The longest drive to Logan, EVER!

I figured the day would come when we realized that roads trips were not in our family's best interest but I really thought I had a few years before the dread of driving anywhere with Pearl would come full force. But no, Pearl has decided that sitting in a "big girl" car seat and driving to Logan on quite possibly the hottest day of the year in tons of traffic is not her idea of a good time. It doesn't matter that Jeff and I have never ceased to disappoint her with any of our trips - I mean who can complain when they get to go see the grandmas or buy cool stuff - because she was determined to push us both to the limits. I honestly thought Jeff was going to turn the truck around and go home (doesn't every one's dad threaten this at one time or another?). I naively thought our 4th of July weekend was going to be fun when we began the drive to Logan. Yes, Logan. We've tried the fireworks shows down in Salt Lake (well the free ones) and even drove up the University of Utah to scope out the valley shows in years past and well, nothing compares to USU fireworks which you can watch from just about anywhere in the valley.

Anyway, back to the drive. We left Bountiful late, thinking we could avoid traffic if we took the back roads but noooooo, traffic was horrible! Oh sure the freeway looked clear but for some reason we took the back roads and got stuck. Pearl didn't even make it 15 minutes before starting her ear splitting banshee screams. I know everyone thinks their kid screams the loudest, but seriously Pearl's screams can shatter glass. My child screams like a girl, a very loud, very high pitched girl. She'd been screaming at us the entire week (which you would think would be our first clue to just stay home) and yet, we figured a long car ride would somehow be entertaining enough to avoid the screaming. Boy were we wrong. By the time we got to Farmington, Pearl was not only angry about being in her car seat but she was hungry too. Not to mention she had thrown all of her toys to the floor, spilled Cheerios everywhere, and ticked Jeff and I off so much that now we were fighting. URGHHH!!! We ended up at Taco Time after what seemed like 4 hours on the road. By the time we got to Logan (no the screaming did not end with full tummies or a nap in Pearl's case), I was ready to just turn around and go back home. I mean what was another 2+ hours of screaming from Pearl and yelling between Jeff and I? Well, Jeff and I don't really yell at each other, more like bickering until I cry then turn as far away from him as humanly possible in a vehicle all while staring out the window not saying a word (and inside boiling mad because I know that's exactly what he wants me to do so he doesn't have to keep talking to me) while Jeff in the meantime blasts the radio full force to drone out any and all conversations. As soon as I walked in to my parents' house my mom could tell something was up and all I had to do was say here's your granddaughter for her to know that we had just experienced the longest drive to Logan, EVER!!!

We did end up watching the fireworks from the elementary school. Jeff even broke out a box of sparklers. Are all men little boys when it comes to fire and explosives? Pearl wasn't nearly as fascinated with the sparklers as Jeff had hoped but hey, he tried. She did seem to like the fireworks but couldn't figure out why everyone was clapping and not in bed, since it was obviously way past bedtime. I was still so ticked off at Pearl and Jeff that I didn't want to take any pictures of the night's events. Hence, no pictures on the blog of our 4th of July weekend. It was fun seeing the family though and we had a nice visit with my Uncle Randal who was up from Nevada for the weekend. I really hope her attitude the past week is due to teeth coming and not her personality! Honestly, I kept thinking she's not even 2 yet, how can she be acting like the terrible two's? I mean, I know she is feisty but good grief if this is a sign of what's to come I don't know if I'll survive 'till she's 12. Jeff and I joke about how it's a good thing she is so dang cute or else we would have given her up a long time ago! But this week, it's the truth!