Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Detour: We Put the Brakes On Our Trip to Whidbey Island

Have you ever read Alexander and the No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day? Well, today was that day for me.  I had car trouble; doubler car trouble, and that coupled with "fun ideas" that turned out to be not so fun, left me with sore legs and big hair and a three year old who was almost in tears.  Let me explain.

Today I was excited to go on our ferry boat adventure and so I started the get-out-of-the-house routine.  I got the kids dressed, attempted to change Eli's diaper as he was spinning circles, and packed a bag full of extra clothes, wipes, and sippy cups.  I walked outside and I had a realization.  Our Expedition's brakes have been squeaky and needed to be changed, so driving the boys all the way to the ferries on Whidbey with shaky breaks was not a good idea.  But I had a great one! We would take the Civic.

So, I decided to move the car seats to the Civic.  I don't typically drive the Civic in the winter because the heater is broken, but since it was safer, I decided to sacrifice heat in order to keep our lives. We were on an adventure and we could withstand a little cold!  I began the car seat process.  If anyone has ever moved a car seat, you know it should be an Olympic sport.  So, after about fifteen extra minutes of loading the car, swearing at the belts, and trying to find the hooks under the seats, I strapped the kids into the car seats and I turned the key in the ignition.   But then, nothing.  Nada. The little arrows on all the dials bounced back and forth to make fun of me, and the engine would not turn over.  Head on the steering wheel, and a sigh of anger, I decided to move everything back to the Expedition but knew that our adventure would be at Les Schwab instead of Whidbey Island.

We pulled into Les Schwab in Tukwila when I came up with my next "awesome" idea.  While the car was being worked on, we would walk to Red Robin and check out the toys in Toys R Us.  Whew... we would still have a fun day after all.  I patted myself on the back for my wonderful idea.  I felt like a proud momma.  

My great idea was terrible.  See what happened below. 

First,  I forgot how far away Red Robin was from Les Schwab.  We walked about a total of three miles today.  Yes, Carlo walked too.



Next, I thought it would be an awesome idea to cut through some of the parking lots of the warehouses that surround Les Schwab because we would get there faster. 

There was a puddle the size of Lake Sammamish in the middle of the train tracks, which were behind the warehouses. Don't worry, we made our way around the barbed wire gates and across the tracks successfully.



Eli took his socks off in the cold weather 8,000 times before I figured out if he were holding something (all I had was a diaper) then he would keep his socks on.


Third, Carlo wanted spaghetti for lunch so I thought it would be perfect if Eli shared his spaghetti.  Spaghetti eaten in restaurants with a three year old and a one year old.  Enough said.



Then the dealership called and told me the repairs and extra tires would cost about $1,000.  I then realized that I would have to transfer money into my checking account.  The nearest bank ATM was a mile in the opposite direction from Les Schwab.  We began our walk.

We stopped in Target to use the restroom.

Carlo is peeking under the stalls to see if someone was in them.


I bribed Carlo with a Lightning McQueen car since the poor kid had to walk about a mile and a half back to Les Schwab. Mom award here, not so much.


We stopped to rest at a bus stop.  A bus arrived about 30 seconds later, but I sent it on its way, only to later realize that the same bus actually had a stop by Les Schwab.


We made it! Yeah!  We play at Les Schwab since the truck wasn't ready on time.



Oh, and these were the shoes I was wearing the whole time.


 
Well, you win some, you lose some.  I am sure that I will never do that again.  Tomorrow is a new day.  How many more cliches can I put here? 


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