Mainland Trip: On the Road and the Miracle of the Cabin

On our way again to Colorado.  We stopped at some fort from Mormon history, as well as this Indian museum and got to see petroglyphs etched into the stone.  I love the different things our girls get exposed to when we come to the mainland!

 We were nearing the Colorado border at dusk when my sister Janae, who lives in Colorado, called me up. Now, you would think that we would have already have things planned, like where to stay, what car to get, etc.  But that's not the way we were able to roll this trip, so I explained to her that we were planning on finding a place to stay once we got to Grand Junction.  But she warned us that that town usually gets really booked up, and that we should call.  Janae is so good to me, and she said she would call around as well.  We found it was true-- a lot of the places were booked, and if they weren't they wanted us to pay Waikiki prices to stay there.  Then Janae called us and suggested we call a KOA campground.  They sometimes have cabins and if we had bedding, maybe we could stay there.  So we called and the man said they happened to have 1 cabin left, and he was just about to leave, so if we wanted it, we needed to book it now.  Total price: $50.  And it was a sweet place, too!

Back on the road with the crazy kids.  After much searching, we found this car for 1/2 the price similar cars were going for.  Don't know why, but we were grateful!

Mainland Trip: At Mark and Elaine's

My cousin Mark and his wife Elaine and family are probably in the top 100 coolest people in the world.  They generously let us stay at their house in southern Utah on our way to Colorado for our family reunion.  A big highlight was being able to get our first restful sleep after all the hub-bub of trying to prepare for the trip.  We kept saying, "We made it!  We made it!"

 The girls loved playing with Benson in their hidden playroom!  

 One day they took us four-wheeling to a waterfall in the middle of the desert.  Elysse and Ivy jumped off the waterfall!! WOW!!

 Then we went four-wheeling back. AWE - SOME. 

 Nate holding tight to the "Oh Crap!" bar.

My uncle Dale, Aunt Barbara, cousin Launa, and cousin Betsey and daughter all joined us for dinner.  ;)  Thank you, Mark and Elaine and family!  We loved being with you!

Mainland Trip Part 1: Getting on a plane

How do you get a family of 6 on a plane to Las Vegas in the middle of the summer on Buddie Passes?  Pray really hard.  As we were planning this trip to the mainland, we were looking at airfare of about $800/pp.  After searching all options, I remembered my friend who is a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines and she mentioned to me once that she has buddy passes that often go unused.  I asked if we could use them, and in her generosity, she let us use them!  The total price was $1500 -- not $4200!!!

Then we just prayed that we would be able to get on the plane going to one of the busiest spots for stand-bys in the middle of the summer.  We missed our first flight, and were able to get on the next one in the morning.  But it turned into a real blessing, because if we were to get on the first flight we would not have been able to sit all together.  Here we are rejoicing and so, so grateful!!

 Soul' first trip -- He was fantastic.

Yeah!  Turbulence Rollercoaster!!