Family Vacation- Day One

Our day started at 3:20 am with the plan to load the kids into the car- asleep- and begin our trip. First off, they were ALL WIDE AWAKE. We thought they were going to be asleep so we hadn't antipcipated bathroom breaks at 4 am. Nothing is open. We finally stopped in Quincy, then Moses Lake... and then finally it was late enough to have potty/coffee breaks.

Then we coninued the trip... destination: Salt Lake City. ETA: 6:00PM.

Our first sign of trouble was when we tried to hook up all the electronic devices we brought and get a movie on for the kids. The adaptor that we had bought to plug in the laptop began to fry and within minutes the car smelled like melting plastic. Not a great way to start a trip. So... no movies.

THEN, we came to an abrupt stop in Oregon just about 30 minutes from the border into Idaho. About 40 cars in front of us was a huge plume of smoke that we had seen as we approached the hold up. A semi trailer had caught fire and apparently, since we were in the middle of no-where, fire trucks would not be responding. We were told to wait till the truck burned itself out. Great. About 2 hours later, we finally were redirected and they turned the entire traffic jam around. Now we had to back-track about an hour to get around the fire.

THEN Cohen decided he had to poop and he had to poop NOW. In the middle of no-where. With no rest stops or anything else. So, as we pull over, he says he already did but didn't finish. I ran him around a huge sage bush and found that he had maybe had *ahem* a little too much juice in our delay with the fire earlier. Now is the time I interject that I am not a litter-er. BUT THIS TIME... there was nothing else to do. In that sage brush lies his shorts, socks, underwear, and a box full of dirty wipes. Sorry... it had to be done.

Finally we were back on the road and after 17 hours of travel, we are finally resting in our hotel. *phew* hoping tomorrow is better!!!

A funny Ethan-ism side note: Mike said "Look at these beautiful rolling hills of green, guys! Aren't they beautiful?" Ethan replies "I would rather color..."

Later: Mike told Ethan to make paper airplanes with Danissa. He replied "I can't... my leg hurts."

Even Later: The kids were watching the movie "Cars" (after in an act of desperation I ran into a Walmart and bought a duel DVD player) Ethan misquoted the movie by saying "I'm happier than a tornado in a trailer fart" instead of "Happier than a tornado in a trailer park".