Road Trip to Reno!

Casey and I were crazy enough to pack the kids up and drive them all the way to Reno in order to be with family and support Papa Sledge in his performance at a veteran's concert. After our Bear Lake disaster earlier this year with car sick and sleepless children, I was terrified about attempting an 8+ hour drive with the kids. If things didn't work out, it isn't like we could just pack up in the night and go home like we did at Bear Lake, either.

Hara was a saint and sent us an early Christmas present for the kids: dual monitor travel DVD players for the car. Armed with DVDs, food, blankets, books and toys, we left the house early on a Friday morning at 4:00am. We thought that if we left as early as possible, the kids would just fall right back asleep for the first half of the ride.

About to leave on our trip. Emmett was so excited to have an adventure. Before he got in the car he was racing all around the house screeching wildly. Our plan didn't work either. Except for a half hour nap on Emmett's part, both children remained wide awake the entire trip.

Getting back in the car after a short stop in Wendover. The kids were in surprisingly good moods for being trapped in the car and sleep deprived. The DVD players saved our lives! The kids were happily distracted the entire trip to Reno and back. No one threw up either. It was a blissful miracle!

On our first night at Hara and Papa's house all the adults were up talking after sending the kids to bed. I looked down the hallway and noticed that our bedroom door was open. Going in to check on Emmett and see if he'd gotten out of bed, I walked into our room to find Emmy, a jack russell terrier, cuddling with Emmett in his sleeping bag. She had pushed the door open and crept inside when we weren't looking. Emmett was thrilled. Sadly, we chased her out and made her find a new place to sleep.Bethany slept in a playpen in the bathroom and miraculously never made a single peep during any of the three nights we were there! We were so relieved. Now we just have to figure out how to help her sleep that well at home!

October is the perfect time of year to visit. All the kids got to go outside and play in the leaves and run. It was wonderful.

Playing in Hara and Papa's front yard.

Emmett with his cousins: Penny, Gavin, and Miles. They have such a great time together!

Bethany and Penny.

We got the kids dressed up to go to the ward Halloween party in Reno. Emmett was thrilled to be Bob the Builder and got to wear a brand new tool belt that came with some very nifty toys. He kept himself busy while everyone else was getting ready to go by crawling under the table and fixing all of Hara's chairs.

Bethany was Bob's friend, Wendy, for Halloween. This was the best picture we could get of the two of them together. They were both so excited we just couldn't get them to hold still!

I love, love, LOVE this photo! Penny is Alice from Alice and Wonderland, Miles is something-er-other to do with anime (sorry Miles), and of course we have Emmett as Bob and Bethany as Wendy. I love that she's holding duct tape. Emmett is so skinny we had to duct tape his belt because it didn't cinch tightly enough.

Emmett really got into the idea of Trunk or Treating. He had a blast running around begging for candy.

Bethany didn't have a clue what was going on, and really could have cared less.

Katy, Cody, Hara, Penny, Emmett, Miles, and Gavin. :)

There was a big chili cookoff, and while we were waiting for it to get started Emmett volunteered to go around to each of the tables in the cultural hall and fix all the chairs. He was so methodical, he didn't miss a single one.

Thank goodness "Bob" was there to fix the chairs or they might have cancelled the party! Emmett was very careful to inform everyone he met that, "My name is Emmett Stephen Sledge, but I'm just pretending to be Bob the Builder."

Bethany hung out with Katy and Cody almost the entire time.

Aunt Lala was extremely popular since she dressed as the "Mad Hatter" and made balloon animals for all the kids at the party.

We were excited that Papa was able to get a break from his rigorous rehearsal schedule to come meet us at the party for a little while. Bethany was fascinated by his beard.

I don't know if you can tell very well, but here Papa is holding up a program for the concert with a huge image of himself playing the harmonica on stage. :)

When Emmett was asked what he wanted the young women to paint on his face he responded, "Um... a sauropod." The girl doing it had no idea what a sauropod is, and to be honest, if my little boy wasn't so into dinosaurs, I wouldn't know either! But a sauropod includes any of the "long-necked" leaf eating species of dinosaur... like the brontosaurus for example. In case you didn't know. ;)

Here we are at Papa's concert, waiting for it to get started. It was a fantastic performance and it was so much fun to see Papa singing, dancing, and playing his harmonica. He even wore a red sequined vest. We wanted to take pictures but weren't allowed to during the show. The kids did very well, although we were only able to stay for the first hour since Bethany got a little grumpy and needed to go home for a nap.

Here's Bethany again with Katy and Cody. She got so attached to Katy that when they left she cried and cried after her aunt!

The drive home was perfect. The kids slept part of the time and when they were awake they happily watched movies. I honestly can't believe what a success our trip was! We had a great time!