By the end of August we realized that money was running out and we couldn't wait around in Virginia for Todd's job offer anymore. So with in a week we packed up the house and headed back West. Thankfully some friends of ours were headed East and they took over the remainder of our lease. It was really hard for me to leave. I felt like it was the first time we had met friends outside of school in an area where we thought we would be for a long time and I was really upset to leave them behind. But we really had no other options especially with the economy the way it was we had half our ward and our neighbors trying to find us a job so we could stay but the jobs just weren't there.
The Drive-
We left really late around midnight the first night by 2:30am I was done so we pulled into a truck stop to snooze, after 2 hours of Kaprice climbing all over me I figured I'm awake now we might as well drive, so I woke up Todd and we drove off. Not an hour later my cell rings and Todd is now falling asleep so we pulled into a Lowes in West Virginia and slept a good 3 hours. Had a little BK for breakfast and stopped into Sears to get a Headlight replaced on the Van and we were off again. We decided that we would drive until 6pm and then stop at a Hotel with a pool to give the kids a break.
We continued to follow Pratt tradition and stop at every Cabela's along the way. The one in West Virginia was HUGE and it had a whole Safari section and a laser shooting range which we had never seen before.
Reece not so excited
Everyone took turns but Kya was an amazing shot. 
We ended the day in Indiana, grabbed some KFC found a dog friendly hotel with a pool and set up camp. The pool was AWESOME it felt like a hot tub, the kids had a blast and Kya swam up and back the entire pool without any floaties, she was very excited and we were very proud. Everything seemed great until we tried to go to bed. The kids were wide awake, there was shredded biscuit all over the place Todd stepped on a BBQ sauce packet which shot everywhere, Todd and I had Zero patience because we were exhausted. We finally got everyone asleep and then had to wake up pack everything back up and hit the road.By the time we loaded up, paid the bill, and got on the road later than I would have liked, we agreed we might as well push through and get this over with. Mind you the kids were PERFECT in the car, they were either sleeping, watching a movie, coloring or eating, they never complained it was so nice.Somewhere in Nebraska where we ate breakfast and heard everyone's life story. Seriously every old person came and sat and talked with us at one point.
We stopped at some really nice rest stops and made sandwiches along the way, one even had a HUGE really nice playground with a soft squishy ground that even Reece could crawl around on. Kya felt sick a few times but we just kept her loaded up on Dramamine and she was fine. So the day we left the hotel was a 16 1/2 hr day of driving before a 4 hr nap at a truck stop followed by a 18 1/2 hour day of driving and we finally made it to UTAH! Coming over into the mountains in Utah was a nightmare it was so dark and FYI I can' t see at night and almost never drive anywhere at night. Trucks were flying past me I thought I was going to die, I was crying Todd was way ahead in the moving truck I just kept thinking I'm gonna wreck or the van will die and Todd will have no clue where we are, we had no phone coverage for most of it and to make matters worse I had no idea where we were going. Luckily I was able to catch back up with Todd and we headed for Uncle Bobby's House.
Our visit in Utah was short but it was nice to break up the trip a little bit. We were able to catch up with family and see how huge our Nephews had gotten since we last saw them and even had time to run over and see our friends Pete and Taylor from law school. The cousins had a blast outside digging in the sand, Sassy had fun with her doggy cousins, and Kya got skateboading lessons from her long lost bud PJ.
After our 2 nights in Utah it was off to Uncle Danny's house in Nyssa, OR. It was Danny's birthday and they had wanted to go to a burger place in Boise that had been on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, so we met them in Boise and then followed them home.
Our visit there was so great. We were able to see their house they had bought for the first time and see our Little Niece Lauren which we hadn't seen, who's only a few monthes older than Kaprice. Todd and Danny took the boys to a Nyssa High football game and then the next night we all went to the Drive-In movie. The kids were falling apart so Jordan and I loaded them all in the van and left after the first movie leaving the boys to see the 2nd. After sacrament we headed out onto our last leg of our journey. Home to Eugene, OR.This leg went fairly smooth until the end where shortly after leaving Bend our GPS sent us out in the boonies to go up a windy road that our 26ft truck with car trailer in tow could barley even fit and couldn't turn without taking up both lanes. Next comes the torrential downpour (Welcome to OR) we could barely see and all I can see is the back of the trailer bouncing off the side of the mountain or off the guardrail of a cliff. We finally make it into Thurston and I call Todd because the water is coming of the trailer weird so I pull up next to him at the light and sure enough we have a blow out. Luckily I went to school out here for a few yrs and new the area so we pulled down the next street and pulled into the LDS Church parking lot.
Are you kidding me we're a whole 10min from my parents house and stuck. So I left Todd to call Penske and drove to my parents house. Now we have to send out 2 drivers one to drive the extra driver for our car and one to drive the car out home and Todd can drive the truck. So my Sister Kelsie drives my Dad and I out. Penske said we could just dump the trailer and they would come pick it up so we unload our car and Todd garbs the truck and we all head back to Juju and Papa's house.
1 comment:
What do you say to that? I think just PHEW! It's over!
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