Six Thousand Three Hundred Twenty Six Part 1

It's true, I drove over 6,000 miles in my Suburban, with my 4 kids, in about six weeks, this summer. I am so glad we did this trip, but it's so good to be home.

The following posts are about our trip. It was a blessing to be able to go "home" out West to see our family.

July 4: David had to march in the oldest Fourth of July parade in the country, in Bristol, Rhode Island. I packed most of the day and dropped Pepper, the dog, off at a friends home so they could watch her while we were away.

July 5 4:30am: We woke up the kids and left on our big trip. Everyone was really excited and no one went back to sleep. Eli (5 months old) was the only one who slept. I slept later in the day, since I stayed up all night packing the truck. David slept so he could drive, but I didn't even go to bed.

July 5, 4:00pm, 649 miles: We stopped for the night in Columbia, Ohio. The kids voted Pennsylvania as their favorite state to drive through. This made my day since I served my mission there. It was a beautiful drive and being on I-80 the whole time helped us avoid NYC all together, thank goodness.

July 6, 3:00pm, 722 miles: We stopped for the night at Des Moines, IA. Nothing major on this day of driving. We have a DVD player built into the Suburban, so we watched a lot of movies. The kids' favorite choice on this leg of the trip was Seasons 1-3 of the 80's show "Full House".

July 7, 5:00pm, 629 miles: Stopped for the night in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The kids voted their least favorite state to drive through was Nebraska. It was ugly and boring they said. More "Full House" on the movie choices. We stayed in a hotel in Cheyenne called "Little America". It was decorated in frontier and western décor. The room was huge, and the kids loved watching all the baby bunnies run around wild outside our room. This was a fun stop.

In Cheyenne, WY.  The boys were scared of the Indian statue.





July 8, 1:00pm, just under 400 miles: On I-15 in Utah, on our way to Tremonton, we just had to stop at the Smith and Edwards Country Store. It's a ginormous store right off the freeway that has just about everything a cowboy/farmer/camper would want to shop for. We spent an hour there and had a grand time. David was in heaven and the farm boy in him appeared real quick disguised as a little kid. We had a good time.

July 8, 3:30pm, 469 miles: We finally arrived in Tremonton, UT where David grew up. David's parents were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this summer and a year ago, we started planning to come home for the celebrations and a reunion. He has 5 brothers and a sister, so this was going to be a big shindig. It really was a miracle that we got everyone home considering 4 brothers are in the Navy in VA, WA, RI and Naples, Italy, and their sister is in Minnesota. But it worked out and we all made it.

We stayed at "home" and throughout the week, aunts, uncles and cousins were coming and going. We had a fantastic time getting reacquainted with everyone and it was a great challenge to find sleeping arrangements for the 20 plus people there at any given time. Grandpa cooked pancakes for about 20 every morning outside on the table-sized cast iron grill and we all ate breakfast together in the shadow of the Wasatch mountains. Gorgeous.

July 12, 10:45 am, Brigham City: David's parents work at the new Brigham City temple. We arranged for all their grandchildren age 12 and up to go with them to do Baptisms for the Dead. Grandma, Grandpa, Eleven of their grandchildren and several of the siblings went to the temple together that morning. The remaining sisters-in-law and eleven younger kids stayed home and played.

July 12, 2:00pm, Maddox Steak House, Brigham City, UT: The entire family, all THIRTY-EIGHT of us, had a luncheon at a nice steak house. We ate, visited and all the siblings gave a toast to Mom and Dad's 50th. It was an emotional and wonderful afternoon.

July 12, 6:00pm, Tremonton, UT: We all gathered again for the baptism of David's nephew. He turned 8 several months ago, but waited until the reunion so he could have all his aunts, uncles and cousins there. We filled the halls of the church with song and words of the Spirit. I looked around that room at all the family, active in the church, singing the hymns, and counted my incredible blessing to have married into this amazing family.

July 13, 9:30 am, Riverside, UT: Again, all 38 of us met at a photo studio for family pictures. The oldest grandson will leave on his mission in October, so this will probably be the last chance we have for all of us to be together like that. We spent several hours in the studio getting amazing pictures. I can't believe we got everyone in the photo. We also took individual family pictures. When I get those ordered, I'll post them. They turned out really nice.

The kids went out to the farm with Grandpa. It's a tradition and they always look for snakes and other critters. They had fun climbing on the tractors. Not a lot of work to do while we were there. Harvest wasn't started yet.

July 13, 6:00pm, Tremonton, UT: The Ward family is well known for their musical talents. Everyone in the family plays an instrument or two, or five. No one could think of a better way to celebrate the anniversary than with a concert, featuring the family band. A park in Tremonton was reserved and they sat and rehearsed for about an hour tops the day before. Right before the concert started it poured rain and even a little hail, but everyone stayed and it cleared up in time for a great evening. The band played and it was just a wonderful time. I don't know the exact numbers, but I think there were at least 100 or more people there. What a legacy and a fitting celebration.

David and his brother Jonathan. Our babies were born 6 days apart.

 

My college roommate came to the concert. We all "grew up" in the USU band together.

 

July 14, 10:00am, Tremonton, UT: We all attended church together. We took up two really long rows of pews. There were a lot of us, but again, the blessings of being a family who share our faith and beliefs like we do, is incredible and beyond words.

 

July 15: Everyone parted ways. We stayed one more day because we had some issues with our Suburban. But they got fixed and we packed and visited one more day. It was so very bittersweet to see everyone leaving. Who knows when we'll be together again.

 

July 16, 5:00am: We left Tremonton and drove to Salt Lake City to take David to the airport. He had to return to work and I decided to take me and the kids to see my family. So, we dropped David off at the airport and started our adventure south. (See Part 2.)

 

After we dropped David at the airport, I couldn't pass up the chance to take the kids to Temple Square in Salt Lake City. So, we parked at the City Creek Mall and started our adventure in Salt Lake. We visited temple square, the Church History museum and the Visitors Center. They loved being there and it was the perfect beginning to the rest of our vacation.

 

Newport, Rhode Island to Salt Lake City, UT via Tremonton = 2,545 miles.