This is how we do it

California to Utah to Idaho to Washington to Oregon and Back!

Wow, where can I start? We had a long, adventurous, yet amazing vacation to see family and friends. We started out with Ronnie's family reunion in Utah. We packed up the family, drove out to Utah, and headed up the Spanish Fork canyon to Spring Haven Lodge. It is an amazing house (or should I say mansion) owned by BYU. Ronnie's dad was able to rent the house for the annual Turpin Family Reunion. The Turpin family is Ronnie's mom's family. She has 5 sisters with a few kids each and a few more kids of kids etc... We had 50+ people of all ages, sleeping comfortably under one roof. The lodge included a huge kitchen, many sitting areas, a full size gym, indoor play structure with a few slides, pool tables, air hockey, TV room, etc. and was situated on beautiful grounds with a pond, fire pit/outdoor terraced seating, and plenty of grass on which to run wild. My kids were not sure what to do with all that space; coming from a small 2 bedroom apartment with no yard to that was a new world for them. Beckham quickly mastered his walking skills exploring the house and yard. He loved the bridges that connected one part of the house to another and would crawl or walk back and fourth over them several times.

Some highlights included

• Family Olympics- hula hoop contest, bubble gum blowing, soccer, pass the sponge etc...
• Family sacrament/testimony meeting
• Late night chats with cousins
• Early morning chats with aunts, uncles, and grandparents
• Watching some of the boy cousins do the YMCA and Macarena
• Watching all the little cousins get to play together
• Watching Grandma Turpin hula hoop!
• Trying to keep the kids as far away from the swans as possible
• Just being with family that we don't get to see too often
  

We had a great time and other than the 24 hr. flu that got a few people, it couldn't have been better. Ronnie, his dad, and a few cousins got the flu for a few days. Luckily it passed quickly and none of the little ones got it, but ... we hadn't seen the last of it either.

After the reunion we headed back to Ronnie's parents house to spend some more time with his sister Kristen and family, his sister Elizabeth, and his parents. We celebrated the 4th of July a little early on July 2nd with our very own "cul-de-sac of fire" since Kristen's family had to head home to Omaha. We then celebrated again on the 4th at the Stadium of Fire at Lavell Edwards Stadium in Provo. It was a great show packed with an amazing concert from Brooks and Dunn, Corbin Bleu, jet fly bys, a flying rocket man, parachuting flag carriers, and some awesome up close and personal fire works! Thank you to mom and dad C. for the great stay and fun times!

Ronnie and I decided to celebrate our 8 year anniversary in Park City/Salt Lake. Ronnie's parents watched the kids for us while we stayed the night at the Anniversary Inn. We have stayed there a few other times, the first being on our wedding night so we thought it would be an appropriate location to celebrate the great 8! Not to forget that we had a free night stay there thanks to a friend of Ronnie's! We went up to Park City for dinner and fun. We headed over to the Alpine Slide and Alpine Coaster which were both a blast, and then to dinner at Chimayo, a very delicious Mexican restaurant. I HIGHLY recommend it if you are ever in Park City! Get the mussels, they are delish! We then walked around Main St. and headed back to SL for the evening. After our romantic stay in the Presidential Suite and morning massages, we headed back to Utah Co. to pick up the kids and drive up through Idaho to Washington for my cousins wedding. As we were leaving Utah, we had to stop and Cafe Rio one last time to get some yummy take out. As I was enjoying my pork salad with creamy cilantro dressing and diet coke, I turned to Ronnie and said "I think this has been the most perfect 24 hours I have had in a long time!" Little did I know, I totally jinxed myself and the next 24 hours would be some of the worst of my life!

*WARNING-what you are about to read may not be suitable for those with a weak stomach!*

