Sunday, July 15, 2012

Home Sweet Home: Part 2

So as many of you probably know from facebook, we just took a little family trip to Yellowstone.  And most importantly we took our little old trailer for it's maiden voyage camping.  I would have to say that it was heavenly.  It is our home away from home.  Here's a little background story as to why I'm so in love with our trailer. 
I love to camp, we grew up camping all the time.  Some people are not a big fan, but I think it's the people you're with that make it so fun.  I have always loved our big family camping trips, (sigh) so many memories.  I want to keep that love for camping and pass it down to my boys.  It is so their element.  They love dirt, water, being outside, campfires, smores, roasting hot dogs, peeing outside, and fishing  = camping is perfect.  I love our tent, we invested in a ginormous tent when we were pregnant with Tatton knowing that we'd want something that we could a) stand up in and b) fit kids, our queen air mattress and a pack n' play in.  I felt pretty spoiled.  But as the years went by, we just kept thinking it would be so nice to just pull into camp and be ready, no setting up the tent, have a sink, an oven, a stove, a fridge, real beds, a bathroom... so many luxuries.  So we started hunting ksl.com.  I know there are some darn nice trailers out there that cost more than homes so I do not compare ours to those. at all.  We knew our route was paying cash for something old and small enough that we could pull with our expedition.  And in walked our 1970's trailer that was perfect for us!  We got to take a road trip to Cedar City to pick it up, and I started shopping immediately for material with my sister-in-law Toni.  It was a blast, and I couldn't believe that I found something so perfect to go with our trailer.  It has been such a fun little project to fix up, and the boys love just playing in it, and having little sleepovers in it just at home.  Everything worked when we bought it, and for it's age it was in really good condition.  We just wanted to spruce it up for fun, and the outside was in need of a facelift!  We got it all mostly ready by Memorial Day.  We had big plans to go to Bryce Canyon with my family over the weekend and that was originally our maiden voyage with the trailer.  We got to about Lehi and Aaron noticed one of the little doors on the trailer was flapping in the wind.  So he pulled over to go shut it and also noticed a huge puddle under our car.  He pulled the car forward and the red trail followed us.  Our transmission was gushing fluid.  We had pulled off right by an exit, so we made our way to a Jiffy Lube.  They informed us that our transmission had blown and we'd be lucky to be able to make it back home to Morgan.  And that's when I started crying.  I was so devastated that we were having to turn around and go home, that we weren't going to Bryce, that we wouldn't be camping with the family for the weekend, all the food we just bought, and that we had a big car problem.  In a matter of 10 minutes, everything had changed.  I was really bummed and Tatton was too.  He cried with me.  We were so blessed to have seen the door and pulled over when we did.  If we would have been driving when the transmission finally went out, we could have been in a lot more trouble, so for that I am really grateful we were being watched over.  The stress kicked in though about our car situation.  To make a long story somewhat short, we were pretty set on just selling the expedition as it was and buying... a suburban.  Yes, a suburban.  I was so excited.  So we started looking and looking for a long time, nothing seemed to be what we wanted or in our price range.  We both finally got the feeling that that was not the right route for us to go in, and we really didn't want to have a car payment- those stink!  So we finally got it all lined up, bit the bullet and had a new transmission put into our expedition.  Unfortunately, not in time for our Yellowstone trip, which we had booked months and months ago.  We were totally lame and borrowed my mom and dad's truck for the trip.  It worked out great though, we got home and had the car done just a few days later.  It all worked out in the end and now we have our car back in commision to go on many more camping adventures!  Being in the trailer with babies that can't walk yet, you moms know what I'm talking about, was so nice to not be in dirt constantly!  And feeling a little bit more protected from a bear compared to a tent was also a plus!  Really, I felt like I was in our home away from home in Yellowstone.  We can't wait to take it out again and be able to create more family memories.



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