Day Three, Day Four

I've got to start telling you about Day Three by adding a little information from Day Two. While we were hanging out with Erin and Phil, I broke my toe. Well, I either broke my toe, or just severely injured it. We didn't get it confirmed by a doctor, but it sure swelled up and turned purple, and of course, it hurt like crazy! I hurt it by jumping over a storage tub. It was that simple. I wish I had a heroic story to add, but I was just hopping over an open storage tub that was sitting in the middle of the hallway, and I wacked my foot on the side of it. It hurt, and I hopped around for a bit, but then I ignored it until a few hours later it STILL hurt like it had just barely happened, so we grabbed a bag of frozen corn to put on it while Erin and I visited. (Marcus ate the corn when I was done with it. He loves frozen food.)

At some point during the evening, when I was realizing just how hurt my poor little toe was, Brian asked to take a look at it. He started poking and prodding, then he squeezed my toe, and we heard a soft "crack," which was quickly followed by my screams and the thumping of me hopping around the room again. Brian sadly, and a little bit guiltily, said, "Yeah, I think it's broken."

This picture was taken the next morning, after things had calmed down a little bit. You can see that the purple was already starting to go away and the swelling was going down. Still hurt, though, especially after Brian accidentally stepped on it while we were gathering our luggage to head out the door. I think it's pretty clear that Brian and that toe were not getting along that weekend.

After driving through a blizzard in Southern Utah, we stopped and filled a Ziplock bag with snow to put on my foot. Then we stopped at a store where Brian bought a small brace and a bottle of Excedrin, which I happily accepted. I think the snow was the best thing we did, because my toe was feeling so much better by the next morning. As bad as it hurt on Saturday and Sunday, I was surprised at how well it was doing by Monday.

So we drove from Orem, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada on Sunday. The drive was beautiful! I kept trying to take naps, and Brian kept waking me up to look at the scenery. I was glad he did.

Here's some of the pictures we took along the way:


Um, I guess that's about it. I thought I took more pictures than that, but I guess I was more involved in the "I Spy with My Little Eye..." games than I remember being. I know I took pictures of the red rock, and the flowers, but I can't find them. So just imagine that they're there. It really was a beautiful drive.

So we stopped in Las Vegas (actually, Henderson) to visit Jamie, and once again, we didn't take any pictures, because we were having so much fun catching up. For anyone who's wondering, Jamie's doing well. She has a beautiful little girl, and her new house is fabulous. Thanks for letting us stop by, James!

After spending more time than we should have, we headed West toward California. There was a car accident just outside of Las Vegas, so the going was very slow at first, but things moved faster after a while, and we played more "I Spy" and "20 Questions." Brian and I tried to get the kids to play the game where you come up with a category, like "colors," then you have to take turns thinking of songs that have colors in them, but the kids weren't too interested in that. We played boys and against girls, and Brian started a game with the theme being "snake," because he knew Ethan would be able to come up with the "Green Anaconda" song, and he had "She's a Cold Hearted Snake" in his head, and he thought I wouldn't be able to come up with anything, but I completely blew him away with the song, "If you take a turtle and a snake, put them together and see what they make. A neck that's long, a tail that's strong, add four paddles where they all belong. A, B, C, D, Elasasaurus! Elasasaurus! The giant of the sea!" (Does anyone know that song besides my family? I've never heard it anywhere else, but I know we didn't come up with it!)

After we made it into California, we played the "Try to Keep the Engine from Overheating" game and lost...twenty minutes from our destination. Luckily, we were headed to Brian's aunt's house, so Uncle Tracy came to rescue us.

We spent the night with Karen and Tracy (and Gregory!) and while we were settling in, Alyssa worked on her worksheet to figure out where we were headed the next day. Every time we stopped somewhere to that point, someone would ask if we were going to Disneyland, and Brian would hush them up quick so the kids wouldn't hear, and we were able to successfully keep our secret until we got to Karen and Tracy's house and Tracy unknowingly spilled the beans. So Alyssa knew what the worksheet was going to spell out, and she kept saying, "It's Disneyland, I just know it," and Tracy kept trying to convince her otherwise by coming up with silly names.

Alyssa: See? It says, Disneyla...It's going to spell Disneyland for sure.

Tracy: No, it's probably Disneylatawahoo. That's where you're going.

Or something like that. It was fun. Yeah, so she figured out where we were headed, and the next morning Brian and Karen took the van in to get the radiator replaced, and then we were on our way. (Thanks Karen and Tracy (and Gregory!) for everything!)

I slept almost the entire way to Disneyland. I didn't mean to, but I did. So that went by quickly. We stopped at our hotel, dropped the car off, and walked across the street to the most magical place on Earth.