We started our Saturday with flu shots for everyone. Boy, it was fun.

Actually, I anticipated that the kids (the two older ones, anyway) wouldn’t like the idea of it, so we didn’t tell them about it until we were almost there. Carissa immediately starts to protest and Wes starts saying, “Daniel Tiger,” meaning that he’s remembering the episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood on PBS Kids where Daniel goes to the doctor and gets a shot. (Which, by the way, in no way makes it easier for him to go get a shot, even though it’s “just like Daniel!”)

We were supposed to start with Carissa since she’s the one with an egg allergy and should be monitored for 30 minutes after to ensure she doesn’t react. But the nurses pulled the shots for John and me first, so we went first. Then Elizabeth because she didn’t know any better. She had a sucker in each hand as the shot went in, so even though she cried a minute or two, she quickly remembered her suckers and was OK again.

Wes was harder because he knew and didn’t want the shot. John tried reasoning with him for a while but it didn’t help. He pulled out his tablet and got Wes on Angry Birds. Wes was involved, cried briefly at the shot (super briefly) and then was engrossed in Angry Birds again.

Last of all was our allergic one, Carissa, who during this time was hiding in the lobby. She was effectively working herself “into a state.” We pulled her into the exam room and tried reasoning with her. No good. Her arms and chest and cheeks were flushed because she was so upset. The nurse said it was a good thing we noticed that now so we’d know it wasn’t part of an allergic reaction later. When it came to it we just had to get the shot done, and so the nurse did it.

It did not go over well.

If she was unreasonable before the shot, she was inconsolably unreasonable now. I can’t even remember all the things she was yelling and crying about, but we couldn’t even get her out of the exam room when it was over. She refused to leave. So we left her for a few minutes, but she wouldn’t come out, not even when the nurse tried to bribe her.

Finally John pulled her outside and she did not calm down until we were at BYU, which was our next stop. On Saturdays Wes gets to hang out with different BYU athletic teams, and today it was the gymnastics team–one of Wes’s favorites!

We were actually on time, for once, but the door was locked. The team was trying to get someone over to open it for us. So we waited.

And waited.

And waited more.

Until it opened! Wes loves all things tumbling and gymnastics. He dove right in, literally, by jumping into the foam pit and then climbing this thing.

I’d be scared of heights, but not Wes.

He did it again and again and again and again.

Wes also liked the trampoline.

And the rings.

Carissa found a buddy right away (Sin To) and got to work building castles out of the foam pieces and playing in the foam pit. She loved it.

While I have no pictures of Elizabeth to show, she was equally happy running around everywhere and doing everything an almost-two-year-old can do.

Once we got home I made lunch all around, put Elizabeth down for a nap, and did dishes. The plan was to get groceries but to wait until Elizabeth woke up so I could take her with me and leave the two older (and easier kids to babysit) home with John. But she took a long three-hour nap! By the time she woke up there were other things we needed to do and I didn’t get out for the shopping until after 4:30pm–dinnertime. Dinnertime is the worst time to go grocery shopping, especially when you take kids. I ended up taking Wes and Elizabeth and I admit to buying all sorts of things that weren’t on the list because they kept tossing things in and I was losing the willpower to resist. They were hungry, I was hungry (and I had brought snacks for them, but still), and we were at Wal-mart, which is the black hole of all grocery stores. You could go in and never come out, it’s so big and full of people and lines. By the time we checked out it was 6:30 and we had to wait in line 20 minutes just to pay for our stuff.

Thankfully Wes, who can sometimes be so frustrating to take places, was a great helper tonight. He loves to help, more than almost anything. He helped me put all the food on the conveyor belt, he helped me put the filled bags into our cart, and he even helped me swipe the credit card (his favorite part).

OK, we ended up with cupcakes and Oreos and drumstick ice cream treats we definitely had NOT planned on buying. But after all his hard work, he earned that cupcake with frosting.