We ended up bringing an old high school friend of Noah's (along with his wife and their kids)--the Lifferths all bailed, but we had a blast anyway, that is until the trip home, which will go down in infamy. . . but I'm getting ahead of myself . . .
The picture above is of Gabby and her new best friend Anna--they were inseparable through the whole weekend.
This picture was taken at Big Springs--the starting point for the Snake River.
Turns out Alex is allergic to mosquito bites--his eye nearly closed up completely. Alex would walk around with his mouth wide open just so his eye wouldn't be closed.
The main cabin.
We went off roading and played in the mountains for a bit.
Here's where the story gets interesting: This is a picture of our new car that we bought one month ago (1996 Lexus LX-450--the Lexus version of the Land Cruiser), also the car we took to the cabin. On the way home, we decided we wanted to take the scenic route through Jackson Wyoming. 10 miles out of Jackson, I notice that our car's engine temperature is in the red. We pull over, let the steam out, fill the radiator with water from a nearby river and then start our journey again. We were able to go roughly 8 miles (assuming those were down hill) before the car would over heat and we'd have to repeat the process of pulling over, filling the radiator with water, giving the car a break, and continuing on our way. It took us 5 hours to go 100 miles, and at that point we were in the middle of Wyoming where the biggest city has a population of 400. At this point, Noah called his uncle who lives 2 hours south of where we were stranded (in Lymen Wyoming). Noah's uncle offered to pick us up and tow our car to his house where we could stay the night. We tried to drive more on our own so we wouldn't have to use Noah's very gracious uncle, but at that point, our car was overheating every 5 miles and had also developed a bad shimmy. We were picked up at 10 PM and arrived in Lymen at midnight (12 hours after we had left the cabin on what should have been a 5 hour drive home). The following morning, Noah's selfless dad drove the two hours to Lymen and picked us up. Through all this, miraculously, our kids were incredibly good, and I didn't even drug them. We must have had angels in the car with us. I'll tell you though, I've now got huge respect for Mary, who rode on a donkey 9 months pregnant (I'm only 7 1/2) on her trip to Bethlehem--we were in a luxury vehicle and our accommodations that night were far better than a stable (not to mention I didn't go into labor).
This is a picture of Noah, who has removed the engine from our car and is in the process of rebuilding it. Turns out we blew the head gasket and bent a rod. On the bright side, once it's put back together, we'll virtually have a brand new engine.
On a lighter note, the pictures below are from our trip to California where we went to Lego Land, Disney Land, Grandma's house and the beach of course.
Lego Land: Noah and Alex ride on the train (Noah loved the ride, as you can see).
This is Alex (again at Lego Land) on a Go Kart track, where he caused numerous traffic jams.
This is our group: Noah, Step-brother Sam, his wife Emily, My dad, Step-mom, Step Sister Christie and their kids (I'm not in this picture--I have a policy of avoiding every picture I can when I'm pregnant).
Noah sees the Disney princesses for the first time (he's a big fan)
Gabby and Cousin Hazel on the tea cup ride
Mickey and the cousins.
Gabby catches her first wave. Noah also went surfing (not body boarding) and was able to stand up a few times. Even I couldn't resist riding in a few waves, despite my massive belly--I went for the body board, I figured 7 months pregnant is not a good time to biff it on a surf board.
Alex for the most part just enjoyed throwing rocks into the beach, although he did get knocked down a couple times when he got too close to the surf.
This is Gabby and Alex at their Great-Grandma's ranch in El Cajon (San Diego County) California (they're looking at the horses).
10 comments:
Hey! Where's the shout out for the one who provided the surf board? Just kidding.
Noah told me about the Lexus...that sucks. Way to go Uncle Randy! Saving the day!
Love you guys!
Great pictures. Glad Noah liked the Disney Princesses. How much is fixing the engine going to cost? With Noah doing the work I hope it's affordable. That sucks! Don't worry about not mentioning our visit in your summary of the summer events. No offense taken.
Okay, okay--two things were left out: we borrowed Zach's surfboard (Zach got stung by a sting ray), and THE MADSENS CAME AND VISITED US!!!
Oh, and the car will end up costing us about $800. So glad we're rich!
I'm sorry about the car-that totally sucks. We blew a head gasket in our '96 Montero about a month ago too. It cost too much to fix vs the value of the car, so we threw in the towel w/it. It sounds like you guys had tons of fun. I'm jealous about Island Park-we totally would've gone if we actually lived in the area. It looked like a lot of fun. Poor little Alex, though! What a trooper.
Wow, except for the car, that looks like lots of fun.
I'm glad that things worked out with the car, that must have been scary.
You have such cute kids!
I was going to buy the princess book for Gabby, but now I think I'll buy it for Noah. Don't tell him. I don't want him to get too excited.
We would've come back for you guys had we known! I'm so sorry about your car!
Anna and Quinn are still talking about our weekend together, thanks for having us along! We all had a great time!
-Wendy
Hey Kaila- here is my blog link!
You know, I actually have a friend who works as a Disney princess. Maybe I could try to set up a meet-and-greet for Noah? :)
Sounds like a great trip, and the ride back sounds like an "adventure," as Mom would say.
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