Just another: Race to eat a picnic!

So Yesterday was our first official Monday without daddy and with the van!  So what shall we do first? We conquered school pretty easily and decided to pack our lunch and hit a park somewhere! Keegan was a little worried because he didn’t want it to hurt (when we ‘HIT’ the park!)

As I type out the phrase, pack our lunch I envision the perfect mother having a glorious time in the kitchen making sandwiches, gathering snacks, packing the fruit.  Everything fitting so nice and wonderfully…what? Then I look around to see complete chaos…there’s bread crumbs everywhere the peanut butter is not spreading in that wonderful manor like it does on TV…I can’t fit anything in the bag right and there’s no room for the drinks…oh yea, I need to refill the drinks, grab the napkins, oops forgot the fruit…how about some crackers…I find myself rushing as if I’m in a race.  But see, I am…a race for time…because if I don’t hurry I’ll miss that window – you know and totally understand if you are a mom – that window of time before the kids ALL fall apart because you’ve starved them ½ their life and you never feed them soon following right after is the meltdown!  Meanwhile I’d crammed everything into my lunch tote…and we were on our way…well…sort of!

   Ok…let me give a little information before I continue.  We live on the top floor (the 2^nd floor) so we have a small landing at the top of these fabulously safe cement stairs…IF I’m not holding Grissom I just know he’s going to walked down on his face, so when I leave I need to be sure I’m holding some solid part of his body, I need to lock the door, go down these stairs (usually with my hands SO full it takes forever), turn to my left and walk all the way around the building to the parking lot…then about ½ way down the parking lot is our space with the van in it…this I have already learned is a pain to hate!

Ok…back to my sort of…we got all the way down to the van, I’m loading Grissom into his seat, and I hear it…trying not to explode with “Let’s JUST go!!”  Keegan yells from the sidewalk, “I HAVE TO POOP!!”  So what did we do? Unloaded and went back up to the apartment…20 minutes later we tried a 2^nd time to leave this time was sucessful! Yeah!  But meltdown is starting to occur with thing 3 (Grissom).

I decided it’d be smart to hit a very close park, but have heard total rejection when it came out…so I remembered a lady told me about a park in the military housing neighborhood down our hill…it was only about a 3-4 minute drive…and they were thrilled!  We sat on my 31-picnic blanket and ate out of my super cute lunch tote.  Well, I ate, they crammed out of anticipation for that fun park!

We played here for a good 3 hours.  And while they were playing I met 2 different moms with boys that Keegan and Ella were having fun playing with!  Ms. Kris was a mother of 3 ½ yr. old twins and she goes to Shoreline Christian Church!  Her hubby is done with his army schooling at the end of this year and will be headed back to Virgina.  So she knew a ton about the area!!  Jackie, who was mom to 4 yr. old Jaxson, had just come here in March, her hubby had joined the military because he cjust had no choice, they just coudln't find work (I understood that one!) she was still getting to know the area.  They had asked me if we were military and when I said no...but when I explained that Mark was working on the base they totally took me in as one of their own (ha!). 

Jackie and I are putting Keegan and Jaxson into gymnastics together!  They are going to be good buddies I think!  She lived right across from the park.  Anyway, I had a great time getting to know these two moms and we plan on doing this again next week!

Mark came home early…but still late.  I was confused as well as scared to death at him coming to the door when he did!  He said that they (the guys who came to work) might have found espesdo (?) and now they have to run tests tomorrow (today) to see.  If it’s positive it may drag this job WAY too long!  Pray that it’s negative!

Later tater!

Our fun weekend!

First off we had a great weekend together!  Mark worked a normal man’s week of work last week (5 days of 8 hours).  Monday is when he’s supposed to start his nights…well sort of.  I love getting 97% of the facts a little before they happen and then he throws in the last 3% right before!  Monday he will work a 15-16 hour shift, then Tuesday night go back in the evening and start that p.m. business…anyway, forget all that cause it’s the weekend baby!!

What to do with seriously SO many options!  I really want to do the 17-mile drive…so Saturday morning we are going to pack our lunch and just go!  I have to say having a lot of my 31 stuff here with me is AWESOME!  I’ve seriously been using them constantly! 

