The Cook's Recipe for Life: A New Car and Family Reunion

THE EXPEDITION

Well Ty and I have finally upgraded to a larger vehicle. We thought about getting a van, but I hate that most of them only seat 7 when there is clearly room for 8! ;-) We also talked about getting Ty a truck, so we wouldn't have to borrow one every other weekend for home depot trips, but I hated the thought of him not being able to take the kids anywhere and trucks with a back seat are NOT cheap! lol. He is also supposed to be Crystal's (and her friend's) main ride to school most days, so replacing his Cavalier with a 3 seater truck just wasn't ideal. Then as the summer wore on we got to thinking we might ... someday... want to be able to tow a camping trailer around. We needed something with the seat room I wanted, the ability to haul our home improvement projects that Ty wanted, and the towing ability we both wanted! So we started looking at SUVs.

It totally helps that my little brother is not only a very talented auto mechanic who co-owns his own business, but that he also has a dealers license and enjoys car auctions! So being the awesome brother that he is, he started watching out for something that would meet our needs. He bought a 1999 Ford Expedition at an auction for a great deal and after a few repairs he was still able to sell it to us for a ridiculously awesome deal!!!!

The kids didn't mind the time we spent at his shop waiting room. You'd think his little box of toys were the best toys they'd ever played with! Jay actually SCREAMED when it was time to go (Uncle Tyler has a tractor in that box of toys).

We both love the Expedition. It's 16 years old, but it has low miles (for an SUV that old) and it's an Eddie Bower version so it has a lot of nice features (even seat heaters ;-)) and a bigger engine. Ty loves the 'truck' like features such as how high it sits and the fact that the 3rd seat pulls out and the middle seat folds down into the floor so you can fit just about anything in it (as long as there are no children around. lol). And I love that it can seat 8 people! Carpool here we come! lol! Crystal is getting to an age where she wants to have a friend come along occasionally so I'm LOVING the option of more seating!

The main concern was that the side walls on the tires were worn and cracking, but we all thought we wouldn't have to replace them until next spring or summer. So we figured we'd buy it now and put new tires on next year and offset the cost a bit... well life doesn't always go as planned. lol. You'll have to read about our reunion trip for the details. ;-)

LIBRARY STORY TIME
The kids love saying goodbye to Bear. It was time for Bear's nap!

TORNADO WHAT!?!?!
When we got home from the library, I was in the Expedition moving seats around to get ready for our reunion trip (we had to pull out the 3rd seat to fit all our camping gear), and the kids were playing around outside. Well a storm started rolling in. I could tell it was going to be bad. Just a feeling in the air. Then the clouds started rumbling... and rumbling .... and rumbling. I don't think I've ever heard CONSTANT thunder like that before in my entire life. It scared the kids, and instead of going in the house, they jumped in the Expedition with me. I had just finished getting the last car seat installed when the hail started. It was good sized hail and coming down fast. So I figured we'd just wait it out. Then the rain came! Holy Moly! I tried to take a picture of it but it doesn't do it justice. It was coming down like a waterfall! I thought it was never going to stop coming!
I found out later that night that there was a FUNNEL CLOUD above us! I had seriously thought about it when it first started, but I was sure my phone would have alerted me to a tornado warning. Nope. My phone failed me big time! I sat in an SUV with my 3 kids waiting out a tornado warning!!! Someone posted a video of the storm on Facebook, and a large funnel cloud was directly above us! Gah! I'm glad it was just a funnel cloud, and it didn't decide to touch down!!!! ;-)

OUR SITTERUD FAMILY REUNION TRIP

VISITING FRIENDS
We stopped in Orem on our way to the reunion to visit some old friends. I wish it had been a longer stay so we could have seen more people! We thought we'd find a weekend to go this summer, but school is starting in 2 weeks and we've run out of weekends. So we decided to leave a day earlier and stay the night in Orem with some friends!
The kids were able to reunite with their friend Jackson! They started up right where they left off as if a year hadn't past since they had seen each other! They played in the apartment pool and on the playground for a bit. We also had to eat at Burger Supreme while we were there, so Ty could get his fix for the next year! Haha! My friend Julia met us and hung out for a while too! I wasn't very good at taking pictures, but Andrew reminded me by pulling his phone out right before we walked out the door the next morning. So I did get a few snapshots of these little goofballs! lol. I wish we lived closer. They sure love each other! (Although I did mention to Ty on more than one occasion that I didn't miss actual Provo or Orem at all. It was a good reminder. lol)

AND WE'RE OFF! OR NOT...

