Road Trip Log: Day 3 Rocks!! ... Literlly.

One thing I love about vacation is doing nothing! Waking up when we want and doing whatever we want. Monday morning we woke up and had breakfast together. Which I have to say is one of my favorite things. Sitting around the table with people, who by now have become some of my closest friend, just talking and enjoying each other company. We just hung out around the house for a while then decided that today needed to be a "day in Provo". The dealership was now open so we needed to find out what was wrong with the van. After a few hours the mechanic got back to us and simply said "It looks like a small grenade blew up in the engine, it will be $6,000 to repair." Being the millionaires that we are we gladly gave him the six grand and a nice tip of four grand for his hard work, making it a whopping $10,000 fix. Just kidding. We did as any responsible adult would do in such a predicament. We called Mommy and Daddy for help! Mark's Mom just about flipped her lid when we told her the news. Now I have to back up and say this... The happy chap went through a full inspection just before we started this trip. Costing the Chapman family nearly $1,000 to make sure it was in tip top shape and nothing would go wrong while we were on the trip. Now you can understand her frustration and I'm pretty sure she ripped the mechanic a new one back at home. Now we were officially stranded in Utah! Awesome! The gang went to Cafe Rio for lunch and it was delicious! We then used our gamer skills at the Nickle Nickle arcade for a couple hours. We added all of our tickets together making a rather large amount and getting silly little trinkets. Water ball yoyo's and mini fireworks among other things. It was then time for our next activity....

We had promised earlier in the day that we would go rock climbing that evening for Shana's cousins birthday. Her Aunt was paying so we couldn't resist. We went to a place called the Quarry in Provo and that's where he happened. His name is Zach and probably the most good looking rock climbing instructor you have ever seen. As he was teaching us how to tie a knot in our rope so we wouldn't fall to our most certain death; I couldn't help but gaze into his eyes and flirt uncontrollably with him. Instant sparks flew. Am I laying on the cheese too thick? Was it love at first sight? I don't know. What I do know is that Alex tied every single knot for me that night because I wasn't paying attention during instruction.

The boys not paying attention while they belay us.

The only picture of Zach from the entire night

Sit Check!

As my friend made fun of me for my little love affair with the instructor, Zach had plans of his own. He invited my friends and me to go climbing New years day before the gym opened. I agreed and my friends we all excited to climb again. This is where he was really smooth, he said I needed his number to call him if we decided to go on Thursday morning. So we exchanged numbers and then we headed towards home. I didn't know that Joey and Alicia were filming in the back of the gym. They had written my number on a piece of paper and told Blue that if he didn't ask for my number they were going to give it to him.

Road Trip Log: Day 2.. Sunday Fun day

Sunday morning we woke up and all gathered around the breakfast table. I was looking outside at this hill in Shana's backyard. It looked like the perfect spot to make a snow angel after church. After asking about, it somehow evolved into me going out in my Pj's to make a snow angel. Not being one to back down from peer pressure, I dragged Joey into it and out we ran into the snow. This is just the short video Alex took on his phone, the extended version is on Blue.

So after the angels we sat a played games for a little while. We all got showered and ready for church and then the girls decided to have a little photo shoot. Elise (Shana's younger sister) played hymns on the piano as we all stood around and sang. We had our own little choir practice, Megan Chaney would be so proud!
We drove to one of the singles wards in Alpine. Picture six young adults piled in a small car like clowns at the circus. Two in front and four in back. This is where my catch phrase for the week came from. For whatever reason I kept saying "I'm going to die" or some variation of that. First with all the car trouble on the way up and then being packed in like sardines into this tiny car with no seat belts (sorry Mom). I really felt like I was going to die. Since the Happy Chap was in the shop and all of Utah closes down on Sunday, we needed to wait until Monday to get the van check out. Until then we all had to cram in one this tiny car. Once we arrived to the singles ward, we walked in the chapel and doubled the congregation. After deliberating in the hall way, we decided to just go to Shana's family ward. As we were getting back into the car, we saw an old woman shoveling the ice from her driveway, now being the amazing gentlemen that my friends are, we stopped and offered to help, while the girls... yet again.. had another photo shoot. :) Once we got home from church we decided to throw on our snow clothes and have a little fun outside. Alex wanted to break in the new snowball thrower toy that Shana got him for Christmas. Alicia was running around taking pictures like the amazing photographer that she is. (You can give her credit for all the awesome photos on here) Shana and I ducked for safety and the boys had a blast throwing snowballs at each other.

As the sun started to set and our snowball fight started to die down, we had a new idea. Lets make snowmen! Not just any snowman though, THE BIGGEST ONE EVER! Which of course when you are a bunch of California kids that will always be the goal, show up all the silly Utah kids with our ability to build a much better snowman then any of them could. This is where you get to meet our friend Dino and Periodontist (sp?). We had to take pictures the next day because it was too dark by the time we finished. It was a very labor intensive activity. What originally started as the "biggest snowman ever" turned into a small dinosaurs and a huge T-Rex type creature out to eat him. After we finished our wonderful prehistoric creations the gang went inside as Alex and I stay out to create the ultimate luxury. A snow couch. That is right folks, an entire couch made of snow. For only 6 easy payments of $29.99 you too can enjoy this marvelous creation, built right in your own back yard*.

*Building said couch is subject to change due to weather and the availability of snow due to time of year.