Ok…we are trying to get out the door…why does this have to be SO hard…why is this place torn UP-SIDE-DOWN!  We just woke up not too long ago!  We have a large tote packed with beach towels, suites, and sunscreen (zipper pouch)…we have the large cooler bag packed with lunch, I have my purse all ready…now where did the kids go? 

                        Please just imagine my life RIGHT now if you will;

 Grissom thinks it’s funny to run into our cloth's hanging on the bottom rack of our closet and hide in the clothes! When he knocks Mark’s clothes onto the floor he throws them into a pile outside the closet…this is JUST what he’s doing right now cause I can hear him laugh at himself!  Ha!  I love his giggle!  Keegan’s under Ella’s bed waiting to grab her by the foot and freak her out…and she knows he’s down there and is jumping back and forth between the 2 twin beds in their room…Mark’s suppose to be helping me get the van loaded and he’s nowhere to be found…it’s NOT like we have many places to hide around here…I’m going to be bald by the time we get back home!  Mark comes back to tell me the van’s ready but I’m not sure how that can be seeing that nothing we packed is in the van nor are any of the people going…how is the van ready? Hm…”kids, let’s go!!”

On the way to the 17-mile drive we saw that there was a street fair happening in Old Monterey!  So we thought we’d come back!  We LOVED the drive!  It was breathtakingly beautiful and we kept telling each other how amazing this ocean is…one of the first stops we came to was called the Restless Sea @ Point Joe.  This is a part of the bay where the waves come in from different directions and crash into each other and then into the rocks and beach line.  What is the 17-mile drive? Well, it’s just a 17 mile stretch of road that runs close to the shore.  If you’ve heard of Pebble Beach that is where this is.  We came to another stop and it was called Seal Rock.  I got excited thinking we might get to see some seals!  HOLY COW!!  It was super cute to see them ALL over the rock, jumping all around the place…until you took a breath to breathe!  SICK!!  Let’s just say this was the fastest stop we made…even for the kids!  We all got out looked at the sweet sea lions then all covered our noses and went running back to the van!  It was pretty funny…even Grissom went running yelling, “Stinky!!”  This is also the area where Mansions and the Hollywood/rich people have homes.  There were some pretty amazing homes around there, but I must say most were no bigger than our homes in Indiana.  We did some research and IF we picked up our house and brought it over here it would be worth oh, about $6 million!  We ate lunch on some big rocks on one of the beaches in this area.  While exploring we saw a whole village of crabs! And we saw the beach where the sea lions were having their babies! 

The kids were tired so we decided to find a movie theater and we ended up finding the Del Monte Mall (YEA for me!)  We had a ball watching HOP!  Keegan giggled throughout the whole movie.  You know we’ve come a long way in the van because even Grissom sat in his seat and watched the entire time! We ate a yummy dinner, trying to fit in, at the California Pizza Kitchen – YUMMY!

Sunday we decided to try out that Shoreline Church that we found on the beach last Sunday.  It was a lot like Trader’s right before our big move.  Their sanctuary reminds us of when he had church in our building's gym!  They have 3 services every week…which means we get 3 tries to make it on time every week! Yes! 

Ella did great going to class, she was excited to make friends, and Keegan was super shy and wouldn’t go in.  His teacher got down eye to eye with him talking to him trying to coax him in, but nothing was working.  I joined the pow-wow on my knees and just like every mother trying to stay calm but ditch their child and sweetly said, “Son, you have a choice.  Either you give mommy a kiss and walk into this room by yourself and have a great time.  Or you can keep this up and I’ll have her peel you off my leg and I’ll leave before you have a chance to give mommy a kiss good bye.  You know we’ll be back very soon to get you.  Make your choice in 3 – 2 -…” The nice teacher kept talking to him and it was working cause he took her hand.  She totally sealed the deal when she FINALLY said, “…after story time we have SNACK!!”  Sign, sealed, delivered…and I’m out! Sweet!!  He almost started pulling HER into the room! Ha!!  I love that boy!  We went to take Grissom, but his class was full, so we were going to be lead to the ‘family room’ (This is an awesome idea.  It’s like an overflow room but with the understanding that children WILL be included.  They had little table and chairs, games, coloring books, blocks, etc. for the kids and a huge screen and chairs like a sanctuary for the parents).  This was not where I wanted to be for our first time, I wanted to LEAVE all my kids at this time…so I just prayed a quick prayer…and I kid you not as we started walking down this hallway a lady was coming towards us, seeing what was going on she grabbed a volunteer and added her to the 2’s room just so they’d have room for Grissom! YEAH!  Worship was nice but NOT home.  We did meet a few people afterwards who were really friendly.  The kids all had a great time especially walking outside.  They had huge piles of all kinds of doughnuts…we all had to grab our favorites!!  Mommy got a refill of her coffee too!! Mmmmm!  It was funny to see what we call Kiosks (booths to get involved) they had tents all lined up outside!  It was going to be a beautiful day!

