Friday August 9th

Our last big day of driving! We got through Denver during rush hour ok and made it up the mountain to Buffalo Bills Grave. We almost always stop there to have a look back at where we have been or see where we will soon be going.It's an amazing view from up there:

 We loaded back up and drove through the Colorado mountains most of the day. We drive through Vail and alot of beautiful little towns with ski resorts everywhere. We looked forward all day to going through the Eisenhower tunnel. It is massive. Miles and miles long and one of our favorite things is going through tunnels honking all the way. Unfortunately Megan had fallen asleep just before the tunnel and I am sorry to say she missed the whole thing! Hayden said here comes the tunnel but he didn't make sure she was up and around and she slept through it. We didn't see any where to turn around and go through again or we would have. So Megan here's what you missed:

 But she didn't miss this:

 We had hours and hours of construction! Seriously it was crazy. We were stop and go all afternoon. The Glenwood Springs area is beautiful and we hardly cared because we sat in it so long we were over it!

We decided to drive up through Price on the way to Provo because we had never actually been there. It was a desolate long drive to Price. We should have gotten some advice on where to eat before we went from people in the know because we ended up at Pizza Hut, not the best choice apparently. The drive through the canyon from Price to Provo was beautiful but it was getting dark so fast we didn't get to see alot of it. So we finally got to Provo that night and set up camp at Christina's house for the night. The next day we headed home dropping Hayden and Megan and our van off in St George. We were sure we were going to get charged for the two incidents we incurred on the trip but we didn't. Dad smacked into the bumper in Nauvoo and there was a small scratch. The windshield got a chip in all the construction too. Nope best deal ever.

So our family Odyssey to Nauvoo had come to an end. We were sad to see it all end. It was an amazing trip that we just loved. We had so much fun together and look forward to another good time with our family in the future. Hayden and Megan got engaged, Jeff and Rachel moved to DC and Ashley and Benjy were brave enough to load up all their kids and join us. Christina is always up for an adventure and loves road trips even with us. All my sisters and their families and my Mom and Dad worked together to make this happen for our whole family! We have the best family ever and we hope we can do another great trip together someday!