The Great Road Trip of 2009 (mega-post)

31 hours of actual driving time (according to the GPS - not counting stops). 3.5 days. 3 rather long nights. Countless repetitions of Sesame Street, Charlotte's Web, and . Lots of snacks. Lots of pretty sights to see. Lots of boring sights to try to sleep through. Not a lot of success in that department. 2 tired kiddos. 3 tired adults. You might have to click on that map to make any sense of it...



Well, the Great Road Trip was originally scheduled to begin at 4 am on Thursday the 18th, but I didn't know that Jeremy wasn't actually considering that time; he just didn't want to shoot down our idea. We ended up staying up late the night before with some friends, and didn't pull out of Davenport until about 9:30 the next morning. Here are some pictures of us all during the very LONG Thursday of driving. This was when we were fresh...

Our first real stop: Winter Quarters temple in Omaha, Nebraska. It was so hot and humid there - I started melting immediately. :) The temple was beautiful though, and the visitor's center was really neat. Here is the temple:

Here are Reilly and Jaina in the visitor's center (after our version of the tour):

And in the car again...

This was a very long day, though the kids did fabulously for their age. I didn't take many more pictures that day for whatever reason. We had a long stop for dinner/running around in Odowollo or something (you can see what it really is on the map) and then hoped the kids would sleep. They didn't though, until the 9-10 o'clock range (they usually go to bed between 7 and 8). It was a little rough there for a bit. We got to our hotel (via Priceline) in Cheyenne, WY at about 11 pm. Of course they hadn't managed to put the crib IN the room yet, though we had called about it 3 hours earlier. So we sat in the car for another 30 minutes (with the sleeping kids) while Jeremy tried to get it figured out. Thankfully, both kids transferred well, and we all slept. More or less.

Friday the 19th

After sleeping 4-5 hours, we left Cheyenne around 7 am local time (since Jaina had been awake since about 5) and headed for Salt Lake City. This was the shortest leg of our trip at only 6 hours. Most of Wyoming was very pretty, and a welcome change after the sameness of Iowa and Nebraska. The kids were great, especially after the super-drive of the day before. Our good friends the Frandsens (who were staying in the same Holiday Inn on their way home - the Shepros were there, too!) rescued my forgotten pillow for us a few hours later, which was hugely appreciated... We arrived in SLC about 1 pm and met up with Emily and Jason (who had come down from Rexburg, ID just to see us for the afternoon) at Olive Garden and had a yummy lunch. After that we wandered around temple square (and rested on the grass while Jeremy spent over an hour meeting up to retrieve my pillow...), took a few pictures, and visited.

Here are Reilly and Jaina somewhere between Cheyenne and Salt Lake...

Emily (and her cute tummy), David, and Jason with our munchkins. Reilly was excited to see Jason and Emily, and went to Emily immediately. Jaina wouldn't even take bites of Olive Garden pasta from her... She had a hard time with all the unfamiliar people during the whole trip...

Reilly getting a lift on the walk to Temple Square.

Here are Reilly and Jaina, posing with the temple (inside the south visitor's center).

Jaina, wondering how much I meant it when I asked her not to PICK the flowers...

Playing outside the tabernacle.
When we all got tired, and as dinner time approached, we traveled up to West Haven (Ogden), Utah, to Cindy and Dustin's house. We found it with no problem (with the GPS) but Emily, Jason, and David had some difficulties (they also had GPS). :) Their house and neighborhood were really nice, and our kids enjoyed playing outside and inside. They got to "meet" cousins Kimberlee (4) and Carter (6 months) and had a grand old time. Jeremy and Reilly slept in the guest bedroom, Jaina in the walk-in closet of that bedroom, and David and I slept down on the couches. (Jeremy didn't want the kids to wake me up - he sleeps through a lot of noises that I don't) Everyone actually slept really well, and we ended up leaving a little later than we wanted to because Jeremy and the kids were able to sleep in. Cindy and Dustin fed us a yummy dinner AND breakfast, and the kids got to play outside again for an hour or so before we took off at about 9:30 am local time.

