Summer trip #1

The only downside to Scott’s job, is it’s timing. He started work a week before my scheduled vacation time. Which meant he wouldn’t be able to join me on my trip to Utah (to see his sister and attend my family reunion) and Arizona (to see his ailing grandma). He decided to take an early vacation with the kids. His mom suggested that he invite his sister-in-law, and her two kids to join him. They would be able to split the costs of the trip and trade off driving on the VERY LONG drive.

Things didn’t go quite as we had planned. To begin, the customer service person I spoke to misinformed me about the guarantee of the vehicle I needed. We ended up without a car rental. I frantically tried to find another vehicle, but no one could had an 8 passenger van (Shane and I were going to fly down to Arizona a few days later to join them on the trip home).

We revised our plan. Maddy would drive Scott and the kids down to Utah and Arizona in her Durango. I would rent a smaller car for Scott and our kids to travel home with. That would allow Maddy and Shane (who had more time off work than I did) to take a more leisurely trip home.

This still sounded nice and relaxing. (Insert evil laugh.) Little did Maddy and Scott know that this would be an adventure that would test their patience and sense of humor.

To begin with, the Durango started acting up on day 1. It struggled to go the speed limit. They almost ran out of gas in the middle of no where and had to drive miles out of their way to get the gas. The car continued to act up. So they ended up spending the night at a rest stop.

The next day, they had the car towed to the nearest mechanic. The kids were hungry, but the closest place to get breakfast was over 1.5 miles away. They walked. To conserve space, we had packed a small compact stroller for Zeke, instead of the sit-n-stand. So Lily was forced to walk the distance in her crocks. She ended up with blisters on her feet.

The only good thing about that morning, was that there was a McDonald’s playland. But after over 3 hours of playing. The kids were tired of McDonald’s. The mechanic hadn’t called, yet. but they decided to all walk back to the mechanic to check on the car.

The mechanic couldn’t find anything wrong. He was kind and didn’t charge them anything.

They continued on their journey. Zeke got car sick. He isn’t used to being in the very back of a van. He threw up a few times. Poor Scott had to clean it up.

They finally made it to Scott’s sister’s house. Lily loved seeing “Baby Persephone.” She thought she was so cute and sweet. (BTW Scott is fired from taking pictures. He didn’t take a single picture of his new niece!)

After a little more than a day of rest, they continued on to Arizona. They were stuck in a rain storm that was so severe, they had to pull over because they couldn’t see the road.

They finally made it to Phoenix!

I, on the other hand, enjoyed a lot of “me time.” I worked on craft projects. I read books. And then I took an uneventful flight to Phoenix.

We immediately went to see Scott’s grandma. She is so sweet. She loved seeing her great-grandkids. (This was her first time meeting Zeke.) She told us stories about Scott’s dad and grandpa. Scott’s aunt was such a wonderful hostess. She welcomed all of us into her home (Grandma lives with her). She didn’t mind when the kids explored her home, and touched all of her things. She simply put a few fragile, sentimental things away and let them explore the rest.

Sadly, Grandma had a heart attack while we were there. It was so hard to see her in pain. There was nothing we could do to really comfort her. We held her hands, gave her water, and spoke words of comfort. Scott, Shane, and Chris (their cousin) also gave her a priesthood blessing.

The next day, we took Lily and Zeke to the Mesa Temple. Their favorite part was the water fountain. They still didn’t want to pose for pictures. Twerps

Chris and his family invited us to go swimming with them. It was fun. (Even though Zeke, the dare devil, tried to jump in the 5 foot deep section without a life jacket.)

The next day, Scott, the kids, and I had to head home. We visited Grandma one last time. It was hard to say good-bye to her. We know it will be the last time we see her in mortality.

We decided to go home through California so we could see my sisters, Ann & LaDawn. It was my first time visiting them in six years. (I know, I’m a bad sister. I had to get over my fear of running in to certain other people that live in that state.) It was a very brief visit.

Scott loved getting a super mini tour of Google. The kids’ favorite part was the robots in the vestibule.

We definitely want to go back to California and spend more time with Ann, LaDawn & co. Maybe we can do that next summer.