Goodness, Gracious! Great wheels on fire!

Our trip to Missouri went great! We headed out their with our friends, Josh and Emily and ditched the kids (woohoo!) while we went to pack up some of Emily's parents things out there. Poor Emily I think developed a hangover from the caffeine gum and I got alittle ill during the drive. Yes, I will admit I gorge myself on junk food anytime it's available, and then always pay horribly for it later on. Luckily, the Eliason's were way nice about it and Larry just laughed at my stupidity, so overall, it was a good start.

After getting all settled into the place we were staying, we went out to start getting things going on the packing. We got to meet Mr. Bean himself (actually a great duplicate, from the vague expression on his face down to the uber-thin fabric plaid shorts...*shiver*) who was a real treat to have around, especially since he was the one renting the truck and teaching the men how to drive it and hook up a car trailer to the back of this beast of a truck. Seriously. It was almost the size of a semi.

We then found ourselves wandering aimlessly through the storage units, wondering what crack-addict had numbered the units, and after finally finding the right ones, we realized that despite the efforts Emily took into calling some men to help from a ward nearby, no one showed. But nothing could break down the Eliasons and Eyrings! We had two storage units plus a car all cleared out and pack into the van in two hours flat! I'd like to see "Two men and a truck" beat that!

The next morning, Emily and I ran a 5k! It was so much fun! We had even made ourselves "Team Colorado" shirts with cute little cartoon refrigerators running on the front, just so everyone knew who it was whizzing past them. ;) While waiting, Larry and Josh amused themselves by taking pictures of everything (including strange men stretching) And sadly, our camera undertook a beating, but thankfully recovered almost 100% This is the pic right before it's fatal fall.

The race itself was great. Emily even took third place for our age category! I was so proud of her! We pummeled some young college girls at the end to the finish line. It was great. And we even got a free massage after. I'm totally enjoying this running thing. After the race, the Eliason's treated us to Chevy's, the best TexMex one can get. Yummm. I'd go there just for the chips. We even celebrated Larry's un-birthday! (a fun joke played on him from Josh. Thanks, for the free ice cream, btw.)

We went down to St. Louis and went through the FREE zoo! It was seriously the best zoo I have ever seen, and being married to Larry, I've seen many a zoos'. Did I mention it was FREE????...though it was $10 for parking, but that's just a formality... Larry LOVED it and was able to once again, terrorize some animals while there. I guess he calls it playing, but I wonder what the zoo keepers would say...

The next day was THE DRIVE. Have you ever driven a semi-like truck across Kansas, while a whole other car is towing behind it? Thought not. It was a slow, l...o...n...g drive, where we all ended up sick, except Larry who has a stomach made of iron. The trip back took us from about 11:00 at night til about 5pm the next day, which, as funny as it is, the highlight of our trip began about 20minutes from home.

Because Larry and I were driving the SUV in front of the truck, we really don't have a front-row seat version of this story. What happened on our side was we had pulled over on the side of the road to wait for the moving truck to catch up with us. It didn't show up. We then got a phone call from Emily, who was saying they thought they had a flat so they were pulling over. As we drove back, we did indeed find them on the side of the road, but the trailer holding the car behind the truck was smoking! Apparently, all we can think of what happened, is that the brakes somehow locked down on the wheels, and instead of peeling off the rims like you'd think they would, they caught on fire. Actually, we only saw two of the wheels completely on fire, the other two were already melted to the road, so we just assumed. While the Eliason's called the truck company, I called the fire department and got to talk with a very overly-animated woman, whom must have been imagining a pillar of fire on the side of the highway or something, because she sounded more terrified than I did. She even screamed on her end of the phone when one of the tires exploded from the fire. It was pretty funny.

So, after watching one tow truck take the car to its destination and another tow truck peeling the trailer off the road, we went and picked up the kids and went to home sweet home.

Between the long drives, nostalgic music, a gps named "jill" with a horrible sense of direction, and a trailer on fire, this was definitely a fun trip for us Eyrings. Though it is always nice to be home.