We were really lucky that we were able to make the trek to Utah for Christmas. Rob was able to arrange it so that he could work from home for part of the trip, so we were able to spend two and a half weeks there this year.
We started off on our exciting adventure leaving the house a few hours later than planned at 9 am. When we got on the freeway, we found that the alignment was crazy off in the van from a tire rotation and oil change the day before. So not 10 minutes into our long (11 hour!) day of driving, we had stopped at the dealership to have our tires re-aligned so the car wouldn't go careening off the road if we were to ever let go of the wheel. 2 hours later we were finally back in the car ready to start and full of happy road-tripping dreams. All was well for a few hours until we got into a stretch of highway that runs through sever very small towns and the speed limit drops 30 mph. Sadly, the speed limit dropped while all of the kids were being very distracting, causing me to miss the signs noting said drop. When I saw the 40 mph sign (I was going 72) I slammed on my brakes, but not before a policeman clocked me first. Sad day. Now we'd been on the road for a significant amount of time and our happy road tripping dreams were fading with boring scenery and stormy weather. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere the storm started to get really bad. Finally Rob said "it's not warm enough for a tornado, is it?" so when I went to check his phone, sure enough it had pushed through a "tornado warning - take cover now!" notice. Thoroughly freaked out, we pulled over to the side of the road and watched the ginormous tumbleweed/bushes fly through the air while sideways rain and hail battered our car. It got so bad that Rob was thinking about driving down into the ditch to gain some protection if a tornado did pop up. I have really never been so mortally afraid for myself or family before! Thankfully, the storm started to wane, so we high-tailed it outta there toward the blue sky in the distance. By this time we were sorta over road tripping, but too far from home to turn back. So we pressed on. Because of our delays we were going to be rolling into Albuquerque around midnight and we were already exhausted by 7 (remember, we have a newborn and are already sleep deprived). We were so excited to see signs for Albuquerque in 40 miles, until the gas light came on. I quickly Googled the closest gas station (18 miles away) and then how far a Honda Odyssey can make it once the light turns on (14 miles, if you're lucky). Aw dang. Hasn't this day held enough nasty surprises for us already?! It was approaching midnight and snowy outside. What the heck were we supposed to do if we ran out of gas?! Thankfully, Google was wrong and there was a gas station a little closer that we made it to on fumes. We were never so grateful to pull into our hotel and fall into bed!
The next day we had high hopes that our bad luck had run out and that it would be smooth sailing for us on the second day of the trip. That morning we quickly got ourselves together to start as soon as possible. I nursed Benji and Rob went to pack the car up. After a bit I heard a kid crying that sounded like Ruby, but that wasn't coming from our room...and Ruby wasn't in our room. Half-naked, I ran out into the hallway with Benji and Grace followed us, to find Ruby being herded back toward our room by a nice man. I was so glad that she was easily found, until I realized we'd been locked out of the room. Awesome way to start the day! We had another 11 hours of driving ahead of us, but there would be some storms that would probably slow us down. We set out on the course that looked the least snowy. Yeah right. Who knew that we would climb so much in elevation through Southwestern Colorado so that the snow would be worse?! Not me. I hate snow driving, so my stomach stayed in a nice tight knot, that even a sailor would have been proud of, all day long. It was stressful, but uneventful until we stopped in tiny Monticello, UT for (yet another) bathroom break. While Grace and I were in the ladies room, Rob had pulled up to a pump to get some gas (we were understandably a little skittish from the night before) and when he went to turn the car back on, found that it would not start. The lights turned on and the dash lights flashed, but the car would not start. A good Samaritan tried to jump the car, but to no avail and the owner's manual made it seem like something else might be seriously wrong. That nice man took Rob all over Monticello looking for an open car repair shop, to no avail. Apparently not much is open in Monticello on a Saturday evening. So Rob walked in the snow down the street to a home and car goods store to borrow tools to see if it really was a dead battery, walk back, return the tools, buy a new battery, walk back, install it, return more tools...you get the point. After all was said and done, we were stuck at that Shell station pump for over two hours sitting in the car with 3 kids. One miracle that happened was that Ruby allowed herself to stay buckled in her car seat the entire time! It would have been too much to have all the kids out of their seats crawling around the heavily laden car, so I was at least grateful for that! The snow was fairly heavy and to say the least, I was freaked out most of the rest of the drive. At points I had to just put my head between my knees and play with Rob's phone so that I would be distracted enough to not freak out. We finally pulled into North Salt Lake around 11:30. What a relief to be done with that awful drive!
Ruby got Minnie Mouse gloves and a hat from Aunt Katie and Uncle Scott. She wore them pretty much the entire trip after that!
We were all excited to meet baby Bailey who was born to Katie and Scott 2 weeks after Ben.
A couple days before Christmas we did the Minivan Express. When the girls went to bed, they found these new jammies and a ticket to ride on the Minivan Express. We had popcorn and hot chocolate waiting in the car and we drove around to see the Christmas lights.
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