The trip

Ok so this will be a rather lengthy post but bear with me.. there are some good stories and fun pictures...
So on Sat the 26th we went to Sharon's house (we lived in her basement last year and she is the lovely lady we were moving up to ID) and when we get there not only is there a 26ft Uhaul but a 26 ft trailer attached. So once we got settled in and said goodbye to her sons who were flying back on Monday the three of us (yes Izzy was in a car seat in the middle of the Uhaul... very comfortable... or not) we were on our way. We stopped for gas and when we pulled in the only pump that was convienent that we drove to... broken so after trying to figure out how to drive a semi truck sized load around and around to get a better pump we finally achieved it. During the next hour we were eating by bugs, bought powered doughnuts and filled the trailer tires with air. THen we were on the road at 9:30 at night.
Now for those of you who have never been thru this great state let me tell you that our paving on I-70 leaves a bit to be desired. The headlights on the truck were struggling to illuminate our path and there was wind, a lot of wind. So after only making it 3 hrs away we were tired from fighting a fish-tailing trailer so we pulled off and stayed at a hotel. And what would you know... a church building across the street. Now we really wanted to go to church the next morning and totally contemplated it in our gym shorts, t-shirts and flip flops but we felt bad being dressed like that in the Lord's house. (yes all the early saints are rolling in there graves for the sacrifices they made that we took lightly). This will come back to haunt us later. Mike had the wonderful pleasure of driving thru a cement luge course... the jersey barriers were literally 8 inches on either side at most and thankfully Heavenly Father keep us from sideswiping to our death.
On a bright note we picked out a name for our new daughter!
About 3 hrs later... this is what we were doing...






















Once we were finally done with that 2 hrs later, and we stopped and ate lunch we thankfully were back on the road... OH did I mention that we were trying to get to Ogden to stay with some fabulous friends that night... Three hrs later this is where we were..







By the way any Alabama folks recognize the folks helping us? And yes the cement was so hot that the jack LITERALLY sunk into the cement. We were stranded on this section of I-70 for a couple of hrs and Mike made some crop circle paths to get us away from the freeway. Poor Izzy was so hot and tired but made it thru pretty well. When the trailer tire blew, we didn't know it and a nice couple got us to pull over. Then this other saintly pair saw us on the side of the road and drove up to the exit and got us large ice cold water (They felt so sorry for Isabel) thankfully when they arrived so did the calvary of Charmaine and Kerry Kearl. By the way I think we owe them a jack, theirs melted before Kerry called a mechanic he knew. (Cheyenne's parents are amazing!)
Moral of the story, not matter what you are wearing GET TO CHURCH!!! We were watched over but most certainly taught a lesson!

After hearing from many people that the trailer was overloaded we had to stay the night in nowhere Nebraska so we could get trailer tires put on... apparently they were just crappy car tires before
So thankfully we found a hotel complete with mold on the bathroom ceiling, and crud on the shower curtain that started floating in the shower which wouldn't drain. And they only had vouchers for breakfast so Izzy and I had to share. The bright spot of the morning was that Wal-mart actually had the tires we needed. But my credit card wouldn't work so I had to call them and tell them that I was on vacation and that it wasn't stolen! Thankfully the believed me so we could be on our way~

The rest of the drive went pretty uneventfully.. Isabel was amazing, Mike saw a bull and a cow--- together, and we took in the 'sights' of NE and Wyoming.
When we got to the mountains the fun with the trailer started all over again. after some very tense hrs we finally were 45 min from our friends house when we hit another luge course on I-84. This time Mike was being tailgated by a veteran semi truck driver. Finally reaching our destination at 11:30 pm we talked and played way to long with the wonderful Haywood family!! We love them so much and miss them like crazy. They taught Izzy to play the drums. We made breakfast for them Tuesday morning Isabel started singing at the top of her lungs some unintelligble words for seriously like 5 minutes straight. It was hilarious!






Thankfully we made it to Meridian, ID in one piece that day. Mike started to fall asleep a few times so I read to him and it worked. We ate a fake Taco Time and I was happy. Sharon's house is beautiful, I asked her if she'd leave it to me in her will. The rest of the week in ID was so much fun. We stayed with Mike's best bud Cameron and his amazing wife Annette. They had two girls one seven mo older (Alessia) and the other 7 mo younger (Sophie) then Isabel so they played and played and played. We had such gracious hosts. We even all snuck in a date night to see The Dark Knight... very good. Isabel found some favorite toys and we took her picture in this cute russian styled hat and her orange flip flops that if she thought about to steal from Lessie she would have.





Last but not least we all went to the pool on Friday before we left (aug 2nd ish) and Isabel seriously about drowned twice. The first time I was 8 big steps away from her in 1 1/2 feet of water and she slipped and couldn't get her footing and the next time it was repeated MIke and I were each about 3 feet from her. Thankfully she is fine but after she settled down it was all about flip flops and car seats. She was ready to go .
Since this post is soo freakin' long I'll write about Seattle tomorrow... don't worry the fun isn't over yet!