Day 17
It was a blustery morning, and G’ma & G’pa had bought NICE kites (special ordered from a kite shop) for the kids. They had been waiting for the wind to blow (which is pretty much a sure thing eventually around here - just like at home) So sure enough, this was the day and they were out there pretty much first thing to fly kites. Unfortunately, it was perhaps a bit too blustery as Christian’s kite string broke and his kite flew up up and away! Matt & his dad and the boys then drove 25 miles to recover said lost kite. They found it about 1 mile away, but it took that many miles to get to it through fields, private property etc. My car got an additional coat of mud added to it during the trip. It was definitely an adventure! The boys will probably remember it forever!

Later the boys went for tractor rides on Grandpa’s tractor - fun times!

In the afternoon we went to my parents house. Oh, and hit the Dollar Tree on the way - G’ma had given the boys $5 each to spend there. My Suburban got washed at my parents house thanks to my hubby, dad & Christian. You should have seen the pile of dirt in my parents driveway! The kids played Wii snowboarding and then went jet skiing on Moses Lake (which my parents house is located on). I went with my mom and g’ma to the fabric store and baby store (to say “hi” to my sister who works there.)

Next we went to Chico’s - Matt’s favorite pizza place of all time. Matt’s parents joined us along with some good friends. We had a good time chatting with everyone. We ended up talking in the parking lot until after 9:00. The kids collapsed into bed as they have been doing most nights.

Day 18

Clara (Matt’s mom) & I met my mom & grandma at the fabric store here in town. My mom is making pillowcase dresses to sell at the baby store my sister works at. So we got to go and help her pick out material! Fun times! We were there for almost 2 hours. Then we headed over to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple things and then headed home.

The boys (& men) then went out to see one of Matt’s dad’s friends. Then they took the boys out to ice-cream. I snuck in about a 20 min. nap.

Christian took a bath when he got home. He got some of those capsules that turn into sponge animals from the Dollar Store that he was dying to try out. They all could have used baths, but Annika woke up from her nap, so we were off to my parents house.

Today was the big family dinner at my parents house. In attendance were: My parents, brother, aunt & uncle, cousin, grandparents, sister, sister’s boyfriend and niece. (and us of cours). It was fun to see everyone!

We got home about 10:00 and got the kids in bed. I worked on my biz. a bit. I need to go pay bills now and collapse into bed myself.

Today was a day of fun in the sun! (I think everyone got a bit too much sun - even with sunscreen.) We headed to the family cabin at Blue Lake. The kids played in the water, and rode in the boat. Ryan tried Knee boarding and was quite good at it! He tried getting up on ski’s one time and then went back to the knee board. Dane & Chistian rode in the tube. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do with Annika because there are too many burrs in the grass to crawl around, but she sat in the stroller really well, and then took a nice long nap in the house in her pack ‘n’ play for quite awhile as well. Matt has so many memories there as a child, that it is fun to watch the kids creating the same memories. I remember the days we would go out there pre-kids! We could sit around and read and relax. Now it is a bit different, but still an enjoyable time. Makes me kind of want to look for a lake house of our own!

On another note… I can not find my Flip Video Camera anywhere… and it is driving me crazy! Last time I saw it was at on of our first hotels… Matt thinks we packed it somewhere… but who knows where! I hate it when I can’t find things! Drives me crazy!

Talk to you tomorrow!

C-

We took our time this morning, got ready, had breakfast, packed up & got out of the hotel around 11:00.

First stop was Babies R’ Us - I had underestimated Annika’s ability to poop on our 3 day trip over the mountains, so we had to buy some more diaper wipes. (Even though I had just bought a huge pack at Wal-Mart before we left, but I only brought with us two traveling cases worth.)

Next we drove about an hour to Matt’s Uncle Bob & Aunt Shirley’s house - in Buckley, WA. We had a nice day there with Matt’s aunts/uncles, cousins & parents. The cousins have lots of kids as well, so our kids had playmates - they had a great time! The weather is perfect for us to grill out, the kids to play, and everyone to visit inside or out.

We left around 5:30 and headed back over the mountain to Matt’s parents house. We pulled off for dinner around 7:00. (the kids picked Quizno’s again) We didn’t really care where as we were pretty full from the BBQ - but kids… they always want to eat. We were glad we weren’t driving the opposite direction as there was lots and lots of traffic that way. Annika wasn’t too happy for a portion of the trip, so we made another stop to see if we could help her out, but we didn’t really ever figure out what the problem was. Thankfully she got over it eventually. We got back to Matt’s parents around 9:30. (So it wasn’t as late as I thought it was going to be when I blogged last night.)

