Crossing It Off the Bucket List

I can now officially say that I'm capable of road tripping long distances with my children. Solo parent style. I'm not sure it's something that has been on my bucket list....but it sure feels like it opens up many possibilities in life and gives me the courage to tackle other things. Like downhill skiing with one adult. (turns out, my kids are still too little for that one to succeed)

I loaded the car, packed the duffel bag, snacks, and children into the Pilot and headed out for Arizona.

The girls were on track break and I pulled Spencer and myself out of preschool the week before Thanksgiving for a trip to see my parents. Chadwick had to work and couldn't join us until Thanksgiving Day via airplane, but I was determined to make the journey solo. The original plan was for my mom to join, but she was needing surgery for a hernia repair and was also having some major back pain. Twenty hours in the car was too much. Mark bought a plane ticket and then I talked him out of joining us for the two day sojourn. I would drop him off in Albuquerque, stay a day or two, then backtrack to Arizona to visit the Andrus family, then return to my parents' for the duration? It was too much time in the car and I just wanted to bust it to Concho to play cowboy for a few days first. Hence, solo parent road trip.

We were lucky enough to stay in Lehi with a dear friend from vet school on the first evening, making Day One only about 6.5 hours on the road. I've never had a chance to really talk to her husband and they only had one daughter when I saw her several year ago. Liz, all our kids, and I went to Thanksgiving Point to the Butterfly Biosphere and spent a few lovely hours learning about bugs, watching the butterflies, and letting the kids run around. It was so good to catch up with her and spend that time with her darling family.

Saturday was our longest day on the road. Late morning departure from Liz, lunch on the road, and we drove south toward our destination of Chinle, AZ. Two lane roads, massive signs warning of deer migration crossings, almost missing our turns in the dark and we were DONE by the time we got to the hotel. The pool was closing and we were starving. Yay for Burger King....and I never wanted to eat fast food again. Back in the hotel room, we got ready for bed and then turned on the TV for something to do. Of course, even with 550 channels, there's nothing actually worth watching so we settled on football and I attempted to teach Morgan and Spencer the basics of how the game is played.

Sunday morning was breakfast in the hotel restaurant, waiting around to see if the pool would open (it never did, the "closed for cleaning" sign never moved and the staff at the front desk neglected to call me back with details of its re-opening), and finally leaving for Canyon de Chelly, the reason for staying in the small reservation town of Chinle. Canyon de Chelly has been on my bucket list for many years and I couldn't pass up the chance to see parts of it en route to the Andrus Ranch. It didn't disappoint! The girls were able to participate in the Junior Ranger program at the park and had activities and a paper to fill out with facts about the National Monument. The sun was shining in all it's November glory. We hiked the only trail open to the public down to the White House, a hike about 2 miles long and with a steep incline. The kids were troopers and I was a prima-dona in my tall boots with skinny jeans (I opted for fashion over comfort, though I was fine. I met a young adult man at the top of the hill who full on laughed at my outfit and gave me kudos for hiking the thing in my cute boots). While the house built into the mountain by ancient peoples wasn't white as advertised, it was an amazing time outside and doing something active with my children. I couldn't get over the brilliant red color of the soil.

Junior Ranger badges in hand and the oath recited, we piled into the car, grabbed Subway in town and made the four hour drive to see friends.

Also on my bucket list was a visit to Concho to visit Milo, Hayley, and their girls to play cowboy for a few days. These amazing friends live and work on a cattle ranch and I was hoping we would get to do something "ranchy" while there. I was in luck as they needed to show the herd a new water trough, so we rounded up the horses in the rusty side-by-side, saddled them up, and went for a four hour ride through the high desert. Even Spencer was on his own mount, ponied behind Hayley's horse. Aside from Mallorie's frustration that her horse spent more time trying to eat dry grass then walk, everyone did really well. I actually hit a point about midway where I just wanted to get off and walk, my knees and butt hurt so badly!! But, as the kids weren't complaining, I kept my mouth closed. The trails were dusty and we were covered in Arizona dirt upon arriving back at the house. Their girls spend hours and hours on horseback through the summer, checking fences and moving cattle so this was no big deal for them. My kiddos have never been on a horse longer than 30 minutes and I was very impressed by their endurance. Mallorie and Morgan rode the next day around the corral and can't wait to ride Smoky and the Jet again!

It was hard to leave the ranch - my heart was buoyed by the time with a great friend and the kids were all enjoying one another's company (it's worth noting that Spencer was the only boy among the 8 children present). Another five hours in the car put us at Mom and Mark's house in the 505 for the rest of our vacation.

Sleeping in, reading books, playing games, and outings with Abuelo filled the time. Mom worked some of it and my youngest brother Sean joined the party with his wife and two children. The chaos was great and the kids mostly played well together.

Mallorie asked Grandpa Mark if there were pictures of me from my childhood and we busted out a couple old albums. Mallorie adores my old dolls, Heidi and Melva, and made sure to bring Heidi on the trip (which she received as a birthday gift) so she could be with Melva again. I had to re-create this picture of each of us with a special doll.

When I purchased Chadwick's plane ticket, I made sure his connection wasn't through Denver as it can be tricky flying during the winter months. To my disappointment and our children's delight, it snowed 7 inches Wednesday night, effectively delaying his arrival three hours!!

We were finally re-united and ate a Thanksgiving feast until we were stuffed. We spent several hours with my dad and Marilyn Friday and enjoyed a New Mexican dinner of enchiladas at Colleen's house.

