The girls first overnight trip

Our Christmas holiday started last Thursday night when the girls made their first trip to San Francisco and stayed the night in a hotel (with mommy, daddy and nanny Mariya). Steve and I couldn't have survived the trip without Mariya's help. It still amazes me how much work it is to travel outside our house with the girls!

The purpose for the trip was to attend a breakfast with Santa on Friday morning that is hosted by Steve's company. All of the employees are encouraged to bring their kids in to eat and receive a gift from Santa. It was a really nice morning.

But, let me back it up to Thursday night. One of the main reasons that we have never taken the girls on an overnight trip is the sleeping arrangements. Let's face it, I need my sleep (even if it's only 6-7 hours a night) and I know that a hotel cannot provide the same comforts of home for my 3 little ones to ENSURE that we all get our sleep.

I was right.

We had the hotel bring up 3 pack-n-plays that we were going to try to get the girls to sleep in. It was our best option, but also the least likely to happen. Their regular bedtime is 8:00 p.m. At 10:30, everyone was still awake and the girls were fighting sleep and exhausted.

We ended up splitting up the girls between the 3 adults and each sleeping with one of the girls. They fell asleep by 11:00 p.m. and they were all up by 6:00 a.m. That's 4 to 5 hours less sleep than what they normally get in a night.

Lissy figured out quickly that the first thing you do in a hotel is find the things that aren't nailed down and stuff 'em in your suitcase.

The girl's first taste of room service!

Mariya with the girls.

Here is Lissy stuffing her face at the buffet breakfast. The girls gobbled up some serious food at this event. Everyone was commenting about how well they sat and ate. Little do they know there are daily food fights in our house with more food thrown than eaten.

Lissy all of a sudden loved Santa. She has been so scared of him every time we have gone out this year, but she stood in front of him all by herself and waited patiently until he called her name to collect her present.

Here are the girls ignoring unwrapping their presents.

The girls were more interested in playing with the rocks inside the atrium of the office than their presents. Which leads me to the next part of the story.

What trip away from home isn't complete without an injury. Soon after the above picture was taken, we decided it was time to get the girls out of the rocks before they gave the bosses kid a black eye from throwing rocks at him. I grabbed Makena and was trying to walk her out of the patio when she trips and falls and chips her front tooth. Her good front tooth. (Insert mommy's gasp of horror). I posted about her first accident here.

Makena's top front teeth now match. They look like she has two little crescent moons chipped out of the bottom of her top teeth. And they are sharp. God help the sister who gets bitten by her because those babies are surely drawing blood.

I must say that the girls were AWESOME in the car on the way there and back. If it wasn't for the portable DVD player that we used to keep them occupied it would have been ugly. I was impressed with how well they did.

The girls were all asleep within a half hour of heading home on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, they only slept for an hour in the car so we kept them entertained for the rest of the ride with more Elmo DVD's and food.

Makena's afternoon did not end on a high note. I decided that I needed to take her into the dentist to get her tooth checked when we got home. As she was snacking on some cookies in the car, she started crying and we noticed blood in her mouth. Her gums above the tooth that she chipped were bleeding and I was afraid she damaged her tooth worse than I originally thought. It was hurting her when she bit down into food.

Needless to say, she was NOT happy when we got home from out 3 hour car ride and I had to put her back into the car to go to the dentist. She was pissed and cried almost the whole way there. I felt so horrible for her. This is 2 year old who was working on 5 hours less sleep than usual with about half of the nap she normally gets. I knew I was asking alot from her to put up with me and the impromptu trip to the dentist. But because it was a Friday and we were going into the weekend before Christmas I didn't want to NOT take her in and have her tooth hurting her all weekend.

Makena did great at the dentist. She played in the waiting room for about 30 minutes while we waited. Poor baby had to have an x-ray taken and then the exam by the dentist. I had to hold her down while they checked her out. The news from the dentist was that the tooth was not mobile, which is good. We just have to watch it to make sure it doesn't turn gray, which would indicate nerve damage to the tooth. We go back for a check-up in a few weeks.

Makena was in bed by 5:45 p.m. and slept until 8:00 a.m. the next morning. We were all exhausted!

We survived our first overnight trip, but both Steve and I aren't making plans any time soon to do it again.