A Griswald Trip

So it has been over a week since my last post, but wow has it been an exciting week... My family, consisting of everyone except my husband (he was in Nicaraqua) had planned a long time ago to drive to Bullhead City, AZ to celebrate my moms 55th Bday. So on Thursday, Sept. 25 my parents left in my dads corvette for AZ. Celina, Mike and Maddy... Greyson and myself, spent the night at my parents house so we would already be in Costa Mesa to pick up Alyssa and Casey from John Wayne airport at 7:30am on Friday. We should have known when we got a text from Alyssa at 6:35am that their flight was delayed, that our trip was going to be difficult. Maddy and Greyson barely slept at all Thursday night, so they were cranky. Celina was very nervous about the drive because she had done it once before and it wasn't a fun one. I was trying to stay positive, but as the morning went on it got more and more difficult.


Alyssa and Casey finally landed at John Wayne at 9am and off we went. All 7 of us, in my moms Tahoe, with all our luggage were off and running....until at approximately 9:45 am in the carpool lane on the 91 freeway our car starting thumping and then there was a loud crash, black debri flying and smoke coming from.... our right rear tire!!! Thats right... going about 75 mph we blow a back tire. Our hero: Mike Shwam, was at the wheel and did an AMAZING job at controlling the car and getting us all the way over to the right. No body was hurt, just really shaken. We were soooooo lucky!!! Celina and my hearts were in our throats because we had our little ones with us... they slept thru the entire ordeal.


An hour later we were on the road again after a visit from two AAA men, who were sweating sooo bad changing the tire. It was a full size spare that they promised could easily make it to AZ and back. So reluctantly we were on the freeway again. Finally around 3:45pm we arrive in Bullhead City. I will spare other details, but the drive was tough.

After checking into the hotel, we finally got to celebrate my moms bday!!! Happy Bday Gamma!!!






Saturday was boating day... I was excited to see Grey at the cove, but anxious cause I am not a huge boating person. But we got all packed up and got to the marina. It was a long process... as expected, but still not easy to get through. My mom, Alyssa, Celina, Maddy, Greyson and myself were the ones to stay back until the guys found a cove. I think it was probably an hour later when Pete returned to get us. The kids were bored, hot and getting cranky, cause again no nap!!! But they were being troopers...until... Lifejacket time!! Holy moly... Greyson had a fit!!! He wanted that lifejacket off sooo bad. He was screaming, pulling, fighting us, sweating... all of the above. Mind you it is about 95 degrees outside. So we finally start moving in the boat... fast! I was holding on to Greyson for dear life... I forgot how bumpy the ride is. All of a sudden my mom and I realize Greyson is passed out. We aren't sure if he actually passed out or if he fell asleep. All I can say is I was terrified. We stopped the boat, started pulling off his lifejacket, calling his name and he finally "came to". So I was officially in hysterics...

The day ended up being really fun though =)

So after a long day at the lake Grey passed out...fell asleep in my moms arms on the beach and stayed asleep the entire boat ride back to the marina. We all made our way back to the hotel to freshen up before a yummy dinner at the Bricks house.

So dinner was great... we were all tired and ready to go back to the hotel for bed...oh, but not sooo easy. We all load in the Tahoe and say our good-byes and Celina goes to release the emergency break... it won't release. The stupid handle that you pull to release the break broke. We all have to unload from the Tahoe and load into Two of the Bricks trucks so that we can make it back to the hotel and put the kids to bed. We would deal with the car in the morning. Luckily, we had another hero on this trip: Jason Brick. He got on the internet and researched how to manually release an e-break. So to make a long story come to an end.... he released it on Sunday morning and we were on our way home at 10am. We got home around 3:45pm after a very difficult ride home.... the kids didn't feel well... who blames them. But we are all alive and have a few great stories to tell.

Greyson checking the time...can we leave?? Greyson and Maddy at In n Out in Barstow