It's cheaper to drive... right?

That's what we thought. But it wasn't.

That's okay though, we made it to Utah, Wyoming and back. We are all in one piece and we had a great time.

We drove. It's a lonnnng drive. We did it once before, and yet we were crazy enough to do it again. This time with 3 kids.

We decided to buy a van a little earlier than planned, so we could drive instead of fly. Then I got this brilliant idea... I could leave a couple weeks early with the kids and Dallas could fly out and meet us there when he can. That way we get plenty of time to do everything we want to. So, I found a friend to drive with me along with her husband and daughter and we headed out at the end of June.

Day one was going very quickly, the kids were doing great and the drive didn't seem half as bad as I thought it would be. Around 4 pm we hit Omaha, and it was a HOT day. Our AC died. We pulled into a gas station, got the kids out of the van, put coolant in the van, called my dad and he told me to take the van somewhere to get it looked at. We put the kids back into the car and headed to Walmart (I really don't know why we didn't think, but Walmart doesn't do repairs like this). Once in the parking lot the van died. We (and some helpful guys behind us) pushed the van out of the way and got the van running again. We pulled around to the service side of Walmart, got all of the kids out of the van only to find out that Walmart couldn't help. We put all the kids back into the (hot, humid) van just to find out that it wouldn't start. We got the kids out one last time, went inside and called a tow.

By this point, if I would've been alone, I think I would have been a mess. Crazy lady crying in Walmart. I am sooooo glad I didn't make the drive alone. I am so glad I had my friend's help.

We waited to hear from the mechanic. Hoping it was an easy fix and that it would be done that night and we would be off. We had two carts full of kids, carseats, suitcases and coolers. We hauled them up to the front of the store to get dinner at Mcdonalds (yeah, we looked a *little* ridiculous). And waited. Little did we know that this was just a start of all the waiting that we would be doing during the next 24 hours.

Yeah, I know. We rock and you wish you would've been there too....

The car needed a new water pump and thermostat. It also needed a coolant flush. It would take at least 4 hours the next day to get fixed. We took a cab to a hotel and got some much needed sleep after a 10 hour drive and almost 4 hours at Walmart. My cab driver was great, he turned off his loud music as soon as I started loading kids in his car, asked about my hard day since he could tell by our situation it wasn't good. And then he wouldn't let me pay him when we arrived at our hotel. It was only a few dollars, but what a great act of kindness. The world could use more people like him.

The next day the 4 hours we thought we would be waiting turned into 8 and we finally got back on the road by 4 pm. Waiting was the hardest part. We spent the day walking outside around the hotel and hanging out in the lobby. We were sure glad to get back on the road.

We stopped again that night. We had to drive a third day rather than the two we planned on and finally arrived in Utah the next day. Overall the ride was not bad. I was amazed at how well all 4 kids did. My friend's daughter didn't cry at all. Daphne sat in the back next to Evan and he took care of her the whole way. She was getting her first two teeth and hardly cried at all. When she did cry she was either hungry or tired and quickly calmed down. The kids kept busy doing puzzles, coloring, stringing fruit loops (best car activity, seriously), playing with glow sticks at night and sleeping. Evan liked to watch the mile markers, the clock and he had a chart of different cars that he had to watch for.

It's crazy, but even though it took an extra day with car repairs the trip wasn't all that bad. I wouldn't mind doing it again. I have a whole month of pictures and stories to tell you!