I believe it was that very night that a tired Sara decided to be a bit of party pooper and go to bed early. On vacation, early meaning around midnight. As I was drifting off to never land my peaceful slumber was interrupted by screams. I thought perhaps a small deer was being murdered outside my window. Laying alone in the dark, every few minutes I would hear this noise. I decided it needed further investigation and climbed out of bed. I continued to listen as the sound drew me to the basement where all of my friends were. I opened the door, covering my eyes from the piercing lights; only to find my best friends screaming because they beat their high score on the penguin Wii game. The boys were to busy to notice because like a bunch of 5 year olds they were fixated on the large box of marbles and nerf guns. All this excitement woke me back up and had so much fun playing in the basement till the wee hours of the morning! Alicia had a near death experience that evening. She jammed her pinkie toe into the trampoline while running across the basement to jump on the couch with us. So sad and painful.

Road Trip Log: Day 1.. it was a long one.

We left two days after Christmas. Saturday morning 6am Alex Scott, Mark Chapman, Joey Mascio, Alicia Blood and I piled in the car and started our journey down the 91 east to the 15 and straight on till night fall. I grabbed shot gun and Mark and I took first "shift" while the rest were fast asleep in the back. Now, I have to say it, this trip was doomed from the beginning. There is only ONE freeway change the entire trip. Mark MISSED the freeway entrance and we had to get off, turn around and try again.

The hours that past there after were filled with laughter, singing, picture taking and lots of snacks. We stopped at the McDonald's in Vegas and filled up both body and car and continued the drive. My friends loved me enough to stop in St. George so I could visit my cousin and her kids. Genel shared with us some apple crisp and I changed 3 diapers, fed a couple babies, and gave lots of love to all the kids! I'm sure my friends weren't as excited as I was.

The boys traded drivers and this is where the fun happens. We filled up again in Beaver, and Alex jumped into the drivers seat. He punched the gas (he says he didn't) going up the freeway on ramp and the lights start flashing to check gages. We pull over at the nearest exit and the boys hop out to check under the hood. Now this had to be the cutest thing to watch, three guys looking at the car trying to figure out whats wrong. None of which have any real mechanical experience. Pretty much just looking to see if anything drastic is wrong, while the two "helpless" girls sit in the car. Alicia and I decided to go to the Arbys next door and get something to eat while the guys "fixed" the car. The boys joined in on our idea and we all ate dinner. After we finished the meal we headed back to car. Apparently no one took the keys out of the ignition when we stopped and so our keys were locked inside. We called AAA and had to get someone to let us in. It was going to take them 30 minutes to get there and the sun was starting to set. I thought about maybe going over to the old tow place maybe 100 yards from where we were. It looked a little run down and creepy and Alicia reminded me that it was the perfect setting for every horror film she had ever seen. Think about it, two cute girls going into a run down tow place asking for help because they were locked out of their car. Creepy man behind the desk with a meat cleaver... you know the rest. We decided just to wait for AAA.

By now the sun has gone down and that little incident put us back about an hour. We would still make it to Alpine before to long if we didn't stop again. Well that didn't happen. In a place somewhere between Mona and Nephi the car decided to kick the bucket. The happy chap went completely dead and we had to coast to the side of the road. Upset, cold, and tired the boys went into the freezing tundra to check out the car again. After a few attempts of trying to restart the car, we called AAA again. Thankfully for us we were in the one and only spot between the two cities with cell reception so I didn't need to stand the side of the freeway to find service. AAA said it was going to be 45 minutes before a tow truck could show up. While sat in our ski jackets in the car, surviving on one bag of hot Cheetos and some smart water. Joey brought a flat screen TV with him so while we waited we hook it up and watched some stand up comedy. At least when we are stranded, we do it right! We also had "Blue" Joey's new video camera and made a few short films to kill time. Highway patrol saw us and pulled over about half a mile a head of us, then reversed all the way back to us. Now picture this, the ultimate cliche cop. Balding, gap between his front teeth and his tie was too short. It was priceless. He called in our car and then drove away. Thanks for your help and waiting for us to be safe, jerk!

About five minutes later I got a call from the two guy (Josh I believe). He came to our rescue and was a very nice at that! We all waited in the cab of the truck while he strapped in the Happy Chap and we headed towards the Orem Dodge dealership. We made several phone calls to different friends/family members to find a ride from Orem to Alpine. Finally we got a hold of Mark's uncle who picked us up in his truck. We transferred all of our belongings into the bed and packed ourselves in tight. The end of our journey is in sight. He took us to Shana's home, where we were happily greeted and began to unpack all of our stuff.... Day one had finally come to a close.

I'm Going On Road Trip to Utah for New years!

Well my friends have been planning a road trip to Utah for about a month now. Shana went home a little over a month ago to be with her family and we were going to go spend a week with her and bring her back home for school. At first I told them I wasn't going to go because I was dating Rick and he wasn't going to be able to take off work and come. Since we would be spending New Years eve there I didn't think it was fair to ditch my boyfriend and decided to stay home with him. Well everything changed two days before Christmas when he broke up with me. So I decided ... Why not? Let's go to Utah! We packed up the car tonight. I cant believe how much stuff we brought. We are taking Marks parents van, the "happy Chap" as it is affectionately called. I spent the night at Alicia's just to make sure we leave on time. Joey is picking us up at 5:45am so we can leave Marks house by 6. Ugh!