Some fun with double the cousins

Yesterday afternoon Charity and I took our kids down to the Discovery Gateway, where we met Aunt Le and her kids. It was shaping up to be a cousin-fun-extravaganza, with cousins from BOTH sides of the family. Mary had a fabulous time for an hour; David had a pretty good time for an hour; then my kids were finished. FINISHED. They were both draped on my lap begging to go home.

SERIOUSLY? They had been looking forward to this for days!

In their defense, I think they were sick. (Isn't everyone who was there that afternoon--and there were more than a million people jammed inside--just so very grateful I brought my sick kids to touch all the balls, fake food, and magnetic blocks?) We bailed two hours before their four cousins did, and David and Mary slept all the way home, registered mild fevers on the thermometer, and went straight to bed. Poor babies.

I have no pictures to document the event. I was too tired to pull out my camera. It was a crummy day, to be perfectly honest. An unbearable amount of whining from everyone. I told David I didn't think we were going to make it through the day: "Daddy comes home in two days. We're so close, but we're not going to make it. We're all going to implode from whining and grumpiness and exhaustion, and Daddy will come home and all he will find is three little piles of dust." David knew it was best just to walk away from Mommy after a speech like that.

My point is that it wasn't the best of days. I was so looking forward to driving down to Salt Lake City and dropping off my children to be adopted by Aunt Le. The problem is that Aunt Le hadn't had the best of days with her children either, so I was pretty sure she wouldn't be too keen on permanently adding mine to her nest. Bummer. I also considered Aunt Charity as a possible adoptive parent, but her day ended with a big fat migraine, so I figured she had her hands full.

So there we were, three moms, all single (for different reasons and to different degrees), all with two children, a boy and a baby girl (baby to different degrees), and ALL having a crappy day (even though our kids were having the time of their lives, though my kids' fun was curbed short by a fever). And for some reason all that mommy grumpiness and exhaustion makes me...feel comforted. I can look back on the day and smile, knowing we were all in the crummy boat together.

By the way, there was a highlight of the day.

We saw Elder Christofferson! Finally, I bump into an Apostle. I feel like everyone else comes to Utah and bumps into this Apostle in the airport or that Apostle visiting their cousin's ward or talks to the prophet himself in some elevator somewhere. I go years and years and never see anyone even remotely famous in Utah. (I've even been to the Sundance Film Festival!) Oh, until the other day when I saw the dooce lady at Ikea. I come to Utah and who do I run into? A famous anti-Mormon. What does that say about me? Is the Universe telling me something? Is that what I deserve?? Listening to Heather pick out bathmats with her husband instead of having a meaningful encounter with a Man of God at the Delta check-in counter? Is the Universe telling me I should read less blogs and more conference talks? (Probably.)

But then I saw Elder Christofferson. Actually, Aunt Le spotted him. Since his niece was my college roommate, it was easy for me to approach him and confirm his identity. I also met his lovely wife. They were there in the capacity of grandparents. He was very kind, just as you would imagine. (You can read more what we spied, er, observed, on my sister-in-law's blog.)

So here is the exact highlight of the day: At one point I turned around and there was my nephew Caleb driving a farm truck...with Elder Christofferson. The image of those two, hands on the dual steering wheels, is forever etched in my mind. The thought warms my heart. Ah, maybe the day wasn't so bad after all.

P.S. Yes, today is the 16th. THE DAY. But Greg's flight doesn't get in until 11:30 pm, which is why I am sitting here blogging. (What am I feeling? Nothing. As Charity perceptively pointed out, all of my emotions are expired.)