McCall

For a few months now we've been discussing doing a Hodges/Jarvis/Hubert family trip.  Oregon coast was tossed around, but when it came down to it we decided to just use the Jarvis cabin up in McCall for a few days.  We had originally planned on going at the end of August but with Charlie's work and Alison starting school it just didn't work so we bumped it up and started planning away.  I had been looking forward to this trip all summer long and was so excited for it to finally be here.  I was also ready to see how the girls would do because it would be a good test run of a road trip for going to Utah.  There are seriously hundreds of pictures between myself, Steph, Ali, and Debra.  No joke.  So as I get a hold of more and more I'll add them all to my McCall facebook album. 

I was seriously planning/packing/organizing/cleaning for almost four days prior to this trip.  I have issues.  Serious issues.  But it got us there with everything we need and I only forgot a couple of small things (hot sauce for Charlie's tacos and hair bands for my hair, luckily I'd packed some for Natalia so it wasn't a total loss)  Anyway, Sunday morning I was busy packing up the car.  I didn't let Charlie do it because I had a specific plan in mind to get it to all fit without blocking his rear view.  ;)  Then we met up with the rest of the family and we were on the road.  The girls did awesome!  Lydia just babbled and played the whole time up (should have napped but oh well) and Natalia watched a movie.  Once there we got the cars unloaded, everyone situated in rooms, and started on dinner.  First night was Debra's spaghetti yum!  We just hung out after dinner and then got the kids ready for bed.  They took a group bath in the big jetted tub and it was pretty funny. Cypress melted down as usual, Natalia panicked when she saw that and wanted out.  I then threw Lydia in to keep from getting splashed but had to hurry because the water was getting cold.  The best part was that all the kids got matching PJ's from Grandma and we had a fun photo session followed by a dance party!  That night was the WORST for the girls sleeping.  They both went down really easy because they were exhausted from all the fun and no afternoon naps.  But about 1:00am Natalia woke up and didn't want to go back to sleep no matter what I tried.  It was multiple trips to the potty, multiple pleadings to go downstairs etc...  about 2:00am Lydia woke up from all the noise and also didn't want to go back to sleep.  It wasn't until almost 5:00am that we got both girls back to sleep finally.  At about 6:45am Natalia woke up again and said, "It's wake up time, it's not dark anymore!"  Ahhh the joys of being in a room without blackout curtains like we have at home.  DOH.  So needless to say we were dead exhausted that day.  Because of our long night and the need for the girls to take decent naps we didn't get to do much that day.  We mostly just hung around the cabin; playing, reading, napping etc.  We did attempt to do a walk with the kiddos that failed miserably.  They all got grumpy at some point (except Lydia who is a trooper) and so John ran back to the cabin and got the ATV to take us back one at a time.  Bummer.  That night we had tacos, of course.  Got the kiddos to bed at decent times and hung out again.  This time I put Natalia in a twin bed shoved up against the wall and our bed shoved up against it, instead of a pack and play.  She slept so much better that way.  Woke up only once and asked for Twinkle Twinkle about 5am.  I think knowing that we were sleeping next to her made a huge difference.  Lydia on the other hand was a nightmare.  She woke up about 12:00am and WOULDN'T go back to sleep for anything.  She was oh so tired and would start to fade but if I put her in the pack n play she'd freak.  So I ended up walking around and bouncing/rocking her for almost 2 hours.  My arms were killing me!  She finally fell asleep beside me on a twin mattress on the floor and then I was able to move her to the pack and play.  She didn't wake again until almost 6:30am so that was good I guess.  That day we were determined to do more outside of the cabin despite exhaustion.  Charlie's dad Steve drove up to McCall to take us out on the sailboat.  So Debra stayed home with a sleeping Lydia and a sleeping Jocelyn and we set out. We had lunch at a Mexican place they had there (could these guys be any more predictable?) and then went out on the boat.  Natalia wasn't too sure about it at first (and neither was I to be honest) but it was really fun.  The main sail wouldn't work so we didn't go too fast and no tipping was involved.  ;)  It started to storm so we had to head in the boys got soaked!  When we got back to the cabin I attempted to get Lydia down for another nap but she had other ideas.  So instead we took all the kids out to the lake to swim. The big kids loved it and the little ones played in the sand.  Lydia wasn't too sure of the sand at first but got the hang of it when she realized she could get her hands in it.  After that we went back to the cabin to do dinner.  We decided to get food to go from a really good burger place up there.  During that time Natalia totally passed out on the floor surrounded by pillows watching a movie with Adam and Lydia went down for a quick nap on the twin mattress in our room surrounded by pillows.  They woke up just in time for some delicious burgers, fries, chicken strips, onion rings, and milkshakes!  After that we figured since the girls had taken such late naps and everyone else was seeming to be up late we would head out to a hot springs place.  That was sooo much fun.  The water was bath tub warm and Natalia was her usual little fish.  Lydia even enjoyed it and was totally relaxed in the pool.  She loved floating on her back with her head resting on my shoulder the most.  We had piled everyone into two cars so Adam and Ali sat in our third row seat on the way there and back. Adam thought we had the COOLEST car ever because we were able to put a movie on for them to watch on the drive.  ;)  All three babies passed out on the way home and went right to bed.  The two older kids had a snack and were off to bed as well. Everyone ZONKED out.  Lydia woke once for a bottle around 2:00am but fell back sleep quickly until 7:30am and Natalia stayed asleep the whole night.  It was awesome.  The next morning we had to get up and get repacked/cleaned and everything early because we needed to head home by 10am so Charlie could still work a half day at work.  Everyone else stuck around until that night. I was bummed to be leaving everyone behind but happy to head home to our own beds.  Lydia zonked out right away and slept most of the way home.  Natalia watched part of a movie and fell asleep after eating some Doritos, so I got the funniest picture of her. 

Anyway, we've had a off couple of days here at home trying to get back on schedule.  Lydia is super grumpy and I think she might have another ear infection or is cutting more teeth. She screamed a lot Thursday night and finally fell asleep around 10pm... yikes.  But she did manage to sleep the rest of the night just fine and then ended up staying up late for wedding festivities Fri/Sat nights and slept great again.  So I think we might be getting there.  =)