Last weekend we decided to go surprise dad in Page, AZ. He had to work on Saturday, so we didn’t leave home until 1PM that afternoon. When he called me after work at 6PM it was so fun to tell him we were only an hour away in Kanab. My friend had called that morning and invited us to stay in her house in St. George. (It’s pretty transparant how much I miss my honey, I think she felt sorry for me). So we drove to dad’s hotel to pick him up. It was so great to see him. We grabbed some dinner to go, and drove 2.5 more hours to St. George. Unfortunately, my friend wasn’t able to make it back to town, and the realtor who had her key ended up being in Magna for the weekend, so we were never able to get into her house. She booked us a room at the Country Inn, which was really nice. We had adjoining rooms, and the kids had a great time. So did Jason and I. The next morning we got up, had breakfast at the hotel and then went for a swim before checkout.
After check-out we had to go to WalMart to get the tires looked at on the Durango, they were having serious problems and Jason was worried about us driving home on them. Sure enough we had to get two new tires. So we left the Durango there and walked over to Red Robin for Lunch. The food was pretty good, and we began to devise a plan to drive back as soon as the car was done, and take a detour down to the Grand Canyon, to make all the driving worth it.
But, once we got back to WalMart, they hadn’t even started on the car. So we waited. And we waited. And we waited, waited, waited. You won’t believe this, but we were cooped up in this little waiting room at the WalMart Tire Center, with 6 kids, for 2.5 hours. And that was after an hour for lunch. NOT FUN.
I just had to take a picture. I laughed my you-know-what off when I read this sign. I’m not an english major but I’m pretty sure Express does not mean 3.5 hours to install two new tires. I’m pretty sure.Back on the road next, we had to drive 2.5 hours back to Page. We scrapped the Grand Canyon idea because after 2 hours in that little room with 6 kids, 5 more hours in the car together would have been, well, you know, great. We booked a room at the Super 8 in Page AZ and went swimming that night. The kids had opted to miss school on Monday in order to have a little more time with dad. So we drove home Monday after he had to go to work.
Oh, yeah. Sunday morning the kids and dad went diving for pennies in the pool. The chlorine content must have been really high. Jason looked like he had been crying all night and all day. He could barely open his eyes, and couldn’t see in the sunlight until well after lunch was over. It hurts just to look at this picture. (Oh and the fingers are McKyla’s).
Oh, yeah. Sunday morning the kids and dad went diving for pennies in the pool. The chlorine content must have been really high. Jason looked like he had been crying all night and all day. He could barely open his eyes, and couldn’t see in the sunlight until well after lunch was over. It hurts just to look at this picture. (Oh and the fingers are McKyla’s).
A weekend of driving, driving, no place to stay, a new place to stay, playing, waiting, waiting, red swollen watery eyes, waiting, waiting, waiting, driving some more. All told me and the kids drove 19 hours that weekend. And was it worth it? YOU BET. I would do it again tomorrow, even with all the disappointments and irritations. Seeing dad made it 100% worth it all. Man I love that guy.