17 hour day

We left the house at 6:30am to drop Chris off at the airport. Then we grabbed breakfast and brought it to Hayley's. The kids all played together while we sat and chatted. She watched them while I ran to get the oil changed in the Volvo. Then we piled all the kids in the cars and went to Costco. I had to get a bunch of stuff for Girl's Camp, and for home, so my cart was ridiculously full. We all ate lunch there, and then went our separate ways. It was about 12:30 by then, and the kids were dozing in the car. So I drove around for a little while to let them sleep. Then we went to Target for more Girl's Camp stuff, and stuff for home. So the car was crazy full by then. We got over to Jenny's around 3:00. The kids got to play with their cousins for several hours, and boy did they play hard! I love love love that they don't play video games or sit in front of the TV but actually run and play and pretend and engage with each other. They really wore themselves out. So, once Jenny and I fed them and it was time to get to Drew and Alexis' play AND it was past their bedtime, they had hit a wall. But, they loved watching the play (Annie) so much that it mostly didn't matter. I had left Penelope with Josh, so it was just Olive, Lucy, and Georgey. They were captivated. The play didn't end until after 10:00pm and then George wanted to meet Annie and Miss Hannigan, so we looked for them. He was timid but thrilled to shake their hands. We ran back to Jenny's to get Penelope, I couldn't find my keys, Penelope had a terrible diaper and had been crying for the better part of 3 hours, and all the kids were wiped out. I sent Olive and Lucy to go use the potty, had Mom put a Pull-up on George, and then searched for my keys. I couldn't find them and couldn't find them, and Olive finally said, "Mom, just pray!" I told her I had already done that and that I was just waiting for Heavenly Father to help me. Seconds later I found the keys, and Mom, Olive and I laughed and said, "Works every time!!" I changed Penelope and Mom buckled all the kids in (so glad she was there to help). And we headed home but not before I realized the gas tank was empty. We stopped for gas, and then started the drive. An hour later, at 11:30pm, we were home and I was carrying 4 sleeping babies to their beds and crashing into my own.