Wish I Had a Picture

We are a bit of a spectacle under the normalest of circumstances, so imagine how this must have looked to outside observers. A family of six arrives at their condo around 9 pm with much to get from the minivan to the room on the eighth floor where they will stay for the week. Not only are there suitcases, backpacks, blankies, and the like; there are multitudes of little white bags laden with the week's groceries purchased from the Food Lion across the street. Somehow, there are no available luggage carts. The kids are excited and tired (a rather dangerous combination), but enthusiastically offer to help mom and dad carry stuff from van to elevator. Everybody is wearing backpacks and carrying at least two grocery bags. I wow my husband with my ability to carry more bags than he imagined possible (don't all mothers learn that trick?), and even little Maggie is loaded up. I can only imagine what this looked like to our co-vacationers: A moving mass of bodies, blue bags, suitcases, and backpacks all racing to get to the elevator and be the first one to push the button (huge novelty for kids, apparently). So we finally get to the elevator, push the button, load in - I should say wedged in. We push 8. It doesn't light up. The door opens and the same group of people we left gawking in the lobby are staring at us. The door closes. We push 8 again. It doesn't light up. The door opens. We are officially the latest freak show attraction at the Carousel. A brave man joins our family. He pushes 7. It lights up. We move up to the seventh floor with much relief. He leaves. We push 8. It doesn't light up. We push 9. Yes, it seems that every floor is accessible via elevator except for the 8th floor. My kids are groaning under the weight of their bags and backpacks (but hey - at least everybody had a chance to push the button). We have no choice. We have to take the stairs. The kids were excited at first, but when we opened the door to the dark cement staircase they were a bit freaked out. What else could we do. We all carried all of our stuff down the steps. Jason and I, laughed so hard. This is so typically Reyes! Anyway, it made for a great memory. Not just for us, but all of the entertained guests in the lobby.