Here is Jaina out in their front yard that evening:

And both kids at breakfast the next morning:

Saturday the 20th:

This day was another LONG one. It started out kind of fun though, because we detoured through Provo. We ate a really early lunch at Cafe Rio (Jeremy and David approved - mine was tasty, too), then drove down be my old house, and circled around campus. The Gordon B. Hinckley building looks really neat. What I saw of it, anyway. It was a beautiful, overcast, cool day in Provo. I didn't know how much I missed the mountains until we were driving through. I loved living there, right at the foot of the mountains. It felt so safe and secure, and it was so beautiful! I think it's one of the few places that could induce me away from living really close to family... I thoroughly enjoyed our short visit.

After Provo, we headed down the east side of the state, through Price, Moab (really fun little town) and Monticello. Jaina took a good nap soon after we left the Provo area.

It rained on us off and on (lightly and heavily) during most of the trip that day. We stopped off for a bit at the Monticello temple. It was actually rather cold, but you wouldn't know it with how eagerly the kids jumped out and were doing laps (in Reilly's case) around the temple.

After Monticello we drove down to Cortez, CO, where we met up with Jeremy's Grandpa Jim for a snack. We hadn't seen him in a few years, so that was nice. Reilly was good to go to him right away and give him a big hug. Jaina spilled water all over me and herself, so we spent part of that stop changing clothes.

After that we headed down through the reservation towards Snowflake - our next goal. The kids were just DONE driving most of this day, but they did do well during this last part. I think they were just worn out and resigned to living the rest of their lives in a car...

The "castle" we saw. I guess it's actually called Shiprock, but we thought it looked like a castle...

Reilly snuggled up with his blanket like this about 6 o'clock or so. Such a cute little boy.

This "rock" looked like a fortress to me. Yes, driving across the Navajo Indian reservation on a Saturday afternoon/evening doesn't hold terribly amounts of excitement. We had to take what we could get. It was pretty though, at times.

And this is how everyone ended up. If only the rest of the trip had been like this! Sadly, the kids fell asleep at "bedtime" but woke up 2 hours later when it was still light outside and thought they had taken a nap...

Here we are in Holbrook, AZ, changing Jaina (and Reilly) into pajamas after they woke up.

We had thought to make it home that night, but we wouldn't even be in Snowflake until 9, so we decided we'd better stop there. We were all worn out. We stayed with Jennifer & Reggie in Snowflake and got to see their neat house and their cute kids. All of our kids were bouncing off the walls, partially because we got there so late. For some reason I don't have any pictures there, or the next day. Maybe because we were so exhausted (Sorry Jen). Between their late late naps and their sleep-deprived state, both Reilly and Jaina had a hard time settling down. Jeremy finally had to lay by Reilly until he fell asleep in Jeremy's bed (about 11:30 AZ time) and after Much screaming, rocking, bouncing, etc, he finally got Jaina to sleep (on Reilly's little bed) a little after midnight. He then slept on the floor next to her. Super dad? Yes. (I DID help with all this, I just wasn't involved in the actual success...) Jaina woke up about 4:30, and Reilly a while after, and Jeremy and I tried to keep them quiet in Cooper's room as long as possible... Jennifer made an amazing Father's Day breakfast for all of us, and we got on the road about 7 am AZ time. No lie. We finally made it to Pima about 10:30 am. What a trip! We were all SO happy to be done driving, especially our little troopers!

End of the Tri! (Chuck E. Cheese)

This trimester has been so busy for our family! Between classes and all of his other obligations and traveling, Jeremy hasn't been around much. He has been going full-throttle since Christmas, since the March break was spent studying for national boards. He has been so ready for this break! He made it through finals, and we managed to squeeze a few fun things in before we left Davenport for the summer break. Here we are at Chuck E. Cheese with the Noordas (who will NOT be there when we come back...) We had a gift card, so we decided to let the kids run wild for the evening. They (we, as well) had a great time!

First 5K (yes, hoping there will be more!)

So Friday afternoon Jeremy and I decided we wanted to participate in the Susan G. Komen "Race for the Cure" 5K across the river Saturday morning. It was such a neat experience! There were over 10,000 people registered. I don't think QUITE that many turned up Saturday, because it was pretty wet, but it was close! There were SO many people. See this video...

