The end of another school year is here and with it brings our cross country road trip to Utah. Yay! We planned our trip two months in advance because my dad needed time to book our hotels. At the time, it seemed like common sense to leave right after Loren's last final on Thursday. I mean, what did we have to wait around for? The sooner the better!
Fast forward a week before we were to leave, I was seriously questioning our decision making abilities. Why didn't we just wait to leave on Friday so Loren could help me pack and finish cleaning? I still had a million things to do and couldn't get any of it done with Lydia wanting my attention. Loren was busy studying for finals and I felt guilty asking him for any help. What the blazes were we thinking?!
It was a stressful time, to say the least.
One morning we woke to sirens and fire engines blaring. The visitors center had caught on fire! There was smoke everywhere and we spent the rest of the morning watching the firemen at work. It took them 4 hours to get it under control but thankfully the building was still in good condition. Lydia thought it was pretty exciting.
It's hard for Loren to think or talk about anything but finals during finals week, which is understandable seeing the insane amount of info he needs to remember. So going for walks, or anywhere for that matter, always includes flash cards.
Picking "fluff" as Lydia likes to call it. She loves that stuff!
At the park one time I sent Lydia down the slide and she banged her head on it pretty good. Ever since then, she won't go down the slides anymore. She'll climb to the top, but then want to take the stairs back down. I was trying to figure out how to handle this, make her face her fears or not? So this time, I was determined that she would slide down.
Lydia knew what I was thinking and quickly crawled under my legs to make her escape.
Eventually, after many tears and screams of protest, we made it down the slide. Loren was met with smiles and shouts of, "fun!" Goodness. We're still working on this, and a fear of heights she's developed.
The missionaries stopped by the day before we left to say goodbye. They were great Elders and we'll miss them!
My friend Michelle was an angel the last three days before our trip. She could tell I was stressed and took Lydia for the entire time. What would I do without her? She seriously helped me so much. Lydia didn't want to leave "Ani's" house, they had a lot of fun. I was able to clean the whole house, and get the car packed.
After last minute packing and a last sweep-through of the house, we were finally on our way! We all couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement. Lydia did the best she's ever done in the car, we were so surprised! She loved watching for trucks and had fun playing with her toys.
She had her moments, of course. She was mad because I wasn't passing enough trucks.
We only had to pull out the iPad once per day- that's a record for this trip.
We traveled through 9 states- Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah. The first night we rolled into our hotel in Indiana around 9 pm. My dad got us a king suite! Spoiled much? I'd say so! It was so nice to have after a long day of driving.
Sunset in Kentucky.
The next day was supposed to be our short day, only 4 hours to the Davidson's in Missouri. It ended up turning into 7! We started out and realized we forgot to get gas. We had to turn around and drive back 7 miles because it was the closest gas station. In St. Louis, Kim Davidson called and told us Riley, Loren's cousin, was working at the temple if we wanted to stop by. We'd never been to the St. Louis temple so we thought it'd be a fun pit stop.
It was gorgeous! And the grounds were massive, they just kept going. Riley showed us around and we snapped a couple pics.
Riley Davidson, Loren and Lydia
We love to see the temple!
And then this happened. We were stuck on the interstate for what seemed like hours. It was hot so I had the ac running. Up ahead I noticed a policeman directing traffic onto an exit off the interstate. Bah! Why?! Begrudgingly, I merged in with the traffic. We merged on and off the interstate twice and then our car overheated. I forgot I had the ac running that whole time we were sitting there. So we exited again, found a gas station and waited for our car to cool down. By the time we finally got to the Davidson's, I had a massive headache but everyone was so happy to get out of the car.
What a fun time we had with the Davidson's! Lydia loved playing with these bubbles.
Usually Lydia needs time to warm up to people but not with Marie. She loved hanging out with this girl!
That night for dinner we had a girl who just returned from the Angeles Philippines mission (the same one as Loren) come over and cook Adobo and Pancit- Filipino food for us. It was so yummy! She and Loren had a lot of fun sharing mission stories and we had fun listening to them.
We always love our stop at the Davidsons! They are so kind and thoughtful. We're so grateful to them for all they've done for us.
Waiting till the last possible second to put Lydia back in her seat.
Still smiling!
The next night we stayed in Lincoln, Nebraska. As we headed out the next morning to Laramie, WY, I called my brother, Nate, to see if we could meet up somewhere on the road. I've probably seen Nate a handful of times since he's been home from his mission almost a year ago. He decided to sell pest control in Washington DC for the summer and left the day before we arrived in Cache Valley. I was so sad to miss him! I hoped our paths would cross on the road somewhere but had no idea how we'd time it right. We kept in contact and figured we'd arrive in Sydney, WY around the same time. Nate called when he got to Sydney and we were still 20 minutes out so I told him to keep driving and I'd get off at the next exit or two. Well, little did I know that there was construction for the next thirty miles and they had all the exits blocked off. I quickly called Nate and told him to exit ASAP. He did and we found out later that if he hadn't got off when he did, we would have missed him with all the construction going on. It was a tender mercy for sure because I was so looking forward to seeing him.
This is the only picture we have with Nate holding Lydia. Haha, we'll take what we can get!
Good luck in DC, Nate! We love you and will miss you!
That night we stayed in a hotel in Laramie. It was really nice and we were all excited to be so close to home. After driving through what seemed like an eternity of Wyoming the next day, we finally made it home! What a happy day! We loved catching up with both our families that night in Avon and Lydia loved being around everyone. We're excited to be here and can't wait for the fun summer adventures that await!
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