Reality…sometimes it’s better than you imagined & unfortunately sometimes it’s not! I was hit with a big dose of reality not being quite what I hoped for this past weekend! Something we have had planned for months didn’t go as planned & it really frustrated me so I thought I would share my struggles with things not turning out like you hoped for and how you can always see the good even in a tough situation.
I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Lights Fest! It’s the lantern festival where thousands of lanterns are lit and float into the sky and it’s supposed to be a magical night! Well we had one come here to Lubbock and I bought tickets months ago & have been looking forward to it since that day! I bought my mom a ticket for her birthday and my sister got her family tickets so it was a big family deal and we were pumped! Well….as soon as we got there I had all the hopes for it to be this amazing experience. We walked to the venue and were immediately greeted by Disney princesses of all sorts and Spiderman…{cue the mama did good dance} See we always have doubts with taking all three of our kids to stuff like this because well, they are kids…you don’t know how they will act, if they’ll be bored, hungry, tired..the list goes on and one. Well once they saw the characters and the bouncy houses I thought we were in for the night of our lives….until it got dark…
Y’all why they decided to do this in February is beyond me, it was freakin cold AND windy! Any by windy I mean like gusts of 30 and sustained of 10-15mph! We tried bundling up the kids and the bigger ones were okay, but Huxx was not.having.it!! I’m talking screaming and throwing himself around even in the stroller with blankets and his paci! After 20-30 minutes of solid screaming my precious hubby offered to take him to the truck to get warm (what a doll right? ) He knew I had been looking so forward to this and wanted it to be a good time for the kids. So once Huxx was in the truck things got easier (for the moment, justtttt wait)
We all drew on our lanterns, and made them for my dad (Pop Pop) and the kids were so excited to send them to Heaven for him to read! (if you didn’t already know you can read my story here of losing my dad at a young age and how my mom is my hero here) Yah, we definitely shed a few tears during these conversations with the littles. They were all writing him things, telling him how much they missed him, etc. My mom wrote one to him that had us all bawling….it was such a neat experience! So we got all of our lanterns set and ready to go and then we wait….and keep waiting…and keep waiting until the event coordinator comes on and says they are waiting for the fire marshal to give the okay but due to the winds it is being delayed! By this time, we are all getting cold & whiney but it wasn’t too much longer before we got the okay! Andddddd we start lighting our first one…it’s a fail. There is too much wind that it burns a huge hole in the side of the lantern. Second one…a fail, too much wind! We were on the end of the venue so there was absolutely no wind block. The kids start getting upset and then #3, #4 & freakin #5 y’all…all a fail!
The wind totally screwed up our lanterns and here came the water works….all 4 big kids crying saying Pop-Pop would never get to read their lanterns and know how much they missed him! Talk about crushing all of our hearts. It was so sad. We tried to get the kids to focus on everyone’s lanterns on the other side of the venue that were catching a wind block but it was no use. They were devastated!
I got pretty bummed out about it but then I had to remind myself that there will always be things in life that don’t go as we plan out in our head! However we had a great night making memories, talking about our dearly missed Pop-Pop and watching our children dance around, giggle and be silly (before said meltdowns) So with that we take the good and move on from the disappointments and use that night as a teaching opportunity for our little ones! Not everything goes as planned but if you look around you can always see beauty even in a chaotic situation because let me tell you, the lanterns that did make it up on the other side of the venue were truly breathtaking! Such a cool experience (minus the chaos), we just hope for a less windy one next time…IF I can talk my hubby into it again!
Oh, and I forgot to mention during all of this Kaige decides he needed to tee-tee and just pulls his pants (half way) down and starts going, I freak out and try to help him only to squat down to fix his pants because he’s getting it everywhere to get shot in the face! #joysofboys OH, and one the out of control wind-blown fire lit lanterns smacks me in the head and almost caught my hair on fire, so there’s that….and we caught a patch of grass on fire. If my hair ever did catch fire, I would have had to make do with my life with some cheap blonde lace front wigs.
(affiliate links)
This sweater dress from Old Navy worn two different ways and I’m equally in love with it!
Sweater Dress // Plaid Pocket Cardigan // Boots // Purse // Hair Extensions// Lip Color
Sweater Dress // Scarf // Purse // Boots// Hair Extensions // Lip Color
This dress is so comfy & it lays just right to be super flattering on many body types! Hope y’all are surviving the week and that it’s going a little better than my weekend did! Thanks for stopping by!
Photography by Kingdom Come Photography
Leave a Reply