Pat's Run 2017

We rented a place in Avondale again this year for our annual Arizona sojourn, but then the parents of Derrick's friend, Seth, offered to do a house swap; they (and Seth's brother and his family) would come to Oceanside and let us use their house in Gilbert. The prospect of packing while simultaneously cleaning and preparing the whole house for guests was stressful for Mel, so I offered up our house.

We left on Wednesday, April 19. I got some tidying up done on the preceding Monday and Tuesday. Monday we had Ella and Matix Rondo over in the afternoon, and the kids played quite well. At one point, they dragged the outside table and chairs over to the wall between our house and Cikaneks' so they could climb up and peer over:

I thought it was pretty funny, although I don't know if Scott and Rebecca appreciated the invasion of their privacy.

I arranged for JoAnn to take Wren and Arden Wednesday morning, and Magdalena (who cleans the houses of a lot of friends in the ward and who cleaned ours for a few months before Jim's boards) came over and did most of the cleaning and bed-making while I packed. I wouldn't have been able to handle all the prep without help. As it was, we didn't hit the road until a couple hours after I would have liked.

The Tuesday before we left, I went into the office but didn't have much work to do. I spent a lot of time looking into hotels in Sedona and corresponding with Mel and Jim about plans. We decided to drive straight to Sedona Wednesday night. That added an hour onto the drive Wednesday night but meant we could avoid a more than two-hour drive Thursday morning from Gilbert to Sedona. Every year we debate with the Karners whether we should make a trip to Sedona or Flagstaff. This seemed like a good year since our place in Gilbert was free, so we wouldn't have to double-pay if we stayed overnight somewhere else. I found an affordable hotel and booked us two rooms. We got there about 11:00 P.M. The Karners had left a little while before us but got a flat tire on the way, so they ended up arriving 15 minutes later. It took forever to check in. First the girl at reception was on the phone forever and ever. Then the computer was showing that they only had one room available, even though she knew I had booked two. She had to go investigate, and it turned out that a prior occupant had checked out and the room had been cleaned, but the check-out wasn't entered into the system. Whew.

Wren was a bit difficult to settle down that night. She cried at first, but I got her to stop by promising to leave the door to our room open. (We were in a suite, and the girls slept in the living room.) Then she just talked for a while. Eventually, though, they all went to sleep, and it wasn't as bad as I feared.

Thursday Tyna woke us up around 6:15 A.M. We hit the free hotel breakfast, and then Jim put Tyna down for a nap while I took Ever and Wren out to explore the dry creek bed next to our room. The Karners were stirring when we got back. They went to breakfast, and then it took a long time to pack up and get out.

First we did a two-mile round-trip trail called Fay Canyon. The red cliffs were nice.

There were many boulders for the kids to climb:

Ever, Christian, and Derrick (aka Uncle Derrick or Uncle Diji):

We came to a sign that said, "END OF MAINTAINED TRAIL." We'd been told to go past it. You can hike up along the side of this thing for amazing views:

Ever, Kara, and Christian:

In real life, you could see cool rock formations in the distance, but they don't really show up in the photos:

It was kind of stair-steppy if you stayed higher up, but Jim kept thinking he saw a trail lower down. His shoes are totally smooth on the bottom, and I'm glad he and Wren didn't fall to their deaths.

Looking up:

Ever decided she's really into rock climbing.

Kara was having the worst day of her life and wailed and cried most of the time we were up there. Christian and Ever, however, were very cute together:

It was late by the time we got back to the cars. Wrenzy was in a dirty diaper for probably the last 20 minutes of the hike. Jim changed her as soon as we got back to the car. Her bottom bled, and she cried a lot. That was the beginning of some tough times for Wrenzy. 

Eventually all the bathroom business was accomplished, and we decided to go to Slide Rock State Park even though it was late. I think that was a mistake. It costs $10/car to get in, and it was freezing and windy by that point. Bear wore Jim's sweatshirt on the way in:

Christian, Kara, Ever, and Alina:

Bear insisted that she wanted to take her clothes off and "swim," so Jim obliged:

Somehow Kara and Christian got in pretty deep and stayed in for a long time:

Bear was shivering, so I told Jim to get her out. She became inconsolable because she wanted to stay in. Jim put his sweatshirt back on her and let her put her feet back in:

Derrick did the natural water slide and jumped in from a little cliff on the side a couple times. It was not fun getting out of the water and into the wind, but he survived.

Mel and I with Ever, Christian, Kara, and Tyna:

For dinner, Derrick took his kids and Ever to a hot dog place. Mel, Jim, and I kept Wren and Arden and ate at the Wildflower Bread Company. As we arrived, Wrenzy started crying hysterically. We realized it was because she had another dirty diaper (thank you, diarrhea) and didn't want to be changed. Her entire bottom region was blistered. She screamed and screamed. Jim, with assistance from me, finally got her cleaned up, and we ordered our food. Derrick and the kids finished at the hot dog place and walked back to Wildflower. Ever fell asleep on Jim's lap. As we were finishing our meals, Wrenzy had another round of diarrhea. I had to carry her screaming through the restaurant and back to the bathroom. She kept saying, "I didn't do it. I didn't do it." I cleaned her up the best I could. When she began pinning her knees together and not letting let me in anymore, I called it good. I was so sad for her.

