Our Adventure to Texas!

Trevor and Jon had a wild idea to go to Baton Rouge after the hurricane went through and try and make some money tarping the roofs. Their plan worked out well so when they heard Hurricane Ike was heading to Texas, which was when he was suppose to be driving back home; he left his truck and trailer they took full of tarps at the airport in Texas and flew home to get some more tarps packed full in a u-haul trailer and me and the boys and drive back down to Texas. So we headed off with a stop in South Jordan, Utah to have a short but nice visit with Grandpa & Grandma Warne. I am sad we didn't get any pictures there. The kids really had a good time there and it only took a short 14 hours which should have only been an 11 hour drive. Not a very good start to a very long drive but we were still optimistic about our little adventure. Day two, next stop Surprise Arizona, only a short jont of 7 hours off course and a flat tire but well worth it!! We got in late that night and stayed up visiting till about 3:00 AM with Trevor's sister Emily. The next day was spent having fun playing at a couple of parks, the biggest hit was the water park!! Our boys loved playing with the Smith cousins and I thought they were so cute together!! We made it back with time for a nice nap and spent the evening visiting, eating pizza and trying to get the Smith's little four-wheeler going for the little kiddos to ride. Once we finally got it started for some reason no one was paying attention to the fact that our little monster had climbed on it and was ready to go accept for the small fact that he had no idea what he was doing and went full speed into our stroller which happened to be right in front of me with Brody in my arms and sent me flying back on my bottom. Luckily no one was hurt and Trevor and I learned a valuable lesson that our kids can wait a little longer before they get their four-wheeler. At about 8:30 PM we headed out on our way to our last stop Houston Texas. We drove all through the night Trevor stopped for just an hour nap at a rest stop and I drove for only one hour totalling only two hours of rest for Trevor on an 18 hour drive, (what a "STUD"!!!). :) We arrived in Texas about 7:00 PM and checked into a hotel on the ninth floor with a leaking roof onto our bed and barely any water dripping out of our faucet that would not heat up. By the time we got settled in our room and headed out looking for food, we realized there was a 6:30 PM curfew so things were not getting broke into and so that meant no food to be found. Luckily we had a few granola bars and wheat thins to munch on to calm our growling tummies..... The next day started with the Boys heading off to work and Michelle and I not having a clue what we were going to do or where we were going to be staying that night because the hotel we were at the night before was booked and so off Michelle and I go with our five little boys all under the age of five and two under two months to run some errands for the boys in a place neither one of us knows how to get around, luckily we had a GPS to get us places. After the errands we found a mall to eat lunch and let the kids play while we called a ton of hotels trying to find a place to stay, we had no luck all were booked or closed due to the hurricane and so we decided we better start driving to a new location in hopes of finding a room in another area, before we know it, it's starting to get late and we know we better start looking for a grocery store so we can have some food to make sandwiches or something for dinner or we won't be able to because all will be closed. Unfortunately our GPS is letting us down and leading us into some scary neighborhoods telling us we are at a Wal- Mart we are really not at and we lose our chance of getting food, but fortunately the boys have found us a really nice furnished apartment to stay out the rest of our trip, and they were able to get food it only took them till 9:30 PM to get back to us. The next morning Michelle and I head out to find a Wal-Mart and by groceries so we don't end up in the same situation as the nights before us. We find one and it is crazy to see shelf after shelf empty. The only cold products they had were 2% and whole milk and orange juice. It got a little stressful for me when my little monster Mason decides to take the jam I put in our cart (the last one of that kind in the store) and throw it on the floor. I was so embarrassed that there is hardly any food in the store and I can't even watch my kid enough to stop him from wasting the food. It wasn't until now when the optimism of being on a fun adventure is starting to turn sour for me. A few other highlights were Brody having a bottle made with the the tap water and being up all night crying with a stomach ache and loosing power in our apartment and Trevor having to go out to find hot water when Brody woke up in the early morning wanting a bottle. Having the people in the apartment below us come up and tell us our kids are being to loud and then moving apartments to have a bottom floor so we are not bothering people and finding out it is not furnished and then moving our stuff back to the old apartment and the next night going back to the bottom floor apartment to find the air conditioner not working in a very hot and humid place we are not use to and it being over the weekend so we have to endure that for a few days until the apartment office is open. However we survived and it was worth it.



Nate, Jack, Garrett, Porter and Baily at the water park!! Michelle and I found these fun Texas shirts at the mall!!
Best Friends, Nixon and Brody!! For Garrett's 5Th Birthday we went to the Houston Zoo.Th Boys in a little tunnel that's in a fish tank. Pretty COOL!!My kids loved Johnny Mac and wanted to be with him the whole time, Johnny was such a good sport dealing with them! The babies were wondering what the heck we got them into, it was so hot and humid that day we all were so sweaty and gross.All the animals were pretty much doing what this little bear was doing and so there wasn't much to see but the kids loved it anyway!!
Waiting for frozen Lemonades!!

What a Big BIRTHDAY BOY!! He got a vacuum and a big Nerf gun and Porter and Mason got a little Nerf gun so they could play together. The boys had so much fun having a Nerf gun fight with Michelle, Jon and Johnny!!
Feeding the ducks.
The ducks were so aggressive Michelle had to protect Mason from getting his hand bitten. They finally figured out it was a little safer on the wall.
Why should the ducks get all the bread!?!The babies seemed to really enjoy the park!!

Fun cousins!! Trevor sent me and the boys home with his Mom and we stopped in Surprise again on our way home. Carol was such a good sport to drive me and my crazy boys home. It took four days, poor Carol!! Thanks so much for helping us out!! Trevor and Jon are still in Texas trying to figure out the best way to make money. Wish us luck!!