Is It Naptime Yet

The third weekend in July I took off with some friends to go to Pine Valley. It would be four women and one baby. It was the original three from last year, Sam, Julie, and me, then my friend Anna came along with us three crazy Mormon moms. It’s funny because Sam and Anna are two of my closest friends yet they’ve never met over the 5 years I’ve known both of them. (I’ve known Anna for 9 years and she is the only person I’m not related to that has known me longer than Jon has and keeps in regular touch with me.) I kinda felt like it was the in-laws meeting the boyfriend, you know two people you love and you want to get along with one another, but not sure if they will, though neither were my parents or boyfriend. It turns out Sam and Anna probably have more in common than I do with either of them and both said they loved meeting the other! Phew, what a burden lifted. I was so worried they’d both be extremely jealous of the relationship I have with the other one and hate each other and see only the negative, because they are so much alike. Really, they are, it’s kinda funny, I’ve just never seen it for some reason.

Between the four women and a baby, two women were pregnant. Anna is due on September 1st, and Julie sometime next year. Matilda, Sam’s 18 month old, was the baby, though she is really a toddler. We left Friday afternoon in Sam’s brand spanking new, but used, Camry.

As we traveled up to Pine Valley we made a dinner stop in St George. After driving around for a short while we decided upon Marv’s Diner. It was delicious and I highly recommend the shakes. Just know that a small is really big since the piled it up almost as high as the cup itself. After Marv’s we piled back in the car to head to Smith’s. We needed chocolate for the smores then chips and lime for the guacamole. I had forgotten these key ingredients for my part of the dinner and snack providing.

After we left Marv’s Sam thought the car was driving a little funny. Right as we were turning into our parking spot at Smith’s the battery light went on and the power steering went out. Now we were four women, and a baby, trapped at Smith’s, in St. George, 2 hours away from home!

I called AAA to come look at the car for battery service, but it seemed like it would take over an hour by their estimate and we weren’t sure if they would send someone who would be able to tow the car if needed, so Sam also called her road side assistance with her insurance. I was just about to call to cancel the AAA guy, but then I got the call they were there. It turned out to be one tow guy for the two call ins, which I was so grateful for. We decided to have the car towed under my name to where we would stay, in case Sam needed one more tow to a mechanic.

So here were are four women, and a baby, trapped at Smith’s, in St. George, 2 hours away from home, but fortunately it was one block away from a home Sam’s in-laws have in St. George, the Grandma’s house that Gary now owns. So three women, and a baby, had only a block to walk, while Sam rode in the tow truck with the driver. It was so wonderful that I had been slightly ill prepared, otherwise we may have been farther from the house.

We did not have the keys to the house, but Gary has a tenant in a small guest house out back. We were able to get into the house and share our story of woe. Four women, and a baby, trapped in a hot house with only a swamp cooler, in St. George, 45 minutes away from the cool Pine Valley, with a car that had something wrong with it. The renter just happened to have a son who was a mechanic and the son looked at the car for us that night. The problem was easily found, a nearly broken and badly shredded belt to something in the car. (I’m not sure if I ever found out what the belt did.) Sam was very sad that her car, which she bought two weeks prior and supposedly had a 21 point inspection, had been so unreliable for us.

We made the most of it and stayed up late and talked and ate. We decided Anna should be called Annapedia, three out of the four women like all natural deodorant, two of which make their own, and Julie can hold a conversation in he sleep. It was decided the next day that Anna and Sam love me and my Laceyisms, or how I often misquote phrases or metaphors. (It’s not trick of all trades, but jack of all trades.) Someone has to love me for who I am and not make fun of me all the time.

After saying up far too late, I think we called it at night at 2 am, we woke up at 8 am and for some 7 am, but that person had a child with her who didn’t know that it was not nice to wake her mom up after only 5 hours sleep. We ate breakfast and headed to the farmers market down the street. The mechanic didn’t fix our car till later that afternoon, so we stayed close to home in our ventures. The farmers market was wonderful and I think we all bought something. They also had some interesting shops in the shopping square and we looked around as we tried to get out of the heat. It was over 100 degrees and humid. St. George is not cooler than Vegas, contrary to what some might think. We ate lunch at the house and enjoyed a wonderful movie, talked and then went out once the car was fixed.

Our first stop was the Deseret Industries in St. George, where again, no one left empty handed. Then we windowed shopped at Urban something, a more hip and modern thrift shop basically. It was really cool and reminded me how uninspired I am when it comes to decorating my house, and how cheap I am when it comes to decorating my house.

We ran more errands then Anna and I made dinner and later we left to return to the one degree hotter than St. George, Las Vegas.

It was a fun weekend, despite all the craziness of the car and not very cool house. Sam and I felt bad for the two pregnant ladies and how they both had to be even hotter than us.

I can’t wait till next years Mom’s getaway, and hopefully we make it to Pine Valley, but if not, I hope the Lord watches over us again.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 12:26 am and is filed under Friends, fun, holidays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.