My bumpy weekend trip and things I forgot

Yesterday morning we left to go to Colorado Springs to see my mom's husband, Jim, get baptized. It was an interesting trip. First, we were planning on getting new tires in Colorado Springs because we knew that they were on their last leg. We took a gamble that they would make it and we lost. About an hour and a half into the trip I hear this loud noise, feel vibrating from the van, and Kaleb says uh-oh. I knew our luck had run out. So out in the middle of nowhere, and I do mean nowhere (the nearest town with a gas station was about thirty miles away), my handy husband pulled out our spare tire and replaced our blown out tire. We were VERY fortunate that it wasn't a complete blowout. The tread had just split off and Kaleb was able to maintain control of the van. Moments like that make me glad I married a manly man!
So after a brief prayer that the rest of the tires wouldn't also blow we continued on to C Springs.

We made it there with no more crises. Thank Goodness! So then we drop off the kids at my mom's house and Kaleb, Kate, and I head to Sam's Club to get new tires. We ended up waiting TWO and a half hours to get them put on. They were short one tire and had to go to another store to pick it up. They originally said it was only going to take less than an hour. We did get a $25 gas card. Woohoo! Although I would have much rather preferred the time!

I stayed up the night before until 2 in the morning packing, which in hindsight was a pretty dumb idea. I thought that I would get a headstart on packing so I didn't have to do most of it on Saturday morning (even though I really should have done most of the packing earlier in the day, duh!!) In my sleepless mind fog I forgot to pack several important things:
1. Sunday shoes for me. I borrowed a pair from my mom, even though she wears a size smaller.
2. Sunday shoes for Lucy. She ended up wearing her cowgirl boots that had been left in the car a couple of days before. I was glad for my laziness in bringing in stuff from the car. My slothful nature finally payed off.
3. Kate's playpen to sleep in. OOPS!! She ended up sleeping in a makeshift bassinet created from our biggest suitcase with a couple of blankets on the bottom of it. That might also explain why she woke up like 5 times Saturday night. Can you say OYYY!!
4. Toothbrushes. The kids skipped brushing teeth for the night. SHHH don't tell my friend Heidi, she's a dentist's daughter. I did bring toothpaste (okay, actually it was left in my makeup case from our last trip, but details, details...) so I used my finger with some toothpaste as a substite toothbrush. It worked remarkably well!

So the trip was definitely not a smooth one but well worth it. We got to witness Jim, my mom's husband, be baptized, and it was a really neat spiritual experience. It was something that I think a lot of people, including me, had been hoping and praying for. He is such a good guy and I am so glad that my mom is happy with him. Congratulations Jim!!!