more Little America

This post is for my idol Heidi, whom I have a blog crush on. So I now know that you are also a traveler of i-80...so Little America was like the "we are actually getting close to having this ordeal over with" point. We always did potty breaks there and ate ice cream there... to this day I swear someone brings it up and I have to use the restroom and crave a vanilla cone (I preferred the vanilla over chocolate or twist). Anyway now when we stop on our way out to Idaho we stop because they have some of the nicest bathrooms around (you go to the convenience store by the gas pumps) and by nice I mean when you go in it is floor to ceiling walls so I can take my kids in with me and not worry about them crawling under four stalls while I'm trying to get my pants up. I even had a "blow out" with one of my children, and so I had to spend like 20 min in that restroom area giving my child a sink bath and changing clothes...its a good bathroom! But my best memory was when David and I got married we had to drive out to MO so the day after our wedding we headed out, but we "lingered" to long and got quite a late start and we went from Provo to Little America (like 4 hrs) and we decided that we were too tired and need to stop so we stayed at the Little America hotel....now it was 1998 but OH MY GOSH the rooms were ghastly. We apparently got the red room...guess what it was decorated in...guess. Red carpet, red vinyl chairs, red and white print curtains and spread....in was nauseating.... and they had 3 channel...TOTAL...and we actually watched on....called "Let's Eat"it was on the eating habits of insects.....how's that for our second night together! we have a chuckle when ever we go back to visit and say remember when we were to lazy to drive 45min more and get a normal hotel room.....has any one else stayed there? where there different colored themed rooms...have they remodeled? anyone ? Bueller? Bueller?

Where did Carrie go

Okay I Just spent like 2 hrs typing to you the experience of me being in the Hospital recently and toward the end I somehow (?) Deleted the ENTIRE flippin' thing and I'm soooooooo cheesed off right now and while I was trying to find ways to retrieve it I came upon this which I wrote but never posted ....yes it happened in July but enjoy it anyway!

JULY

That is the question burning in the minds of my 5 loyal fans ( note I upped the number from 3).

Well the long and short of it is we took a small vacation...no, took a trip...no a longish trek! that's it...Quinten, Walker, and I along with Nana & Papa packed up and headed out to Idaho to Kristi's Graduation from BYU-Idaho (we are very proud of her!) we left early Wednesday morning and drove to Cheyenne WY and stopped and took the kids swimming and then we went to eat at olive garden...where we got free dessert (not that any one cares)... the next day we took off and drove to SLC, UT and stayed with my beautiful Aunt Julie. Friday morning we packed up and drove to Rexburg, ID where we at lunch by the Idaho Falls Temple and then went to meet Kristi and be there for her Graduation Ceremony...Which I will be honest with you they pack it in like crazy we had like 15 min to get from one Auditorium to the next for the diploma's...there were a lot of people dashing about madly...Now I have to pause to give a shout out to my sister Kristin...WOW she spent that week packing her life in Rexburg up ...writing papers, taking test and finals did her apartment cleaning...went with out sleep for like 4 days and took two finals Friday finished the last one rushed up to meet us and take us to where we needed to be and the had back to back ceremonies stayed up all night to finish cleaning (and maybe a bit of playing ) and packing so we could be out of Rexburg early sat....wow what a gal!!! So Saturday morning we got the van fully loaded and Kristi's car loaded and we take off and back down to my aunt Julies...this was fun because we had walkie talkies and that's just fun! Back at Julies we had a great dinner and I was able to see 5 out of 6 of my Attridge cousins whom I had not seen in well...years. Now here is where the real adventure begins...we awoke and we left SLC by like 7:30 in the morning. Kristi and I were in the van with the boys, and mom and dad were in Kristi's car with ...each other...I was driving the luxury mini-van...(anything bigger that my car and with leather seats is luxury!) and just to be fair ( I didn't want to hog all of the driving time) I offered to let Kristi drive and to be fair she said okay, even though we both knew she had to be just exhausted...anyway about 45-60 min into her driving the van begin to make a noise and pull... we figured it was a combination of a strong cross wind and crummy road so she switched lanes and to be fair it got quieter...but about 5 min later we heard it again followed by a loud noise and a heavy tugging of the van ...unfortunately for us we were in the left hand lane and Kristi held it together while we waited for the semi to pass and the semi to get off of the on ramp before we could pull the car over to the side of the road. By the time we got off, you could hear the grinding noise of the rim of the wheel on the asphalt. We got out to check and the back tire had TOTALLY blown off the rim there was nothing left but the tread, the sides had blown off. Mom and Dad came over and got Kristi and took care of her... She was very brave she held it together and did a great job, and as soon as mom and dad where there she allowed her self to lose it... I would have been terrified if it were me....and what was I doing you ask, well apparently I handle my fear a bit differently than others, I got out and took pictures...Papa "the man of the Hour" got the spare on and we sped, at the death defying speed of 40mph to Little America..anyone who has ever traveled i-80 knows what I'm talking about. There we tried to get the back tire fixed but they didn't have our kind so my mom and dad had to hop into Kristi's car and travel the 45 min to Rock Springs and get two new tires (and because that did have the exact tire we needed and the two back tires needed to be the same) During this time Kristi and i stayed at Little America and played on the playground with the boys...it was a fun time we were happy to be alive and we were thrilled that we drove around back behind lLittle America and dumped our tire by the trash so that we didn't have to pay the 5$ disposal fee . Once Mom and got back we got and ice cream and headed out again but this time dad drove the van I think we was pretty worried about his kids driving a van with different front and back tires. So that night we get into our hotel and we all go swimming but i think the whole experience has taken a few years off all of us...we wake up the next morning and Dad is still stressed about the tire situation so in the afternoon we stop in Nebraska and we get ALL the tires checked and fixed, and apparently the tire guy said that the ones in the front were showing signs for also blowing out...how blessed are we. i know that before we left my dad spent time out in that parking lot either giving the car a blessing to last until we could get it fixed, or kneeling down in the parking lot saying a prayer...what a man of great faith...and I know that we were absolutely watched over because of that. The great part was that this all went down on my birthday and so now one really was atuned to that and to be honest I felt there were more important things to worry about then my b-day....(and I was away from David so blah anyway)...needless to say we made it home safe and sound and we have some great pictures of Kristi standing the tire bits.