Vacation - The Dreadful Drive

It has been a while since our family has actually had a "family" vacation. The last vacation we had was two years ago when we came to Boise to look for a house. Not much fun as family vacations are concerned. This year, we decided that since the adult's houseboat trip was cancelled, we would take the kids to Lagoon and see Sarah and Joseph in Sandy, and try to see my grandpa and my sisters Jo and Kelly while we were there. Nice plan, and we were totally excited...until...the drive.

The morning started off hectic. Rion had his orthodontist appointment, which went fairly well considering they actually used the term "seriously crowded". Nice medical terminology, isn't it? We basically decided that since his mouth is so small we would need to remove all 4 of his first molars which are baby teeth, as well as the permanents that are waiting to come in. This will hopefully give room for the other permanent teeth that haven't come in yet to do so and straighten out a little bit. We'll even put some space maintaining retainers in until he is about 12, at which time he'll get his braces. At least that's a financial relieve for the time being.

Anyways, following the appointment, we went back home, packed the car, and left...with a screaming Chase in the back seat! He didn't want to get in his car seat at all! Once we hit Costco 1/2 hour later, he was still going. I took him out of the car and we walked around to try to calm him down, we purchased some almonds, and then attempted the car once again. He obliged since he had a yummy snack and since Hailey and Rion were watching Looney Tunes (thanks to my mom for letting us borrow the DVD player). Whew, step one down, but not without some frazzled nerves.

We managed to make it all the way just before Tremonton before Chase started up again, roughly 3.5-4 hours later, but boy did he scream! He was done being in the car. We took an off ramp that ultimately would take us nowhere, so we just pulled over and let him throw rocks for a few minutes. Then, once again, back in the car! We realized that as long as he WANTS to get in his car seat, then we are fine. If he DOESN'T want to get in, then we have a war on our hands. This time we only made it to Ogden before he started screaming again. It was only about one hour. We were only about another hour from Sarah and Joseph's, so we didn't want to stop again. So, he cried, and cried, and screamed, and cried. You get the idea. He is not a traveler. Needless to say we are having second thoughts about driving down to Sacramento the end of August. That is about a 10 hour drive.

So, we made it to Sandy, UT to Sarah and Joseph's house in about 5 1/2 hours. We were so glad to be there and get out of the car! We mostly just relaxed the whole rest of the day.