Road Trip Mission: Impossible (Part 1)

My Aunt Patti came into town Friday, May 18th. She had a few returned missionaries she wanted to visit, a homecoming, a wedding reception, and a graduation that all fell within a week or so of eachother. You'd think with her living in Arizona, that the logical thing to do would be to stick around town for a couple weeks...so she did. She stayed with us through the end of the month and then had plans to head down to my parents in Longview, Texas. The trip to my parents house is 1360 miles. One. Way. It ends up being about a 23 hour trip. So you can imagine that everyone was really nervous about her making the trek all by herself. On a last minute whim, I decided I would make the trip with her. Clayton was supposed to be flying out the following Sunday, by himself, and I was a little nervous about that; but with Aunt Patti already going out there, we decided to car pool. So I cancelled Clay's plane ticket and Aunt Patti, Clayton, Cody, and I all piled into her 2009 Toyota Corolla-otherwise known as Scarlet (you can probably guess that she's red). We left Friday, June 1st, after I got off work, probably around 7:30ish. We drove til about 2am and ended up in Cortez, Colorado, where we spent the night. Most of us were ready for bed and hoped to sleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows-however, Cody was wound up tighter than a corkscrew. We (Cody and I)ended up having a very rough night together. He didn't get to sleep til after 4:30am, and we were back on the road by about 8am the next morning (Saturday, June 2nd). Aunt Patti did most of the driving. And even though I didn't get to sleep (cause I was catering to my boys and their wants/needs) I was able to get some "mental" rest (I say mental rest, because I wasn't having to think about directions or concentrating on the road). Aunt Patti says that she likes to drive anyways-but as we all know it can get pretty mundane and sometimes you just need to rest your eyeballs! Anywho, we drove all the way to Albuquerque, NM and Patti's battery light came on. So I did what any little girl would do, I called my Dad. Dad said it was probably the alternator and that we should take the car to a shop right away. As he said that, we passed a Toyota dealership right off the exit, so we got off the next exit to flip around and go back to it. After getting to the dealership and unloading the kids, who were hungry and cranky, the car died. It literally stopped idling the second the kids got out of the car. Anyways, the car guys were great and very fast. They had a playroom for kids with comfy bean bag chairs for the adults and a tv playing cartoons nonstop. Cody LOVES little chairs...have no clue as to why... After waiting in there a bit we decided to walk over to Walmart and eat at the McDonald's inside. We came back and the car was ready. Turns out it WAS the alternator and we got the very last one. (My Dad is always right!) $800 and 3 hours later, we were "On the road again...." (I know it sucked that it was such an expensive fix. But Aunt Patti and I can't help but recognize the tender mercies that surrounded us all day. The fact that we broke down in a huge city and not in the middle of nowhere. The fact that we passed and were able to find a Toyota dealership so easily and quick. The fact that the car died AT the dealership and not on the side of the road. That Walmart was in walking distance AND I had a stroller. The dealership had a playroom. We got the very last alternator. The list goes on and on. We couldn't have had a more perfect mishap....if that makes any sense at all.) After getting the car fixed and getting back on the road, we made it to Amarillo, Tx. We had talked about continuing on, but we were exhausted. We'd had a LONG day, it was pouring rain, Aunt Patti was car sick and we were ready to call it quits. We must have driven to 4 different hotels looking for a room with 2 beds on the bottom floor, with no luck. But we finally found one at the Travel Lodge. So we stopped for the night. I was able to put the kids in the bath and gave Cody a little night cap of Benadryl. There was no way I was going to make it through an all nighter like the previous night. We all slept great and woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go. We started the drive that morning (Sunday June 3rd) knowing that we'd be to my parents by dinner time. I was so relieved knowing that we'd be on solid, non moving ground, by dinner. I love road trips, but that trip to Texas is by far one of the worst. There aren't really any cool landmarks or pretty scenery. Just rolling hills, dirt, and lots of weeds and cows. Not to mention, Cody. Let me just say that he was blessed with a great set of lungs. He's a screamer. (I'm sure I've mentioned this before) He also HATES his carseat. So you can only imagine his love for this road trip. Not! If anything calms him down it is tickling. He loves to be "tickled" or scratched(?). It doesn't matter where you do it on his body, his arms, his legs, his belly, etc. He will sit and stay as long as you are tickling him. I just think that is so funny. (I'm not sure why or who Clay is "saluting" in this picture.) By the time we made it to my mom's, we were all pretty tired of being in the car. Nevertheless, WE MADE IT!!