Days one and two

And so the saga began. 

 And it always begins with stuffing enough clothing to last six days into duffel bags. Which never really works out, and I end up doing laundry on the trip anyway. I can't even do an overnighter to my Mom's without having to do laundry. It is my curse.

We left at 4:45am, and the kids kind of slept. Kind of. Mostly they stared dazedly out of the windows as it slowly got lighter outside. Amelia slept just as soundly as if she were in her snuggy bed at home, which equals HUGE blessing. 

We were nearing Wendover as the sun began to rise, and you know what that means! At least, you do if you've ever made the ridiculous drive to Sacramento from Salt Lake City. It means that out there in the vast nothingness of nothing there appears this strangely beautiful edifice known as "Metaphor: The Tree of Utah" or "The Ball Tree" as we grew up calling it. 

Created by the Swedish artist Karl Momen and dedicated in 1986, it's an 87 foot cement sculpture made mostly of cement. The spheres are coated in rocks and minerals native to Utah, so you know, that's kinda cool. Wikipedia said that the fence was put up to protect visitors from falling tiles, but I have my suspicions that it's also preventing a lot of graffiti, which used to adorn the base of the trunk. 

Any who. 

When you're out there on the lonely yet beautiful salty desert, anything seems fascinating, ok? 

Shortly after that, we may or may not have seen this cute light appear on the dash. 

It's not a Tim and Jim trip without running out of gas! 

Luckily Tim's forward urgings were enough to get us to a gas station. And we found out that her suburban will go 40 miles with the gas light on! The things you learn. 

The rest of the trip looked a lot like this. 

And this. 

Genius road trip toy, man. Play doh, play hammer, golf tees, muffin tin. Kept the kids ocupado for hours. 

Also DVDs. Lots of DVDs. 

We made it, and it was way easier than we expected. We got there in the afternoon, with plenty of time to run and play in the warm sunshine at the california cousin's house! Who would have thought that I would have a sibling living in California, and that I would drive my kids to see his kids? Just like when I was little. Who du thunk. 

The funeral was the next morning, and it was so lovely. The music was awesome, the talks were inspiring, the mood happy. Just the kind of funeral Tommy would have wanted, in my mind. 

 Afterwards, it was family dinner time, and play with cousins time! This is another California cousin, whom we adore, and who will be moving to Utah soon. WOO HOO!

Hi girls!

Tim took the two year olds for a spin around the church building, to get some wiggles out. 

Then she said "Ok, let's play hide and seek!"

When she opened her eyes, she had just enough time to catch this before they rounded the corner.

They were outta there!

 Oh these two. If you can't have a twin, a twin cousin might be even better.

 We all congregated at my Aunt Melanie and Uncle Johnny's house afterwards, and what a beautiful home it is! Uncle Paul and Amelia got in some good bonding time.

And she was happy until Emmy showed her a gargantuan worm. She didn't really appreciate it as much as Emmy did. 

Emmy showed it to me and said "They make worms so huge in California!"

The slack line was set up, because it's fun and also quite entertaining to watch people fall off of (that's my specialty). This was Sam's first time, so he did quite a bit of falling. But he did WAY better than a normal first timer! 

 And he provided a lot of laughs, which he has been doing his entire life.

 Then Nick amazed us all with his mad crazy skills, and we were mucho impressed.

And then Claire stole the show. Naturally. 

 This is quite the crew you created, my darling Grandma Nette!

To be continued...