Here is a picture of our own little "team" from before the race:

I meant to try and jog much of the way (Jeremy's fast walk is my slow jog anyway) but we didn't even walk that quickly for the first mile, because we started out at least halfway back, and with a double jogging stroller, there's not much room to maneuver through people. We were in a pretty heavy traffic jam for the first 1.5 miles. Thankfully we were able to move more quickly for the last half, because it was definitely raining a little more during the last part. The kids were good sports, for the most part, and enjoyed all there was to see and hear. It was crazy to see all the survivors celebrated and non-survivors remembered on peoples' shirts and signs. I definitely had a hard time keeping it together, especially at the first of the race. It was a really awesome experience, and we hope to be involved again next year. Our first 5K was a success! (though our time was nothing to brag about...) We looked a little worse for the wear (well, Jeremy didn't) by the end, partially due to the rain...

Don't worry, we counteracted any excess calorie burn with a celebratory breakfast at IHOP. (We were definitely not alone that morning - I think half the restaurant was people who had raced!)

In other news, Jeremy and I actually got to go on a date (we went to see "Star Trek") Saturday night! Our wonderful neighbor, Jamie came over and wrestled our kids for two hours, even successfully getting Reilly in bed before we got home, and trying really hard with Reilly. It was so much fun to get to do that. I'm pretty sure the last movie we saw together was last summer...

And we're gearing up for our visit home to Arizona. My little brother, David (pictures to come, I'm sure) flew in yesterday to spend a few days with us and to help us drive home. We're taking a "short cut" (ha ha - make that 24 hours drive a 30+ one...) through Salt Lake City/Ogden, UT in order to meet up with Emily and Jason for a day (and deliver a stroller). They won't see David again before he leaves for his mission to Kenya in July, and we haven't seen them since Christmas. I'm not sure when we'll see them again... it could be a while, at least for the kids. (I'm hoping to get out to see that new baby sometime after October!) We're hoping to do that first part of the trip (18 hours of driving) all Thursday, starting really early in the morning. I'll let you know how that goes. We might have to stop(for the night) but hopefully not!

We'll do some temple square stuff, let the kids run around a lot, and visit with my cousin, Cindy, and her family (who we're staying with in Ogden.) Hopefully it will be enough of a break before we head home (13 hours of actual driving) Saturday and Sunday...
While we're in AZ we have a little Jeremy and Sara trip to Disneyland planned (YAY!), and 4th of July on the mountains (another yay!) and our niece Chloe's first birthday! :) It should be a busy, fun, eventful trip!

We're trying to cram a lot into the next few days, (including a pedicure party , Nauvoo, Chuck E. Cheese's, and night golfing )

not to mention packing, a little laundry, and whole lot of preparation. Better go work on that... Wish us luck!

Especially with this part:

18 months old!

Thursday our sweet little Jaina turned 18 months old. Can you believe it? We can't believe how big she is getting and how much personality she has. Nursery doesn't seem in her immediate future, because our nursery is absolutely crazy, and she gets overwhelmed pretty easily. Jeremy is hoping soon it will work out. (He has her every Sunday because I do the music in primary) Jaina has such a strong little will, and she really lets you know how she feels about things. She is really growing up, and can do so much!

Some current Jaina knowledge:

-She is in love with shoes, especially her white sandals. She always brings us shoes to put on, even when we're inside.

-She also loves to be outside. Maybe this is part of the shoe-love. She's always hoping we'll take her out...

-She has gotten really clingy lately. If there are more than 2-3 people around that she isn't really familiar with, she often prefers to be held.

-She loves the swing. A lot.

-She is starting to say lots of words, though they're sometimes hard to understand. She says cracker, cheese, ball, baby, up, down, no, please, where's Jaina?, peek-a-boo!, eat, woof woof, quack quack, moo, shoes, yay, bite, more, banana, yogurt, eggs, and still uses several signs (mostly for please and drink). I think there's a few more, but I'm not sure...

-She is in love with dogs. Often I don't even know they're there until she starts "barking" softly.

-She no longer wants to sit still in church.

-She is great at giving and blowing kisses.

-She can't stay away from the front driveway. It's a bit scary at times.

-Her hair is getting a -little- longer, but it falls straight forward into her eyes, so we have to do it every day.

-She's getting a little more difficult about the sleeping thing.

-She kind of likes to pick on her brother, because he gives good reactions.

For her half-birthday, Jaina got to go get some ice cream with Daddy. And not just any ice cream. He took her to Maggie Moo's and they split two scoops. Lucky little girl! To see a cute video of her and the ice cream, go here...

Happiness is...

Promise I'll actually write something soon...