That evening, I packed and Chadwick spent at least an hour trying to find us a way back to Idaho the following morning. Utah was getting hammered with snow and roads were being closed all over the place. We finally decided to head west through Arizona and then north at Las Vegas. This worked great until we got stuck - like, drive 3 miles and then park it for 25 minutes - outside of Flagstaff. Nope, the delay wasn't weather related. It was due to road construction, of all things. Expensive dinner at Red Lobster where we learned that Spencer loves bleu cheese dressing, shrimp and lobster tail. Crawled gratefully into bed at the hotel and didn't sleep well that night.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful, and even though we hit snow outside Mountain Home, the roads stayed decent. Monday morning was a rude awakening back to school and work!!

I was proud of how I held it together majority of the trip despite long hours in the car as the only adult, solo parenting for almost two weeks (though in the presence of friends and grandparents, the parenting still falls on my shoulders), and being away from our routine for so long. We created some great memories, crossed off a thing or two from the bucket list, and proved that hard things can be done.

The Windy City

In June, Mom and I met up in the Salt Lake City airport and flew to Chicago together for an extended weekend. The windy city! While the city definitely has a breeze, it was originally dubbed "windy city" due to the excessive wind produced by its citizens in the 1890s as they bragged about and defended their beloved town. The large cities in the country were competing for the opportunity to host the 1893 World's Fair, and Chicago was out to prove that it was as modern and worthy as the others of its time. Until this point, it was known primarily for being the location of some of the largest hog slaughter facilities and people associated the smell of death with the place. I read Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen and enjoyed learning about Chicago's architecture, the creation of the World's Fair (which Chicago hosted) and the man responsible for the deaths of an unknown, probably large number, of young adult women during the time the fair was being built. Fascinating on all accounts.

Why Chicago? Several reasons brought us to the edge of Lake Michigan. Keven was the biggest reason we made the trip. The son of my Nana's sister, he and his siblings were raised in Spain and he travels the world for his job and was going to be in Chicago for a conference. I haven't seen him since my study abroad in 2001 and I'm not sure the last time and and my mom have visited face-to-face. We arranged to meet in front of a museum one morning and when he saw us on the steps, Keven took off his baseball hat and ran over, just like a kid seeing an old friend for the first time in many years.

Two of my Bop-bop's three cousins also live in the Chicago area. On our first afternoon in town, we met all three cousins (one flew in from Phoenix for the weekend) as well as my Bop-bop's best friend from childhood, Aldo.

Both my mom's parents grew up in the suburbs of this huge city, and Aldo was the best man in their wedding. I think Mom has met him before, but it was so fun to look at old pictures from their childhood and youth, wedding photos, and listen to the childhood history of school, friends, and such. He reminded me so much of my grandpa....same twinkle in his eyes when he found something amusing, great smile, and a quiet chuckle.

It was interesting to spend 3/4 of a day with both sides of the family. Keven knew my Bop's parents and aunt, Hilda (mother to the three cousins) and they share a lot of the same memories from when they were children. Since he didn't spend much time in the States as a youth, he had lots of questions on the timing of things like elementary school, high school, marriage and such for his mother, my great-aunt Shirley. Keven reminded of a sponge, soaking up as much information about his mother and her family as possible. I should have been taking notes.

Despite a goof in the planning which left Mom and I in different rows on the plane from SLC to Chicago and a two hour wait in multiple lines to pick up the rental car (which wound up not being in the parking lot, requiring more line-standing to figure out where the darn thing was located!), we had a great vacation. Side note: NASCAR was also in town that weekend and the rental car agencies had double booked vehicles or didn't plan ahead well enough to make sure the inventory was available when needed. There were a lot of cranky customers and frazzled employees that afternoon. Oh, and the zipper of my suitcase was half undone. Luckily, my underwear didn't fall out, though I was missing the zip lock of deoderant, toothpaste, shampoo, etc. I thought it was weird that only that item fell out, but I was grateful to have everything else intact! I remember asking Chadwick if it was at home and he looked with a negative report. Walgreen's supplied the missing items and we moved on with life.

I found my bag when I got home. In the kids' bathroom. Right where I left it.

My favorite activity was the Architecture Tour - we loaded up on a double decked boat and motored down the Chicago River, taking in the skyline and learning about the buildings. It was fascinating to learn when each building was created, what was happening at the time in the city itself, and see how they all kind of fit together despite the massive differences in style.

The river itself has an interesting history - at one point, engineers re-directed the flow of the water to allow for better drainage of the sewage and debris people had been dumping into the waters for years. Part of the reason Chicago's entire downtown went down in ashes in the fire of 1871 is the fact that debris and trash on the surface of the river caught fire and spread the flames throughout the entire area. I can only imagine what the locals thought....fire spreading on the water? Must be demons involved.

We walked and ate and visited. Dinner with the cousins one evening, taking in the sights of the Green Mile like the Bean, and wandering through a couple of the museums. My mom is a huge Chicago Bears fan and I had to take her picture outside Soldier Field. The weather cooperated most of the time, though the last day was rain and more rain. We had a running tour of The Pier in the wind.

The library....it was ginormous!

 

One of the highlights was taking in Hamilton at the historic CIBC Theater Saturday evening. At the time, I wasn't sure if the musical was amazing because of the creator's talent or due to the charm of a theater built in 1906....now I'm realizing that it was the perfect combination of both.

Gourmet dinner in our hotel room before the show. Flowers and all!

Chicago - thanks for the memories! Where to next, Mom?