I believe the last words I left you with were something like "stay tuned for one crazy adventure".
Little did I know that would be a HUGE understatement.
If you've followed us for a while now, you've likely heard of our triplet friends Emerson, Everett & Emmett. Some of you remember our bravery last year when we offered to keep the trio for 4 days so their parents could get away. Well, we've planned for a while now to have them stay over again...this time for a week. Are we crazy? Maybe. But if anyone knows how badly parents of multiples need a break, it's Bret and I. We've been fortunate to have others help us out along our journey, so we like to pay it forward when we can.
I'm a planner, I have quadruplets myself. I know what it's like to depend on adrenaline and rely on it to get through challenging times. Been there, done that. I'd been gearing up for a few weeks now. Schedules, snacks, crafts, games, sleeping arrangements, meals...etc. were planned. A good balance of play/naps/entertainment and if we were lucky, a little outdoor play. If I can stay ahead of the game, stay prepared and stick with our general plan, we're good.
Little did I know, God had other plans. Last week we (North Texas) had beautiful weather that reached into the 80s by Wednesday. Unfortunately, mother nature took a turn for the worse and we were hit with an arctic blast Thursday afternoon. Thursday night/early Friday morning our electricity went out, the smoke alarms beeped, babies cried...bla bla. No big deal, right? The power will stay out a few hours, "they" will fix it and we'll be up and running by dawn. We woke up that morning to find we still didn't have power and that the ground and EVERYTHING outside was covered in THICK ice. Boo. The triplets were scheduled to arrive late Friday afternoon. Although I was a bit worried about their drive to our house, I still "knew" the power would be on at any time. Nope.
Once our little friends showed up, the sun was setting, we still didn't have power, we were freezing cold and were depending on about 25 tiny battery operated tea lights, a couple of small child size lanterns and a few flashlights to see anything. Luckily Papaw (next door) has a small propane heater in his living room that could offer us some warmth...as you can imagine he was ecstatic to welcome seven 4 year olds and a one year old into his home for the night ;) One by one we walked err, skated the kiddos across the property next door. With the kids bundled in jackets and hats, it was all we could do to know who was who. We gave them each a tea light to hold and that was our way of keeping track of how many kids we had. I sat in disbelief at our situation, just praying the power would kick on at any time. Yup, never happened. The 10 of us camped out in Papaw's living room for the night. Despite 2 of the quads coughing their butts off all night, Baxlyn grinding her teeth every 5 minutes and a Blade who woke up to party for an hour at around 2am, we slept great - feel my sarcasm?! Really though, we were MUCH warmer next door and I'm so grateful that we were welcomed!
Granny Linda snapped a picture during the night of part of our set up. Hard to see, but under each blanket you'll find a four year old...
Saturday morning we were at a loss as to what to do. It ended up being the coldest December day in 15 years in Texas and the low (here) dropped to 17 degrees - HOLY COLD! The electric company gave us no hope that we would have power anytime soon as thousands of people were without it and we were basically at the bottom of the totem pole due to our location. My sister, mom and brother in law who live 15ish miles away had electricity and plenty of room for us and urged us to come to their house with all the kids. The only thing standing between us and them were some seriously icy roads. It was a tough call but we ultimately decided to venture out knowing that their house would be a much better environment for the kids. With the help of my fantabulous brother in law and father in law and their 4 wheel drive vehicles and tow ropes, Bret was able to get our 9 passenger van de-iced and out of the driveway. Altogether the process took a good hour, but we finally made it off of our iced over country road. Luckily the main roads had been plowed/sanded and we made it to their house slowly, but safely.
Our set up at Aunt Beth's house... thankfully Bret and I had our own room and Blade had his while the living room was transformed into the land of four year olds...
A few flashcards on Uncle Darrell's Tablet (so great to have a brother in law who works for Dell! Never mind the kid with a finger up the nose...)
Some train play...
It's been QUITE a situation around here, but I am SO thankful we have such a great family to welcome us and all of our kiddos with open arms! We've done pretty well given our impromptu situation and have come up with things to do to keep the kids busy. From baking cookies, to crafts to movies and dance parties, we've done it all in the past 36 hours. Tonight (Sunday) we are finally told that our power has been restored - thank goodness! It's been great here at the family's house, but it will be nice to get back to our kid-friendly house and to give our family a well deserved break! Because temps have dropped below freezing for the night we are waiting until tomorrow afternoon to head out. Well keep you updated as the week goes on!
