A trip to Remember!!

A few weeks ago, even though I was against the move, I agreed to help one of my best friends and her family move back home to Utah. Her husband was going to be driving the 26 foot truck pulling their car, and I was going to help Briana drive their truck pulling a 12X6 trailer and be a second set of hands for Kaiden, their 7 month old. Had I known what I was getting myself into I may not have agreed to go. After staying up til almost 11pm helping them pack and clean their house, we left Maricopa around 8am. I took the first driving shift. Please take note that I have NEVER--EVER--pulled a trailer, and especially in a large truck that I am not used to driving. I was a little nervous starting my experience in rush hour traffic...IN PHEONIX! But we made it an hour to Happy Valley and all was well...until Briana and I saw smoke coming from the trailer Todd was towing with their car on top. Right after we see smoke, we hear a really loud BANG, followed by more smoke. One of the tires blew on the trailer, and Todd didnt even hear or feel it. (and we seriously dont know how he didnt) So after a phone call, we pulled over and made a call to Uhaul to come change the tire.
This is Todd's cargo on the side of I17...notice how lopsided the Uhaul truck is. haha. It was so funny.

This is Kaiden happy as can be while we wait for Todd to go get a whole new trailer because it was the brakes on that trailer that caused the blow out. Around 11am we head back out on the road. We make a pit stop in Flagstaff for snacks and gas, and then Briana takes the wheel and we head out towards Kayenta, a small indian reservation on the way to Montacello. On the road there we not only saw a lovely drunk driver that Briana and I thought was going to kill someone, but this sneaky little (ok, maybe it was a bit larger then "little") rock jumped into the road and in the path of the tire of the Uhaul trailer that we were pulling. We made it safely to Kayenta about 3pm, stopped at Subway for lunch and discussed how the trailer tire that caught the sharpest part of the rock looked a bit low on air. So we drove across the street to the Chevron to check the air. After filling the tire Todd cant seem to find where the air is leaking from...that is until Briana moved the truck and every time the tire rotated it spit air and dirt. There had to be a pretty large hole in the tire. So Todd is once again BACK on the phone with Uhaul to get someone out into the middle of NOWHERE to change our tire. If they would just put a freakin spare on the back it would have saved us a TON of trouble!!! Well we got the go around for about 4 hours, thats right...I said 4 HOURS before they finally dispatched someone to come fix our tire out of FLAGSTAFF!!! They wouldnt be there for ANOTHER 3 HOURS!!!

So this is basically us, for 7 whole hours, waiting for stupid Uhaul to get their crap organized and come save us. During the wait we were lucky enough to have a beautiful view of this....

and this......

While we were stuck there we did a little shopping at Chevron...5 or more times...make bathroom breaks...and then snuggled up and watched baby einstien and tried to catch a few hours of shut eye! Did I mention Todd was SOO sick, and Briana was getting sicker by the minute?!! Joy! =) But luckily Kaiden was such a doll through the entire process!

Did I also mention it was like freakin below zero?? Okay so I am being a bit dramatic...but it was stinkin cold! When they finally arrive around 10:30pm they not only changed our tire, but another tire on Todd's trailer that was really low and would have blown. Yep thats 3 tires and we werent even out of Arizona!! Since Briana wasnt feeling so hott, I jumped in the driver's seat and at 11pm we are FINALLY leaving Kayenta singing "Goodbye and Good Ridence". Not even 10 minutes out of Kayenta there are police sirens behind me...I'm getting pulled over. And to make matters worse...it was a FEMALE cop. Good grief! I wasnt speeding, so I had no clue why she pulled me over. Aparently while the uhaul man was changing our tire it jiggled the wires loose and our lights on the trailer werent working. After sweating bullets that we were going to get a ticket, we only get a warning and then drive up to where Todd had stopped so he could fix the lights. After a half hour of ghetto riging the wires, they are duck taped to the bumper and we are FINALLY on our way.

There was a storm blowing in the next morning, and we had to make it through a place called Price Canyon before the storm hit...or we wouldnt be able to make it through. So we had to keep driving through the night. Around 2:30am we make a stop, and Todd gave me a 5 hour energy shot, 6 of these vitamins that help boost your energy, and a coke. I think its safe to say that did the trick and I was WIDE AWAKE! The rest of the trip was uneventful and Todd and I drove thru the night to arrive in Vernal at 7am! I didnt think we would ever make it, but we did. And did I say how dang proud of myself I was?!! Heck ya I was...I drove all night long, pulling a trailer through a really scary canyon and didnt kill anyone!! Go me!

While I was there I spent a lot of time getting to know her super fun family, and just relaxing. Todd had pnemonia, and Briana and I had begining stages of it. Luckily I never got any worse...but maybe thats because Briana (unknowingly) gave me 3 times the dose of cough syrup with codine and a tylenol pm. If she hadnt of woke me up the next morning...Its a wonder if I would have woke up at all!! haha Needless to say even though it took us 23 hours to get there, it was seriously a FUN trip. We made so many memories, and I havent laughed that hard that often in a long time.

This is what I did during our down time...relaxed and played on my iphone!!

Since I didnt have my husband to cuddle me, Briana shared a lounge chair with me while we watched a movie and ate junk food!

She just couldnt resist this!! haha.

On tuesday Briana drove me to Salt Lake to fly home. Her super sweet Grandma (who reminds me so much of my own Lollie, who I miss so much) paid for me to fly straight home and not have a layover. It was so sad to say goodbye to someone who I seriously would talk to everyday (some days multiple times) and see almost just as often. We had become so close, that it really has been so hard to have her so far away.

Me trying to get over my nerves about the flight.

