Road Trip!

Last weekend we went to go visit Daddy in Las Vegas! It was a whirlwind trip, but definitely worth it. Jayce had to work the 2pm-12am shift Friday night so there really wasn't much point in getting to Vegas until Saturday morning but I didn't want to drive the whole five hours on Saturday so we split up the drive and went to St. George on Friday. My friend's parents graciously took us in for the night and it worked out wonderfully.

At the advice of a friend I got cookie sheets and those big horse shoe magnets from the Dollar Store so that they could be entertained on the way down. The had other magnetic things to play with and on the whole they really enjoyed them. I would definitely recommend this to anyone else looking for ways to entertain their kids in the car.

Jack probably enjoyed it the most over the course of the trip.

 On the way down we stopped at my Grandmother's grave in New Harmony. The boys left her a pin wheel and I had hoped for a really cute picture of them there, but the boys were on the verge of melt downs, so this is as good as it gets!

 Jack found the only mud puddle in the entire cemetery I'm sure and after looking away for a minute he somehow ended up like this:

It happened so early in the visit that when I was trying to take pictures he was actually smearing mud from his shorts on Grandma's grave because he kept leaning against it. Ugh. Hopefully she felt like she got a good show watching her unruly grandchildren. It was the most frustrating moment of the trip thus far. I changed his clothes and then had to wash off his shoes and Ben's because he just couldn't miss out on the fun, and leave them out to dry while we ate some more snacks.

Other relatives. I took this picture because the "Born in Switzerland" part made me think of Rebekah and I thought it was cute that they really wanted to claim their motherland.

I thought Pearl Amelia had a really sweet ring to it.

We finally made it to St. George! My friend Robyn had told me about this splash pad down there so we went to go check it out. It was great! The boys absolutely loved it. We were there in the early evening so it wasn't blazing hot but the water was still nice and warm from the sun. My kids are hit or miss with splash pads because they don't like being splashed by cold water, but they LOVED this. They were practically bathing in it by the end. It was so fun to watch, I'm so glad we went.

Like I said, they practically bathed in it.

We ate a sack dinner there and played for a little bit longer before heading to the dressing rooms to change. Such a good night.

We drove over to the St. George Temple so that we could walk around the grounds a bit before heading to the house we would spend the night at and as I was getting them ready to unload I couldn't find Jack and Ben's shoes. It hit me all at once that I hadn't seen their shoes since New Harmony and my stomach dropped as I thought, "Surely. Surely I did not forget their shoes in the cemetery where I left them out to dry after washing the mud off." I checked all over the car, then I checked again, and then I triple checked. There was no way I could have left their shoes. Their new shoes. They loved those shoes. Bammy bought them those shoes. Where were those stinking shoes?!

Yup. Back in New Harmony. I had to go get them. I told the kids there was a change of plans and that we would do the temple another time ("Nooooo!" from Cameron) and that we were going to spend some extra time in the car, but not to worry because we could turn on a bonus movie.  ("Yaaaayyy!")

We back tracked 40 minutes to where these little guys were sun bathing.

I'm pretty sure this story somehow escaped my mind when I next talked to Jayce, so he gets to find out about my air headed road trip moment alongside all of you!

I was so mad at myself that I just had to vent, so I texted someone I knew would "get me" in this moment.

Frustrations aside, I sighed a prayer of relief when I saw those little shoes waiting for me on the gravel, grateful that they were still there after 4 or 5 hours. I also got to enjoy a moment of peace in the beautiful little cemetery while the boys continued to watch Monsters Inc. (My grandmother's grave is literally right next to the little road we drove in on, so the boys were still right there in the car.) I'm sure Grandma Terry got a kick out of the whole situation!

 We finally made it to Megan's in-laws house (which was beautiful by the way) and then crashed! Cameron shared a bed with me. You can see that he's not the easiest sleeping buddy based on the picture of how he ended up the next morning, but he sure is cute.

All of the boys were fascinated and terrified of the cougar they had mounted on the wall.

His face!

Ahhh, it was a long first leg of the trip, but already full of adventure.