The Smith Symphony: Opus 44

Tuesday started very early for me. At approximately 12:00 a.m., I woke up in a ton of pain. It was another gallbladder episode, as I've been calling them. I'm sure it was because of that elephant ear I ate, but it was still worth it! Fortunately, I remembered to pack my loratab, so I took two and felt much better once it kicked in. Unfortunately, the loratab made me feel sick to my stomach most of Tuesday.

This was Mt. Rainier day. Despite my not feeling well, we packed up the kids and headed for the mountain. It had been recommended that we go to the Sunrise Visitors Center, so we drove to the Northeast entrance. Unfortunately, Sunrise was closed. After learning this, we stopped at a campground to feed to babies and make a new plan. The campground was beautiful! It was nice to sit out in the forest and feed the babies.

While we were feeding the babies, a really nice older couple from Illinois stopped by to ask about the twins. We talked for quite awhile and they eventually invited us to have lunch with them at their campsite. The lunch and company was great. It was fun to talk to this couple and get to know them.

After lunch, we decided we would go to the Ohanapecosh Visitors Center on the Southeast corner of the park. We drove about 5 miles before we had to turn around because they had closed to road to repave it. The only other way to another visitors center would have taken us on an 80 mile detour. So we said goodbye to Mt. Rainier and drove to Puyallup. It was disappointing to not get to go to a visitors center or see other views of the mountain, but we did enjoy meeting the couple from Illinois and we got some great views of Rainier from the campground.

When we arrived in Puyallup, the babies were sleeping well in the car, so Jason took me on a short tour of the town, including stops at his old high school, middle school, and elementary school.

We then drove to Jeff & Sarah Case's house to feed the babies (sometimes it seems like that's all we do) and eat dinner with the Cases. It was really nice to spend some time visiting with Jeff and Sarah. I wish we could have stayed longer. The dinner was great (thanks Sarah!) and the babies weren't too fussy.

Poor babies. In their defence, this was a hard trip on them. Not only did they miss out on many naps, but the poor kids are teething right now. For those of you who have gone through babies teething, you know what I'm talking about. Imagine two babies teething. I don't know how Janae survived three babies teething. You're amazing Janae!

After a great evening with the Cases, we took our poor babies back to the hotel for the last time. We packed up all we could that night while the babies were sleeping and got some rest before we traveled home the next day.

Lissa & Joshua at the Mt. Rainier Campground