Tire Fruit

Our first stop today was at the hotel Marie left Jingle Puppy. She was so excited to have him back. I'm pretty sure I would have driven out of the way to get Shiver back for Preston.

Marie & Jingle Puppy

I got a new charger and was able to pry the broken part out of my phone.

We were making great time when we started to hear a weird noise. Rachel pulled over and we found out we lost a part of the tire. It was like a piece of fruit by the foot fell off the tire.

We tried to get it fixed as soon as possible. We drove through this town that looked like a ghost town. I finally took a picture, but most of the bad part was behind us. We did not want to sit and wait in a scary area like this with four little kids.

Rachel ended up driving on it for over an hour, but we made it to Memphis. The guy at Goodyear was super nice. They stayed open for us and got it fixed as fast as they could. He also told us about a delicious barbecue place that we could walk to. We hung out here while the car was being worked on.

Stephanie, Grace, Marie

 Eve, Rachel, Mina

 Eve often scowls and I find it hilarious

 Grace and Mina

We were finally back on the road, but that set us back several hours. It could have been tons worse though, so we were lucky. After awhile Grace started freaking out. She was crying and crying. Rachel thought it was her potty cry, so she pulled over trying to get her to go to the bathroom. She wouldn't stop crying. I took Grace and was able to get her calmed down. Because I'm her aunt.

Stephanie and Grace

I sat in the back with Grace for the next few hours. Turns out she didn't want to watch Pocahontas. We put a blanket over our heads and sang primary songs until she was calmed down. We made it to Birmingham Alabama. Eve had just fell asleep. Rachel said she was easy to transfer. Rachel went and got the keys to the room and asked that a crib be brought up. When we got in the room, there was no sheets or anything on the bed. We had to go and change rooms. It took a long time with a lot of commotion. Eve woke up and then it was super hard to get her back to sleep. Rachel had to go to the car to grab something. While she was gone the front desk called and said they had a noise complaint and we needed to keep it down. I told her we were doing the best we could, but the kids woke up. I'm thinking, there wouldn't have been a noise complaint if the room had been ready! Whew!!! What a day!

Stockton had his last bowling class today. Mike told me he won the eliminator bowling challenge. Everyone bowls one frame and the lowest is out. Repeat until only one remains. The last two contestants were Stockton and his teacher. Stockton got a strike for a win. Pretty awesome. Stockton even won this fancy trophy.

Spare Tire

Mike was in Wyoming for several hours this morning looking for a replacement tire.  When our tire exploded yesterday it also destroyed the rim.  Mike said the tire store employee was really nice, but they couldn't find anything.  They called all around as well, but no luck unless we wanted to wait two days.  We did not.

Nathan and Bobby left this morning.  Zac and Heather left right as Mike was coming back from the tire store.  It was fun to talk to Heather this morning.  Hopefully we can do another cabin trip like this and hopefully Heather and Aubrey don't have volleyball when we plan it.  It was funny, both Heather and Nathan thought President's Day was next weekend.  Both of them probably would have said no if they realized. I'm glad this worked out!  It was a lot of fun.  Nathan has to ride home on a makeshift donut though because he hurt his tailbone sledding.  We are all getting old.

Heather and I were talking about different memories at the cabin.  She said, "I remember being here when Chuck died.  I remember where I was standing when the phone call came in.  I remember Grandpa crying after he answered the phone."  I told her that was the first time Mike came to the cabin with me.  We talked about that for awhile.  I said, "That was February 15th."  We looked at each other and were surprised to realize that was today.  24 years ago.  Wow.

We weren't able to leave until a little before 4:00.  Stockton drove the van with the spare tire with Mike, Maysen and Jorja.  I drove the jeep with Preston.  We drove that way until Evanston where we stopped for dinner.  I was looking forward to ordering oatmeal at McDonalds.  It was delicious.  I had been eating candy nonstop.  It helps me stay awake.  The oatmeal felt so good on my tongue.

I drove the van the rest of the way home and Mike drove the jeep.  Mike told me to not go over 55 miles.  We made it home a few minutes before 10:00.  We were all exhausted when we got home, but I'm glad we got back safely.  Tomorrow is going to be hectic.  Man, I miss cabin life already!