After church we came home grabbed a quick lunch and headed out again.  This time we all wanted a part of that super fun Street Fair; called The Good Old Days of Monterey!  What a fun time!!  The only problem was the kids wanted to ride the 3 rides they had and it was going to cost us way more than we had on hand…so poor things had to settle for the Dunking Station – yet they both loved it! Ella took 4 tries; hit the target with her 4^th try but it wasn’t hard enough.  Keegan steps up and slugs’ one real close to the target…then totally slammed the kid on his 2^nd throw.  The guy running the booth LOVED him! He felt pretty awesome when everyone cheered until he turned around to SEE everyone cheering for him, then he runs head first into my stomach all embarrassed!  What a cutie!

Our family received a ton of attention people kept telling us how cute our kids were…I’m not sure if it really was the cute kids (which I was sold on!!) or if it was a family circus thing…most families out here don’t have multiple kids, 1 or 2 but not a lot with 3.

We hit the beach just one more time before heading home for dinner, bath, and bedtime!  As we were walking along the beach we got to see a sea lion that was making his way onto shore.  The closer he got the sadder it became.  He was obviously sick and dying.  There were some ‘super’ animal savers protecting his rights until the real rescuers could come – kind of funny!

        Also the other thing I found irritating…I mean unreal (cause I’ve only seem stuff like this on T.V.) was a silent protest.  As we drive past one of the many grassy areas there were 100’s of black boots spread out with flowers on each pair.  Then the sign stating their protest: This is the Human Cost of War! How stupid are these people…yes it IS the cost, but its bigger then this cost…it reminded me of God and the way he uses each of us to get the attention of someone else.  My life is already saved, so to take me out of this world to show someone else who Christ is and what He did for them is completely ‘worth’ it!! Anyway…funny connection!  Their cost is extremely important to me and my children.  I am very grateful and indebted to each and every soldier who gave his life so we could be free!

Kids all ready for bed.  Yes, this is how they sleep!  It works...Ella was better then the boys together! ha!! You can see how fun jumping back and forth is.

Chill'N on mommy's bed! He must have worn himself silly!

The Restless Sea @ Point Joe

On the 17-mile Drive...No, I'm not choking Ella!

Super cuties!

This spot is called the Lone Cypress.  That's Big Sur behind it.  We will discover that at some point too!

More beauty...yes this is a real picture!

Mommy and Ella eating lunch on this rock!

I’m learning that sand is SO fun on the beach…but sucks to be all over the floor at home!

Daddy and Grissom doing laptop work in the family room!

Grissom Loves my little ironing board!

My little kitchen!

This is from today (or yesterday for most of you!) We've been gone a whole week!!

So today is Friday, April 8^th!!  I’ve made it thru our first week!!  Yeah! We’ve had an eventful week…so yes, things got loads better!  We did our first 4 loads of laundry.  It’s on sight and only cost $8.00 for those loads…hmmmmmm which means that we will be RE-wearing ALL clothes at least 2-3 times before claiming them dirty!  The kids now have PRE-bedtime inspections to go thru as to what gets worn the next day and what can hit the hamper! Ha!!  Mark too!! 

We have this super old wooden play set right outside our apartment and right next to the laundry room.  The kids have played there multiple times already…Ella is so far the only one without splinters!  Grissom got one in his finger (it was an easy one to pull out – Dana…you’d been proud)…Keegan on the other hand is ½ Pinocchio now with all the wood that’s been injected into his skin!  Dad has to do surgery on him every night! Boys!  But I AM meeting mom after mom with kids and it’s nice to have others to talk to! 

