The Move

The last night we spent in Rexburg was crazy; our friends helped us clean until way late and of course Belle was up and Sophie was being snuggled by one of our friends.

Belle was getting in the way so I asked her if she wanted to help me move the truck to the back parking lot for the night. Originally we planned to have Belle and Sophie ride with Christine, that was until I realized that I could turn the air bag off for the passenger in the moving truck. As we approached the moving truck, Belle, in the freezing Rexburg air, started to jump up and down. She was almost shaking with excitement. It was like she had won the lottery! When I started the engine, which was a bit loud, Belle started hers. It took only a few minutes to drive back there and find a spot but my little girl never stopped talking. The drive to the back of the parking lot was just a taste of what was to come.

The next morning we gave Belle a choice, like we even needed to, of course she chose to ride in the moving truck. She never stopped talking, never. The total drive time was about 22 hours and she slept for maybe one and a half hours while we drove. I was a bit worried of getting drowsy on such a long road trip but what I didn’t realize is all I needed was a three-year-old to sit by my side to tell jokes to or to listen to her jokes. When we hit the boarder of Idaho and Utah we started telling jokes to each other. Most of them didn’t make any sense to either of us but we couldn’t stop laughing. I guess laughing out of control while driving a 12000 or so pound vehicle probably isn’t much better than being drowsy, but it sure was fun.

At one of the rest stops I bought a blue slurpy icey thing and Belle bought a Hawaiian punch, possibly the most surgery one, it was her choice. After drinking a little bit I showed her that my tongue was blue and hers was red. We had some fun with that for a while.

I gave her a cup of trail mix with chocolates and nuts some time in Idaho and by the time we made it to Salt Lake City they were talking to each other. Usually it was those jerk peanuts causing most of the problems, they were always bullying the white chocolate chips into Belle’s mouth. Most of the time it was hard to understand everything that she was saying because she talks soft and the truck was loud. The trail mix seemed to make some sort of truce because when we finally made it to St Gorge they were singing and dancing. I thought that would last but when we bought some pretzels at a truck stop just outside of Las Vegas the peanuts, from what I could gather, started smack talking the pretzels and there was some epic battle and most of the carnage landed on the floor of the moving truck; that was fun to clean up. At one point the pretzels ended up in a time out, they just had a bad attitude. We were somewhere in the mountains of Arizona when I thought it would be funny to feed a pretzel to Belle with the condition that she took it from my hand with her foot. I told her she wasn’t allowed to use her hands. Later Christine told me that was disgusting, at least I knew her feet were in her sandals all day, I had no idea where her hands had been.

I have often said how much I hate driving moving trucks but those two days were some of the best days of my life. We talked for hours about nothing and laughed a lot. It had been a while since I had laughed that much. In the end I actually miss being in the moving truck with Belle.

Since we anticipated Belle riding with Christine there were no toys in the moving truck or the portable DVD player. She and I were entertainment enough for each other. This was by far the best daddy- daughter date. I know she will eventually forget the whole thing but I don’t think I will ever forget how much fun I had with her.

What I learned
Belle is a sweet girl; she always checked her mirror to make sure mom and Sophie were behind us when we left each stop and sometimes while we were driving.
Belle has a wonderful imagination; I loved listening to various items in the truck (shoes, cups, food, receipts, and so on) have conversations with each other about everything and anything.
The move was hard on Belle; she asked me several times if some of our friends from Rexburg could come in the truck with us, it was usually Clint or Mark. At one point she asked if we could go home, she was really tired and wanted to sleep but it was still hard to hear.
Belle has a lot of energy; between the two of us we only slept about an hour and a half while driving.
Belle loves palm trees; when we pulled into St Gorge that’s all she talked about for about 20 minutes.
Belle is one of my best friends; she told me so.
Belle loves blue slurpies.
Belle tells some pretty funny jokes; even if they don’t make sense they are funny.
Belle has a great laugh.
I secretly wanted the pretzels to beat the trail mix and after cleaning out the moving truck I believe they did.
I am one of Belles best friends; she told me so.

While writing this Belle asked me if I could turn off my computer so we could do something. My computer has been on the fritz so when it shuts down I say my computer just died. Now when Belle wants me to shut off my computer she simply says, “Daddy computer die.” The creepy thing is when I don’t turn it off right away she starts chanting “die computer die”. It kind of creeps me out.