Road trip

In the midst of all the craziness which seems to have become our lives lately Camryn had an out of town soccer tournament this weekend. I will admit that I was dreading it in every way. First because I am the assistant coach and so on top of everything else it takes to get two kids with their own unique challenges and needs out the door for a road trip I also had to worry about not forgetting the extra jerseys, soccer balls, and other equipment. I'm proud to say I didn't forget any soccer stuff and I also didn't forget anything that the kids really needed. Now I bet some of you are wondering if I forgot a child. Oh you know me so well. I'd like to say I didn't forget my kids either. Phew!! I certainly felt scattered enough that it seemed like a real possibility though. Of course I did happen to forget to bring my book that had only 2 chapters left in it and discovered that I had brought the next one in the series instead. So not only do I now know what happens, I'm a dozen chapters ahead of the book sitting on my night stand at home. Ten bucks says I never get around to finishing it. Sigh.

So the drive was several hours but was reasonably uneventful. Not like in the olden days when the kids were small and Camryn would scream non stop for the entire trip. Good old days? I don't think so. Now she's a pro....other than needing to use the washroom every hour with the tell tale signs of the whimpering and kicking my seat as she desperately tries to make it to the next stop. It's still better than the crying and screaming though. We arrived at the hotel to find that it was a complete zoo. Little did we know how big the tournament really was. There were children in soccer gear running around the lobby, in the elevators, and milling about in every hallway. At least we wouldn't be the noisy ones. Great news. We finally drag all our gear up to the fourth floor and eventually find our room. Apparently the new key cards that just scan rather than needing to be inserted completely baffle me. We stand there for what seemed like and hour as I tried to find the slot. Yah, I'm so brilliant....I know. Just don't tell anyone that I use a scan system at work and have every day for the last 3 and a half years. You would think it would have occurred to me sooner. Sigh. I never said I was any smarter than a hamster did I?

I'm not sure if it was just the dramatic wait for the room door to be unlocked but by the time that sucker swung open the kids were literally in awe of the place. They dropped their various bags at the door and ran madly around the room saying "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness". It was like a scene out of the movie Annie. They ran over to the king sized bed with no less than 10 pillows on it and rolled around giggling. Then they jumped up ran to the remote control and hugged it. When they had shown it enough love they ran into the bathroom to say things like "this is so amazing" and "I could live in this bathroom for my whole life". Looked like a regular toilet to me but they were impressed. I had to cut them off when Andrew announced that the floor was so clean he could eat off of it. "Eww. Please don't".

Now I will say it was nicer than some of the places we've stayed but hugging the remote control was pretty funny. Of course a few years ago when we went to Disneyland Cam was amazed by the toilets that flushed themselves. We were still at the airport waiting for our flight to leave when we made a quick bathroom trip. The toilet flushes while Camryn is still sitting on the stupid thing. To say that she did anything less than fly off that thing would be understating it. When she realized that it was only a flush she loudly exclaims "Disneyland is so great". The bathroom erupts in laughter and so do we. I didn't have the heart to tell her we hadn't even left our own city yet. If we had know we could have taken her to the airport bathroom and called it Disneyland all for the cost of airport parking.....sigh. So I guess I shouldn't have been to shocked that a hotel room would be all that and a bag of chips for my kids. It's not even like we never go anywhere. The kids have taken several trips and stayed in hotels before. Somehow though the wonder of this room was extra special for them.

Grandma came along for the trip which is always important with my children. It's not very often that I've tried to take them somewhere alone. There are days that run smoothly and others where you need to trade off with someone not already at the end of their rope in order that you don't go insane and runaway from home. Besides Grandma brought Baileys for our coffee and red wine for when the Baileys in the morning wasn't enough to get us through. Yes we did break open the wine both nights.

I wish I could say that the actual soccer tournament was as much fun as watching the kids run around the room screaming "Oh my goodness". Okay there isn't to much that could be funnier than that but I was hoping that the games at least would be great for the kids. We lost the first game something like 17-0. When the ref leans into the box and says "Do you know if there is a Mercy Rule in this tournament and you respond "No, there isn't" and he says "Do you want to make one?" that it might not be a great game. Don't get me wrong the girls did their best and they worked really hard right until the end which is something to admire but it would have been nice if the other team had maybe been a bit better sports and stopped cheering so loudly after about 10 goals. Most of us have been annihilated doing something in our lives and I'm sure their time will come too. The next two games were still runaways but not quite as bad as the first one. For the most part the girls seemed to shake it off and nobody cared that we came in last with 3 goals for and 30 against. Besides we got to stay in a hotel with a remote control and an amazing toilet. That has to count for something right?