                We’ve been to the beach almost every afternoon so far – every time it’s been pretty windy and chilly, but my kids don’t care they are always soaked to the skin with ice Cold Ocean!  Crazies!

                    Yes, I’ve touched the water…no I shall not enter until later this summer!

Wednesday Mark came home at lunch and finished up his work from home.  We loaded the kids up and went to play at that beach we found on the first day.  This one sits down lower which has great coverage from the wind.  It was a cold day still…didn’t matter – kids AND Mark had a ball! Made more friends too! 

As we were leaving Keegan got a little afraid because there was an army of seagulls that looked to be waiting for him at the top of the steps.  He turns to us and yells, “Hurry guys…these Sea Eagles wanna fight.  I’ll run at them, Ella, You catch one!” HAHAHAHAHA!! 

We hit Bubba Gump’s night for dinner and again sat out over the water and watched those super cute sea otters play! 

Mike got here super later Wednesday night and I got the rest of our stuff Thursday morning before they headed to work.  It was SO nice to have the rest of what I needed to do some cooking! SO…me and the kids hit the grocery and we had Chicken, noodle-roni, and veggies for dinner!  Then popped some corn (it’s totally old school with the microwave…it doesn’t even have a pop corn button…I mean really! (HA!) Anyway, we all had a fun family movie night!

So…Keegan’s a riot…he asked me what this great noodle stuff was called (from the noodle-roni stuff from dinner) I told him that it was Angel Hair pasta.  He immediately looks up completely concerned and yells, ‘You mean I’m eating hair from an Angel? Did she die?’  I LOVE THIS BOY!  Mark and I cracked up tiring to explain why it was called Angel Hair pasta!

Earlier he asked Mark to look at his 'Stain' on his leg (before we left he fell and got a nice large bruise on his thigh!!

For lunch today (Friday) we had Guacamole chips yummy! He wanted more and asked, “Hey Mom, throw me some of those Broc-a-molie chips, would’ya?”  HAAAAA!  Again…I LOVE THIS BOY!

 I find that the hardest part about living in this shoebox of an apartment is that we live on the 2^nd floor…and trying to keep these kids from jumping, running, wrestling, etc is virtually impossible!  We’ve met the people under us and totally apologized in advance!

 This weekend is suppose to be a little warmer - so we are going exploring!  We are adjusting but it's been a VERY long and tough week...I keep thinking that soon my vacation will be over and we'll be headed home soon, but things are just getting started!

Good Night/Good Morning!

Move In day…I’m NOT going to live!

This day has been the worst day ever!  I’d rather be at the beach!  This is when I need to call Maria and see if she’d be good with taking Ella and Keegan for the afternoon so I could get stuff done! 

The day started off ok, we left the hotel and were ready to move in and find clean clothes! Our apt is in the most shaded place possible and not and easy walk from the car…thank goodness we weren’t moving furniture.  I warned Mark ahead of time – judgements will come at first cause I’m quick with the assessments…and NOT to take anything personal…so around this building we went…up these cement yet wobble steps onto a wood deck covered in what seemed like mold…hmmmmm. “Shut-up Stace!” was the only thing that kept creeping to mind…as we walked in I about lost it…small…VERY small, and old, super old…but not dirty, not scary…ok…sit down and pray for strength and a muzzle.  Mark’s got to be feeling the same way.  It took us about 1 hour to get stuff into the apartment and about 30 seconds for the kids to have unloaded EVERYTHING all over what was left of the floor!  Mark gives me a kiss and says, I’ll be home late…love you, bye.

   Overwhelmed.

So…about 3 hours later (cause I had to stop every 5 minutes to get Grissom out of another mess...or Keegan...or Ella was just trying to help in her own way! AHHHHH!). I’ve put away all the things I had for the kitchen (most of the things were still in Mike’s trailer in Utah until Wednesday –Thursday! The kids are crying for food, I was getting hungry, we are all tired, Mark’s gone and I have no car and no food…again I prayed, Father Please provide for us. 

                             Not seconds later Ella yells from the back room, Mom there’s still a box you haven’t unpacked yet!  So I opened it…and found 1 table cloth, chopsticks, kitchen towels, a 2-qt glass casserole dish with lid, and a box of Romane Noodles!!  Thank you Jesus…so me and the kids ate Romane Noodles and left over apples that we had for the trip out for lunch…eating with chopsticks just made it a “funnest ever” kind of lunch! 

