I posted a short version of this on my other blog. As friends and family you get to see even more photos. :)
Jace talked me into taking 3 children on a 3200 mile, five day road trip. His family was having a get-together in the Seattle area, and I thought we could squeeze in a quick visit to Portland and Spokane, thus adding 1000 extra miles to the trip. So I guess he really just talked me into a 2200 mile trip. But still...
We survived thanks to the advice of my amazing SIL Janice. I asked "what am I going to do with a 5 yr old, 3yr old, and 7 mo old for 14 hours in a car?" (this was the Orem, UT to Portland, OR leg of the trip). She's a veteran of road trips and her simple response was "portable dvd player". It worked! My children logged more "tv hours" last week than they do in a year. Now that we're home, I'm trying to keep them in the yard as much as possible.
First stop. We met my Aunt Elm and Uncle Robert in a park in Troutdale, OR. I'm ready to move! We are Northwest natives and know better than to fall for clear blue skies in June. And yet I keep plotting...how can we relocate to Oregon. :)
The play area in the background was covered with kids. I think they hid right when I took the pic.
There's Robert, Jace, and baby C. We had perfect weather for our perfect lunch. Elm and Robert brought sandwiches and chips. Gideon and Elise ate ALL of the strawberries.
That's me with my aunt and sweet baby Charlotte, who was the easiest of the three on the road. Actually, she's the easiest one at home too. :)
I had a hard time leaving Oregon. It's always hard to say goodbye to family.
Our next stop was Seattle.
Just before Charlotte was born, Jace took the kids up to Seattle with his sister and her kids. When they came home, I heard tales of the "scary" masks that they loved at their aunt's house. So I had to get a photo of them. I think she told me she bought them in Mexico years ago. I thought about putting a bikini top on the bug lady before posting.
Nana gave all the girls costumes. Elise wore it the rest of the day. The boys were given pj's.
Elise with her cousins, Saturday afternoon.
All of the cousins outside of the Children's Musem. My BIL Jason is a photographer. He's trying to get the kids ready for photos. I'm just clicking my camera hoping to get lucky. I think I took about 20 pics of the group. I've found that if I wait for the perfect photo, the moment is gone (and I'm a terrible photographer).
I'll have to get the "good" one from Jason. I think all of the ones I took the kids are moving around. :)
Can we say tired? We usually let our kids sleep, but we woke them up on the ferry so they wouldn't miss it.
Elise on the zip line on Whidbey Island. Jace took a few of Gideon and they weren't on the camera later. The battery was dying. Anyway those are the pics I wish I could take again. He was having so much fun.
They loved this car. Elise tried to take over the driving several times.
Elise on the ferry heading back to Everett.
Jace with the kids on the ferry. Aunt Amy gave all the girls sunglasses. Well, Elise only took them off to sleep. So most of the pics of her show her with them on. Just minutes before this was taken, I was up on the deck too with Charlotte. She was cold so I wrapped her in my red jacket. You guessed it...she spit up all over both of us. For some reason, I didn't bring a burp cloth with me upstairs.
Gideon HATES the shirt he is wearing. Sunday morning was the first time he ever saw it and instantly disliked it. He said "That's a girl shirt mommy! I am not wearing that!" He pointed to Elise's blue shirt on the bed (shown in the picnic photos) and emphatically added "See! It's the same color as Elise's shirt. Girls wear light blue, boys wear dark blue!". Later that day when we were heading for Spokane, Gideon threw it into the front seat with a grunt. I threw it back to him, and I could hear the power window button clicking (but we had the lock on!). Jace and I were laughing and hoping he couldn't hear us. So he was ready to throw it out the window on the freeway. I guess I won't be able to get him in that again any time soon.
Elise wearing her sunglasses upside-down. You can't see it in the pic, but the arms of the glasses are going right over the middle of her ear. Comfy!
Gideon looking at his "look" book. He loved it. Thanks Elm & Robert!
Elise playing with her sticker book, also courtesy of Elm & Robert. After double-digit hours of DVD's the kids were ready for something else (and so were we!).
Charlotte meeting Great-Grandma for the first time. We'd been in the car for 10+ hours when we arrived at Grandma's house. The kids were hyper, so getting them to hold still was impossible.
Aunt Ellen and Grandma came by Monday morning for a short visit. It was so nice to meet Aunt Ellen and have another visit with Grandma. We were packing up to head down to Spokane. Even though its overcast, I'm squinting like the sun is right in my eyes...I remember thinking it was bright. Elise was still asleep at 11:30, and I didn't have the heart to wake her up. Sunday morning, we were trying to catch the ferry to get to the baby blessing in Everett. I was putting her church clothes on while whe was asleep and she didn't wake up until I propped her up. And if you notice Gideon standing in the background, that's b/c he was DONE with pictures. Later that day we met Rob & Lisa and Julie. When it was time for pictures, Lisa's sister Terry was able to coax Gideon to be in the pictures. We found out afterwards that she was a school teacher. :)
Here I am with Rob and Julie...my only cousins! We met them at Rob & Lisa's store last Monday. They couldn't have been nicer. We took pictures with the rest of the family too, but what shred of vanity I have left prevents me from sharing those just yet. Julie and I are about the same height. Anyway, if I were better at photoshop, I'd fix my hair since I didn't bother doing it that morning. :)
Gideon is holding a drawing of Darth Mal that Laura made for him. She's an artist with loads of talent and she gave Gideon 2 drawings while we were there. Rob and Lisa have a huge store and if we were traveling in anything bigger, I may have tried to buy some chairs. :) Thanks for letting us stop by. We loved meeting all of you and hope to see you again soon.
Back row: Jace, Logan, Rob
Middle row: Baby Charlotte, me, Laura, Lisa, Julie
Front row: Gideon, Elise
Gideon at Zip's in Spokane.
The grey band on Elise's wrist made this trip possible. The last 3 or 4 trips up north have resulted in Elise throwing up. Amy loaned us her seabands for motion sickness. They work!! I'm going to get a couple pairs.
One last thing. Rob and Lisa gave the kids some toys for the trip home. Elise had a attached herself to a ceramic dog (please no! Can we say shattered in 12 hrs or less?), but they took her to the stuffed animal area and she picked out a bear and tomato. She held them the entire 900+ miles home. She's looking at the DVD player instead of me. :)
And Gideon is happy to "finally" have some Star Wars toys. Thank Logan for finding some toys for Gideon. :)
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