the lives of the Chipman's

I am so very bad at updating this thing. I lay in bed at night and think about what I would write on my blog, but then I always forget when I get on here...if only you could hear me late at night. I am very witty and poetic.
So since I don't remember any of the witty or poetic comments, I will just update everyone on what is going on. I haven't been on here since around halloween, so I will start from there. In November we decided to go on a vacation to Yosemite, San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. We got up at 4 am on Wednesday to start our adventure. Mike took the first round of driving while the kids and I slept. We got to watch the sunrise in the Great Basin National Park. It was very beautiful. We made our first stop in Ely, Nevada for breakfast at mcdonalds. We let the kids play in the playland for a little while and then it was back in the car. This time it was my turn to drive. We drove for almost an hour until we were headed up a hill and the car started to do something funny. As we were driving down the other side of the hill it started to get worse, and we could both tell there was something very wrong. It looked like there was a little town in the distance, so Mike told me to coast as far as I could so we could get as close as possible to the town. As we coasted down the hill a little bit we realized that it was not a tiny town, but an oil refinery. We coasted as far as we could and then just stopped on the side of the road. I instantly broke down. We were in the middle of nowhere. 60 miles away from Ely and about 100 miles away from the next small Nevada town. Our phones didn't have reception. I knew the vacation was over, and I didn't know how we were going to get home. As Mike tried to calm me down a truck pulled up. When my life is a lifetime movie, this is the moment that there will be angels singing and a soft light glowing around the truck. A very nice young man named Ty got out of the truck and came to see how he could help us. The boys popped the hood and looked around...mainly to look cool because I don't think either one of them knew what they were doing. And then Mike came to the car to tell me that he was going to go to the refinery to use the phone. I told him we were all coming with. There was no way I was staying alone in the desert with the kids. So the kids and I climbed into the cab of the truck and Mike rode in the back. It was only about a mile to the refinery office. We got to the office and called my brother who had a trailer. He pretty much told us that he couldn't do anything until the weekend, but he would call vegas to see if he could find us a rental car. And he told Mike to find a rental car in Ely to go to Vegas. So we sat in the office, and I cried some more. Ty, our savior, came back in and said that they had a trailer that they could put our car on and he would take us to his house where we could figure out another plan. So we got back in the truck with him...this time it was an extended cab, so we all fit in the front. We started the drive back to Ely and finally decided to ask Ty what his last name was...It is Bundy, like the serial killer. But Ty Bundy is a genuine, sincere, kind man. He told us to stay at his house for as long as we needed. He let us use his internet and phone, he let the kids play with his kids toys. He let us watch his cartoons, all while he and his wife were at work. They let total strangers occupy their home trusting us completely. I had lost faith in people. I was sure that people only cared about themselves and that anything anyone did was for selfish reasons. Our failed vacation taught me otherwise. Ty Bundy taught me otherwise.
So after spending pretty much the entire day at his house, Mike decided that he would walk around to try to find us a hotel room. It was dark, in a strange town, and Mike left his phone charging. So after over an hour, he finally came back. He had walked up the road to the brand new la quinta inn. He had purchased a room and then convinced the young female manager that he did indeed have a wife and kids stranded somewhere. She got in the car with him and came to find us. Very brave woman. I am sure she didn't breathe until she saw me walk out the door. We had so many plans fall through in how we would get our car and us back to Utah. I spent the entire day crying...I don't think I have ever cried more in one day. Our final plan was that Pat, Mike's brother, would come pick us up the next day with the neighbors suburban and a uhaul trailer. We finally made it home around midnight on Thursday. A very long 2 days, and no vacation. We talked about trying to rent a car, but it would have cost a fortune since Ely only had 1 car. Someday we will take our trip. Hudson still asks when he will get to see the golden gate bridge. Our car would have cost more than it was worth to fix, so we sold it broken for $800 and bought my beautiful honda pilot.
Since that story was a lengthy one, I will just update everything else at a later date. I hope everyone is doing well. Later.