I will spare the gory details but here is the "short" version of our trip from... well... you know where! ---After driving for a while we decided to stop in Burley, Idaho for gas, potty, and drinks. I went into the bathroom and then came out to let Ronnie go in with Madison. After going to the restroom they were in line to get a soda and Madison tells Ronnie that she can't cough. "What, you can't cough?" So he picks her up to take a closer look just as she throws up three major heaves all over him, herself, and the gas station floor. Not quite knowing what to do in this situation, he decides to take the safest route and head for the bathroom. Leaving a pile of puke to be cleaned up by the gas station attendants. In the bathroom Ronnie strips Madison down to her panties, and washes off her clothes the best he can along with his own shirt. She is very upset because she is dirty, naked, and doesn't want the men to see her panties. Meanwhile, I am sitting in the hot car with Beckham starting to feel a little sick myself. I walk into the gas station to try and cool off and look for Ronnie. As I am pacing the aisles with Beckham, Ronnie bursts out of the bathroom in a soaked shirt, holding naked Madison, and gives me 'The Look' as he says "Lets Go!" He proceeds to storm out of the gas station where he relays the events to me. So, I walk back into the gas station to get a few plastic bags when I hear the lady at the counter saying "Well she TOLD him she had to throw up and he didn't listen!" Look lady, saying you can't cough and 'I have to throw up' are two completely different things, next time we'll know, but come on, give us a break! Madison seems to be doing OK at this point but I am starting to feel worse and worse. As we head down the road I am really not feeling well and tell Ronnie to pull over at the next town. As we approach Jerome, less than 50 miles after Burley, traffic starts to get really backed up, the sky is getting very dark, it smells like smoke, and it looks like a tornado has hit. We drive through a few smoke clouds where visibility is literally zero. We are finally forced off the freeway at one point and barely make it to a gas station for me to lose it too. As I run into the Flying J, there are people everywhere and it is pitch dark. Great, no power! I sure hope the toilets are working because I am not waiting any longer! I spend the next hour in the pitch dark bathroom puking my guts out. Ronnie sends Madison in a few times to check on me- where she asks, "Mommy, did you throw up?" To which I reply, "Yes." "What color was it?" What a crazy kid! So we come to find out that there were some pretty severe thunder and lightning storms that started fires around the area and one jumped the freeway and caused an accident that had shut down the freeway in both directions. So it was "fortuitous" that I had to throw up when I did because we couldn't have gone anywhere at that point anyway. We finally got back on the road, but didn't make it too far. Lets just say that it took 9 hours to get to Boise from Salt Lake when it usually takes 4-5. We were pulling over to the side of the freeway every 20 miles or so to either let me or Madison puke. It was NOT fun! We had planned to go straight through to Washington but only made it to Boise and had to quit. We stopped at a McDonald's to have another puke fest where Ronnie attempted to find us a hotel. After trying to get his parents on the phone to search Expedia.com for us, he decided to give up and just call Hilton for their nearest hotel. I was locked up in the restroom while Ronnie was getting the hotel, Beckham was crawling around wild in the car, and Madison was half asleep sprawled on the curb outside- Don't ask! At one point he had to run her into the bathroom because she had the panicked "I have to go NOW look." He barely made it with Beckham under one arm and Madison in the other sprinting as fast as he could. Anyway, it turned out fine, we ended up staying in a Homewood Suites that was inexpensive and brand new, which I appreciated as I became very acquainted with the bathroom. The next morning we were both feeling better and headed onward once again for Washington.

We went strait to the hotel in Richland, got ready in a good 20 minutes and headed to my cousin Robert's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and reception but very hot! The wedding was outside at 5pm and the temperature topped out over 100 degrees that day. My other cousin McKenzie sang in the wedding and did a great job. We danced the night away before crashing back at the hotel. It was so good to see my cousins and aunts and uncles. We all live in different places and rarely get together all at the same time so it was very fun to be all together again. Oh yeah, Ronnie got sick AGAIN and started throwing up the next morning. I was going to head up to Seattle with Ronnie to visit our friends the Calderwoods but seeing as we were all carriers of the flu, we didn't want to infect their home and 3 little boys. (One of these days guys I'll make it up there, I promise!) So after puking for a few hours, Ronnie and his barf bowl continued to Seattle to stay in a hotel while I went to Oregon to stay a few days with my mom and dad. Carson and Marisa, you are lucky we didn't make it to your house, we got my mom sick too, you would have been next!

The kids had fun playing at Nana and Papa's house. we played at the park, swung on Alexi the Russian horse swing, and swam in the pool- only if there were no bugs in it! Dad was nice enough to drive us into Eugene on Wednesday to meet Ronnie so that we could continue on down the road to California. We finally made it home safe and sound on Wednesday night.

It was a lot of driving, a few crazy days of being sick, but a whole lot of fun! We had so much fun that we have decided to turn around and go back up to Seattle for another visit. This time Calderwoods, we will ALL be there! But first we get to enjoy a visit from the Young family. They will be in the area for the week and we will be heading to Modesto to see the Pace family and their new baby Caulder. One of these days we will slow down and stay put for a few weeks. Until then, check back often for more Chapman Family Fun!