End of Summer Roadtrip

Next week its back to school! Where has our summer gone?  Being a super fun, cool, awesome, spontaneous mom(HA, may be lacking a bit of humility), I decided to take the kids on a roadtrip to one of our favorite summer places.  Cherry Hill!  The van is still struggling with short distance trips so it had to be the Jeep.  Two awesome young Jeep guys in my ward, Ben and Jon, came over to help me remove the hard top and attach the sun shade.  There was some minor drama what with missing parts and all, but after watching a YouTube video, I knew what to look for and I DID IT!  My heros were patient with me and stuck it out till the end! Doesn't Jeep look great, and ready for an adventure?

Jeep is very loud on the freeway, and I was a little worried about Joseph in the back with little protection from the wind.  Both kids seem to agree, the van is a far more comfortable ride. But the more I drive Jeep, the more I love it.  Driving the van is kind of a drag!  Yes, to all the men out there, I feel the pain of your sacrifice when it was time to trade in your beloved "fun" vehicle for a family one. So I had an amazing drive to Utah, and the kids endured it well. Joseph stayed wrapped in a blanket most of the journey.  When we arrived,  he informed us that he was only hit in the head with a rock once.  Oops!  I guess that's good news?  To make it up to him we hit the first 7 eleven we could find and got Slurpees!

The wind blowing through your hair is a romantic notion. In actuality hair that is windblown becomes so tangled that it is painful, as in a "just shave it off and start over because it hurts too much to try to comb through it" kind of pain.  I found these great tubular scarves for Annalina and I.  We can wear them as headbands and unroll them once we get up to speed and they cover our hair so it stays nice and smooth.   Plus, just look at us!  We look like cool road warriors!

Got to the hotel an hour early so we hung out in the lounge.  We giggled and had fun together,  like we always do! Yeah, my little people totally rock!

My little people also have expensive taste!  I took them to the Outback for dinner, since it was right next door and my poor deprived babies have never had the pleasure.  They both ordered the Filet Mignon with endless shrimp.(!!!!) They loved it! Here is the thing about my kiddos,  all four of them.  They never expect or feel entitled to anything, and each one of them is so good at expressing gratitude that I love to spoil them when I can, which isn't terribly often, but tonight I could, so I did.  So when I  said order anything, I was thrilled that they both wanted steak and shrimp!   Not so thrilled with the price, but they are worth it to me. And no one does steak like Outback!

Tomorrow we will head to Cherry Hill for some relaxing lazy river floating.  This is a place with strong memories of Richard,  so I hope and pray that will be a positive thing for our family and that I am not about to drag us through some emotional turmoil.  But I feel good about it!