I'm Feelin' Lucky

This past weekend we were obliged to join the Anderson family up in Star Valley WY. We were scheduled for some old fashioned family togetherness, bags of candy from a little store in Jackson Hole, and a splashing good time river rafting down the Snake. Sounds easy, right?


Night One -- cue Jonah's random fever.


He was up every fifty minutes, with ten minutes between to put him back to sleep. He didn't feel good at all, and he was in a strange place so he wasn't going to sleep well anyway. He hated taking his medicine, and we were sharing a room with Kade's parents so there was that little bit of added stress (didn't want to wake them) and to top it all off, the next morning I discovered this:

From a stupid fat old coffee table that sat between my bed and Jonah's. I was so delirious from lack of sleep that I repeatedly ran into it with my shin. Still, to this day, I would love to go up there with an axe and chop the living crap out of that coffee table and burn every last piece to ashes and take those ashes and flush them down the dirtiest toilet in America.

Day Two -- Jonah still has a fever

Bless my mother-in-law for taking Jonah away for a few minutes while I napped. Later we're off to Jackson Hole, and we made the mistake of riding with Kade's sister and her husband and their 9 month old baby. Jones still wasn't feeling so good, so the whole way there he screamed. His screaming really ticked off Champ, who screamed his own protests of having to sit by his cousin. It was like a seesaw. Once Jonah got settled, Champ would scream and make him cry. Once Champ got settled, Jones would scream and make Champ mad. 

Suuuuuuper fun.

Day Three -- Broken fever, broken car

Jonah's fever finally broke, and we left him with Nana to go river rafting. Thanks again Nana! 

After we were through rafting, it was time to pack up and go home. Ten minutes into a remote Wyoming canyon, our car beeps at us and the light for the coolant comes on--which we had filled right before we left. We pull over and the coolant is bone dry. A very nice guy and his wife pull over, give us all the water they have, tell us we probably have a leak, and wait with us until Kade's parents and sister come rolling by.

We fill up the coolant and take off. We pull over a few minutes later and the coolant is boiling out of the tank. So we let it cool off, fill it up again and drive slowly to Montpelier, where we pull into a gas station, fill up, and check the coolant again. Then Kade says, "Let's buy a lotto ticket. I'm feeling lucky!"

Miraculously, the car made it the rest of the way home without a single hiccup. Which was a blessing cause we drove through the canyon at night and saw three deer on the road! It was all I could do to focus on not hitting a deer, I'm glad I didn't have to worry about the car overheating too. Phew...

Now I'm sure it's obvious why I didn't take a single picture the whole time we were up there. I'm kind of bummed about it. But, what can ya do?

At least Kade got one picture with his phone:

Thanks WY, even though it was a rough trip, we'll probably be back again someday.