Me and all the kids laid down together and cuddled in my bed until we were all sound asleep!  Mark was home early enough to give the kids bathes and take us out to a nice dinner.  We ate at Chilis and got to watch the Dawgs…the first ½ was good…then when things started not to look so great we decided to call it quits cause the kids were getting bored! We ran to Target to get a few things of need and then headed home.

When we got home we walked thru what would soon be a family room for us (there was only a path from the destruction that was done earlier via the kids…mostly Grissom!  Again the overwhelming feeling came rushing back.  Daddy and the kids did their best to ‘clean-up’ or what I call pile up stuff so we could sit and have some family time before getting ready for bed!  At least I can say that I lived thru this day…but tomorrow has got to be better or I’m walking home!

OK…we are here…now what?

 GOOD MORNING MONTEREY!! 

Wow, it’s cold!                                We ate our complimentary breakfast in peace knowing that we did not have to spend the day in the van driving.  Mark quietly reminded me that we can’t get into the apt until tomorrow after 9:15 a.m. so now what?  I was all of a sudden feeling the let down set in.  I’d worked so hard to get us here now that we’ve done that where to next?

  We decided to drive to the apt so we could stoke out the area…it started really very nice only about 1 mile from the hotel…then we started seeing trailer park (don’t judge me for judging!!  You all would be doing the same) my thought was; back home trailer parks mean a not so great area - sometimes (but this is not true everywhere) anyway, I started to doubt…and pulling into the apt complex made it worst. 

It looked decent, but I didn’t know what to compare it to…so I compared it to Indy…and it wasn’t looking so hot!  We did find an awesome park – the community center…so we stopped to play.  No one was there.  I sat down on the bench trying not to cry and I just prayed, God I’m here…this is it…I’m feeling very uneasy about this.  Please send me someone to help me. 

Not 2 minutes after getting up do we see a van pull into the lot and a mom with a little boy jump out to play.  She was super friendly, Dawn, and her son Bryce, we talked for a good hour.  She told me they don’t come to that park often but today they needed something to do for about an hour cause they were headed to a yoga class!  She gave me the low-down on everything.  She told me that Seaside (the place we are at) was a great place to be.  She said that it’s safe and so fun.  She even gave us a list of things to do and places to go!  I now have her number and we are going to get together with our families for a cook-out!  Yeah!!  Thank you Jesus.

  I still felt like a stranger but a little more at ease because of meeting her! My First Friend!!  I kind of feel like a 1^st grader…I might make a list!

                So we headed towards the ocean now, trying to check out this park she said was too die for; Denis the Minis Park…and HOLY COW!  We walk up to an old train engine and the kids went crazy crawling all over it!  Aiden was first on our thoughts – he’s going to LOVE this when he comes out here!  Then we turned the corner to see a kid’s size rock wall…thing…you could climb to your hearts contend…Dana you should see my babies climb!!  I even tried (NOT so cute!).   They had everything here…and I mean everything…a wired rope bridge and 2-3 different play sets…we stayed here until lunch time! 

With the time change the days seems super long…my neighbors would be SO proud to know that I’ve been up before 7 am!  We ate lunch at Carl’s Jr (like Hardees) and I’m still feeling overwhelmed.  I was working real hard not to pick up my cell and call home; I just knew that would cause me to crumble.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine…but super tired and super out of place…totally out of my comfort zone.  I’d find myself looking around for mom to see where we were going next…but she wasn’t there…cause NOW I’m the mom…I think Mark felt the same way he just didn’t show it.  Mom did call right about then…but I think I kept it together pretty well – after all people were watching! Ha!!

