The Ultimate Spring Break Vacation!

This week is Spring Break for Tyson, and we have been planning the ultimate vacation for weeks! Originally we were going to go to visit my mission in Oklahoma now and then in May visit Mt. Rushmore, but when the kiddos got sick, we decided to switch our plans. A few of our stops included Mt. Rushmore, Jewel Caves, Bighorn National Forest, Devils Tower, Crazy Horse Monument, Badlands, Chimney Rock, and a white water kayak park. (Tyson also had several other secret river stops planned that I didn't know about).

We've been planning out all our destinations on google maps, assembling all our camping gear, investing in a couple of new backpacks from craigslist to carry our kids. Oh yeah! Last night Tyson and I were up late packing all our gear, so we could get an early start this morning. That didn't happen. I've been unusually and inexplicably tired lately, and when my alarm went off this morning, it took me several minutes to put together that it was an alarm sounding and not the wind. I shut it off, tried to wake up Tyson, and started nursing Jacob who was fussing, and that is the last thing I remember for the next couple hours.

I woke up when I heard Jeffrey trying to open his door. Jeffrey and Amri just have an accordion door for their room, and as mentioned in previous posts, Jeffrey likes to escape in the morning and get into stuff. On Sunday morning I awoke to a noise that I finally placed as an egg cracking. I ran into their room to find half a dozen eggs broken on the floor and in the pack n play. I promptly installed their door with a hook and eye lock attached to a shoe lace. That isn't the best, but the best I can do with their type of door. Anyways. Back to today. I heard Jeffrey messing with the door, but was pretty sure the lock was secure. Then I heard feet pattering on the floor. I remembered we had some leftover popcorn out. "Tyson! Go get Jeffrey! He'll get the popcorn!" Tyson jumped out of bed and ran to intercept him. It was too late. Apparently he'd been up and in and out several times before. He'd pushed the door so much the shoe lace stretched out, allowing about six inches for him to squeeze through. This is what we found:

Popcorn and poo-poo and eggs, oh my!

so So SO FRUSTRATING!

Needless to say, it took quite some time to get out the door after we'd cleaned up the floor, bathed the kids, and washed all the bedding.

But we carried on. We put in all our gear in our van that we were excited to use for the first time. We started driving north. About an hour and a half later, our car suddenly experienced a severe drop in power and an awful rattling noise started.

We couldn't go more than 40 mph. When we got to an exit a half a mile later and pulled off, our car died when Tyson took the gas pedal off. We couldn't see what would be making the noise. We don't have towing or AAA. So we did the only thing we could do. We prayed, turned around, and started back the way we came -- 30 to 40mph the whole way.

We made it back to Boulder 3 hours later with 3 kids in the back screaming. We drove straight to a mechanic that specializes in Toyota and got there 15 minutes before they closed. As soon as we pulled in with our awful rattle, they knew something was seriously wrong.

It is. It's the motor.

The motor that took Tyson over 100 hours to put in.

The motor project that we spent over $2,000 on (granted, we do have an awesome assortment of tools to show for part of that amount).

It's dead.

The mechanics were amazed that we had been able to drive 80+ miles from where it broke down. We were extremely blessed in the fact that when the rod broke, it didn't completely break off and fall into the cylinder, stopping the engine all together (exactly like it did in November). Because of that, we were able to drive back from the border of Wyoming with all 3 kids and all our stuff. I'm not sure how we would have gotten back otherwise. However, that broken rod WILL fall into the cylinder at any given moment, so we can't drive it anymore. The mechanics recommended we not even drive it home (but we did anyways, since we were only a mile from our house and it had come that far anyways).

It was still surreal when we got home. We unloaded our stuff that we had so excitedly packed that morning, still totally unused. When we were unloading stuff at one point there was an umbrella and I thought, "I should leave that in the car, it could be useful sometime." Then I remembered we were never using the van again.

Oh well.

It's funny, but it's strangely relieving to not have to worry about the car anymore. Not have to set aside $100-$250 for all the weird repairs that come up on the van every month (last month it was a new side light, brake pads and rotors, and an idle air control). Not have to worry about car insurance. No more trying to guess at the gas budget.

I'm sure we'll get another vehicle in a couple of months, probably when we go to Utah. But for now we'll just be biking it/busing it/pushing the stroller until Tyson finishes the semester. And I'm SO HAPPY about that. So much less stress! We live in the ideal location for that anyway. Boulder has got to be the most biker-friendly city in the US (we live across the street from 2 bike paths), and they have an AWESOME bus system. Safeway is a 10 minute walk away. Target is less than that. Various other stores are also all within a 10-20 minute walk.

For now we are looking for a bike trailer and child's seat on craigslist to get around a little faster and farther. Church is the farthest thing away we need to get to right now, about 4 miles away. Here is the picture of us on the bus this morning, our first family bus trip. Jeffrey LOVED riding the bus:

This whole experience reminds me of when we moved to Hawaii right after we got married and didn't have a car the first couple of months. We lived 4 miles from campus/our church building, so the first Sunday we lived there we borrowed Tyson's brother's bike and I sat on the handlebars for 4 miles in a dress as Tyson pedaled to church:

Whenever I see this picture, I think, "I was so much smaller back then!" Oh well, 3 years and 3 kids later, it's not surprising I don't look the same. I guess I was about 2 months pregnant with Jeffrey in these pictures.

And just for kicks here is our 3 kiddos in our double stroller that I use all the time:

Jeffrey always wants to sit in the back by Jacob. He loves him so much.

So the rest of our spring break we used our new grill for the first 3 times (also acquired on craigslist) and just hung out. So fun. I love our family.