Roadtrip!!!

With summer suddenly upon us and with no babysitting to worry about, I decided to load up the kids and head to Utah! I'd been wanting to go for a while, and figured why wait?!

At the last minute, my mom decided to join us. While I could have done this trip on my own, it was nice to have someone help out with Sam in the car. He liked having a steady stream of crackers headed his way. And once he had Nana trained, he was in Heaven! He got to the point where he'd grunt, then stick his hand in the air...expecting a cracker to be placed in it. Hmm, hope he doesn't plan on being "King of the Car" on every trip!

The boys were all great travelers (it didn't hurt that Mark had rigged up a laptop to play DVDs for them!). Our car trips generally have the same trend of comments/questions from the boys..."Where are we now?", "What is the next city?", "What city comes after that?" and so on until I've named every city between Visalia and St. George. Well, if you've ever driven that route, you know there is a whole lot of nothing to drive through. I realized that my answer to the "Where are we now?" question had too often been "The Middle of Nowhere" when Will kept asking the question and Gabe sternly whispered to him, "Stop asking that! She's just going to tell you 'The Middle of Nowhere!'"

We left Wednesday morning and headed to St. George to visit my Grandma Bea. Normally, we would have stopped in Las Vegas at the Bass Pro Shop, but we were a little behind schedule (due to a few too many potty stops and me deciding to rip the dust shield off the underneath of my van - lets just say that if I didn't it might have caused some major problems on the freeway) and both Sam and Will were asleep - so, I promised Gabe we'd go there on the way home.

Our visit with Grandma Bea was great. The boys love her and had a great time telling her all the things they'd been up to lately, as well as, showing off a few "moves". And, I can't possibly visit grandma without Will pushing the button on her emergency response necklace. As usual, he came through for me! He pushed it within minutes of entering her house! Oh well, at least we know it works (and the operators are always very nice about it!)!

Thursday, after getting the van repaired, we headed north. Along the way, there is more "Middle of Nowhere" to drive through. Though we did see the occasional herd of cattle or sheep. While driving past a herd of cattle Will asked, "If a hunter shoots a cow, does it turn into a chicken?" Huh? We decided that instead of trying to answer the question, we'd just stop for ice cream. (If you ever want super good Butterfinger ice cream, stop in Filmore at the cheese factory! Yum!!)

The boys and I dropped my mom off at her friend Colleen's house and headed to Payson to stay with my friend Shannon. Shannon and I are kindred spirits...it's so easy to pick up where we've left off. Sadly, it doesn't happen often enough! I think the kids could have stayed at Shannon's house the whole time and felt like we'd had a great vacation! They were nonstop motion from the time we got there until we left the next day. Shannon's younger two children are the same age as Gabe and Will, so it is so much fun to get them all together.

Shannon and Sam

Another highlight for Gabe and Will is that Shannon's husband Charles is a Police Officer. He took them out to his truck to show them all the lights, sirens, radio, etc. Gabe was absolutely wide-eyed the whole time! You would have thought he was at Disneyland!

Gabe trying on a Sheriff hat.

Gabe running from the police...over the speaker, Charles said, "Gabe Piton, you are under arrest!" Gabe ate it up!

Even Sam got in on the action!

Thanks Charles!!

It was nice to let the kids play outside. They rode bikes, scooters, and skateboards, jumped on the trampoline, chased each other, and just had a great time. They were quite DIRTY by the time we called them to come in.

Will discovered he really likes skateboards...

and when he could quite figure out how to ride it the "right" way he found a way that worked for him!

Dalin, Dalton, Ellie, Gabe, Sam, and Will

Ah, their true personalities come out!

(I love how Sam is looking back at them like he's trying to figure out who these crazy people are!)

After a bath, the boys enjoyed a campout with the kids.

It took them awhile to fall asleep, but boy did they sleep well!!