last week

I don't feel like blogging. I wrote a huge post about our crazy week last week but rather than bore anyone to death, I'll wrap it up in a nutshell.

I drove to Salt Lake on Tuesday to pick my mom up from the airport. The plan was to continue down to Las Vegas, stay the night and drive the rest of the way to my Grandpa's house in Southern California the next day. As we came into Las Vegas the air conditioning stopped working. Not cool in 100 degree weather. Literally. We took it to the dealer the next day, stayed another night in the City of Sin (seriously, there is some yuck stuff going on there), and picked it up Thursday afternoon. 10 miles later, my beloved Astrid (Yes, we name our vehicles. My mom thinks it's weird. It's a Howe thing) overheated and then completely died just as we were pulling into a gas station. Fortunately, we were on the shady side of the building where we spent 4 hours waiting for a tow truck. The driver (Jeff, super nice and friendly) picked us up around 10:30 at night. He drove us to Pahrump, NV where my dad was waiting for us. It was discovered that the radiator cap had not been put back on properly and was the probable cause of the car overheating. My dad refilled the engine coolant, made sure all caps were on tight, and on Friday we began our journey yet again. The car began to overheat as we drove through Death Valley and my amazing, good, wonderful, non-complaining and ever-optimistic father drove through Death Valley (110 degrees) with the heater blasting to keep the engine cool. He saved us. My mom saved us. They are good at that. They've had lots of practice I guess:) We went straight to my parents' house in Independence and it never felt so good to be home!

So a 12 hour trip in 4 days. Awesome. I am lucky to be blessed with happy children who are able to entertain themselves. They were so well behaved the entire time. Poor Kaylee and Riley had diarrhea all 4 days. Riley had a terrible diaper rash. We had to make stop after stop for Kaylee to go potty and to keep Riley's bum clean and pain-free. But through the upset stomachs and sore bums they were all so good. The fact that I packed five days worth of snacks helped too.

Okay, that was still long. How 'bout some pictures??


These first two are old (phone pictures) and have nothing to do with anything.

I love seeing things like this when I wake up in the morning. Riley had just woken up when I took this pic but this is how they had been sleeping. I made her put her arm back over Lily so I could get a cute pic.

An embarrassing day at the splash park for sure. Kaylee insisted on wearing this bathing suit that I'm sure is sized for a 7-year-old. It is hidden away for the next several years.

Here is Kaylee swimming in the pool while we were stuck in Las Vegas. We stayed at the Stratosphere Hotel for $33 a night. My mom's a deal finder.

The girls thought riding in the back of the tow truck was a-mazing. They were all asleep 10 minutes later.

ps. are you wondering why my mom flew to Salt Lake in the first place?? It's because neither she nor my husband would allow me to make the 12 hour journey on my own. Good thing they didn't!! Someday Michael and I will own a reliable car and I'll be able to make a trip by myself. I really hope I don't have to go anywhere by myself again though. I much prefer having my loving husband with me.