Reunion Trip Fiasco

My dad's side of the family had a family reunion down in Arizona over the New Year's weekend.  We traveled with my brother, his wife and son.  Once again the weather was supposed to be dicey, but we should have been fine if we took another route.  Unfortunately, due to some miscommunication/misunderstanding, we headed right into the storm and got stuck in it.  Instead of making it to Arizona in one day, we spent the night in a gas station parking lot, in the car.  We turned the car heater on occasionally to keep warm.  None of us slept very well.

Once we got going the next morning (backtracking to get to the correct turnoff), we got stuck in traffic for 2 hours and managing to go 5 miles, maybe.  We stopped for a bathroom break and left again, then we got to the next exit to check on our check-engine light, after which our car wouldn't start.  So we got a tow truck.  Since there were 7 of us, 3 in carseats, we just stayed in our van, which I don't recommend if it can be avoided.  We were freezing the entire hour we were in there.  We think the kids were warm enough.  (Luckily, they all slept through it.)  I should also mention that Lisa and myself did not have coats: Lisa figured it was Arizona and we wouldn't need them; I figured that I'd just get the one that I left at my parents' house at Thanksgiving from them. When the tow truck dropped us off, Keith waited with the car while a mechanic that was open came to pick up the car and the rest of us walked about 1/3-1/2 of a mile in the bitter cold carrying children.  It was pretty miserable.  Micah stayed in a hotel for the night to wait on the car and the rest of us were picked up by my dad in my aunt and uncle's car.  And the grand total for our trip was 40 hours.  Not fun.

Keeping Jaden warm on the tow ride.

Jaden and Alex loved playing in the car together.

Brennan liked (licked) the steering wheel.

 After that, the rest of the trip was relatively boring.  However, we did really enjoy ourselves.  I started to learn who my cousins' kids are and even how many kids some of them have.  If it weren't for Facebook, I would have known very little about some of their lives.  It was also nice to spend time with my one aunt who isn't doing well health-wise.

The aunts and uncles told stories about growing up with my grandparents.

Alex, having fun with his daddy.

Night time, Daddy.

The trip home was so much shorter, thank goodness.  Even with the baby-related stops and getting stuck in the snow once (my fault), we got home in 12 hours.