This was Ever on the bench:

Jim picked her up and carried her out like Sleeping Beauty or something. The girls all slept on the way to Gilbert. I thought they'd wake up when we got to Seth's parents and probably have a hard time getting back to sleep in a strange place. Fortunately they pretty much stayed asleep, and we got them to bed smoothly.

Friday we had a slow morning. The kids played a little outside and watched a lot of shows and played on the Karners' iPads. Mel and I took their van in to get a new tire, and we did a little grocery shopping. Wrenzy's diarrhea continued. We bathed her repeatedly to try to minimize the wiping. She would beg not be changed. Her bottom was just totally opened up, so the diaper cream wouldn't even really stick to the oozing skin. She just never got a reprieve from the diarrhea, so she had no time to heal. A couple times I had to cry for her. She was in so much pain.

The pool at Seth's parents' house is not heated, so in the afternoon, we went to the pool at Seth's town house complex. The girls had a wonderful time and never wanted to get out. Our flotation vest is technically too big for Wrenzy, but it worked for her. She had a fun time floating around independently.

Finally, around 6:00 P.M., we told the girls they had to get out of the pool. Chaos ensued. We discovered that Wren had had another bout of diarrhea in her swim diaper, and she screamed and screamed while Jim cleaned her up and changed her. Her poor bottom. Simultaneously, Ever was screaming about blisters that had developed on the bottoms of her toes. I think they just got jacked from being in the pool so long and her constantly pushing off the side and bottom. (She needs to get back in swimming lessons and build her confidence so she spends more time swimming and less time with her feet against the bottom or side.) One toe was bloody; a couple others were blistered. Ever lost her mind over it. We speculated that there may have been some excess drama because she was really tired (probably the primary reason) and possibly a little jealous of the attention we were giving to Wrenzo. In any case, it was not a pleasurable time for anyone. Jim promised Ever whatever she wanted for dinner. We ended up grabbing her favorite frozen mac and cheese from Trader Joe's, along with some little ice cream cones. Once we got back to the house, Ever started to recover. She hobbled around briefly but soon decided her toes were feeling better. Thank goodness.

Saturday morning we tried to leave around 7:00 A.M. for the race. I took a couple "before" pictures:

Mel, Kara, and Ever held hands as we walked to the starting area:

Jim and Derrick pushed the double strollers:

We mostly walked. It's too crowded and too hard with the strollers. When it opened up, though, we ran a little. Jim and Derrick starting across the bridge:

The high was supposed to be 98 degrees that day, but it wasn't so bad. It probably helped that we didn't run much of it.

Kara walked/ran the whole thing, which was amazing. She was a real sport this year. My finish-line pics are super blurry for some reason, but this is Kara and Mel crossing the finish line:

Jim and Derrick crossing the finish line with the strollers:

Wrenzy wore Jim's sunglasses on the way back to the car:

My old roommate from L.A., Genevieve, is living with her husband in Scottsdale now. We decided at the last minute to meet up at a Chick Fil-A in Mesa right after the race. I thought the kids could play while we chatted, and we had gift cards we got at last year's race I wanted to use. (They're only good at Phoenix-area Chick Fil-A's, so I'd had them in the car for a year, waiting to use them when we returned for Pat's Run. The pains I endure to save a buck or two.) Wren fell asleep in the car on the way there, and given the sleep deprivation and fragile emotional states exhibited by the kids recently, I wanted to let her sleep. Jim agreed to stay in the car with her and Tyna while Ever and I went in with Genevieve. I got his food to-go and took it out to him. Then I left him in the car for an hour while Genevieve and I talked about some serious subjects. I felt bad knowing Jim was out there, but I also hadn't seen Genevieve for a long time and wanted to give her some quality time. I was distracted by Ever but did my best to balance everyone's interest (except really Jim was just neglected). It was not an ideal situation. Ever finally decided she wanted to go out to Jim, so I ran her out to the car and kind of waved to Jim as I headed back into the restaurant. He thought that meant I'd be right back. But Genevieve and I kept talking, and finally he left the girls in the car and hurried in to tell me people were crying and I wasn't answering his texts and we really needed to go. Next time we'll have to make better arrangements. In any case, it was nice to see Genevieve. We talked about how we get sad that we haven't kept up friendships with anyone over the years and made a pact to be each other's one longtime friend. 

Back at the house, there was some afternoon napping by some, and Derrick and Jim took Ever and the Karner kids back to Seth's pool after an unsuccessful attempt to brave the unheated water at our place. We got take-out for dinner (pizza for the kids and Derrick, Cafe Rio for Jim and me, and a Wildflower Bread Company salad for Mel) and finally got the kids to bed at a decent time. 

Sunday morning we packed up and cleaned up (even laundered sheets and remade beds), attended sacrament meeting, went back to the house to eat and finish getting ready to go, and hit the road home. Jim drove the whole way (both there and back), and we made it without incident. Another successful Pat's Run trip on the books.