There's No Place Like Home

Well, another roadtrip is under our belts...... and not without incident I might add. We left right after Michael and my sister Kim got off of work and were on the road by 5:00. I'm glad that Michael's getting pulled over for speeding through Moab wasn't bad karma. That was fun - explaining to our very curious boys why a police officer was blaring his spotlight into the car at daddy! That set us back about 1/2 an hour and oh.....$90! We broke up the trip by staying a night in Monticello, UT at the Days Inn. When I booked that room, I envisioned a roach motel with rodents all over the place. I had to laugh that night as we unloaded the van and a large mouse slowly scampered across the parking lot in front of us. The room was clean enough to not be grossed out, I'll say that much. The next morning when we were getting ready to leave, Michael turned his head and Scott accidentally fell off the bed and landed on his head. Fortunately he was fine! The boys went swimming in the pool with Michael while Kim and I went back to our room to get ready. We got out of there around 10:00 and made it to Pagosa Springs at around 1:30.

Two of my other sisters and their families also met up with us in Pagosa, as well as my parents and my younger sister Kim. So I'm sure we were overwhelming to my grandmother and my Aunt & Uncle who live nextdoor to her. But it was a good time! Thursday was our baby Scott's first birthday! I made him a Candyland Cake (thanks for the idea Holly) and we all celebrated with a pizza party too! Most of Thursday was spent going through tons of old photos my grandma has stored in her garage. Michael took the older boys out to one of the many nearby lakes to keep them out of trouble (and when they returned, Gavin had a fever and went to bed). It was really neat to see some photos as old as the mid 1800's. We wanted to go through as many as we could with her so she could help us name as many people as she could remember. We saw tons of cute pictures of my parents too! Above is a picture of my dad when he was the same age as Gavin - it's bad quality (a picture of a picture), but its something to share. See any resemblance to my boys??? I also loved this picture of my parents flirting - its so cute to see them so playful. My parents fell in love when my dad was 15 and my mom was 13. They got married when my dad was 19 and my mom was 17! Ironically neither were mormon (the getting married young stigma) (OK Michael says technically my mom was because she was baptized, but really knew nothing doctrinal) and a little over 40 years later, they're still together ( and by the way, they're mormon now)! We've come home with a huge tub full of photos to scan in and put on disc - that will be quite the undertaking!

Friday we decided to get out and made the trek to the Choke Cherry Tree Store that's known in town for its salsa mixes as well as its homemade jams, chocolates and various candies. Their homemade carmels that they dip in chocolate with various other nuts and whatnot are called "Moose Poop" and "Buffalo Poop," etc. - you get the picture.....We had to pose by this classy sign in front of the store! Who could resist driving by a sign like that and not stop just out of curiosity to see what exactly they're selling there!!?! Next we took the kids to the Red Ryder museum in Pagosa Springs. Yep - you heard right. Just like the the Christmas Story. I'd heard of the Red Ryder BB Gun, but didn't know it was also a comic series by an artist named Fred Harman. They also had a couch that John Wayne slept on when he was up there filming one of his movies, as well as various other pictures of John Wayne and a cowboy called Gunsmoke. I'd heard of these guys and don't know much really about many of them except John Wayne, and obviously I don't know much about him either when I pointed to a picture and said "Dad, let me take your picture next to the Duke." It was a picture of Gunsmoke and my father was quick to correct me. All the old cowboys look the same.....oops! The kids also took a picture by a wagon outside the museum. After that we wandered to a fun jewelry store and couple other fun shops in "town." Then we went off to Treasure Falls. We hiked up to the falls last time we came out, but this time it was covered in snow still. It was still beautiful. We went back that evening to go out to dinner with all the family that was around that night. Kenna, my older sister had already left to go back home. We went to a fun place called Hogs Breath Saloon (let me clarify - for dinner, that is). Yee-Hah! It was pretty good and then it was back to home to hang out. Gavin was really whiney all Friday morning and ran a fever off and on the rest of that day too. On top of that he was totally CONSTIPATED! The kid would not poop in a foreign toilet! Now that I think if it, I remember this happening with Jared too when he was around 4 years old! I guess Gavin has something that was contagious as well as the constipation, as Scott is running a fever today and both my sisters kids are now running fevers - gotta love family vacations. Sorry all!

Saturday morning we were packing up and taking pictures with Grandma before we left. I've got a picture in the slideshow of Scott with his cousin Landon (Kelly's boy). There's also a picture of Logan (Kelly's other boy) with Gavin and Jared, just hanging out. The last few pictures are of cool rock formations we saw on the drive home (courtesy of Michael) and you've got to love the picture of My Dad and Michael puting a garbage sack into a cooler. You'll love this - Gavin, for the last oh, 4 hours of the drive was just ranting and screaming that he had to go to the bathroom. We let him try to go at a restaurant, gas stations, and pulled over twice to the side of the road (during a 70 mile stretch of desert) to let him go. As I previously mentioned, the child was constipated and in a last ditch attempt, we lined the cooler with a garbage bag - no luck. We were hoping since that was something to sit on in the middle of the desert, it would work - not sure what we'd do after if it was successful, but we figured we'd deal with that when we got to that point. Gavin just couldn't let loose! I know that's disgusting, but anyone with kids gets it! So we continued to hear screaming, whining, crying, raving in the car until we got home and the first place Gavin went - the bathroom! The last picture in the slideshow is my cute Jared who was singing his heart out and watching out the window during the drive. So, all in all, we survived and managed to have a little fun, and like the cliche goes - there's no place like home!