Our Fresno Fiasco! Part 3: Getting Home

We decided to make the trip home all in one day. Nate had Tuesday off, but wanted to go in and finish up some computer training. The drive is 12 hours, so we decided to start nice and early. Nate set the alarm for 3AM. When it went off, he got up and got everything loaded. I tried to get up and help, I really did, but the bed must have had some sort of extra strong gravitational pull, because when he came to get me up at 4Am I hadn't moved.
My sister, Rachel, had driven to CA with our cousin, but would be driving home alone. She decided she wanted to follow us so that she wouldn't be all by herself. She didn't want to be alone, but she wouldn't let anyone ride with her....go figure.

Here's a shot of everyone's big smiles so early in the morning.

Even Nate was smiling....well...sort of.

I fully expected everyone in the backseat to fall asleep for the first few hours of the drive. That didn't happen. Jayne went back to sleep, Sarah starting snoring pretty quick, and I think my mom even dozed off for a bit, but Jonah and Lilly were wide awake. They just don't sleep much when we drive. We were making good time when we stopped off in Barstow for some breakfast. Due to lack of funds, we decided to just hit the local walmart and grab some granola bars or something. We found some muffins and juice. When we were walking inside Lilly looked at me and said, "Mom, why are we going to Wal Mart with me still in my jammies?!" She thought that was strange.
The drive went pretty well until we were just outside of Vegas. Then the little ones got really restless. Lilly just kept saying "This is too long of a drive, Mom." Jonah kept having to use the bathroom, which I think was just a ploy to get us to stop so he could get out of the Jeep. No one has to go that often. So we decided to make a longer pit stop in Vegas and go to Nate's parents house so that the kids could have some lunch and run around and play for a bit.
It was a very nice break. We made the kids some mac-n-cheese and they got to ride the pedal-powered tractor around the backyard and play with Aunt Emily. I don't know about anyone else, but I really didn't want to get back on the road. I was ready to just crash at the Barnum's. But, Nate was bound and determined to get home that day and so was Rachel.
The kids all complained when we had to buckle them back in.

Nate relaxing at his parents house. Can you tell he's a bit tired? =)

Emily helping us load up to get on down the road. She's always so great playing with the kids. They hate leaving her.

The drive was uneventful (aside from more potty stops and a little more whining from the back seat) until we got outside St. George. We had just finished the climb between St George and Cedar City when Rachel called to tell us that her car's transmission was acting up. She said she thought she could make it to Cedar City and to wait for her there. So we got to Cedar and gassed up. I think it was about 4:00 or so.
Rachel called again and said that her car wasn't going to make it. She had pulled off at the rest stop near New Harmony. So my mom got on the phone with her insurance company to see what they could do to help. They were absolutely NO help. It took her at least 30 minutes to get a real person on the phone and then they said they could tow it, but they needed to know the name of a place to tow it to. HELLO! we're from out of town. How are we supposed to know the name and address of the nearest mechanic? Anyway, we piled back in the Jeep and turned around to rescue Rachel.
Nate checked out her engine and said that he wanted to try driving it for a bit and see what the problem was. That made me official driver of the Jeep. We got back on the freeway and headed north. We stopped in Beaver for potty breaks and some dinner and to let the kids run around a bit.
When we were getting loaded up again, Nate said to me "We're going all the way home this time. No more stops." Easy for him to say. He's not driving a 3 and 5 year old with limited bladder control.
Needless to say, we had to stop. We stopped in Nephi and then planned to pull off in Draper(where Rachel lives) to drop her off and get Nate back in the Jeep. We were just getting to Lehi when I hear "I need to go potty" coming from the back seat. It was Lilly. I told her she'd have to hold it. Luckily, she made it. She started crying at about the point of the mountain. My mom reached back and held her hand and told her we'd be there soon and then Lilly fell asleep. I had to wake her up to take her to the bathroom.
After that, we went straight home. I think it was getting close to 10pm when we finally pulled into the driveway. We got the kids straight to bed. They were exhausted. Except for Lilly's 10 minute nap, they didn't sleep the entire drive.
So, there you have it---our adventure. We were all so exhausted that we pretty much slept all day Tuesday. Nate ended up not going in to work and we just relaxed all day.
We definitely made some memories on our little trip to Fresno, and it was great to see the Bennett Clan, but I can tell you one thing for sure........we are NOT making another drive like that for a very, very, very, very, very long time.