Monday came around and... we didn't go to the beach.

(My parents are Mormon, you didn't do beach trips on Sundays. You don't eat out at cute little restaurants or wear swimming suits and get dirty, that's not very holy. And of course, they had to go to church. I didn't, we forgot our church things, but one of my kids wanted to so she wore a church dress and went alone with her grandparents and favorite uncle.)

Here's the story of Monday, aka why I'm still exhausted: my little 3 year old woke up around 1 AM and WOULD NOT go back to sleep. I tried to put her to bed three times in her bed and another three in mine (the last one worked for an hour or two, thankfully). I even tried to have her fall asleep watching TV on the couch, but no! She would NOT go to bed and I was going CRAZY. So after sleeping for a little between 5-7, I decided we were going to slowly pack up, eat lunch, and then meet Daddy at their favorite burger place (Burgerville! They aren't in our area so he had to drive south about half an hour to meet us, but they have ice cream and shakes. Most importantly, they make a really nice dairy-free milkshake, which is important to my allergic husband). 

We did end up going to a fun playground before getting all packed up, but it was pretty hot, very sunny, and so we all got tired pretty fast. The kids were disappointed not to go to the beach, and I was disappointed that I ruined their trip, but overall I think we had a lot of good times.

(That's why I like doing journal-type things: in my brain, the NOT BEACH hurdle was so huge that it's hard to see the high points of the trip. It WAS fun, it was also just exhausting and a little spontaneous. But I actually kind of like spontaneous, it turns out.) 

One other nice thing, is I promised my kids we'd try and find some beach time before the summer ends. So probably we'll go visit grandparents again, and also there's a nearby park that might have something like a beach. And the area we're in is surrounded by water, so we have plenty of places to try. Also, there's a kite festival later this month that we may check out, and that's at a beach. 

Maybe it's still the move catching up with us. I feel like last summer was ruined because we always had to keep the house clean for showings and we were SO stressed trying to pack, not have things available because they were packed, and just generally being busy with moving things. However, they still could go play with friends, which is something they don't have as much of here. We probably could play with friends but I'm too tired to get them where they need to go. Even if it's just down the street. I feel like I'm ruining their summers by being tired. They need someone to help them get out! Generally speaking that person is me and I'm not doing a great job. At least we'll have more years here to get out and go. Oh and I'm supposed to do a sleep study though I need to (ugh) call them since they haven't called me yet. I remember my mom saying she had so much more energy after her cpap. (Sleep apnea device for the uninitiated.) I'd love to have energy like my mom, though I suppose my sister doesn't have as much energy as Mom and she's gotten a cpap, too. (My genetic chances of having sleep apnea are high - both parents, and I think three of my four older siblings have been diagnosed.) (Is this a HIPAA violation??) 

Whew, it's nice to get that off my chest. And now I'm going to go to sleep so I have a fighting chance of doing something fun tomorrow. I've started making dinner regularly, why not set my sights on going out with my kids regularly, too? What's a little extra tiredness, after all...