A good day to be a Whitehead

Off to Grandmother’s house we go! After putting the girls to bed for the night, we did a lightning quick packing session and left on our adventure to Utah for the holidays. I usually drive the first half, but was so tired this time around that Jake drove nearly the entire ten-hour, middle-of-the-night journey, except for an hour in between St. George and Cedar City. Thanks, babe!

The girls usually sleep all the way through (hence the reason for driving at night), but at a gas stop in Primm, Samantha woke up and instead of drifting back to sleep once we hit the road, decided she would rather see the Vegas lights. She stayed awake, sometimes nodding off, sometimes giggling, all the way through Cedar City. I kept looking back at her thinking, “She’s GOT to be asleep now,” and there she’d be– eyes wide open and lips curled into a little smirk. 

She finally fell back asleep three hours later (angels SING!) and we breathed a sigh of relief as we could once again open up caffeinated sodas and chocolatey snacks without her begging for one. 

About an hour from my parents’ house, our hearts sank as we saw the red and blue flashing lights flip on after us. In Jake’s defense, we were in the middle of nowhere (Scipio, I think) we were so close to my parents’ we could taste it, and we were going down a hill. 

Out of state plates and going significantly over the speed limit? No chance we would be let off. We didn’t try and argue or make excuses, but braced ourselves for a ridiculous dollar amount and a scolding. 

To our glee, the super cool cop returned with a warning instead of a ticket, and we thanked him profusely. As he handed Jake the blessed warning, he asked, “Are you related to Jason Whitehead?”

“Possibly. I have a pretty big family. Why?”

“Jason is a Utah Highway Patrol officer around here and you look just like him. I thought he might be your brother.” 

“Well, in that case, we are definitely related!” 

Thank you, Jason Whitehead, whoever you are! You probably got us out of a very hefty fine and now we know who to name drop if we ever get pulled over again in Utah.  

Riding high off avoiding a ticket, we rolled in, delirious with exhaustion around 7 a.m. and the girls miraculously stayed asleep for another hour before getting up for the day. Once awake, they were stoked to be at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and wasted no time touring each room and scouting out new toys. 

Jake and I took turns napping while Grandma and Grandpa helped out with the girls; that’s one reason we don’t attempt to do a night drive straight through on the return trip— it’s less than ideal returning home after an all-night drive and having to take care of the girls solo.  

On to the good stuff!

All geared up for some Antarctic expedition snow play!

Sledding time. 

Weeeeeeee! Notice Bandit leaping down the hill after Amelia. 

THAT. WAS. AWESOME. 

Let’s do this. 

Here comes the sledding Sammy. 

Bandit took it upon himself to check on the girls at the bottom of the hill to make sure all was well. 

Can’t. Get. Up. 

Let’s do THAT again. (Muffled giggle).