Summer Vacation to Nauvoo: California, Nevada, Colorado, and Kansas

We started our trip at about 4:30 in the morning on Tuesday June 28th. It's always best to get boring desert driving over with when you are fresh and the kids are asleep; California swished by in the wee hours. We fueled and had breakfast at State Line, Nevada . . . a silly tradition of ours on every I-15 trip we take.  We eat on the curb in the parking lot between the gas station and McDonalds.  This may seem strange, but there is a story.  

(travelling-story-from-years-past).  If you don't need to know the story, carry on . . . .

Breakfast At State Line, NV:  in the parking lot.

Elias is glad to be out of the car streeeetch!

Now he is doing karate, while Leah hopes for peace. 

A similar lunch.

We are now in Richfield, Utah.

Everybody geta a sandwhich, carrots, grapes, juice and a few cookies. 

The Highlight of our trip on day one was . . .

no, not the beautiful red and white striated Utah Cliffs,

But Dad Singing, at the top of his longs,

while dancing, while driving.

He was singing along with the radio to "Let's hear it for the Boys." 

We laughed so hard! Nothing is as good as laughter!

Sadly, I can't find the silly picture of him singing . . .

You'll all have to ask him for a Replay

of the show!

We finally arrive in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

We have been driving for thirteen hours. 

They sky is laden with rain clouds and we are supposed to camp. 

Wes vetos camping and grabs a hotel room. 

Hooray!  No more work for me. 

 We have pizza for dinner and the kids swim in the pool. 

I loved the sky in Colorado. 

The kids find the funniest things to enjoy. 

This is the side of the 70 freeway. 

We went for a walk on a path that went under the freeway.  

The kids couldn't pass up this "climbing wall". 

I let them--any chance to use up energy

after that car ride sounded good to me. 

It was very steep. 

I sitll like the clouds.

Their were a lot of bird nests under the freeway!

We enjoyed seeing the Colorado River-Author of the Grand Canyon. 

There were some kayakers the kids enjoyed watching.

Wes made us all touch the water. 

 "Now," He said, "in a few days, the water you just touched 

will have been through the Grand Canyon and washed out to sea!"

I wonder how long it does take water to go from Colorado to the ocean?

My wonderful family. 

This is what I loved about Colorado!

It was amazingly beautiful!

We planned our trip specifically

so I could see the mountains of Colorado.

I loved them!

On the contrary, our next day in Eastern Colorado

and Kansas was anything but gorgeous:

Driving through Kansas the next day

(for 12 hours) was really fun!

Here is what we saw:

Grass.

More grass.

More grass.

Redundant grass.

Hey--there's that white pole again,

 haven't we seen that before?

Oh, some bushes and trees! Hooray!

More bushes!

More grass!  Whee!

We just love looking at flat plains of grass

as far as the eye can see!

Boredom in the car leads to strange things!

Hands, Feet, and lollipops!

He's got mad-cow disease.

AHHH!  Pencil in the nose. 

He's crazy!

We took one stop in Kansas--you know,

just to enjoy the view some more. 

And eat lunch. Guess what we saw?

Yup--a field of grass!

A Travelling Story from Years Past

We once took a trip to Utah with plans to drive all the way to Mesquite before stopping for breakfast. We left in the wee hours, buckled the kids and drove like crazy. But the kids, who were little, were"dying" of hunger before we even got to Nevada. It seemed like eating breakfast was the only thing that would placate them. If you've travelled with little kids, you know what it's like when they are crying incessantly. We didn't want to wait and find some nice, grassy place to eat --what nice place would we find off the freeway in Nevada in the next 30 minutes before we strangled our moaning munchkins? None.

So Wes decided to pull off the freeway at the next exit. That happened to be at State Line and the exit conveniently had a huge Mcdonald's sign, which the kids all spotted immediately. Loud yammering for McDoanald's escalated as we arrived in the glamorous world of pavement and ever-blinking lights. Wes topped the gas tank at the station, then parked the car in between the gas station and McDonald's. He got out and lined the kids up on a curb. Knowing that a McDonald's breakfast would cost us well near 35 dollars, we had packed a box of cereal, some bananas, and milk (a whopping 8 dollars). With the kids lined up, we politely "welcomed them to McDonalds" and took their order: each "Happy Meal" came with a bowl of cereal, a banana, and milk. With the kids contented and munching, Wes and I surveyed our surroundings. We felt akward eating on a curb in the parking lot. However, the sun had just risen, so not many people seemed to notice our grovelling.


Nearby, at he gas station, two drunk redneck men had  parked their truck. The back of the truck was full of gasoline cans. And I mean FULL! (Think like twenty gas cans). The men were filling the cans with gas one at a time, laughing and bantering and loading the truck. What was hillarious to us, was that the cowboys were smoking puff after puff on their cigarettes; They dangled their smokes from their lips as they bent over open gas cans and wiped their fuel-covered hands all over their faces. Fortunately, nobody caught fire or blew up, but we were laughing so hard, sure these men should win a Darwin Award at their imminent death by fire.

Well, ever since then, we eat at the same place and re-tell the story of those two crazy men. We talk about Vegas and why smoking, drinking, gambling, and gasoline are bad ideas. We munch our cereal and consider the dishevelled state of gamblers at 6 in the morning while they consider our dishevelled travelling crew munching breakfast like pigeons on the pavement.

Travelling Note

Hi From Beautiful Nauvoo! We are here and having a fabulous time.  The car trip was wonderful and the kids were AMAZINGLY Good on the drive.  Really, I'm not fibbing.  We are safe and having fun.  Just wanted to let you all know.  Pictures and stories to arrive later. 

Blood

On Donating Blood:  Our church has a blood drive every year and I have never gone.  Wes always goes, but I don't. 

Here is the reason: I donated blood once fourteen years ago.  I am not afraid of needles or blood.  I love biology stuff . . . . I thought donating blood would be cool.  So I donated.  I fainted right before my bag of blood was full.  They had to throw it all away.  I so bummed to see my lovely blood go in the trash.  Sigh.  What a waste! 

Well, Wes and I celebrated our thirteenth anniversary this month.  The church was having it's annual blood drive and Wes was recruited to donate.  They asked me to go to, and I said, "Sure! It seems a fitting thing to do on a thirteenth anniversary!"

So we went, Wes with gusto and I with trepidation.  I drank plenty of water and ate well before going.  We donated blood on tables in the cultural hall of the church.  I did it!  I made it through the bag and felt great!  It was a lovely success and I was quite pleased with myself. 

We had the kids with us because we were leaving from there to go on a family outing.  So the kids and I went to the table for cookies and juice while we waited for Wes to finish up.  I sat down and then wham--I fainted.  A lady grabbed me so I didn't flop onto the floor. 

Passing out is a funny sensation.  I felt all tingly and then all warm, and then dizzy and then I was having the most fascinating dream.  I really didn't want to wake up.  But I did after about forty seconds.
Waking up after a faint is scary and disorienting.  I couldn't remember where I was or why I was there or what had happened to the lovely dream I was enjoying.  Then they were trying to get me to talk and answer questions and I wanted to speak but my mouth wouldn't work.  It felt like everything was in slow motion!

I ended up being very sick, almost throwing up twice, and not being able to get up for forty minutes.  It was awful.  I was sick, weak and tired for the rest of the day. 

But the best part of the story is this: the kids said, "Mom you fainted and then you were snoring!  Yeah, you were snoring soooo loud we could hear you out in the hallway!  Heee-hee-heee" 

Oh dear!  What a funny way to celebrate an anniversary!