The Holiday Adventures

Well, this year we went to Brandon's parent's house in Colorado for Christmas. To prepare ourselves for the trip Brandon was going to work on the breaks, replacing the pads because they were squeaking. When he was going to take off the rotor on one of the back wheels he ended up stripping a screw. No big deal with the stripped screw removal kit. If you know anything about cars, these are super hard metal and shouldn't break. Shouldn't is the key word, because it broke off in the stripped screw, flush with the rotor. GREAT!

Brandon was able to buy a Dremel and take care of that issue. However, we were still unable to get the rotor off. Brandon and I were pounding at it for hours and hours. Finally, he cut the lugs and it popped right off. When it came off we were able to tell that it has the parking break shoes on the back wheels, which prevents the rotor from coming off when the parking break is on. Man, all the hammering for nothing! After we found that out Brandon felt like an idiot but was able to laugh about it.

Once the van was back up and running, we headed out to Colorado: Brandon, Me, Austin, and Gus (our dog). We stopped halfway in Grand Junction to sleep (we left home at 5 pm). Then we got up early and drove the rest of the way. It was snowing that morning and the roads hadn't been plowed yet so it was a slow start. It was also snowing so hard at his parents house that we couldn't see very far in front of us. Luckily, we were about to turn onto their road.

It was so nice to be able to spend a few days together during my break. His family is very sweet and there is never a lack of food. Austin was a big hit, he is just so darn cute that everyone just loved him. He got overheated Christmas Eve and was running a high fever; he could have also had a bug on top of it. He wasn't very happy that night or the next day, which is odd for him. He is usually so happy. Christmas wasn't that fun for him, he was wanting a nap and wasn't feeling good. He couldn't have cared less about opening presents. He would watch us open all of his gifts but he wanted no part of it.

We left on Monday morning and drove the whole way. Austin seemed to be feeling much better. He did such a good job for such a long drive. Halfway through the canyon coming back from Price he started screaming. This canyon is 60 miles long! Needless to say, he screamed for 30 miles. Nothing we did would sooth him. Brandon went back and tried to calm him down but it only made him scream harder. He had been in his car seat for about 7 hours at that point and was done. He ended up falling asleep until we got home. As soon as he was out of the car he was so happy, crawling around like crazy and playing with all of his new toys.