I have been wanting to go visit my grandparents in California for a long time now. Jonathon and I haven't been back there in 7 years! It seemed like something always deterred us.... costs, taking time off from work, traveling 13 hours with small children or a baby. Once Jonathon starts at BYU, he is going to be very busy, and he doesn't think he will be able to take a major vacation for at least a year. I didn't want to wait another year to visit them, so we decided to go to California over Spring Break. It was very stressful leading up to the trip because we wanted to have the house on the market while we were gone. That meant all the repairs had to be done, and the house deep cleaned to show. We worked so hard and got everything done with no time left to spare. As we pulled out of the driveway, we heaved a big sigh and hoped we could relax a little over the next week.
The kids did pretty well on the first day of the drive. We left right after school and then stopped in Winnemucca, NV to stay the night. We tried to keep the costs down and got one of the cheapest hotels we could find. The price definitely reflected the quality. It smelled of smoke, was located behind a restaurant, and was not in the nicest part of town. It was a ghetto hotel, but we knew we would only be there 9 hours, so we tried to make the best of it.
We got up early the next morning (4 AM pst), and got on the road. We hoped that the kids would sleep for a couple of hours, and it worked great. Jonathon listened to Planet Money and the rest of us slept. As we went over Donner Summit, Hyrum started to get cranky. I figured he was just tired of being in the car. Over the next few hours, he got more and more grumpy. He cried for about an hour as we were stuck in traffic. That was frustrating, but we finally made it and were able to get out and play.
It was so fun to see Grandpa and Grandma. They really thought of everything to help make us feel comfortable. Grandma had new sleeping bags for the boys and a highchair and stroller for Hyrum. We felt very special and very loved. Christian and Andrew played with my little cousins, Hayden and Paige, and had a great time out in Grandpa's huge yard. That night everyone was so tired that we all slept hard.
The next day was Sunday. Jonathon wanted to go visit his hometown of Hollister, so we decided to go to church there so that we could see everyone at one time. It was such a wonderful welcome. As we got out of our car, people recognized Jonathon and came and gave him hugs. It seemed that everyone had heard about his new job and were so full of congratulations. It really felt like a scene from a movie where the hometown boy returns to a celebration hosted by the proud community. We haven't seen any of them for so long, but they all showed so much love for Jonathon and our family. I was reminded how beautiful it is to grow up in a small community where "everybody knows your name" and loves you. We also got to see my cousin Stef and her family, who moved to Hollister after Jonathon left. It was so fun to see them and get to talk to them, even if it was much too short. Hyrum was super grumpy during Sacrament meeting, and we ended up having to leave before the other two hours. We were disappointed to not be able to talk to everyone, but we knew the kids wouldn't last much longer.
We drove home by way of Jonathon's old homes. He told stories from his childhood, and showed us his friends old homes, the telephone pole he took out, and his old schools. We also drove by the mission at San Juan Bautista, and then headed back to Salinas. By that point, Hyrum was screaming. It seemed like the screaming didn't stop for the next 36 hours. He wouldn't eat, he wouldn't sleep, and we didn't know what to do. He seemed fine when he was outside playing, but the second we tried to get him to go to sleep, he wailed.
Jonathon and I stayed up with him almost the entire night.
At 9:30 PM, everyone else went to bed while Hyrum pushed a stroller all around the house.
At 11 PM, we watched Cars 2, and Grandpa got him a bowl of ice cream (one of the first things he had eaten all day).
At 1:30 AM, he ate a bowl of cereal.
Finally, after more tears, he crashed from 2-5 AM.
At 5, he woke up screaming again.
I felt terrible that we kept Grandpa and Grandma up all night and terrible for our little guy, who was obviously not feeling well. We knew that it was nothing too serious, but whatever was wrong was being exacerbated by his lack of sleep and his unfamiliar surroundings.
Jonathon and I were completely worn out and mentally and physically exhausted. We waited until businesses opened at 8, so that we could get him an appointment at a quick care. We called five different places (3 quick cares and 2 pediatricians) and no one would see him. Some ridiculous law in California made it so that quick cares could not see children under 3. The pediatricians would not see him because he was out of state. We called our insurance and tried to get the names of people who could help us, but none of them would work either. They all said that the only thing to do was to take him to the Emergency Room. We were angry with stupid rules that seemed to neglect children in need, frustrated that we would have to spend tons of our money and tax payer money to take him to the ER when it clearly wasn't an emergency, and beyond exhausted. When the last person told me that they wouldn't see him, I burst into tears. Lack of sleep made me really unstable, and I just couldn't take any more. We headed to the Emergency Room.
The people at the ER were very kind and made us feel validated that the law was ridiculous. The doctor apologized to us that we had to come to the ER, and told us not to feel bad. As soon as the doctor checked him over, he let us know that Hyrum had 2 ear infections, a deep cough, and congestion. He gave us a prescription for the ear infection and had a nurse administer a breathing treatment and steroid shot to relax his lungs.
It was a relief to know what was wrong, but the medicine didn't work immediately. That evening started out much like the one before. After several hours of screaming and not sleeping, Jonathon and I were at the end of our ropes. We decided to go for a drive to hopefully get Hyrum to fall asleep. As Jonathon was backing out of the driveway, he backed into the front of my Aunt's car. We were seriously in the middle of a nightmare! I again burst into tears and had to go tell Aunt Teresa what had happened. She was so kind and calm and assured us that everything would be okay. The damage wasn't too bad, but it would definitely require some fixing, and we just felt awful. After driving for an hour, we returned home with a still crying baby.
We had done everything in our power, and finally, we turned to a higher power. Jonathon asked Grandpa to help give Hyrum a blessing. We should have done it much sooner, but sometimes we humans are stubborn and think that we can handle things. We were truly humbled and grateful when Hyrum immediately quieted down. He laid his head down against me and was still for the entire blessing. Afterward, we quickly put him to bed and he slept the entire night. We said plenty of prayers of gratitude that night. Jonathon and I got to catch up on our missing sleep, and we made a renewed effort to enjoy the rest of our vacation. We even decided to stay an extra day so that we could make happy memories from the trip and not end on such a rough note.
And thus ended the rocky part of the trip. The next two days were pure bliss. The kids had a fabulous time with the cousins, Hyrum slept wonderfully from that night on, and we had so much fun with Grandpa and Grandma. Many GREAT memories were made, and all the drama was worth it in the end. More posts about the Happy part of the trip to follow...
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