Guys! It is only four hours from Salt Lake City to West Yellowstone. Four hours. We should have been there by 2pm latest. We didn't arrive until after 11pm. Let me explain...
We got packed which took a while because we were still debating whether we should show up that day since Hyrum had thrown up the day before. We weren't sure how many more kids were going to get sick and we didn't want to infect the whole family. Plus, James had a job interview and a potential opportunity that needed a decision which he was sorely conflicted about. That resulted in him being completely worthless when it came to packing and loading the car. I did a lot of it which, of course, I didn't mind, but it did slow us down. We didn't actually leave our friends' home until almost noon.
Then we hit up Walmart to do our shopping for the week because we knew that the closer to Yellowstone we got, the more expensive and rare food was going to be. Now, we were driving to Yellowstone to be with James's parents and siblings where we were all staying in a big cabin together. Each adult child had been assigned a day to be in charge of dinner and James and I were SO excited about our dinner. I knew I didn't want to drive all the way to Yellowstone to spend all day cooking for 25 people so we had brought frozen BBQ pork meat with us on this whole trip, believe it or not, and we just needed to get all the sides and fixings - for 25 people. Our whole meal plan was BBQ Pork, coleslaw, a cold bean salad, fruit salad, corn salad and chips. I know it sounds like a lot, but all these sides are built primarily with ingredients from cans and jars. It was going to be epic! No one was going to go hungry this night for sure! (It was especially important for the meal to be mostly shelf stable because for the 25 of us, we only had one fridge/freezer combo for the whole week and my meal was toward the end of the week. Yikes!)
Well, it took me about two hours to do the shopping (with three kids) for this giant meal plus the shopping for all our breakfasts and lunches for the week. And then no joke, it took about another hour to pack it into the car. I did not consider that problem when I was purchasing all the food and as we pushed our fully stuffed cart to the van, it just hit me that I wasn't sure we could even pack everything we just bought. First world problem for sure!
Well as you can see from this picture, it all made it, BUT we were so stuffed. I was so packed in with food on my lap and everything. What exciting chaos!
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| Our vehicle was PACKED for this leg |
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| You can hardly tell there are three live children back there |
Temple #9! And because we are crazy and even though it is 3pm now, we stopped at Draper temple to take a picture because memories, right? I'm pretty sure the other two missed it because Hyrum was still sickly and Abi was too packed in.
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| Draper Utah Temple |
Temples #10 and #11! Our original plan included driving up to all of the temples we passed but this was the point where we had to start sacrificing for the sake of schedules. So now, it's just me in the pictures from the freeway and the teeny-tiny temples in the background.
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| Bountiful Utah Temple |
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| Brigham City Utah Temple |
After hearing a plastic rustling sound for quite a while as we drove along, I finally paid attention and discovered that the groceries - the carefully selected and packed groceries - were all shoved right at the level of the twins who were in sore need of entertainment on this, the fifth solid day of driving in the last three weeks. Sadly, we had suffered some casualties... Haha! At least I know now that they are at an age that they probably wouldn't starve as long as there was fresh food in the vicinity. They can now "get that goodness inside their own bodies" to paraphrase Brian Regan.
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| What used to be beautiful buns |
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| I think we have mice in the car with us |
The kids were quite bored and we were in need of a break, too, so on a recommendation from my brother-in-law, we stopped at this dairy and got ice cream which was delicious! The kids loved seeing the animals too. It was like a petting zoo/dairy. Interesting, eh?
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| Stopped at a dairy for ice cream |
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| The kids loved seeing the animals |
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| Her face when she saw her ice cream |
Temple #12! We had such great intentions for the temple scavenger hunt portion of our EPIC road trip. We imagined that our kids' enthusiasm for temples would soar and Abi especially would be so delighted at seeing so many! Wrong. By this point, we'd say, "Abi! What do you see?!?!" And, without even looking up, she'd say, "A temple..." in a completely even tone that could not have sounded less interested. Haha! So another EPIC road trip fail. However, that being said, Audrianne could now recognize the distinct look of temples and she did get very excited and point and say, "Temple!" which was a new word for her, so there's a win. I'm pretty sure Abi is not in this picture because she chose not to get out of the van. Oh well! Haha!
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| Idaho Falls Idaho Temple |
Temple #13! Ok, this temple is located in the same city as where Jake now lives and goes to school. It's about three hours from Salt Lake City. We are taking this picture at 8:40pm - more than five hours after we left Walmart. UGH, this trip just went on forever and ever! Haha! After this picture, we spent about a half hour with Jake at a park letting our kids swing so we could visit him and love on him for a bit. That was so nice! We love that kid and guess what? Another EPIC fail! No picture with Jake!
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| Rexburg Idaho Temple |
Ok, so just to add a cherry to the top of this very long, drawn-out day... this happened. As we're saying good-bye to Jake, he took the headrest off of Hyrum's chair and set it on top of the van to help Abi get into the back to her seat - the only way for her to exit and enter her chair as we were so packed. He did remind us not to forget that headrest. Well, we forgot it. We were about ten minutes down the road when it occurred to us what that strange tumbling sound was back in town on that one turn... OUR HEADREST! GR! Haha! We decided it was too late to go back and get it now and we called Jake to go walk the street and find it. He was already in bed - crazy kid - and said he'd do it in the morning. Well, we figured we'd never see that headrest again and basically cut our losses. Another fail for the trip. Amazingly though, when Jake went walking the street the next morning, someone had found it and stuck it standing up in the grass next to the sidewalk so he held onto it for us until our trip home the next week. How ridiculous!
We finally pulled into the parking lot of our cabin at well past 11pm and the family members who were still awake rushed out to help us carry everything in including the sleeping children. What a day! What a day! What a really, amazing, memorable day!
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| These kids are TROOPERS! |
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