Fall Break- Day one!

Arizona has some strange school schedules. However, we love the breaks. We get a shorter summer and longer breaks. Fall break is about a week and a half, Spring break is 2 weeks and Christmas is 2.5 weeks. Sometimes that is good, sometimes... well not!

Originally we had plans to go to Utah so that we could have some work done on Tyler's legs. But Shriner's and our schedules got all messy really fast. So we have plans to do it again in a few months. We were a bit bummed and frankly I was so frustrated. It is so hard to be stuck in one place. We haven't been anywhere in almost 2 years ( for fun, not for surgeries) and I was struggling with needing a break. I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and TRY to drive the 12 hours on our own.

The "break" for myself never seemed to happen. I never got a chance to be alone in the entire week, but I didn't cry either. I always cry!! When I talk to D on the phone while we are gone, by day 2 or 3 I am in tears wishing we had never left. But I survived until the trip home, right around Page, before losing it!

The boys had a ton of fun and I tried to make sure they got to do things, but not get to overwhelmed. It was a pretty positive trip. On the  HUGE, fun ,plus side, we saw all of our cousins and the boys played till our heart was content.

Day one: Driving-

We left around 3:00 am. I have never driven so I was a bit nervous going. D and I had hoped that the earlier I left the more the boys would sleep, and well, that didn't happen.  They were awake the entire time to our first stop. We stopped for Breakfast in Flagstaff. Getting out when your temperature says 33 degrees is the BIGGEST shock to your system. Add that to a little boy that is Severely anemic and the fact that we left the Valley at 3 am and it was STILL 65 degrees. Needless to say we were a bit chilly.

About Page the boys fell asleep so I pushed to get to Kanab before they woke up. I was SO thankful to get to Kanab. I had researched every single town on our way and had the city parks of every single town so we could stop. It was the first time in my entire life that I was thankful that we have food issues and that I didn't have to stop to take little bladders to the bathroom. The park was heavenly and we were able to push out lunch till we found a McDonald's with a play place. ( In case McDonald's reads my blog, I wish they would make more places with amazing play places.... but nope. You sucked!)

* SIDE NOTE: *While at the park, the boys were met with 2 other little boys who lived there in Kanab. Tyler tried really hard to get them to play with him, but they were SOOO mean. I was so frustrated but needed the time to stretch out. But the grandpa was raising the boys and he had a dog. Oh boy did the boys LOVE that dog. It was a bitter sweet thing to watch. I was thankful when the grandpa stepped in with the mean kids so I didn't have to.

We pushed to Richfield where I KNEW there was a McDonald's with a killer play place ( thank you All Star Basketball teams) and we were able to stay there for an HOUR. Yes folks, I stayed at a McDonald's for ONE HOUR!! I knew what the last stretch held and I just hoped we made it with no more tears.

From Richfield to Orangeville was about 2 hours. Grayson decided he was all done and took off his seat belt more times than I could count. Finally I stopped pulling over and just let it go. Letting him go meant that I had a SEVERE anxiety issue but getting into the good old EC ( what us cool folks call Emery County and what we call it to make it sound WAY cooler than it REALLY is) and realized there were NO cars on the road and we were going to be OK. ( Longest part of the trip was the last 20 minutes. I could have fallen asleep then!!)

We pulled into my parents drive way in just enough time to hug and kiss on grandpa before he had to head to Priesthood conference. Aunt Nicky came down to see the kids and brought her dog, Oreo, aka our "cousin" so that they boys could play and she could kiss on a few faces. We were sad to miss my sisters kids but they would come the next afternoon.

I was so thankful to not be in a car any more. Had a great chat with my mom and was SOOOO thankful to go to bed.