Road Warriors

 Since my boys are in year round school this year and they had 3 weeks off in Sept/Oct I decided that it would be a perfect time to hit the road and visit family for 2 weeks.  I've never driven farther than 7 hours by the myself with all four kids so I have to admit that I was a little anxious and maybe a bit over my head, but I have to say that the kids surprised me.  They were actually really good travelers except for a few restless moments where both the kids and I are thinking to ourselves, "what were we thinking?!"  This was going to be a trip where we could take our time and see some country that we've never seen before.  All very exciting to me.

MESA VERDE, CO

Ok, so our first stop was Farmington, NM.  I know, not all that exciting, just a place to crash.  Jesse got us a place with an indoor pool so that the kids could get their energy out.  So, we swam and the next morning took off for the Pueblo's in Mesa Grande, CO.  I had seen pics as a kid of this place and thought how awesome it would be to visit it.  Well, I'm sad to say that once we got there I made the call that it was going to be too dangerous and stressful to handle all the kids while taking the 1 hour tour.  In order to go down you have to take the tour, but the tour guide said that you have to climb a 15 ft wooden ladder and then at the end there's about a 70 stair (the stairs he said are about 18 inches steep) "hike" to get out.  So considering that Bella isn't always wanting to be held and I didn't have a toddler pack to hike with I had to say no.  Maybe when she's Claire's age we'll come back.  The kids were disappointed that we couldn't go down and I felt bad considering that we just wasted 2 1/2 hours with that detour.  But, it was sure a sight to see.

MOAB, UT

Next...Moab, UT.  I LOVE Moab!  I want to stay there a few days and just take it all in.  We stopped at one of my favorite places to stop and that's the Hole in the Rock place.  We all just marveled at the scrap metal sculptures and the jeep made out of recycled license plates.  We wanted to take the tour of the house built under the Rock, but Bella was asleep and so I didn't want to waste that precious naptime so we hit the road until we got to Arches National Park.  I always forget how deep that park is and by this time it's about to get dark and I know I have a good 3 hour drive before I get to Beth's house in Provo.  So, we hurry and try to see as much as we can of that place since the kids have never been there.  We got out and took a quick hike so the kids could see some of the amazing rocks up close. 

We got to Beth's house around 10 that night.  I slept sooo good that night.  We hung out with Beth the next morning a bit while she nannied a little girl and then took off to Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  This whole trip I've just been constantly surprised at the different kinds of beauty that the Earth possesses.  It was just a perfect time of the year to enjoy it all.

SALT LAKE CITY, UT

Temple Square is always a treat to visit because of the History hear of the Mormon Pioneers and the meaning the Temple has for me.  We met two sister missionaries who took us to the visitor center and one was from Czechoslovakia and the other from Mongolia.  They were so sweet and we all just adored them after only knowing them for 15 or so min.  We ate at the ever so yummy Lion House Cafe which used to be Brigham Young's Home and then we set off on the road again with our destination headed for my sister Janet's house in Shelley, ID. 

SHELLEY, IDAHO

I was sooo happy to finally make it to my sisters house!  This was my "we made it" message to Jesse to let him know we made it ok.  I just love my big sister!

After making it to Janet's house we took a day to just relax and enjoy each others company.  They have such a fun place for kids to explore.  Claire was in heaven playing with the cats.  All the kids played so well together and it was a great bonding time for them. They also had 20 or so chickens and a pig named pepper.  The kids spent most of their time outside.  Janet took us to Idaho Falls (seven min from her house).  Bryce was dying to go to a skate park so we found one.  It was probably his favorite ever.  It's the place that he finally learned how to skate and land a "dip."  Here's the video of him doing it.  He's so proud. :) 

WYOMING!

The next day drove to Wyoming.  We visited a plave called Granite Creek I think and it had a pretty water fall with a few natural hot springs.  I've never swam in a hot spring before so I was so surprised at how really "hot" it actually was.  In order to get to the hot spring we had to cross a FREEZING river.  Jordan carried all 7 kids across.  I know how painful that must have been. 

 Bryce ended up loosing a sandle and cut his heal on a rock.  Again, I'm just amazed at the beauty everywhere!  I was ready to just pack up and move (but, the below zero weather in the winter thought keeps me from doing that).  We had a great time with Janet, Jordan and the kids and it was very hard leaving my sister knowing that it would be a long time before I would get to see her again.  We cried when it was time to go.                                   

BOISE, ID!

We took a 4 hour detour to Boise becuase I have friends there that I haven't seen in YEARS and so I thought it would be silly not to be so close and not make the effort to visit.  First, I visited one of my roommates from College Sara (one of the best people I know).  I'm so bummed that I forgot to take her picture.  She hasn't changed a bit and judgeing from her adorable kids she's an awesome mom and wife.  We drove down the street and met up with one of our best friends from Optometry school, the Crawfords.  I know it killed Jesse not being able to be there, but we'll definately be back.  Jenalee is pregnant with Twins and looks wonderful!  Our oldest Bryce used to play with Savanah  (their oldest) when they were little and so to see her all grown and the other two getting so big it was just sooo shocking.  But, we just picked right up where we left off and had a great visit. 

PROVO & CEDAR CITY, UT

Back to Utah!  We hung out with Beth again and enjoyed watching Whitney and Brooke play around with their cousins on the trampoline.  We took off the next day towards Cedar City, out last stop before we would meet Jesse in Pheonix. Connie was just a few days shy of her due date.  I was hoping she would go into labor while I was there, but we all know how that panned out.  :)  

One day we hung out at the Skate Park and all the kids had a great time.  All their rear ends and hands were just black because they kept sliding down the ramps. 

 We watched Ben's flag football game and saw him in action.  Things looked pretty rough out there, but they won of course. One night Connie took us to a place called Fun Time Inflatables.  Need I say more?

 The kids thought they had just died and gone to heaven. What a great time they had..  I think the highlight for me was going to a Shakespear Festival Play, The Diary of Ann Frank with Cindy and Connie.  The actors were right on in their acting and there were a few times where I got emotional thinking of how it must have been for the Jewish people losing family.

The little ones would crash hard at night but the big kids we could hear laughing til the late hours of the night.  :) 

PHEONIX, AZ

We left at the crack of dawn to pick up Jesse at the Airport in Pheonix for some R&R. 

It was soooo nice to finally meet up with Jesse!   You never realize how much you rely on your spouse until you don't have them there with you.  We spent the weekend at a Resort called Cibola Verde and spent our time by the pool as much as possible.  One night though we went to an amusement park called Castles and Coasters.  It was the perfect place for our age of children.  They had a nice array of rides for all ages and we pretty much had the park to ourselves since it was a school night.  Bryce and Claire were the dare devils that night, although I was proud of Cameron for facing a few of his fears.  Bryce rode the Sky Diver 9 times that night.  He would've rode more, but I was thinking it probably wasn't that great for his health doing it all back to back. :)  Jesse and I rode it once and that was all I needed.  So scary.  Bryce rode his first upside down rollar coaster with me.  Cameron had his first experience on a coaster also.  Claire rode with Jesse for the first time on a coaster and she LOVED it!  I rode the Carosel with Bella numerous time.  Here she is having a good time.

Jesse and I rode the sky diver with Bryce, but once was good enough for me!  Pretty scary. 

  The whole trip was just WONDERFUL and I felt so good making the effort to go.  I've been realizing that making the sacrifice really benefits a family relationship and it builds memories that you'll have for a lifetime.  All in all the kids and I visited 5 STATES!  We were so close to going on detours towards Oregon, Calfornia and Nevada to say that we conquered the west, but we just ran out of time.  I'm looking forward to going back someday.