Riley and Carlee's Wedding

My reason in going to Utah was for my cousin Carlee's wedding. The night before their wedding, they had a family dinner at a delicious Chinese restaurant called Joy Luck. I stood up and shared some of my favorite memories I've had with Carlee such as pretending we were mermaids in Papa and Gramma's pool and being terrified of the pool vacuum/shark, playing office, shenanigans under Papa and Gramma's stairs that involved lots of dress ups, making up a dance to Britney Spears' Lucky song, baton twirling, and that one time Carlee ordered a Bloody Mary.

Outside of the restaurant is where Alex learned about cigarettes. He started saying the most hilarious things about how cigarettes are gross and will kill you. My brothers taught him thoroughly.

My cousins AnnMarie and Meggie helped my brothers keep the boys together while I went into the Salt Lake temple for the sealing.

It was so hot and I actually missed them coming out of the temple because I was waiting inside. Luckily Flannel sent me this picture. Carlee's dress was the most beautiful wedding dress I have ever seen. She looked breathtaking.

These boys love their uncles. Let's appreciate that Flannel gave himself that black eye by kneeing himself in the face. Alex loved being blown over by the fan in the basement under the Conference Center.

On our way home from the temple, we went to Del Taco. I ate way too much because I can't control myself. It was just so good!

While we had been waiting at the temple, Edison ate a ton of raisins. Hundreds of raisins. On the way to the reception, Edison threw up twice in the car. I changed his clothes and went to the reception because I thought the throw up was raisin related. He threw up a few more times at the reception and it was making me really nervous so Flannel and my Padre gave him a blessing. Edison seemed to recover and he ate some dinner.

The idea was to light a lantern and let it go. But they weren't going. They kept falling into the trees and the guys were chasing them down to make sure the flames went out. It was pretty ridiculous. Carlee was freaking out about it, which definitely made it funnier.

Carlee used the same photographer we had for our engagement photo shoot and the pictures look beautiful.

Splash Pad and Canoeing

Alex and Edison were so happy to play with their cousins' toys! They were all new to them.

That morning, Gramma and Papa Neil came over to visit and to see Michelle's house. It was fun to see them in Utah, since that hasn't happened for a few years. I am so glad they were able to make the trip up for Carlee's wedding.

We took the boys to play in the basement. They have a trampoline in their basement. So awesome.

My Papa is so good looking. He is a stunner.

We went to Michelle's neighborhood splash pad and when we walked in, the kid working there told us that because we were guests, it would be $2. I took Edison and Everett and walked all the way back to Michelle's house to get money. Instead of grabbing my whole wallet, I just grabbed $2. When I got back to the pool, he informed me that it was $2 each. I was so mad. I wasn't very nice and he ended up letting us stay because of our misunderstanding. We didn't even stay very long so $4 would have been a total ripoff.

That night, Michelle made amazing pizza and I ate four slices. After we put down the boys, we left to wash Michelle's minivan and go grocery shopping. At the grocery store, Michelle said one of the ditziest things I have ever heard her say, and it was hilarious.

Keaton, Everett, Alex, and Edison. I cannot believe how big Everett is here. He was only seven months old!

All of the boys play together very well. It was so cute to hear Alex talk to Keaton. They totally understand each other. Their matchy outfits were not planned.

I love this picture. The fact that Alex went and sat there without being posed is the cutest. He just sat down and grabbed Everett's foot and then Everett rested his head.

We went canoeing at Oquirrh Lake by Michelle's house. A resident of Daybreak has to be on the canoe at all times so I wasn't planning to go. I walked around with Edison and Everett.

Everett hated the walk and was screaming. Edison played with Everett's toes to try to entertain him but then they both gave into the tears.

Michelle pulled over to comfort Everett and the boys took a juice break.

Everett just wanted his mom so I got to go in the canoe! It was very fun and made me realize how weak I am.

We had to trade back since I wasn't allowed to be in the canoe without Michelle. Once we got back to shore, the canoe rental guy helped walk the boys up the ramp. Then Alex decided he could do it himself. But it was really slippery so of course he fell in the water. Then he got to walk all the way home in his soaking wet clothes but he didn't seem to mind because it was so hot that day.

Four Corners

As time passes, bad memories fade and I seem to only remember the happy times. This is true in almost every aspect of my life. Even in the roughest parts of my life, for some reason I can pick out the ways it has strengthened me or brought a new joy. This vacation was not all dandy. Driving 4,218 miles alone in the car with two kids is not easy. However, I feel like I am being realistic when I say that I grew so close to my boys during those 16 days. They learned to rely on me and be as patient as their little bodies and heads would let them. I am really glad I went on this trip and I would do it again, just maybe not for a little while.

After only five hours of sleep, we got up and left the house to go vote. Then we went to pick up a rental car for Sam. We waited there for an hour before the person decided to come into work. It was especially annoying since we had been told 30 minutes earlier that they were already on their way in. The discount they gave us ended up saving money, but it cost us an hour.

We ate lunch at a gas station outside of San Antonio. They had a newspaper stand with free magazines of car listings. This kept Alex entertained for a long time. This is a good time to mention the website momsminivan.com. This is where I got the idea to draw a racecar track inside the lid of a shoebox. Alex was able to race his cars around and they didn't fly all over the car. Amen.

