Every year we pack our bags and head to Cleveland, Utah for the 24th of July celebrations....nowhere else on earth can you get so many great things wrapped into one weekend....
Where else can you get ping pong balls dumped from an airplane right into the road...or a tree?
Where else can you bob for quarters in a tub full of watered down snot?
Where else can your children work in a Coke booth for 2 days straight and not get paid for it?
Where else can you light fireworks in a dry field full of weeds?
Where else can you play in a softball tournament....and lose every year.
Where else can you eat enormous amounts of lamb and scones with honey butter?
Where else can you put your infant in a basket and run a race with them?
Where else can you watch infants fly out of baskets during the race?
Where else can you play a seriously competitive game of balloon toss?
Where else can you get Joe (I won't say the last name...there is great chance that this blog has reached out to millions and he might be one of them) doing the Robot dance to Pop Corn Popping on the Apricot Tree?
Where else does an air force jet fly so close to your head at a parade that you fear for your life??..
Nowhere!....Cleveland is where the magic happens. See you there next year....you know you want to. (somehow I left Cleveland Days without any blogworthy pictures. What was I thinking?!)
This year we were lucky enough to have our car overheat on the way down to Cleveland. It started overheating just before we started up the canyon. Keep in mind it is the 24th of July, and in Utah that is a huge holiday. No one is open....including mechanic shops. Our only option: Walmart. Ok, seriously, don't ever rely on Walmart for anything except toilet paper and doritos. Car problems are NOT their specialty.. We pulled into the lube and oil center, hoping they could help us out. No such luck. Turns out my sister's dog knows more about cars than the Walmart boys. The greatest story of the day happened at this moment....we decided to have them do an oil change and top off all of our fluids. Meanwhile, my mom was calling every mechanic within a 30 mile radius to see if she could find anyone that was open. She finally got a hold of a shop that said they would stay there and wait for us to come in. By this time Wally World boys had managed to pull our car in (a 15 min process). My mom and sister went to the front desk to ask the boy (I say "boy" because he was a 10 year old in a 30 year old body) if he would see how long it was going to take for the oil change, and to let them know that we were in a hurry to get to the mechanic shop before it closed. So the boy leans his head out the window and says (exact words) "How long is the oil change going to take? These guys need you to hurry because they need to get to the Police Department." POLICE DEPARTMENT? The look on my sister's face was priceless, and she says to him, "What?! You don't even know what you're talking about!" I am in the waiting room holding Zayden laughing my freaking head off while watching all of this from the window (best seat in the house). My mom is standing at the door, knocking on it and telling the boy to open it for her (for some reason the front desk boy has to hit a button before you can open the door) so she can talk to the Wally World "mechanic" herself. The funniest part is that the boy keeps going on and on about how we need to get to the Police Department before 5:00....he doesn't even realize that my sister is telling him what an idiot he is, and that my mom is knocking on the door. It's as if nothing is going on around him. I wanted to lay on the floor and die laughing. Long story short, we told them we didn't want the freaking oil change and we headed to the police department....I mean, mechanic shop.
When we got to the mechanic shop we quickly learned they did not have A/C. 2009 and no air conditioner in your building? Who are you? Sadly enough it was cooler outside than inside....aaaaand it was 100 degrees outside. We were dying. I hope I never have to go to that shop again. I felt bad for the people that worked there! 3 hours later we were in a rental car that was 1/2 the size of my mom's car, and back on the road with only half of our stuff.
This is not my life, is it?
Zayden chillin in the sauna
**it's 4am....this post may not make any sense**
This is Dan....
This is me...
