The final chapter in the Trilogy of Thanksgiving Terror continues…

We got on the road shortly after lunch. The kids all dozed while we flew down the highway. 

We broke out the glow sticks as soon as it was dusk. Drew came up with the ultimate pair of glasses.

Then they colored by the light of the glow sticks.

Since Drew had to miss 2 days of school to make the trip, we made sure we snuck some education in there somehow. We called out letters and he did his best to create each letter with his glow sticks. Not bad!

We arrived at our hotel in Grand Junction in the early evening. We went straight for the pool, and those of us who had swimsuits enjoyed lounging in the pool and hot tub. Can you sense my jealous tone? meh…

Brinley threw us all off and was quite the waterbug. We expected the opposite from her.

Drew on the other hand, well – we expected the opposite from him as well.

Brinley liked the shock of going from the hot tub to the pool and back.

We almost let Rowan take a skinny dip (or chunky dunk in her case), but she opted for just a nice foot soak.

Day 2 was going great until about a mile west of Vail when the highway converted instantly to an ice skating rink, and not long after the traffic came to a grinding halt. 

No, really?

60 mph! We weren’t even doing 6 mph.

The climb up the mountain to the Eisenhower Tunnel got worse and worse.

Look kids it’s magic! The road is disappearing! At this point we were all hungry, we all needed to go potty, and we were extremely bored. Drew & Brinley watched every movie we had twice, ran out of all things crafty, and had to use cups and cloth diapers to meet physiological needs…good times!

Ryan said that his sunglasses were too dark to see the road, but that it was blinding to drive without them. He gave my rose colored shades a try…

And the road is gone…

At 7 p.m., 5 hours later, we finally made it to the Eisenhower Tunnel.

What started out being a 4 hour drive turned into a 10 hour park ‘n’ wait. Next time we’ll just go the “old fashioned way…” It is free afterall…