Utah Trip Part 1: The Trek West

I am sitting here staring at the computer trying to psych myself up to start recapping this entire Utah/road trip excursion. There was so much that happened and we had so many great experiences that it is hard to know where to start or how to tell all the stories. I guess I just have to jump in....so here goes.

On Friday afternoon, July 20th, the kids and I picked up Cody from work and headed off to cousin Robin's house for the night. The kids were very excited to see their cousins and jump on the trampoline. Hazel was very happy to stretch out on the floor. She has been low crawling for a few weeks now and starting to push herself up. I thought this was a great capture of her pushing up abilities.

We decided to give her a lime and see what happens.

This great face was the result.

All the kids enjoying the trampoline.

Saturday morning we got up super early, actually we really never went to bed because all of the kids had trouble sleeping, not a great way to start a long road trip, and headed to Katie's house in Wichita.

Cody and I were both super tired all day but I promise you his eyes were open most of the time.

Mist hovering over the midwest countryside.

For lunch we stopped at a playground to let the kids run around.

Before the trip, I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking for ideas for keeping kids happy on a long road trip. Some that I used worked really well, others were just okay. One idea was to have lots of little prizes for the kids so that every so often or whenever you stopped they got to open another prize if they had been good. The kids really liked this idea and it seemed to help the trip a lot. Some prizes were to play with in the car and others were to keep them happy at rest stops. Another great idea was to put up a string across the car and move a picture of a car towards a picture of our destination. Cody printed out pictures of all the different houses we would be stopping at and a picture of a silver Honda Odyssey. I had them lamenated and we used clothespins to move them along. Every hour or so we would move it a little closer. It helped the kids track our progress. They loved it.

Don't ask me how this picture of Antonio and Hazel got in this spot but I have wasted 10 minutes trying to move it so here it stays.



Pepper showing off one of their prizes from the dollar store.



Hazel's toes peeping out of her sleeping cocoon from earlier that morning.

Hazel makes the best "squishy" faces that just make everyone laugh. This one seemed to take a dark turn and made her look like a witch.

There's the beautiful smile we all know and love!

Back in the car and zonked out. One advantage of kids not sleeping very well the night before was sleeping a lot in the car. Unfortunately, they rarely slept at the same time and had a nasty habit of waking each other up and then there was a lot of screaming. Oh, and the Captain America shield was Morgan's big prize at the start of the trip. He was a very happy boy.

The big prize Pepper wanted was Thor's hammer. We found her a little soft one that she was very happy about and then she lost it at Robin's house. Luckily, Pepper has a much easier tempermant and this did not ruin the entire trip. She was just happy to know that Robin found it and that we would get it the next time we went to her house. Such a happy little girl.

Morgan's sleep line from the suitcase.

The headphones worked like a charm except when they kept sliding off of Pepper's hair. I had to make sure I pulled her hair back from then on. But she also seemed happy to watch a movie and listen to our music at the same time. Win win for everyone.

We made it to Katie and Bruce's house on Saturday evening around dinnertime. We were so happy to be there and to see everyone. The kids immediately took off playing with all of their cousins. It was just perfect.

They have afternoon church so we spent the morning just relaxing and playing and eating lots of yummy food. Very happy kids.

The missionaries came over for dinner and the kids had even more fun torturing them.

Cody with Lyssa, Tiffany and Hazel.

Hazel's crawling squishy face.

Mandie and Mason

Lyssa and Tiffany

Pepper and Lyssa had a great time playing hairdresser.

Movie time: Morgan, Tiffany, Suzy, Alan, Mason and Mandie

It was so nice to visit with Katie and Bruce and their beautiful family. They have the sweetest, most well-behaved children that were just an absolute joy to be around. I really wish we lived closer so that we could all spend more time together. Now, they just need to make the trek east:)
Cody and I came to the realization that our kids do great in the car until about 4 or 5 pm and then everything just falls apart. To lessen this madness we decided to leave Wichita at 2 am. I know it sounds crazy but it worked so well for us and Monday was one of the nicest driving days we had. It was another 15 hr day to get to Vernal but it went really smoothly. Good thing we had two good nights of sleep at Katie's.

Another early morning this time crossing Kansas and Colorado.

Morgan taking it easy.

Pepper showing off her age and her new prize of a swimming Barbie.

So peaceful.

Cody with his angry driving face...or maybe it's just the glasses.

Can you believe these skies?! This was on the way to Vernal in Colorado.

On the home stretch into Vernal we had to stop at a Walgreens for a potty/nursing break and we decided the kids deserved another prize. Luckily, they had some toys on sale so Morgan got a bow and arrow like Hawkeye and Pepper opted for Thor's helmet. This girl is obsessed with Thor, who I'm pretty sure she thinks is a girl!

So that was our first few days of travel. We finally made it to Vernal and Grandma Jean's house at dinnertime on Monday.