Chapman

We left Provo on Saturday and drove straight through the night to make it in Rochester in RECORD time.  We were celebrating the awesome time we were making, and celebrating all the time we would be able to play together in Rochester before Trevor had to begin work, and celebrating how awesome we were that we could totally drive from Utah to New York in less than a day in a half when all of a sudden we lost all power to the car on a lonely stretch of road in Plainfield Indiana.  Our Prius is phenomenal and we have never had any problems with it EVER.  So we thought this would just be a 10 minute set back and we would be back on the road.  The oil light came on so Trevor checked the oil levels and we were indeed low, so we put up the hood and waited for someone to stop so they could take us to get some oil.

A cop pulled over, picked us all up in his cruiser (Jace LOVED that) and took us to get some oil.  No problem.  We put it all in and were good to go.  Or so we thought.  The car STILL wouldn’t turn on although everything looked totally fine.  After hours of trying to get it to go, we finally called a tow truck and had him tow us to a hotel where we would wait until we could take it to the dealership when it opened on Tuesday.  We broke down on Sunday (so the dealership was closed) and the next day was Labor Day (so the dealership was closed).  So we already had two days that we just had to WAIT.  Well, Joseph was also coming to New York but on the northern route.  Joseph is totally awesome and took a three hour detour to pick up Trevor so they could work while the kids and I waited to get the car fixed.  On Labor day I got sick of waiting and posted an ad on craigslist for someone to come fix it.  These dudes came right away and I was so hopeful I would be on the road by that night, but alas the part we need is a dealer only part so we had to wait for the dealership to open anyway.  SOOOO annoying.  But it was OK– he could get the part, install it in an hour, and then we would be on our way.  Well, I got a phone call the next day when he was supposed to come install it, and I found out the part is not a part that anyone keeps in stock because it is something that NEVER needs replacing, so it was going to be another two days until it arrived.  AHHHHHHHH!!!!

So we have been stuck in this hotel in Indiana since Sunday.  It is so frustrating.  Thank goodness we brought five bags of carrots and celery because that is what we have been subsisting off of!  It is awful!  This is what is wrong with our car– someone crashed into our car while it was in a parking lot a few months ago.  A hit and run.  The body shop fixed the outside damage but didn’t fix the internal damage.  (I know!  What in the world!?!?!?)  We had no idea, but that crash had damaged all of our sensors and they had been hanging on by a thread until they shorted out completely on this long drive.  Since the sensor is destroyed, it won’t tell the car that it has enough oil, so the car won’t turn on to protect the engine– but the engine doesn’t need protecting because we have enough oil.  The sensor just won’t tell that to the car.

So that is what is going on with us.  I am about to die– it is awful and so annoying.  The car is totally fine but the crushed sensors won’t allow it to go.  Hopefully the next time I update it will be from Rochester instead of this hotel room again.  Bleh.

…here is a clip of her.  WOW– three blog posts in ONE DAY.  Talk about catchin’ up!

Awesome superhero capes Trevor's mom made for Jace.

Wow!  It seems that whenever a lot happens, I totally quit blogging!  The more bored I am, the more I blog.  Well, Trevor got back from Ukraine so we celebrated by taking the kids to Disneyland.  That is SO weird to say “the kids”.  It makes me feel SO old.  Anyway, we took off a day early so that we could spend some time in Las Vegas with Trevor’s family.  It is always so much fun to see them!  So we had a great time with them and then we took off to California.

We were supposed to spend the first day at the beach, but by the time we got to our hotel we were SO exhausted that we just chilled there for almost all the day.  Then, near dusk, we decided to finally get to the beach and take some awesome pictures of Jace and Cali in front of the setting sun.

It was going to be great.  Well, as we were going, the car all of a sudden DIED.  We were able to pull to the side of the road amid all the California traffic and we were totally confused about what could be wrong with the car, so Trevor checked the oil and everything and everything was totally fine and then we realized that we were OUT OF GAS!  Since it is pretty much impossible to run out of gas in a Prius, we hadn’t even thought of that!  So we ran out of gas in the Prius.

HOW embarassing.  That is the quintessential example of irresponsibility.  But anyway, Trevor had me get behind the wheel and he pushed us all the way to a post office so we would quit blocking traffic and then he set out on foot to get some gas.  Well, the first gas station he got to was Arco and they only take cash and he only had a debit card.  He tried and tried to get just a gallon and then pay in five minutes after we got the car running but they were total punks and wouldn’t help him at all!  They made him walk to the next gas station which was two more miles away!

