Great American Roadtrip...Final Chapter

When we pulled out of Whitefish early in the morning for our return trip to Utah, we planned to get as far as Idaho Falls and then decide what our next steps would be. After 7 hours in the car we thought we may stop for the night but knew no matter what the girls would be ready to stretch their legs for a bit. We quickly found our way to the Falls and all 5 of us enjoyed walking around the beautiful park, Temple grounds and getting some fresh air for a bit. The girls fed some very aggressive ducks and did cartwheels in the cool grass for almost two hours before we decided that we were ready to pack back up in the car, grab some dinner and drive the last 5 hours south to Salem. The trip took us all day but the girls were great and we once again realized that the Ben Cosby family could in fact survive a long car ride.

The next 10 days we filled our time with cousins, playgrounds, shopping, watching the London Olympics and all things fun at (Great) Grandma Joan and Grandpa Neal's house. We loved our morning exercise in the cool mountain air and rewarded ourselves daily with a walk to Fast Gas for a drink and treat. We finally hiked the BYU Y after graduating more than a decade earlier bright and early one morning and enjoyed ice cream at the Creamery on 9th more than once. We visited many loved ones at different cemeteries and celebrated Grandma Joan's 81st birthday with a party and cake!

A highlight of the trip was for sure Salem Days at the end of the week. The girls loved the Little Buckaroo rodeo and Belle was sick that she and LiviBell were not in the events competing. The girls rode in their cousin Zoey's pink car in the Children's Parade and Olivia never stopped waving the entire route. We woke up way too early to run in the Salem Days Fun Run and once again were so proud of Isabelle and her determination to succeed. As luck would have it, a cannon was shot off at the same time as the 1 mile race began so naturally the racers took off. It wasn't till about 2/3 of the race was over that the officials screamed to STOP because the cannon was not suppose to start the race and instead the runners all needed to come back to the starting line. I thought this would have been a perfect time for Belle to give up but she never bat an eye. She marched back to the starting line, out of breath, and ran the mile again finishing in 4th place in the 6-8 year old category. Ben ran as well pushing Olivia and surprised us all by taking the silver medal and of course Grammie took the silver medal too in the 5k. I was just glad to finish the race and thought my 7th place was A-OK. Afterwards we ate a yummy pancake breakfast, gathered our medals and enjoyed the small-town parade.




You would think that after 23 days on the road, sleeping in different beds, changing time zones and being ill twice that we would be ready to head back home but I don't think any one of us were over enthused to make our way back to the airport and board our plane back to the hot and humid heat awaiting us. We knew that Ben would have to get back to work and that school would be starting again soon and worst of all...Grammie wouldn't be with us 24/7 and none of that sounded overly appealing. We loved all of the friends and family we visited along the way, the time spent in Montana, the beginning of a special relationship with LiviBell, the cool and dry air and especially the endless family time. We are so grateful that we had the means to enjoy such a wonderful family vacation and know that these are the memories that the girls will remember always.

A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in. ~Robert Orben

**In closing, Olivia had a raging fever on the flight home and we prayed that we could just get home before she felt any worse. Thankfully we made it all the way to our driveway before she spewed and she and Isabelle spent the next week at home sick with Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. Hooray for bringing home a souvenir!