A Chicago Visit (and a hotel incident)

Last weekend, Aaron and I took Ivy and went to visit Aaron's sister Stephanie in Chicago. The three boys stayed with their grandparents, and I have to say... it was so much fun spending the weekend with our little girl!!!

We had an awesome time with Stephanie. We hung out at her apartment, walked around her neighborhood, and went downtown to eat one evening. 

It was great to see where she lives and spends her time. 

And Ivy hasn't stopped talking about Aunt Stephanie since we got home!

Overall, it was a great weekend. There was just that one small incident that happened at the hotel... 

So we got there late on Thursday night. We checked into our room, and Ivy was super excited that she was going to get to share a king-size bed with her Mama and Papa. We all went to sleep, excited for a fun day in the morning.

At about 2:00 in the morning, Ivy woke me up because she had to go potty. So, half asleep, I took her. I won't go into details here, but let's just say that Ivy went...a lot. And as I was flushing it, I was thinking, "I hope the toilet doesn't get clogged." I watched it as it flushed, and "everything" did go down...but something did indeed happen when it was flushing, and when the toilet started filling back up (with clean water, thankfully), it just kept filling and filling and filling...and all of the sudden it was gushing out over the rim of the toilet and splashing all over the bathroom floor. 

I ran to the bed to wake Aaron up (he is an incredibly heavy sleeper). "Aaron! Honey! Wake up! The toilet is overflowing everywhere!!!" He jumped out of bed and stumbled half-asleep into the bathroom. By this time, the entire bathroom floor was covered with water, and it was still gushing out. I'm talking gushing...not trickling or spilling just a little...gushing. He knew what to do...I guess there is some valve thing you can turn to make it stop. So he tried to turn it...but it would. not. budge. He was afraid he would break it off if he tried to turn it harder.

He ran to the phone and called down to the front desk. "Um, our toilet is overflowing everywhere, and it won't stop," he said. The water had now filled the bathroom and was spilling into the main part of our hotel room.

Now he was fully awake (finally) and thinking more clearly, so he took the top off the back of the toilet and raised the little release chain thingy to get the water to stop. He pulled it up, and the water finally, thankfully stopped. We looked at each other in disbelief and assessed the damage. The river of water had flowed out of the bathroom, into the main part of our hotel room, and then out into the hotel hallway. I opened our hotel room door and saw that the water flowed at least a few feet into the hallway. I could not believe this was happening.

Right about then, the poor front desk guy came to our door. Holding two towels. Ha. He handed me the towels at the door and I opened it further to let him in. He looked at us in shock as he splashed through the inch or two of water that was standing in our room. I remember looking down at his nice dress shoes sloshing through the water, and I had to hold back my laughter. I was so embarrassed, but all I wanted to do was laugh.

He said,"So...what's going on?" He looked into the bathroom and saw Aaron there, holding the chain up in the back of the toilet. Aaron let the chain go for a second to show him what was happening, and the water began gushing out again. Aaron pulled it back up. "The water won't stop. And the valve won't turn off." 

"Well..." the front desk guy said, "I brought you some towels..." 

Aaron grabbed the towels and stuffed them in the back of the toilet to prop up the lever that he had been holding up. The front desk guy said, "Maybe I'll go get a few more towels..." Aaron walked with him out in the hall and showed him where the water was stopping (a good 15 or 20 feet from our toilet). Aaron said, "The water is going somewhere from here...if I were you, I would go check the second floor to see if it's pouring through." The front desk guy's eyes widened and he said, "I'll do that!" and he ran off.

Aaron came back into the room, and we just looked at each other and laughed. It was just so unbelievable. Ivy (who had gone back into bed when I initially flushed the toilet, and had missed the rushing river of water) got out of bed and came and stood with us. "Why is there water everywhere?" she asked. "The potty is broken, sweetie. It's ok," I told her. She was amused. And totally unaware that it had been caused (sort of) by her. :)

The front desk guy came back up and reported that yes, indeed, the water was going down through the second floor ceiling. He gave us more towels and said, "Maintenance should be here at 7:00 AM...we'll just keep those towels in the back of that toilet until then."

"Um, Sir?" I said, "I think we are going to need a new room...um...we don't have a working toilet? And there is water covering everything?...and we will probably still be sleeping at 7:00 when the maintenance guys come..."

"Oh! Oh, yes! That's a good idea. Ok, yes. I will go see if there's a different room for you." He left again.

By this time it was about 3:00 AM. He came back with new keys for us and sincere apologies. We apologized right back to him, because after all, we were the ones who clogged the toilet in the first place. :) We moved to a different room, got settled in, and were probably finally back asleep by 3:30 or 4:00 AM.

The next morning, we went to the second floor hallway to see the damage. There were several ceiling tiles with water damage. So unbelievable!

So...that's the hotel incident. We have laughed about it many times since it happened, and I have a feeling it will be a story that we retell and relive for a long time. :)

When we told my brother-in-law Nathan about it, he laughed and said, "I'm so glad that happened to you! It's such a funny story!"  Ha. I can't say I'm glad it happened...but it is a good story. :)