I was terrified because Jace, Cali, and I were broken down in this abandoned Post Office parking lot and it was pitch black and I was sure we were going to be murdered.  I had Trevor’s snow saw that he keeps in the car clutched in my hand the whole time.  SO scary.  I thought Trevor was going to be no more than 15 minutes but when he didn’t return for an hour and a half, I thought he had been mugged and left for dead.  I was about to flag down someone for help when he finally came back.

Phew.  So he put the gas in and the Prius wouldn’t register that we had any gas in because we were SOOOOO empty.  So Trevor had to hike three miles back to the gas station, get another gallon, and try again.  It wouldn’t registered with this next gallon, either, so Trevor pushed the car onto a hill and pointed it downward so all the gas flowed to the front, and then he started jumping on the car, bouncing all the gas down the pipes.  FINALLY the car registered that we had gas and all was well.  But we were exhausted from the ordeal, got a bunch of fast food, and vegged in the hotel for the rest of the night.

The next day we went to Disneyland and Jace LOVED it!  It was SOOOOO FUN!!!  I had Cali in a harness the whole time and she just slept.  She was such a good girl!  I would just had to feed her every three hours and other than that, it was as if she wasn’t even there.  We all were able to go on most of the rides together.  There were only a few that they wouldn’t let Cali on, so on those ones Trevor and Jace went alone and I just waited.  Jace even went on Splash Mountain!!  We were SOOOOO proud of him!  He was terrified out of his mind, but he just sucked it up and did it.  He didn’t even cry.  He didn’t want to do it ever again as long as he lived, but at least he didn’t cry!

Cali was the princess of Disneyland and everyone wanted to look at her and talk about her, and ask me about her.  We were total celebrities.  haha  They even would let us go to the front of the lines and stuff because of her.

Toy Story is Jace’s current favorite movie so he was ELATED when we were able to meet Woody and Jesse.  We had to stand in line for forever before it was our turn and Woddy and Jesse were doing pictures and being nice and everything, but when it was our turn, they thought Cali and Jace were so cute that they played with Jace and Cali for like 10 minutes.  Woody stole Jace’s sucker and ran away and Jace had to catch him and he just did all kinds of things.  They made it so memorable for Jace!

Everything was totally awesome, but my favorite thing was the fireworks show at the end.  We staked out a place right in front of the castle so that we had a fantastic view of the whole show.  When Tinkerbell and Dumbo flew over the castle, Jace couldn’t take it anymore, and he passed out from over stimulation.  It was all so real and his little three year old mind couldn’t take anymore magic.  It was so sweet.  The fireworks show was absolutely breathtaking and magical.

We went to Huntington Beach the next day.  We have SO many memories at Huntington.  It was so awesome to be there with TWO kids!  The US Surf Open was there the previous week so they had tons of US Open stuff for sale so Trevor was in heaven buying all the surf stuff.  Cali rubbed all the sunscreen off her nose while we were there and got a sunburn on her little nose.  So sad.

After the beach we went and saw some of our friends and we stayed there too long so we had to drive ALL NIGHT to make it to a wedding breakfast in Salt Lake the next morning!  We couldn’t stop at all or else we would have missed it.  So Trevor drove as long as he could and then I took over outside of Vegas and I drove us all the way there, making it in record time.  We stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Chapman’s house in West Jordan to get ready and made it to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building just in the nick of time!  The breakfast was DELICIOUS and totally worth 10 hours of no sleep.  But afterwards, we drove straight to our house and passed out cold until we were awaken by my family who had come up for Cali’s blessing the next day.

So we had a great time playing with my family and the Chapman family, and then the next day we blessed Cali and had a barbecue for lunch.  Lunch was AWESOME– thanks for helping so much everyone!  Cali was SO good during her blessing.  She was being fussy right before Trevor was supposed to take her, so I was worried she would get really bad during the blessing, but she fell right asleep!  She is seriously such a good girl!  Trevor gave her a beautiful blessing and Cali looked beautiful in her dress.  It was perfect!

It was such a fun, busy, week!  This really should have been three blog posts, but oh well.  Yesterday Trevor had to unexpectedly leave for Denver for a week, so it is just Cali, Jace, and I again.  He will be in Denver each month for a week and then Ukraine each month for a week, so we only have him two weeks out of each month.  It is a total bummer.  He is a busy guy.  But we are thinking he might start taking Jace to Ukraine with him so he can spend more time with Jace.  That will be so fun for Jace!

OH!  Also, on the way to California, we did Geocashes!  We just started doing them about a week ago and they are SOOOOOOO fun!  We found a few on the way down and then planted one of our own outside Joshua Tree National Park.  If you are over in that neck of the woods, try to find ours!  It is called “Red Scramble”.  That is our new family hobby– we feel like pirates hunting for buried treasure.  SO FUN!!!