The drive up was pretty uneventful. The kids all behaved pretty well, the snacks were yummy, Tess took a short and much-needed nap, and we only got lost once. Okay, not lost so much as took one wrong turn. Which is ridiculous, because how many times have we driven to the temple? But seriously, now that I think about it, it seems like just about every time we go we take some sort of wrong turn, or there's an unexpected detour or something like that and we have to reroute. Whatever, thank goodness for Google Navigation on our phones is all I can say. Anywho, we got there with just enough time for Lance to make it to the 10am (Chicago time) session.
Unfortunately, it was a chilly, windy, rainy day. So finding a park to eat lunch at and play was out of the question. I decided to take a chance and see if the tri-stake center down the street was open. I had never done this before, but for some reason this felt like the best decision. (Rather than finding a McDonald's or eatin in the car or something.) So we drove down there, and low and behold, it was open!
I got all the kids out, grabbed our lunches, herded everyone inside and went into the first classroom we could find. Turns out it was a little nursery room, complete with a few toys and a low table with chairs, perfect for little kid dining. Score!
I felt very blessed at this point. I couldn't help but think something along the lines of "We are being so blessed for coming to the temple! I can't believe my good luck with this!"
The kids spent a good hour eating, playing, and running around. They were so glad to be out of that car! I spent most of it cleaning up after them because I didn't want to leave any sort of mess there. I also took some pictures, just to document our good fortune.
About every ten minutes I would say "Who needs to go potty?" and both Josh and Spencer would answer "Not me!"
But eventually Spencer decided he needed to. And then Josh did, too. And then Josh started jumping around and doing the potty dance, and I just knew that he had been holding it in all this time, dang it. So I swooped everyone up and we rushed to the bathroom. We got in. Everyone was going potty. And then from Joshie's stall I hear "Mooommmmmyyy... I need new clothes!"
What?
So yeah, apparently Josh decided to have an accident while standing in front of the toilet.
IN FRONT OF THE TOILET.
Are you kidding me?! I mean, for a recently potty trained child I get this. But Josh is five and a half. He knows better. He can do better.
And yet, there he was, soaked from the waist down. (Because a five and a half year old bladder can hold quite a bit.)
Boy, was I ticked. Especially as I cleaned up all the pee on the floor around the toilet.
AROUND THE TOILET.
Josh just couldn't understand why I hadn't brought extra clothes for him. "You brought them for Tess and Cole!" he whined.
"Tess and Cole are babies. They are expected to have accidents. You are five. You aren't supposed to have accidents." I replied.
So I had him take everything off and I tried to dry it as best I could, but it was just way too much pee. I mean, seriously, a lot. I briefly thought about making him just wear wet clothes the rest of the trip, but that would have been way too mean.
Making him wear wet clothes for the next hour, though? Not too mean.
So I made him put his pants back on, got everyone and everything back into the car (much to Tess's dismay), and off we went to the nearest Target.
Oh boy, going to Target with four kids for an unexpected quick trip? Yeah, not so great. First, this target had the smallest boys department I had ever seen. Seriously tiny. Second, they no longer had any sweats or other cheap pants, so I had to buy Josh another pair of jeans. (Fortunately, they had some for only $8.99!) Third, Josh kept loudly complaining that "My pants are cold! My pants are COLD!" and so of course everyone around us looked at his wet pants, which I was hoping no one would notice, sheesh.
We finally bought the clothes and trekked back to the minivan, where I made Josh change. Have you ever had a five year old change in a minivan? You'd think it was the hardest thing I had ever asked him to do, for Pete's sake. And then he and Spencer started fighting again and Cole was whining and Tess was fussing and I started to wonder where all those blessings from going to the temple went!
Anyways, he finally got changed and we finally got back to the temple and I was finally out of patience and it was finally my turn to go in.
And all was well.
I was able to sit in the chapel for about 15 minutes and just decompress and think and read my scriptures and feel at peace. Because that's how awesome the temple is.
We really are blessed to be able to go to the temple. (Even if we do have to deal with accidents before hand!)
1 comment:
Oh my gosh, Maren, that exact same thing happened to us in Chicago, only we were at the library and we went to Wal-Mart for new clothes...ah, it takes me back! And it was Lige when he was 5, too...
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