We ended our afternoon at the beach…NOW I know I can live here – how beautiful!!  We walked along the shore line watching the mad ragging ocean slam against every rock in its way, quietly at times and yet violently at others, but still beautiful all the while.  We spotted a beach area and some “surfer dudes” that Keeg HAD to go see!  So we went…I told Mark we needed to be smart with getting wet (roll up the pants, shoes off, etc.) Cause these were our only clothes left and we still had to get to the apt in them.  He agreed so we started down to this beach with caution on the brain.  As we approached we noticed a gathering of people with a tent.  The banner read, ‘Shoreline Community Church’ this just so happened to be 1 of 2 of the churches I’d found on-line and wanted to check out!  What were they doing here?  How cool and how God orchestrated!  We’d walked up just in time to see about 50-60 people get baptized in this beautiful ocean!  We talked with a lady and she invited us to the church, gave us some info, and her number to call if we needed help!  I stood amazed at the sight, tears in my eyes cause this was Sunday, the Lords day, and we had no place to worship Him today…yet He totally provide and brought the place to us…we sang with them and they sang songs we know and loved! 

  It wasn’t until the baptisms were over that reality hit and I saw MY children…ALL DRENCHED from the ocean!  It was no use…but they were having a ball so we stayed and had a great time!  Bed time is coming early tonight!  And we did our best to lay out the clothes so we could wear them 1 more day!

Will we EVER make it to California??

I’m starting to doubt whether or not California is a real place! 

The ‘discussion’ of this day is: Do we cram the rest of the driving into this day (which will make for a HUGE day in this stinky van) or drive for most of this day and end at our destination sometime Sunday…hmmmmm…I think we should let the kids decide! 

Meanwhile we are almost to St. George, Utah…where we have some more friends to meet up with.  This will be a most needed little coffee break/relax time!  No one ever told me that Utah was full of beauty…I’m very temped to claim it more so than Colorado!  I feel so…small when looking up at these ginormous mountains…how insignificant am I in comparison to these rocks…and how much MORE God loves little’ol me! How humbling and yet how comforting that fact is.

St. George Starbucks was AMAZING…or could that be the Carmel Frapocchino (?) that I had…hmmm!  A HUGE THANKS to my MOPS Mama’s!!  I LOVE YOU!!  We had a great short visit with the Bradley’s – thanks for letting our kiddos “Hang” on you!  We ended up walking across the street to hit the Old Navy up for a few more clothing items…or else we’d all be nudie by Sunday! 

We got into Las Vegas by lunch time…and of course we HAD to stop there to eat!  So we stopped at Bass Pro for a little food and fun for us all! Oh, the boys thought this place was absolutely rock’n!  Keegan loved ALL the stuffed animals…and decided he was ready to kill something soon! After lunch we thought it’d be a good time to hit one of the best playground parks that Vegas has – again the kids RAN and had a ball!!  After about 30 minutes everyone was totally worn out and dehydrated! Crazy how fast that dessert gets you! 

Ok…one last stop for gas right close to the California state line…we only paid $4.15 per gallon for gas! Holy Messed up! 

But no matter…what a party when we crossed the state line into California!  Except we had tears and total confusion from the kids.  Ella wanted to know where the beach was like in the movie Marmaduke!?!  Keegan wanted to know why he couldn’t get out and play yet!?!  We had to explain and show pictures again of how large this state was and that we will have awhile to go…we watched Marmaduke – AGAIN!

By the time we stopped for dinner we still have a good 6 hrs to drive…I wanted to stop for the night, but Mark wanted to keep on treking! 

So…we did!

This time Grissom didn’t want to get back into the seat.  We are starting to lose it here!  SO I did what I knew best…I started singing, Mark loved it most! “On the road again….I’m SO tired of be’n on this road again…going place that we’ve never been before…I’m done with being on this road again…” Soon the kids joined in and we had a sing along! Then for the next hour we kept each other preoccupied making up songs about how sick and tired of driving we all were!

Once the Sun when to bed it wasn’t long after that Grissom and Ella followed suite, Keegan said from the back, “Well guys…I guess it’s just Mom, Dad, and me left…now what do we do?” “Keep on driving” we all laughed!  He joined the sleeping crew about 5 minutes later! Ha! 

Mark drove on and on…I woke up here and there to check on him, ha! We arrived in Monterey, California at 2 a.m. their time…I’d NEVER been so happy to be where we were supposed to be – the Holiday Inn Express was my best friend!

Friday and still no Cali yet...

Hey friends and family - I wasn't able to post these when I wrote them - lack of Internet...but these next few posts are still from our trip out here - just thought I'd fill in the 'Future' gap before I start into the present!!

