Thursday, November 17, 2011

Praying & Partying

~We had a scary moment as we drove the first night. We had set up a hotel reservation to stay in Kanab, which looking back now was just too far to drive for the first night, being that we didn't leave till Tim got off work till 6:00. Kids were all asleep and everything was going great until ...oh 11 something. We came upon the point where you had to turn or go straight...both said Page.  Well, Tim turned. I said "I think we should have gone straight"...he insisted I was wrong of course. While driving down this new road we hear the lovely sound of ding-ding-ding. We look down & see that the light has come on for the gas tank indicating it is low....we keep driving with no signs of life, or gas stations anywhere. I got a pit in my stomach. Still we continued on... For a few brief moments I was planning in my head that we would be stranded and would be sleeping in our car. At this point, Tim & I were talking in raised voices, which awoke all of the kids & led to 4 out of the 5 crying...no more like screaming. They were uncomfortable & had been abruptly awakened. It was awful. 
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~Long story short we turned around back to the original route...instant peace. I knew we made the right decision as we putted into the town of Page just in time to fill up that empty tank of ours. We all jumped out of the car, breathed in the brisk fresh air and welcomed the small raindrops on our heads. All kids were full of smiles as they realized we wouldn't have to be on the show: "I Shouldn't Be Alive...No really they thought that. The kids had been praying in the car, out loud & simultaneously ..they were so scared. Our phones were not working of course when we needed them most-terrible feeling. The funny thing was looking back later that night, both our moms had text us around the exact time that we were about to be "stranded." ....
`Call it what you want=Mother's Intuition/Promptings from the Holy Ghost/Being watched over from above. I think all apply.
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~We finally arrived about 1am to our Hotel and all slept so soundly that night. The next morning we enjoyed the beautiful weather & scenery as we finished the drive to Provo.

After the long travels we finally arrived!
We went straight to the Provo Mall...a nostalgic favorite...

And then we were off to meet my family at Granddad Curtis' 90th Birthday! We met at the end of my grandparents street which is on the top of a beautiful hill overlooking...
...the town of Provo
~While there, we could hear the roars of the crowd as the BYU Cougars scored! I thought about how my Grandparents used to go to those games religiously & came draped in head to toe BYU paraphernalia. They of course cannot do that anymore & it made me realize and remember that life flies by.  {Someday I won't have 5 yelling kids in the car... This time will pass & I have to take it all in now while I still can.}
We enjoyed seeing cousins & family we hadn't seen in quite a while. My kids embraced Aunt Sara that they had missed so much. All the young ones & young at heart rolled down the gigantic hill. (They don't have hills like that in AZ.) And I don't know why I didn't get a picture of Grandma & Granddad together...silly me. I must've been too busy stuffing my face.

~And then we headed off into the sunset, okay north of the sunset, and off to Salt Lake to check into our hotel.  
....After all, we had a Conference to attend to.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Ready for Take-Off...

So we took the kids out of school before Fall Break a day early for K & D and a week early for Spence. We headed up to Utah for the 10-11 hour drive. 

The Objectives:
 1) attend General Conference with Spence & Kay
2) to attend Granddad Curtis' 90th Birthday Bash
3)  to see our 3 little Sisters in action @ BYU 

~We had to split it into two days so it wasn't so painful. I always think about our ancestors traveling across the plains & then down into Arizona WITHOUT cars or  a.c. How did they do it?!? 
I actually prepared some activities for the kids with ideas I stole from Pinterest. One was a Bingo game they had to mark off as they saw the pictures= train, tree, stop sign, bird, airplane, red car etc.., Another game was finding something out the window that started with each letter of the Alphabet. My favorite hour of the drive!! 

Ok who feels like playing "I Spy" with this next pic?
{"Oh Stephanie?...}
FIND:
*Spencer's dry patches on arms
*Ryler's friend Elmo staring at him the drive
*Jaxson's messy face
*earphones
*flip flops
*Kay & Day's dog sticker covered D.S.
*3 pillows
*dry erase marker & ABC practice board
*frog toy for Ry
*1 child who was bound to get carsick even though sitting center & raised in booster seat

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Heritage

Ryler got to spend time with both sets of his Maternal Great Grandparents within one weeks time recently. It was smiles, coos & loveable squeezes all the way around.


I feel blessed to have both sets of Grandparents here to be able to talk with & hold my babies like they used to me.