A Trip and A Tantrum of Epic Proportions

Over the weekend, we trekked down to Mt. Shasta, CA for Justin's band to play at this little place called The Coffee Connection. It's actually a non-profit sponsored by 8 different churches in Mt. Shasta--all employees are volunteers from those churches. On Saturday nights, they have free coffee, free wi-fi, and often have bands that come down and play. It's a pretty cool outreach ministry.



{The Coffee Connection has this catwalk on the second story
where you can see the band that's playing below. It's pretty cool!}





{The only bad thing about shooting the band indoors without a flash is that I have to shoot with my ISO at 1600, which means grain out the wazoo. Oh well--I tell myself that the "gritty" look is appropriate for a band!}




{One funny thing: I am 99% sure that I know which song Renee is
singing just by looking at this photo! Renee, if you're reading, it's He Cries, right?}




{Hey look--it's my (biological) sister who looks absolutely nothing like me.
In fact, people usually think she's Renee's sister instead of mine!}


Since we thought we'd get done around 10:30-11pm and then still have to drive back home, Lizzy stayed with my parents. The plan was for us to come back to their house and stay the night there since they live closer to CA than we do. Only, when we got back sometime around midnight, she was still awake. My parents had been trying to get her to sleep since 8pm, but Lizzy is one of the most stubborn kids you'll ever meet, and was still wide awake. At the time that we arrive, she was in fairly good spirits, but that quickly deteriorated. I tried turning on a movie to lay down with her, and she got HYSTERICAL. Kicking. Screaming. Trying to scratch and bite. I tried rocking. I tried singing. I tried every discipline tactic that I know--I could not get her to stop screaming hysterically at the top of her lungs. Justin came in the room, and I told him that I thought we might have to go home, at which point Lizzy started screaming, "NO MAMA! MAMA GO AWAY! LIZZY NO MAMA!"

Talk about making your heart break. I cried. At that point, it was almost 1am. We packed everything up, and decided that we just needed to go. She screamed at the top of her lungs for the next 20 minutes in the car before finally falling asleep.This morning, when she woke up, she came into bed with us and said, "Mama. Lizzy naughty. I sorry." Sweet precious girl. But, we had another hysterical sleep battle tonight as well. Please tell me there's a sleep regression or something around 2 years (she already has her 2 year molars I believe), because this is getting out of control.

To end on a good note though, here's a mash-up of the band's set if you're interested!