YAY It’s Friday!!  Yet still another long drive for today!  At least our tires all looked great after breakfast!  We started things off right; I drove and had my Vanti Carmel Frapochinno(?)!! AN’other point for Mommy! Yeah baby! We cruised at top speed or as top a speed you can get to going thru the mountains! I can tell you honestly with all my heart that I NEVER fully understood God’s glory and creation until this stretch of the drive!  This was breathtaking for Mark and I…and entertaining for the kids!  Who can look at this land and claim there is no God? They are lying to themselves! 

As we headed into the famous Eisenhower Tunnel the kids were amazed at how they made it, Ella asked “did they just push through it with a dozer dad?”  Then out of nowhere Keeg starts yelling into his fist, “Hey You….hey you…hey you!”  It didn’t take long to realize that he was trying to echo in the tunnel! Ha!!  He was SO serious!

We had a blast and were ready to stop in Vail, CO for a little lunch.  We drove back into one of the villages and gave the kids a tiny pile of snow to eat while we found food for lunch.  Keeg grabs it totally excited and says, “I didn’t think ‘bout it, but we’d shoulda bringed our mittens!” HA!  We found Taco Bell and ate outside in the sunshine and snow!  GORGEOUS!

                After lunch is when our next problem/set-back occurred.  Mark noticed our hitch was almost touching the ground…he checked and sure enough it was bent and one of his welds broke (it was still bolted on).  It was low enough that if we ignored it we would have surely lost the trailer!  So we hung out in the parking lot at Home Depot while daddy worked extremely diligently at fixing this…thank goodness he grab a few tools and we had the jack from my van (which help bend it back up) a 3 hour break…and we were back in business…I was still driving! As soon as we were back on the road Keegan says, “Alright Mountains…HERE I COME! Mommy, Daddy, I'm gonna be a super hero that flies to the tops of the mountains and gets people down!" My hero!!

                Keegan earned another point – he’s got an arm on him…he hit the front windshield with perfect aim at least 7 times with different objects…crayons, balls, a marker, and even a pillow pet or two! But I got a point cause while I was driving I took the crayons and tossed’em back and knocked Keeg right in the middle of his forehead! Ha!!  GO MOM!  

This part of the trip just went great!  Loved all the mountain views! Sang like a mom determined to sing louder than her kids in the back!!  JAM SESSION!

That afternoon Mark got a call from Mike, his boss who’s also headed out to Cali…he was about 3-4 hours ahead of us.  He’s also pulling a trailer (with all Mark’s stuff and our bikes in it, as well as the tools and such needed for the job).  He informed Mark that his diesel truck’s turbo exploded going thru the mountains and the dealer that he happened upon couldn’t get it fixed until Wednesday! What?!?

He was ok, thank goodness, but now we faced the issue of where and how to get Mark’s stuff and where to fit it! 

We found the trailer at about 11 p.m. Mark SHOVED his luggage into the van (it was touching the inside roof of the van) but our new struggle was Grissom, he was done!  He was ready to go to bed…a real bed and stretch out for the night…so we decided to call Cedar City home for the night!  We stayed at the Crystal Inn…but I had a hard time for some reason and I kept saying that we were staying at the Crystal Meth…hmmmmm I’ve never been good with words! Ha!! 

At least everyone got thru this day safe!!  And we were only about 45 minutes away from our intended goal of St. George!  There’s always tomorrow!!

Day 2...our first FULL driving Day - Thursday!

So…FULL day 1 of driving, which is Thursday we got a great start…to breakfast!  This is the quote Mark read to me at breakfast.  THE ONLY REASON IT WAS ON THE WALL OF THIS HOTEL RESTUARNT WAS FOR ME!!  We ate a nice breakfast and even got 2 kids eating free!!  Then I took Grissom out to the van and noticed that one of our tired was VERY flat!  We had enough air to get us to the gas station across the street and there is where we hung out while daddy investigated our situation…let's just say if it hadn’t been for that wall quote I’d be losing it!  So I did the best thing I could, made friends with the guy next to us…he happened to be waiting for his wife! He told us all about ½ moon bay in Cali and the falling cows (he said that the cows get on the steep hills without knowing how steep they are and end up just falling) ha! How sad! But Mark has placed that on his list of things to see!

