Gettin' the Heck Out of Dodge....Day One

Ahhhhhh, a four day weekend. I was so looking forward to getting caught up on life. Then Thursday night, Felix had a brilliant idea. "Let's go somewhere."

Now let me clarify. He does this all of the time. I usually win. By winning I'm sure that most of you assume I mean, we went somewhere. So sorry. I'm a chicken, a homebody, afraid of adventure, afraid that my children will drown, get lost or kidnapped, afraid of that big bad world that dominates. Yeah, it's a scary place out there. Home is safe. It just is. I know I completely go against the norm with the fact that I hate to travel and/or vacate. I'm not asking for your approval...either love me the way I am or stop reading.

So Felix says, "Let's go somewhere." And this time, because I was trying really hard not to be me, said okay. He found the hotel, we told the kids the house was clean or we stayed home. Surprisingly, they cleaned the house. Hmmmm....should have tried this much sooner.

So Friday morning, we loaded up, and we got the heck out of dodge. So where were we going. Only the bustling metropolis of Mt. Carmel Junction, Utah. I know, you've heard of it. Who hasn't? Short, short version....east entrance of Zions National Park, 15 miles from Kanab.

We are on the road. Woohoo...so far, no one has killed each other, fought or thrown themselves out the window...this trip is a success. We decide to stop in Beaver for a late lunch. Because my chicken-ness is contagious, we go for Wendys. As I am standing in line, waiting to order and waiting to order and waiting to order and waiting to order, Felix was herding Caleb over to the tables. Caleb being completely who is is decided to mess around with the self-closing door....you know those hinge thingys that slowly (and as we discovered, painfully) close after you walk in.


For whatever reason, Caleb decides to mess with Felix's head just one more time and put his hand near the hinges. Insert thumb, smash thumb flatter than a pancake, scream loudly (ear piercing, glass shattering), exit Felix and Caleb. I could tell by the look on Felix's face that something was very, very wrong. I gather every one else (without food) and go out. By the time I get outside, Felix is examining the thumb and telling me to head home. It was already a sickening shade of red/blue/black/purple and a few other colors. I watched while it began to expand back to a thumb shape and then exceeding expectations by swelling at a crazy rate.


So I do what ever normal mom does. I walked over to the convenience store, bought medical tape, first aid kit and a cup of ice. I taped up his thumb, threw his arm over my shoulder, shoved Tylenol down his throat and stuck his hand in the ice. I jumped into the back seat of the car with Caleb on my lap while Felix got everyone else in and said, "Keep going."


You need to understand...it wasn't as though I was unsympathetic to the plight of my baby. I know he hurt, I also know he smashed his thumb above the knuckle so it was likely a soft tissue injury. I also knew that I never go along with going somewhere, and I wasn't ready to back out.


After a quick call to the pediatrician, who confirmed what I thought and a you should probably to to an insta-care, I browsed the internet, found an insta-care 30 minutes from where we were and gave Felix stunningly accurate directions on how to get there. Can I just say, it was awesome to drive into this insta-care in Cedar City, walk in, get checked by the doctor and get right back out to the car in 13 minutes (p.s. it was a soft-tissue injury...I'm that good). So we grab some food and get back on the road.


Now for this next segment....I wish to urge all of you to get a GPS/Map/Tom-tom car thing. No need here. I had Google GPS on my Blackberry. I had directions. Little did Google or the map tell me, these were the more expensive directions. Following the road, following the little dot on my phone and the next thing you know we are at the entrance to Zions National Park. Huh? We didn't want to go to the park today...


After a little conversation with the ranger, we found out our hotel was on the other side of the park, just past the east entrance. That would be 25 dollars please. Fine, we were going anyway and the pass was good for 7 days...fine, whatever.


It wasn't quite dusk, but it was getting close, I was getting stressed and then the cliffs happened. Ummmmm, have I mentioned before that I am extremely terrified of heights (some of it might have something to do with last summers adventure). Why am I ALWAYS on the outside of the car...looking down?

Oh did I also mention that I am claustrophoboic? Because I would have tried to prepare myself for the mile and half long tunnel of death... Really, it isn't so intimidating from the outside. Try the inside.

I sounded something like, breathe, breathe, keep driving, breathe, breathe, keep driving, whoever said we are going to die...cork it, i said cork it, breathe, breathe, breathe. You get the picture. I think the tunnel from He....purgatory was a fantastic adventure for me....because I lead such a bland and boring life.


Sorry living the experience again and just trying to breath. Woo. Scary. Flashbacks suck...especially since you are the only one who can see them...YIKES.


Once we made it through yucky tunnel, we went through a little yucky tunnel...all tunnels will be yucky from now on.


So we made it to the hotel in about 20 minutes.


Our very own Best Western. Felix checked in and we drove to our non-adjoining rooms with our heated, outdoor pool completely covered and out of commission.


We separated boys vs. girls, and I don't know if that what quite the way to go. Although to be fair the girls did a stand-up job of pretending not to fight with one another while they were laying down.

But I do need to share the fun of our room. The door was not sealed and it was 20 degrees outside. Okay, crank up the heater. Pretend like you don't see the dead bugs on the floor. It's was really all well and good until Felix called from the boys room to find out if our water was as brown as theirs. No really.

Stay tuned for day 2.