We made a stop at Walmart for an air mattress (ours wasn't holding air well... unfortunately neither did the one we bought and the Walmart Customer Service here in IF are being complete jerks about it. Anyway...) and a tire gage because Ty was concerned about the amount of air in one of the tires. When we got back out to the parking lot, Ty checked the tires, and they were good so we hit the road. Not 10 minutes into Spanish Fork Canyon there was a VERY loud sound and the Expedition felt like it was dragging/hitting something. At first it was so loud I thought it was something metal that was dragging, but it was actually a blown tire. Ty thought it must be the front tire he was worried about to begin with, but it was actually the back tire on the same side!
The tread had ripped the trim partway off and had hit the body of the car in the back hard enough that it bent completely back on itself! We didn't even see the damage until we put the trim back on and it was hanging a good 4 inches past the body of the car. lol. Ty pulled the body back out as best he could but there's still a pretty good dent and paint damage on it. It's pretty unfortunate because it was in excellent shape when we bought it 2 days before! Haha! Oh well. Life happens!
It took a good 45 minutes to get the tire changed (thank goodness the spare was in good shape). When Ty pulled off the road, the back wheel was still partway on the road which sat a good 2 or 3 inches higher than the shoulder. It made it pretty difficult to jack it up high enough to get on and off. After we got the spare on, we immediately turned around and drove to Sam's Club in Provo to buy new tires. I didn't feel good about going through the canyon with no spare tire and the other 3 tires in just as bad shape as the one that blew! Thank goodness they had what we wanted in stock and had us back on our way in no time!

SITTERUD REUNION
After a 2 hour turned 6 hour trip to Joe's Valley, we finally made it to Lola's Place for the reunion! After setting up camp, we had hot dogs and smores and sang songs around the fire! It was fun! Lily also cuddled with Grandpa Sitterud (quite a bit all weekend actually) but my phone was dying so Grandma took the picture. Hopefully I get it in here someday!
As we were heading to bed a big storm rolled in. It was raining pretty hard and our poor tent just couldn't handle it. Jay was FREAKING out just from the sound of the rain hitting the tent. I took a video of it but he wasn't nearly as bad in the video as he was beforehand. Then the rain started coming thru the rain fly. Oy! That's when I covered up our suitcases with sleeping bags and hauled the kids into the trailer. We slept with Grandma and Papa that night. lol. Good thing Uncle Tyler and Aunt Maddie have a really nice tent or we would have had 11 people in that trailer! No worries, I think we could have pulled it off if we had to! Haha!
The next day we had an awesome breakfast, and the kids had a lot of fun games to play! Ty and I took my dad's Razor out for a bit! So much fun! I think the girls' (especially Crystal's) favorite part was the tree swing! They spent most of their time waiting in line or helping push people on that swing! We had a great lunch and then can't forget my favorite part... the sawdust! ;-) I stopped counting at $12 in coins from the sawdust this year. Haha. We needed it since we just went from a car that gets 35 mpg to 15 mpg! LOL! There were more kids activities in the afternoon and we ended up with ribs for dinner from a guy on the property next to us who made food for people who didn't show up! I felt really bad for him, but the ribs were great!
That evening Ty pulled the bouncy house out for the kids who were still around. There were still plenty of them. They filled it until it started losing too much air and they couldn't bounce any more. haha. After 2 people got kicked in the face, I decided I'd better set some ground rules. lol. It made it easier to bounce as well, so there were only minor complaints.
When it was good and dark, we watched McFarland with my parents' projector! It was a fun filled day! Love the Sitterud Family Reunion! Can't wait until next year!!! Though maybe we can do it without the blown tires next time! (My parents had 2 blow outs on their trailer on the way home. One while pulling out of the property and then the spare blew just north of Malad Pass where they stayed for a good 4 hours while a good friend helped them find a tire on a Sunday after 6 pm. Oy!)