Here Keegan earned another point.  He’d opened a toy (bendy sticks) and there happened to be a small piece of foam in this box…NOT COOL! He was completely covered in foam and we hadn’t gone anywhere!  Finally about 2 hours later we are on our way!  Late start, but at least we got a start! 

We were trying to make it to Kansas City KA to stop for lunch…Keegan won his next point on the way…he says, “Mom, I’m so hungry…I might throw up! I’m serious mom!” (Yes, I was talking in MY Keegan/low voice!) So I gave him a bag and said puke in this…he sat forward and starting making himself burp over and over again, paused and said,  ‘see mom…it’s almost out!” Mark and I cracked up…and yes…we made it to Kansas City, Kansas to eat lunch! Oh, did I mention that he’d also found the snack sized zip lock baggie box behind his seat, opened it and had a blast throwing every one of these ill bags (120 to be exact) around the van??  Point for Keg!

We were making way and all was great, the kids really are traveling wonderfully! Until they get hungry! Grissom was kind of fussing, and I quickly realized it was because of the need for dinner.  I asked him if he wanted Wendy’s and he SCREAMED at the top of his little lungs, WEN-IES!!!!!!  Oh….FRAUSTY!!!!!!  MEEE!!!!!! So we stopped at Wendy’s and had danced all around the restaurants and everyone got a kick out of him!  Grissom was awarded several points!

After dinner we are trying to get set for the kids to watch a movie and then fall asleep…everything really was going very smoothly!  Until out of nowhere Keegan says, “Mommy? You got any of my undies up there?” My answer was of course, “Uh, no…buddy…why?” He answers in a nice melancholy way, “Oh, I need some I just pooped my pants!” “Are you kidding me!!?  Check your pants please!” Ella was kind enough to help…I’m closing my eyes waiting for the news that will add yet another nice stop.  We hear, “Great!  No mom, it was just a tootie!” Another point!

We ended this day with a great reward for our whole family!  We stopped and hung out with the Steven’s family!!  Thanks SO much Stephanie and Andrew – we crashed their pad around 9:30 in the P.M. and partied until…late!  Kids left there ready to run a marathon thanks to AWESOME Mrs. Stephanie (compliments of cookies to go!)  Grissom fell asleep in the van eating one!  It really was SO nice to spend some time catching up with great friends!! We can’t wait to hang out on our way home!

I didn’t get to do much driving today, but that’s alright…I’ve been pretty busy entertaining the kids and like I said before our kids have done SOOOOOOO great so far…I’m a little nervous…things can’t continue this nice…or can they??  To be continued…

The first travel day/night (Wed - we left about 8 p.m.)

Well, We’ve been on the road now for only 3 hours…and we’ve had to make 1 potty break, 2 snack breaks (THANKS Jenny Yee!), we’ve had approximately 18 texts, 12 e-mails, 20+ blog posts, 3 fights over toys, watched Yogi Bear, and played with the amazing Constellation Turtle light-up toy Grissom got for his birthday from AWESOME Aunt Heidi and fam – (THANKS Wortley’s).  Now it’s 11 p.m. Mark still won’t let me drive – he’s a little touchy when it comes to HIS AWESOME trailer, ALL kids are sleeping…and we are speeding away!  We are going to pass St. Louis unlike originally planned and just book it until we can’t stay up any more (do NOT worry mothers, we will be safe about it!)…that way tomorrow’s goal to hang with friends in CO will be much easier to accomplish…Steph (oh, and you too Andrew) we are coming!!  So…IF I ever lived in IL I think I’d NEVER listen to the radio…We’ve been in Jamie’s world of 80’s…I think I’m feeling nauseous! HA!! We’ve come up with a point system; you get a point when you do something out of the norm…let’s just say Keeg’s blowing everyone out of the water!  When we left, Mommy got a point for starting out with Starbucks, then Daddy got a point for jumping on our lil’hitch (he said he was ‘testing’ it…I said he was humping it!).  Keegan received his first point when we made our first stop for gas in IL…he got out with Daddy ‘to help’ and ended up stopping the pump before it was done…so dad started the process over again to finish filling the tank and a whopping $3.61 (1 more gallon) we were full!  We got to the hotel in MO; Grissom earned his first point when I picked him up and he had wet through his diaper (not just a tad) and needed a bath!  At least we made it to MO without ANY problems! Thank You Jesus!