That Time We Lived in a Hotel

One day in late January I came home from grocery shopping and picking Lily up from preschool to find our downstairs bathroom, under stairs storage and several areas in our living room to be flooded. I could tell it was coming from our duplex neighbors so I ran over to knock on their door to ask if they needed help, and if it had stopped. I could tell they were in there (probably trying to stop the flooding) and didn't answer my repeated knocks. So I went home and tried to clean up the mess. As I was busy doing this, Lily tried to help me by putting the groceries away for me. She's such a little sweetheart!

Don't judge me for the canned chili - I was doing my best to pretend to be a with-it primary president and was helping put on the scouts Blue and Gold dinner (potato bar). Me, helping run the scouting program. That's comical.

Well, several hours later, our neighbors knocked on our door and explained that the flood was.....icky, gross, Toilet Water!!!! AACCKK! I mean, I had been doing a good job of keeping the girls out of the flooded areas and keeping it contained, but with toilet water one needs to be OCD about contamination! Lucy and I were sick that very night. Also with toilet water, they had to rip up the entire carpet, dry wall, cabinets, ect. Awesome. And no renters insurance for us. Luckily we had an awesome landlord to paid for us to go to a hotel for a few days while they cleaned it up. At first we went to a cheap hotel, but Jordan polity said something and we were moved just down to street to a nicer hotel for the same price. And the second hotel had a microwave, mini fridge and freezer. Which was good, because 3 days turned into 3 1/2 weeks!!!

We were living out of suitcases and eating fast food for 3 1/2 weeks. I seriously repeated the same 4 outfits over and over. And to add insult to injury, our best friends, the ones we always relied on for help, had just moved to Salt Lake. And it snowed like every day, preventing us from playing outside (our snow gear was suck in the house) or going up to visit said friend very often. My girls went stir crazy and we watched more TV than I would like to admit. I spent a lot of time at the gym, the library, and target. My ward couldn't do much to help because, well, even though we were living in a hotel, there were still others in much more dire situations than us. So, fast food and frozen dinners it was. Fulfilling my calling was a joke, but still had to be done somehow. Oh, and Lucy, she did NOT want to sleep in a pack and play when there were queen sized beds in the same room. So she slept with Jordan. That is, when she actually slept. She became as bad as a newborn, waking up 5x a night and needing to be soothed back to sleep. 

They were seriously climbing the walls with boredom. And anything else they could find, like the microwave.

When there are no toys for a month, a package of diapers suddenly becomes your own personal Disney Land. 

There was a pool, and long hallways to run down. That's how we tried to get their energy out every night. It was an experience for sure. Lily loved it (she got to snuggle with me every night) right up until it was time to leave. After we were back in our duplex and would would pass the hotel in our car (which was almost every day). She would ask, "We don't have to go live in the hotel again, do we?" haha. It was an experience that brought our family closer together. And, I didn't have to clean a toilet, vacuum or do dishes for 3 1/2 weeks. To be honest, I got some good reading in.