a night to remember, and not in a good way.

when it came to the drive home from our trip to utah, ben and i had different ideas of how things should go down.  

he wanted to power it out, driving the12 hours {at least} straight through.  i wanted to split up the time, driving 5 or 6 one day and the rest of the time the next day.  a 12 to 14 hour car ride is pretty miserable when you have to get out about every 2 hours so that the beast inside of leah isn't woken up.

so, we compromised.

we decided to drive the majority of our trip the first day, then find a place to sleep and then just have about 4 hours left the second day. 

we were looking at hotel costs in page, arizona and not only were the prices out of CONTROL {even through the discount websites we usually used} but they were all completely booked up.  we asked one motel owner if he knew of any recommendations for other places to stay since his was full, and he had one.  he mentioned a "great little bed & breakfast" that might have a room, and gave us their number.

we called and success!  they had one open room left, at a better rate than any room we had found in that city and luckily it had one double bed, a twin, and a pack & play for a baby.  perfecto!

or so we thought.

we drove past the house several times because i was a little thrown off.  probably because in my mind, i had a dream.

a dream of what a bed & breakfast should look like.  you see, staying at a b&b was a longtime desire i have had.  a quaint, cozy house.  a four poster, fluffy bed with warm colors and soft sheets.  feasting on croissants and cheeses and fresh fruit in the morning.  talking with the owners as we sat by a crackling fire,  who would tell us tales of travelers that had come and gone

of course, that's because i had pictured our b&b to look something like this:

or this:

{okay, so sometimes i live in a land that is the love child of anne of green gables and pride & prejudice.}

so you can imagine my disappointment when we drove up to this:

not awful, but still.  not quite what my vivid imagination had conjured up.

on the corner of the house was a sign to let us know we had arrived at the right place.

on the garage was a taped sign that read "guest parking" which i wish i had taken a picture of, but missed the opportunity.

when we pulled up, ben immediately looked at me and said in a low tone, 

"we should just keep driving."

but i had already given them my credit card number...and we were already there.....

i was full of excuses, but let's just be honest.  i should have listened to him.  for the third time in our marriage,  i was wrong.  he was right.  {isn't he lucky that i admit it?}

but in the back of my mind, i was hoping that the inside was better than the outside.

we pulled our cranky kids out of the car and knocked on the front door.  we were greeted by a nice enough looking lady, who welcomed us in and upstairs.  there we met two families who each had two kids that were running around the house creating a lot of noise.

we introduced ourselves, were told that the other guests who were staying were all out to dinner and were led downstairs.

immediately we noticed that something was "off" when our room was the only one that wasn't numbered.  the other doors had #1, #2 and #3 on them.  ours was blank.  hmmm.

as our host opened the door, my hopes of our bedrooms looking anything like these:

were dashed.

unfortunately, our bedroom was actually extremely tiny and came with lovely bed accessories:

 did you catch that corner bedknob?  here's a close-up, just in case you missed it:

that's right, 3 of the bedknobs were tennis balls.  

the room was stiflingly hot, though we were provided with some air conditioning:

and when i looked underneath our beds, we found some childrens' toys.  

after realizing that neither mr. darcy nor gilbert blythe were anywhere to be found and i was more likely to run into a fellow who has just been released from prison, i was a little disappointed.

here is my i've-been-in-a-car-for-8-hours-and-now-have-to-stay-in-these-cramped-quarters-with-my-screeching-toddler face:

 

half of my face is already fed up, the other is still trying to think positively.  sort of.

we were also informed that we were sharing a bathroom with 4 other people.  ugh.  that night i learned the hard way about sharing bathrooms.  the trick is to get in there with the first announcement from your bladder that it needs relief.  i made the mistake of waiting until i was good and ready, but unfortunately was met with a locked door.  someone else was in there.

after waiting for almost 45 minutes for one of our bath-roomies to finish doing whatever it was he was doing, i walked upstairs to ask if there was another bathroom.

as i got to the top of the stairs, i noticed something strange.

there were about 6 people sleeping on the floor of the living room including the children who had been running around earlier, packed in tightly like sardines.  

the husband of the hostess who had showed us our room was awake, and greeted me.  i tried not to stare at the crowd on the floor as i asked where the other restroom was.  he pointed down the hallway, and i walked away, trying to figure out why there was a group slumberparty going on.

when it hit me.

we were sleeping in their room!  that's why there was no number on our door... and why there were toys under the bed...

it made sense now.  i just couldn't believe that they had rented out their actual bedroom.  

i tried to use the upstairs bathroom, but the sliding door wouldn't lock and i wasn't about to let whatever scary larry could be creeping around the corner to get a peek at me, so i let out a big sigh and went back downstairs.

after telling ben my discovery, it just reaffirmed to him that i should have listened to him in the first place.  whatever, it was too late now.

to top it off, leah was having a rough time. we were so worried that she was going to bother our neighbors that we kept her up for a little while, hoping she would wear herself out.

 

but clearly she had other plans.

luckily, caleb was fast asleep.

 

however i was getting fed up.

see how both sides of my face are matching now?  yep, any hope of a first magical bed & breakfast experience had been dashed.

ben tried to relax in the tiny corner, or what my vivid imagination would title "the sitting area."

 

here he is stretching, feet propped up on the pack & play.  looks comfy, yes?

no.

ben tried again to convince me to pack everything back up and get in the car, but this was now a matter of pride.

we.  will.  stick.  this.  out.  if. it. kills. us, dang it!

after a lot of begging, bribing and finally ignoring, leah finally fell asleep.

an exhausted mr. strader and i lay down on the bed and closed our eyes. 

but it was so.  darn.  HOT.

we had our tiny fan on "high" and pointed to blow directly on our faces, but over and over again i woke up with sweat dripping down my neck.

there are few things in this world that i dislike more than having to sleep when i am hot.  i won't bother to name them right now, but will instead let you know how i felt continually waking up feeling like i was on fire with a picture:

not pretty.

it was a miserable night that seemed to go on and on and on.

and we were even dumb enough to ask for breakfast {which was going to be pancakes, not croissants} at 8:00, assuming that our kids would sleep in.

but oh no, leah was up bright and early at 6 a.m.  yelling, throwing things, and within arm's reach of my hair.  so that ended any sleep i was hoping to get.

that was it.

i was mad, and sweaty, and finished with our first {and last} bed & breakfast experience.

we packed up, left without breakfast, and got in the car.

but before we drove off, i took one last picture.

here i am, at 6:30 in the morning.  ticked off.

rough.

but i looked up in the sky, saw the sunshine and left with the realization that i would be home in just a few short hours, in my own bed.  without the tennis balls.  with the air conditioning.  

i swallowed my pride, apologized to ben for my complete error in judgement,

and we drove away.