Arizona

On Christmas day, Sara and Dick got into a car wreck up in Utah and had to leave their car here for a month to get fixed. Dick wasn't able to come up with Sara to drive it home, so Eleanor and I got to drive home with Sara. The drive home was one we'll NEVER forget! That morning Eleanor woke up around 4 so we decided to head out since she was already awake. We were on the road by 4:30 am and were excited to get to AZ early in the afternoon. Well, we were just 8 miles out of Beaver and Sara's car shuts down while on the freeway. We barely made it to an off ramp. We were freaking out because it was still pitch black and we had no lights! I called John to have him send help. After about 15 minutes the car started back up and we decided to try and make it to Beaver. In Beaver we looked at the battery and couldn't see anything wrong so we deiced we'd continue and to pull over every hour to let the car recharge. We made it to Panguitch and then it started snowing. In between Panguitch and Kanab, we hit black ice and did a 180 in the middle of the road and stopped just before sliding of a bank!! It was not FUN! So 13 hours later (it normally only takes 10 hours) 7 car stalls and about 13 recharge breaks, we finally made it to Arizona! Eleanor was perfect! The only time she got fussy was when we had to pull over and wait and would say, "no, I don't want to stop, I want to go to Arizona!!". When we finally got home it was great! We didn't tell my parent's we were coming and had Eleanor stand alone at the front door when my dad opened it. I believe that was the 3rd time we've surprised them and their reactions are always great!!

We were able to spend just a little over a week and we had a great time! Eleanor got to play with her cousins a lot and spent a ton of time outside! Here were a few of the highlights from our trip:

*Going to the zoo
* Eleanor getting stung by a bee right when we walk into the zoo. (this was more of a LOWLIGHT)
*Playing at the train park
*Bike rides
*Playing tetras with Davey and Amy
*Going to to see Last Chance Harvey with Amanda
*Going to Drew's soccer game
*Playing with cousins
*Lunch at Abuelos
*Sleep over with Ty
*Spending time at Mimi's house
*The Hall/Combs party at Amy's house
*Getting Sara's car FIXED!
*Going out for Davey's birthday
*Sleep over with Lydia
*An amazing SuperBowl party at Elizabeth and Andy's house
*Breakfast with Dad at Crakers (and Eleanor's outfit picked out by Dad)
*Lunch with all the gals!
*Going to Revolutionary Road and Geko Grill with Amanda and Sara and having Theron watch the kids
*Playing at the park
*A great dinner at Cibo
*Getting haircuts
*Eleanor calling my parent's house 'Arizona' and everything else was San Diego
*Breakfast at the Farmhouse with mom
*Eleanor dressing up like a ghost




My battery died the first day I was down, so I only got a few photos. I'll have to wait until my parent's get back from Mexico to get some off their camera.


Another highlight of my trip was coming home to John! He was sweet and had flowers waiting for me in the car (Eleanor claims they are for her). When we got home he had the house SPOTLESS and even had dinner in the crockpot! He also installed ceiling speakers in both the family room and kitchen and hooked them up to our receiver. I'm excited for endless hours of music and NPR! He is seriously the BEST!