Our next stop was for dinner in Carlsbad, NM. I must have been getting tired. I changed four diapers on this stop and Alex broke a display at Wendy's, but we were all still laughing hysterically and the boys were throwing french fries and running in circles. I was embracing the insanity.

During the drive, Alex kept asking for a toy we had left at home. He was repeating, "But I want it!" I replied, "It doesn't matter if you want it, we don't have it." He sat there for a few seconds while the wheels turned, and then he said, "It doesn't matter to you. It doesn't matter to you!" It was heartbreaking. I have to be very careful with my wording.

The next time we stopped was at a rest stop near Moriarty, NM. It was 11:30pm and both boys had been asleep for a couple of hours. I let Alex out of his carseat and put him on the floor of the backseat to sleep. Then I brought Edison into the front seat to snuggle and nurse. Before I knew it, both boys were on the driver's seat with me. Then they were both yelling and pointing at the trucks in the parking lot with us. I realized there was not a chance that they were going to sleep there so I sent Sam a text asking him to book a hotel for us in Albuquerque. We drove the 40 minutes there and were in bed by 12:30am, after 900 miles and 14 hours of driving. There was a Del Taco directly across the street. I accidentally drove by the hotel the first time because I got so distracted. Although I think Del Taco is good at any hour, I figured the boys needed to go to bed.

The boys woke up really early because they were on Texas time. We were up, dressed, fed, had gone to the bank, and filled the car with gas all by 8am. We headed straight to Four Corners Monument. We had a picnic there and ran around for a couple of hours. It was really hot and the boys drank almost all of our water.

We stopped for ice cream in Monticello, Utah. We got gas in Provo and cleaned the disgusting windshield which I could hardly see through. It was dangerous. We arrived at Michelle's house just before 8pm. On the whole drive, I was telling Alex that we would see Keaton on Thursday. He would say, "Why is Keaton thirsty? Does he want water?" I am really glad we ended up arriving on Wednesday because that was just getting confusing.

Airboat Ride and the Beach

When we woke up, we started calling manatee tour places and airboat tour places then we headed to the Everglades, about an hour and a half away. Sam really wanted to go on an airboat ride.

When we first got there, we got to hold this little alligator. It was pretty cool. I couldn't believe how heavy it was!

After our alligator encounter, we got right on our own personal airboat. Holy smokes, those things are deafeningly loud. We sped around the mangrove trees and the Ten Thousand Islands. We would just be looking around and then the driver/tour guide would point out an alligator to us. It was so strange to be just a few feet away from them. He said they have had them jump in the boat before. We asked what he does if that happens and he said that he pulls out his rifle and has alligator for dinner.

Edison hated the life jacket. He didn't really like much of the airboat ride at all.

The birds would land on the boat and hitch a ride. They were not scared of us at all but I was pretty scared of them. I saw them eyeing my fingers.

There were so many mosquitoes. We were told that if we walked into the mangroves, we would get a blood transfusion in just a few hours. Tempting. Edison got a few bites on his hand and it was swelled up for weeks!

We were speeding through at 40 MPH and I got hit in the head by a giant bug. I didn't even see it coming. I had never felt so much like a windshield.

The boys wouldn't keep on their noise-canceling headphones and the fan was so loud! It was sad to look at Edison and see him crying but not be able to hear him.

The boys ate sandwiches while we drove back to the hotel. They both fell asleep so we headed straight to the beach.

The beach we went to was amazing. It was so warm and the water was very shallow for as far as we ever went out.

Alex made friends with another little boy named Alex who was also two. He didn't speak English but they were still able to play well together. It helped that the other Alex had toys.

I went snorkeling but freaked out after I saw a school of fish and I beat it back to shore. Funny that I am a certified scuba diver and water creatures make me freak out. I found some seashells for the boys while I was out though.

Sam and I traded and he went snorkeling while I started building a sandcastle, which was kind of just a pile of sand. Sam came back and started helping. Then Edison got hungry so I fed him some snacks while Sam continued digging. Edison would pull sand off of the castle and then say, "Ta da!"

It was hard to put Alex in timeout because it was a giant sandbox. Dirt and water: the boys' heaven.

We stayed for a few hours and I didn't get a shred of burn even without sunblock. The boys had on tons of sunblock and they looked tanner! We changed the boys and then drove home and put them in the tub. There was so much sand everywhere!

I took this picture on our drive back to the hotel. It is not altered at all. Miami had some beautiful moments.

We went to bed early that night. It had been a long day full of adventure!

We started our drive home the next day at 10am. We had 19 hours of driving ahead of us.

We stayed for the night in Mobile, Alabama. The first day of driving was kind of painful. Edison didn't sleep well and Alex was not cooperating. It was understandable though since we had been driving for 11 hours that day. They were charging $10 for cribs at the hotel so Edison slept on the floor. The next day, we left the hotel at 9am.

When we stopped for lunch, I made Alex run laps around the tree and he thought it was awesome. We got home at 5:15pm to a huge pile of mail. I stayed up until 1am doing laundry and repacking. That concludes the first 3,392 miles of our trip.