The Trek To Arkansas

I am really grateful that we have cars... cause that would have been a heck of a trip in a wagon!


I am not doing the best at blogging right now. I am kind of down in the dumps, overwhelmed, and trying to deal with some unhappy feelings. Admittedly I have much to be thankful for. I realize this! It is just that sometimes I would like a few other things... bad me.


As always my blog box is full of half finished blogs, which I have tried to just post so they don't haunt me for the next fifty years. They just seem to be whiny posts. I am just in a whiny mood lately. I at least attempt to write a blog post occasionally. That has got to count for something...




The kids are out of school... and we are on the third month of the foster aunting, which isn't as easy as it sounds. But this blog is on neither of these topics. This blog is purely about our 5 1/2 day trip to Ark Kansas.


Nate's sister packed up about five years ago and moved herself to Arkansas. Then she met a man and they fell in love (even though he was a tad bit shorter than her). After a while they decided to get themselves married.. to each other, just in case you were wondering. Then instead of getting married in a cool place, like Hawaii, they decided to get hitched in the town they live in. I mean what is up with that? Who does that these days? Just about everyone? We got our SAVE the date like forever ago and so we SAVED the date and started planning around it... and that brings us up to the last week when the date popped up.


About four days before we were suppose to leave my nose started to drip. Then it started to actually flow. Then the sinuses started to get infected. Then the sneezing and coughing came. About two days before we were suppose to go I was bedridden with one of the nastiest head colds I have had in a long time. The day we were suppose to go I could once again walk, but my voice had left with the worst part of the cold.




I was still able to finish the bulk of the Chemistry that needed to be done before I could leave, and I had the kids pack themselves. Somehow everything came together, and though I still didn't feel the greatest Nate was keeping me on an elixir of medications and making sure that I took them every four hours. I went to may Chem lab and got home by 7:30 P.M. and we were on the road by 8:30 that evening. We drove until around 12:30 A.M. and stopped the first night in Rawlins WY. The kids had been wonderful to this point. Driving in the evenings when children haven't been in the car for three days already was definitely a good choice.



The next morning it was back in the car for an all day drive across some of the flattest and most boring parts of our country. We passed field after field of corn, corn, and you guesses it... corn. Every once in a while there was a field of spinach or some other leafy vegetable. That was the exciting part of the drive. The kids at this point were still being some what good. The occasional fight broke out... it just kept the drive a little entertaining.



Though my cold was at the end of its reign, the elevation changes were taking a toll on my fluid filled ears. In the end they plugged up and I was unable to pop them. At the hotel the second night I did a little research on the Internet to see if I could find anything special to help my ears pop. I tried a few different things, but nothing worked. With plugged ears I felt kind of like I was having an outer body experience the whole weekend. Everyone sounded far away.



We got to Arkansas on the third day. We stopped at Noels house for a lunch. My ears still hadn't popped and I definitely didn't feel myself while in that condition (little did I know that is was going to make my whole weekend kind of crappy... they didn't pop until we were almost back home to Utah).



The wedding was the next day. Sarah and Rebecca thought that laughing through their "readings" were better than crying through them. I actually encourage this from ALL readers. It was much more entertaining!... and I like laughing a lot more than crying through weddings! Noel said "I do" and Jason said "I do" and now I have a brother in law that is a weatherman so I am all cool.



The kids had a ton of fun at the hotel and at the reception. I sat in the corner and murmured about my ears. I was really a party pooper through the whole thing.



The next day we went to Reagan's (my little niece) baptism. Then dropped by Karen's house for lunch. Then we headed home... which took another two days...



On our way back we went through Kansas instead of Nebraska. What do you think Kansas offered that Nebraska didn't? Surprisingly we found that it was the same old same old... Corn field after corn field... but it did have a cool sunflower field that helped make up for all the corn.



Close to the Kansas Denver boarder my ears started to pop a bit. They popped and plugged and popped and plugged all the way through Denver, but once we reached Utah they popped and I could hear the rest of the way home. Maybe they were just homesick?



Most of the days were spent in the car and on the way home our moods definitely showed that we were sick of it. Ashlee was going to run away some where in Kansas because she didn't want to eat burritos for dinner. James was having a hard time not throwing Emily out of our moving vehicle. We couldn't get out of the car fast enough when we drove into the driveway of our home.



Home Sweet Home!!!



All in all... I wouldn't list it in the vacation category... but it was worth the trip to see Noel marry her sweetie!



Congrats Noel and Jason! The best of wished to you as you take on this new adventure!!