Our family had the most exciting vacation of our lives this past weekend - we got to go up to Washington state to see John Mayer & Keith Urban in concert (my Anniversary present to Michael) AND spend lots of time with Dan, Brook, Eliza, Porter, and Jesse (Michael's older sister's family)! We had a blast . . . (get ready for a long one)
We left Friday afternoon around 6:00 pm. On our way we saw this:
It's a Forest Fire!! The picture doesn't do it any justice - although I'm sure it was devastating to the trees - it looked amazing! Had I known then that we would be putting out a few fires of our own I probably would've turned the car around and headed straight for home as fast as our car could take us . . .
We drove in Saturday morning and relaxed for a few hours with the wonderful Black family - then Michael and I kissed our Chelsea Rose 'Goodbye' and headed for the much anticipated concert (now this was the very longest we've been away from her since she was born . . . I was hoping she wouldn't miss us too badly) -
The Gorge Amphitheater! Literally in the middle of NoWhere, Washington - amazing backdrop - but really there wasn't even a McDonald's within 40 minutes any direction - my pregnant self would've driven that 40 minutes had there been one . . . Nevertheless, we got to the amphitheater about 2 hours before the concert began and found our seats or spot on the grass, rather - I forgot to mention that on the way to the concert I forgot to grab the tickets so our 1 1/2 drive to The Gorge turned into a 2 hour drive - which gave me even more time with my honey . . . I'm just glad I remembered only 20 minutes into the drive.
The Darling Avett Brothers - these guys were the show opener - mix between funk, folk, pop, rock, and who knows what else . . . here's what we thought of the Avett Brothers:
They had some cool musicianship but nothing compared to this:
Here's what we thought of that:
Okay, the concert was AMAZING!! It was so neat to see two incredible guitarists jam on stage together - Michael was in heaven!! I love him SOOO much!
After an AMAZING concert (we love music!) we had about an 1 1/2 drive home, but leave it to me again to not have directions going back home - I thought I'd be fine just following the directions to The Gorge backwards . . . anyway, I missed the turn and we had to drive about 40 minutes before there was a way to turn around . . . I'm so grateful that Michael is blessed with patience . . . he needs a lot of it with me . . . Well, we made it home safely and pulled in at about 2:00 am to our sweet baby girl sleeping peacefully - THANK YOU, BROOK AND DAN!!
THE NEXT DAY
On the road again - we left the Black's at about 9:30 am which would mean we would be home at about 8:30 p.m. Perfect!! Before we left we made sure to put some new spark plugs in to make sure our car would be running perfectly for the drive home. We started on our way, bags packs, baby fed, and happy!! We drove a little ways and as were coming up to the town of Pendleton we thought maybe, since it's Sunday, we should read a General Conference talk. We found one by Elder Gregory A. Schwitzer called
Developing Good Judgment and Not Judging Others. It talked a lot about that and gave us a few keys that will help us do so . . . a part of the talk that stuck out us was when he read a scripture about Keeping the Commandments and Prospering. I took the liberty to ask Michael what he thought we can do as a family to better keep the commandments in order for us to prosper (emotionally, spiritually, physically, etc.) Before either of us got to answer we started hearing some sort of banging sound from under our hood - we figured that maybe we didn't screw on the cover quite tight enough where the spark plugs were so we thought it would be best to pull over - as we did we heard a loud bang and the car turned off . . . Uh, Oh!!
Miracle #1
We were only 1/2 mile from the exit AND on a hill so we let our car cruise down the hill off the exit.
Miracle #2
There was a tow truck that could come and get us within an hour and take us to a car repair shop. Now, it was Sunday. There was only one car repair shop open on Sunday and only from the hours of 4-6 pm. It was about 11:30 am. This is where we "landed:"
Miracle #3
We had TONS of food so the wait for the repair shop to open wasn't so bad. We created a little hut for ourselves with Chelsea's blankets to keep the sun out, opened the windows (there was a lovely breeze), and took a little nap.
Miracle #3 1/2
Maybe it was a blessing that we missed our turn last night and had to drive an extra 80 minutes . . . Pendleton was the last big city before we got over the Oregon pass . . . I'm glad we didn't get stuck in the middle no where?
Miracle #4
The mechanic figured out what was wrong with our car!! Well, this is the not so good news . . . the engine had to be replaced. He told us that we blew a piston which means that we had some engine failure. He told us that to replace the engine would mean that we would have to wait a week to find the engine then however long it would take to fix it. We didn't have a week or think the car worth the wait - sorry, Eunice. Well, now the question is . . . how in the world are we going to get back to Utah???
Miracle #5
Thankfully we were only about 1 1/2 away from Pasco (Brook and Dan's house). They were SOOO kind to come and pick us up and take us back to their place while we figured out what we were going to do.
Miracle #6
The man who towed us to the car repair shop is partners with another man, Chris, who owns a junk/salvage yard for cars.
Miracle #7
Chris offered to buy our car for $800!! At least we got something out of it . . . Our last look at dear, old Eunice (named after Eunice on "What's Up, Doc):
Miracle #8
With a lot of prayers and a lot of help and advice from Michael's dad we made it home!! We decided to get a rental car and buy a new car as soon as we could when we got home (which still can't happen yet 'cause we have to close on our house first . . . which thankfully is this coming Tuesday . . . HOORAY!!).
We certainly learned a lot this past weekend. We feel more humbled than ever and are so grateful for the little miracles that happened. We feel so dependent on the Lord and are more motivated than ever to focus our lives on the Gospel and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Without Him and without prayer and without all the many angels looking out for us we would not have made it through this tiny trial. Thank you for being those angels in our lives! Next time we may just think twice before we ask ourselves how we can do and be a little bit better in our lives . . .
