This is it, folks, the last stop on our journey. Although, we passed through SIX states before we got back home to Washington, so here's the lowdown...
We left the blue skies, sunshine and flip flops weather of SoCal EARLY Friday morning and made our way to Utah. Our first stop was for gas and breakfast in ????? I don't know, somewhere still in Cali and as we were leaving we spotted "The World's Tallest Thermometer"!! Sean and I couldn't stop laughing about running across one of those corny "World's Biggest [fill in the blank...
ball of yarn, thumbtack, wad of gum, etc.] and HAD to take a picture.
We continued on to Nevada and through the outskirts of Vegas.
Sean wouldn't let me stop even to do just one quarter machine and I'm pretty sure I would've gotten ALL THREE cherries... or number 7's... or little jackpots... you know, whatever. ;) Next up was a brief stint in Arizona
{
state #3 so far that day} and then we drove up through most of Utah {
state #4} before our final stop in Provo.
This was Ethan along the way..... Yeah, eventually the entire remaining contents of that bag of goldfish ended up on the floor of our backseat. Nice.
And we passed by some beautiful scenery on the drive....
Mountains before we hit Utah.
Mountains after we hit Utah.Luckily, the only snow issues we really had were just before as we were getting to Provo. All us out-of-towners stayed at the Travelodge because it was a. close to Blake and Alysha's apartment and b. easy on the wallet {
which we welcomed after our $$pricey$$ stop in Yreka for new brakes!}. The rooms were clean, but small. Very small. And I had to laugh a little because I realized throughout 2010 I actually stayed in 5 different hotels and they got progressively less fancy {
and spendy}.... 1. March/Seattle/The Westin 2. April/Provo/Marriott 3. July/Provo/Fairfield Inn by Marriott 4. December/Yreka/Super 8 Motel 5. December & January/Provo/Travelodge
Anyway.... We had plans to go to Sean's cousin's house for New Year's Eve but the first order of business was a bath for Ethan! El stinko! Not really, but it had been a busy week and we realized it had been more than a day {
or two, don't judge!} since his last cleaning. Guess what? No tub! So the little guy had to opt for a shower. Sean helped wash him, dried him off and then wrapped him in a towel.
How ridiculously cute is this kid?! Oh, and can I point out that that is NOT a regular bath towel wrapped around his little belly... it's a hand towel!! Sheesh.New Year's Eve was spent with pretty much everyone in the state of Utah that had the last name Southworth [as either a married name or maiden name]. :) While the adults grazed on the munchies and chatted, Ethan, cousin Spencer and cousin Lincoln [not pictured] kept themselves occupied with the toy box. As a rule, toys at anyone else's house are always better. Period.
Other pics from the night:
Loren and Lemont playing banjo.
Saturday morning, New Year's Day, posed an interesting dilemma - we had NO PLANS! We slept in and then I high-tailed it over to the main lobby to grab us some breakfast before the free buffet closed. After that, we kept things pretty low-key, i.e. we watched a little TV, checked Facebook and Ethan tried not to go to stir-crazy by jumping on the bed.
Also, in the daylight we were better able to see the beauty of the snow-covered mountains surrounding the valley {
they are extremely foreboding at night!}
and survey the wreckage of the Provo Tabernacle that was just across the street.
So sad to see up close just how bad the fire damage was - everything was black and charred, broken windows, no roof and everything that had collapsed was just a heap of rubble on the inside.
Eventually, we headed over to Target for some much-needed cold medicine for me {
I'd been feeling a little under the weather for several days and had a dry-throat cough that wouldn't go away} and even-more-much-needed goldfish for Ethan. I swear, those little crackers kept him alive while we were in Utah. That kid could pretty much live off of goldfish, fruit snacks and juice boxes. I am mean, though, and do not allow it. ;) That afternoon/early evening we grabbed a late, late lunch and totally avoided the dinner crowd at Brick Oven Pizza. Sean and I ordered a combination pizza and then let Ethan also order his own mini pizza. Ethan was
convinced that he wanted a mushroom pizza and after much
attempted convincing him otherwise, we allowed the mushroom pizza to be ordered. Can you guess what got picked off of Ethan mini pizza?!?!
