There were six in the bed and the little one said, "ROLL OVER!"

Finding a hotel room that accommodates a family of six is not easy. Functioning as a family of six in a hotel room is even trickier! God bless suite rooms, is all I have to say.

We were blessed with an extra special two-room suite when we stayed at our hotel in Houston. The pull-out couch bed was in a room separate from the two queen-sized beds. The fact that the suite had the extra room gave us a little extra peace...but it also gave me a HUGE scare!

I woke up to the alarm the day of the marathon and started to rouse the kids. Travis's dad had already dropped Travis off at the marathon downtown about 1 1/2 hours before. I woke the boys first, who had slept in the queen bed opposite Travis and I in the same room. I then went to the other ("living") room and woke Madalynn up and JILLIAN WASN'T THERE. The girls had slept on the pull-out couch.

I calmly walked back into the "bedroom" and walked into the bathroom to make sure she hadn't quietly passed me and gone to the bathroom without me noticing her. I asked the oldest three to help me look. Madalynn then said she hadn't seen her for a while.

I quickly walked back toward the bedroom and glanced at the door, noticing the deadbolt undone. Travis, obviously, could not have returned the deadbolt back to it's locked position when he left that morning, making it possible for little Jillian to have simply walked right out the hotel door without anyone noticing! I made a b-line for the telephone, trying to reassure myself that she was probably across the hall in Scott, Cheryl and Holly's room for some reason.

Scott picked up the phone and I asked him (sure he'd say yes) if Jillian had gotten up early and gone along for the ride to drop Travis off at the marathon and had stayed in their room. He sounded kind of worried and told me that she wasn't in there and to look again and call me back.

Panic mode struck and the kids and I rushed around, looking in the kitchen, bathroom, under the beds in the bedroom. I then went to where she was laying and stood. Her pillow was still on the bed, and so was her blanket. I was just about to call Scott back, the front desk, and the cops, when I decided to get down and look under the pull-out bed.

Right smack in the middle of underneath the bed was Jillian, fast asleep. She had slept right through our panic. I said, "Jillian, how'd you get down there?!" She SLOWLY started stretching and finally climbed out from under the bed, totally unfazed. I can't figure out if she fell of the side of the bed or slid down between the back of the couch and top of the mattress! I called Scott back with the good news and a sigh of relief.

Here are the sweet pictures I snapped of Jillian when I found her under the bed and the kids peacefully sleeping together in the hotel beds.