Briana and I having our tear free goodbye. We were both so brave. haha. (the tears were earlier) I miss this girl so much already, and there has been so many little things that I have thought..."I should invite Briana" or "I should drop this off" only to realize that she is now 11 hours away. I'm just grateful for someone who I know will be a friend for life, and I know that no matter how much time passes, when we see eachother we will just pick up from where we left off. Thanks to all the Mott's for making me feel welcome, and for all the laughs and memories. And thanks Briana for being such a great friend. Love you and miss you!

And the Winner Is......

Anastyn Marie!! I have always thought that the first black eye would most DEFINATELY be Porter because he is always SO rough and 100% BOY! Well to my surprise my little princess is the first of my children to sport the Black Eye! Not so rugidly attractive on a girl!

This is the day after it happened. Swollen, but not yet bruised too badly. Let me backpeddle, and explain how this event happened. I was in Utah helping a friend move (this will be another post...and its a doozy let me tell you) so my sweet sister in law and brother watched the kids for the weekend and then they were with Daddy for monday and tuesday til I flew home tuesday evening. Monday night at dinner Kameron sat the kids down to have a yummy meal of Hot Dogs! Well aparently he forgot to buckle Anastyn into her chair. Porter decided his baby sister needed some ketsup and covered her tray with it. Kameron then took off the tray to rinse it off, and thats about when from the corner of his eye he sees her face plant into the hard kitchen floor. Kameron felt SOOO bad, and still does. After a long time screaming, she calmed down and it hasnt seemed to bother her since.

Happy as can be!!

Then this morning her eye I think has hit its worst day! The black and blue has set in. My poor baby girl, it makes me so sad everytime I look at her.
All I have to say is after being the one home when Porter ended up with stitches, I am glad to say that for Anastyn's first BIG spill I wasnt there or responsible for it. haha. Despite the swollen eye she has been the cute sweet little girl we know and love. Daddy is so sorry sister, and loves you very much!!

Farewell Girl's Retreat

Last weekend I was able to go on an overnight retreat with my good friends Briana and Ashley. Briana is moving far far away from us, so she surprised Ashley and I with a night at the Intercontinental Montelucia Hotel out in Scottsdale for 24 hours worth of pampering! It was SO much fun we didnt want it to ever end. After the men were home friday, we all packed the car and left to check into the hotel and then find some grub! We ate at this really fun place called the Saddle Ranch Chop House. It was a western themed, bull riding, cotton candy eatin, good time! No we didnt ride the mechanical bull, although the manager offered us a free ride if we would go up there. But I couldnt talk Briana into it! haha. There was also a misunderstanding with the waiter, and lets just say...I dont think I will EVER live it down!

Briana, myself, and Ashley after we ate WAY too much!! After dinner we found a costco to buy some strawberries and raspberries, and then headed back to the hotel where we ate an overload of candy, chocolate covered strawberries, and sparkling cider. We then decided to give ourselves a "Pre-Facial Facial" because we wanted to make sure we were ready for our spa treatments that were waiting for us the next morning.

Arent we adorable? Okay, so we are a little scary, but seriously we had way too much fun listening to some good ol' Willie Nelson while soaking our feet in the amazing jaquzzi tub in the bathroom!

This is Briana doing her stretches before she entertained us with the Baby Einstein Dance! haha

We also went to the hot tub and relaxed, laughed, and froze our butts off running back to the room. Okay, so this is just funny and I HAVE to blog it, Briana might kill me. but I dont care...When we first got to the room, Briana discovered that you could listen to music while you are in the shower, and said "The rule is, when you shower you HAVE to listen to music". So when we got back from the hot tub, Briana went in to wash off and started singing (without even realizing it, haha), so Ashley and I had a wonderful idea! =) We turned the TV to some sort of symphany music and I snuck my arm in the door and cranked the volume FULL BLAST in the shower and not that we werent laughing hard enough, but then we heard Briana let out a shrill scream and then yell "OKAY WHO SAW ME NAKED??" hahaha. Maybe you had to be there, I dont know but I am laughing just thinking about it.

This was Ashley at like 9!!! Okay so it was more like 10, but still, she was out first!

Then there was me, and the answer is YES, I jumped on the bed at a 5 star hotel!! I'm kind of a night owl, and obviously a little crazy! We then gave ourselves pedicures and I painted and did designs on our toes. It was so fun to just laugh and be silly. I'm a little sad that we didnt get pictures of toes, but I think they were both asleep by the time I finished mine. haha.

The next morning we slept in, grabbed some breakfast at the Crave Cafe there at the Hotel, and then headed to get some Sprinkles. Aparently they are a big deal in LA, they are a cupcake shop that are overpriced, but really tasty. After we enjoyed a little snack we headed off to The Lamar Spa, where we all enjoyed facials, and massages. We sat with our feet in the jacuzzi, sat in the saunas, and enjoyed the relaxation of being pampered! This is only my second time ever going to a spa, and I have to say...I LOVE it and so wish I could afford to go more often.

I just have to say how much I am going to miss this girl!! We just became really good friends within the past 6 months, and it makes me so sad that we didnt get to know eachother sooner! She is such a great friend, and so much fun to hang out with. She is the perfect combination of sweet and spice...kind of like myself. lol! Maybe thats why we get along so well, we are both feisty! Thanks so much Briana for making this weekend happen and possible. It is something that I will always remember. Its farewell for now, but we will see you very soon! =) Love you and miss you already girl!

And here is a tiny picture of the hotel courtyard. BEAUTIFUL!! We didnt take any pictures of the grounds, which is sad because it was gorgeous.