Hero Shot

It's Saturday morning April 21st and we were on our way to California, when we remembered that last summer it was brought to our attention that the air conditioner wasn't working.  Too bad we didn't remember in time to get that looked at when the car went in for it's pre-vacation check up.  Doh - so we were already on our way, what to do.  It was supposed to be nice weather in Newport, but we hadn't checked the territory in between, although I guess we should have assumed that Death Valley would be deadly.  It was.
 

 97 degrees and the kids were cooking, plus Mr. Top Complainer (aka Ethan) was in our car for this leg of the journey and was making sure we knew what was obvious - "it's hot".  (He had been with Corey's parents on the SLC to Vegas leg, then it was Wes and Mel's turn for the Vegas to Newport leg) So Ethan took off his shirt, we tried to keep the window open for breeze but it wasn't that much relief.  Then Corey came to the rescue!  

With a trick MacGyver would have been proud of, Corey used his pajama pants, an empty plastic jar, a pocket knife and water to make a swamp cooler that saved our lives.


"All those summers helping my Grandma fix her swamp cooler are paying off!  Of course the car's air conditioning system is slightly more complicated than this..."  

"There, perfect - that's our hero shot" (Name that movie!)

After enduring well the kids were rewarded with frosty shakes at Wendy's in Eastvale.  And then we made them humor us with a "so what can we learn from this" conversation - There must needs be opposition in all things ~ It's good for us to really know what "hot" is so we can appreciate ice cold frostys.  We're just trying to create memories for you guys, years from now you'll all fondly reminisce ~ "Remember that time we were burning up as we crossed Death Valley..." and "aren't you glad that we are crusin' through this forsaken place in a car rather than in a wagon or on a bike like that guy..." as we zoomed past a man with a very tan bare back biking with a little trailer in tow on the side of the road.  Yes, we are lucky!  And we enjoyed the beautiful weather in Newport, when we pulled into the city that night it was a cool and wonderfully sweet 70 degrees, heaven!

(and if there are any freejinger ladies here, sorry that you have to see a photo of my kid still using an expired carseat, I'm getting to it...It's on my list, I promise!)