Our yummy combination pizza.
Saturday night was spent hanging out and playing games in the clubhouse at Blake and Alysha's apartment. Please don't ask how late we stayed up.
Sunday was the big day - the reason we were all gathered in Utah - baby Wyatt's blessing! We slept in again, I made another mad-dash for our free breakfast and then we decided to skip the first 2 hours of church since it was a young married ward and there was no Nursery/Primary for Ethan to go to. Plus, we were all exhausted. Blake gave a beautiful blessing and it was a nice testimony meeting. After church, it was back over to the clubhouse for lunch and lots of picture taking. Here are a couple I snagged...
Four generations: Nan [Lynnie's mum], Lynnie, Alysha and baby Wyatt.
Four generations: Virginia [Loren's mom], Loren, Alysha and baby Wyatt.
Virginia and her boys. 
Cassie directing traffic for the picture-taking.
With Alysha and our newest nephew [at the time]!!
Playing more games after everyone else had left.
Cute shot of my boys. :)
Monday morning we reloaded the car for the last time [assuming we had no car issues on the way home] and got the sad news that baby Wyatt's fever had spiked during the night and they had to take the little guy into the hospital. :( Not cool. But he was doing ok, so the family decided to stick with our original plan of brunch at Denny's as one last family meal. Afterward, we met up at the hospital to check in on Wyatt and say our goodbyes and finally headed for home. Well, almost, finally. We'd heard rumors that the Brazilian soda Guarana was fairly easy to come by in the Salt Lake/Provo area so we tried a couple grocery stores by had no luck. {
If anyone in Utah can give me a specific store to try next time, I would love to know!} Then we had to get a map since neither of us had ever made the drive from Utah to Washington and then we were on our way. It was a cold, cold, cold drive home.....
And the stretch through Oregon was a little scary going through the mountains late at night while the external temp reading was NEGATIVE 8 at the lowest. Brrrrrrr!!
Finally, we'll pretend we saw this sign as we crossed into our beloved Washington, but really we didn't because we drove in on the 205 and this sign is on the I-5 border crossing. Plus it was pitch black outside. But you get in the idea. We were glad to be home!!!
Of course, there was a little stress when Sean attempted to start up the Honda that we'd parked in the driveway and couldn't get the engine to turn over. Luckily, it started right up in the morning. Also, Tuesday morning Christine headed back to Provo {
I'm bummed I didn't get to spend more time with her while she was here} and my mom came by the house after she dropped her off at the airport. She was at our house sometime after 7am and while Sean had already left for work, Ethan was still dead to the world and I only got up to let my mom in the house and then she snuggled into bed with me. :) We had a GREAT trip, but it was nice to be home.
There. It's finished. The great road trip of 2010. Six posts and about a million pictures later. Now, I just need to catch up on what's been happening since we've been back. Ha!!
Bundling up was a must... then I realized Ethan's only water-proof pants were in the backseat of the Explorer. "It's ok," I thought, "we'll add an extra layer and make due." Then I realized his boots were also in the Explorer! Normally, this would not be a problem as the Explorer usually stays home with us but I knew we wouldn't be going anywhere and we wanted Sean to have a safer commute, seeing as the Honda has practically bald front tires!
A carrot nose is a must!
Isn't he cute?! Ethan's not too bad looking either. Ha!!
Ethan stole frosty's nose...
...it ended up other random places - carrot heart, anyone? And you can see our snowman startled to crack...
...it toppled shortly thereafter!
And Ethan continued to destroy poor frosty!
Last picture before going in. Please look at the cute boy next to me and not my make-up-free, been-sick-for-three-days, completely-exhausted face. I went inside and crashed on the couch for an hour while Ethan watched a movie. Building that snowman wore this cold-infected mama out!
At least it was beautiful to look at!