I think the kids were in bed around 10:00. Tomorrow we head to the family cabin at Blue Lake. I’m not sure what we will do with Annika there, as she hates grass, and there are too many burrs and such anyway to let her crawl around. I’m sure we’ll figure something out. The boys are ecstatic to go! The older two remember playing there before we moved, and they all went the other day to put the dock in, but they didn’t get to swim. Should be another fun day.

I’m TIRED! I’ll try to stay awake and pump this post out. : )

Annika graced us with her presence at 4:00 a.m., but finally went back to sleep until 8:00.

Showered & breakfast.

We let the kids play for a bit while we checked e-mail etc. We headed out around 11:00 a.m.

Destination: Matt’s Aunts / Grandma’s house. We arrived around 11:30. They live in the most beautiful neighborhood. You should see the house that was just built next to them - it is HUGE and beautiful. It looks just about done… but I guess it has been sitting there for 3 years! The guy invested 3 Million into it, and then just kind of disappeared… WEIRD. We thought maybe we could take it off his hands for him if he cared to donate it… (of course we probably couldn’t even afford the taxes!) The kids walked down to the beach with Auntie Claire, (Matt, Annika & I later joined) and overall had a grand time. The weather was PERFECT - upper 70’s, a very light periodic breeze and sun to boot! We visited with Matt’s G’ma - who rested in bed the majority of the time. I felt so bad for her - she is experiencing a lot of pain, and she really wanted to be with us, but it was just too hard on her. Matt’s two cousins were also there along with the one cousin’s girlfriend and their baby girl who is 3 months old.

Matt’s brother arrived later in the day - around when we were getting ready to leave, so we only saw him for about 45 minutes unfortunately. The kids were looking forward to seeing “Uncle John”, but that’s the way the ball bounces sometimes. His significant other was not able to make it, so I guess we won’t be meeting her. They were supposed to be with us tomorrow - Tue. but that fell through as well, so they are two people we will miss spending much time with.

We had a nice meal, some quality sun, some interesting conversation and headed out around 5:00 p.m.

Next was Chuck E. Cheese. We had promised the kids we could go there sometime on our trip. Check, mission accomplished.

We headed back to the hotel around 7:00 and the kids promptly jumped into the whirlpool bath again Amazing how easy it is to get them to take baths when you have one of those around! Think we can convince them to install one in our parsonage? ha ha

They were in bed by 8:30, and two hours later, I am practically falling asleep typing this, so I am heading there as well. Tomorrow we check-out of this hotel, have a family BBQ and head back over the mountains to Ephrata. I probably won’t blog tomorrow night as it will be late late late when we get “home”.

C-

It was a really good day!

We slept in until 8:00. Matt & I got showered and we headed to breakast at 9:00 - which was nice.

We came back to the room, and the boys got in the whirlpool tub while Annika took a nap. They were in there for over an hour - they LOVED it! It was so fun to listen to them talk. At one point Christian said “They would have to pay us to get us out of this.” Too cute! This hotel really is great. We’ll have to remember this one to come back to!

We had brought back pizza from our friend’s house yesterday, and our room has a fridge & microwave, so we warmed that up for the kids for lunch. Matt and I were still full from breakfast. There are even real plates and a dishwasher in our room! Matt and I were talking and decided the room is probably about as big as the first apartment we lived in.

Next we headed to Renton to see our friends Aaron & Sheryl and their 4 kiddo’s. The weather was perfect for the kids to play, and for us to BBQ. The kids played great together - they have 3 boys and a girl as well - with all of them being similar ages to our kids. It was sooo good to see them! I miss them tons, and it was hard to leave - knowing that we probably won’t see them again for a couple more years. We were talking about how we met. We have known each other for over 12 years. I was working at a Christian Bookstore and Sheryl was hired and we hit it off right away. This was pre-kids and we later introduced our hubby’s to each other. I am sure God put us in each other’s lives. Who knew that we would have kids - 3 boys each first and then baby girls. Who knew that we would move to MN for 4 years and stay in touch, and then move back to WA and pick up where we left off, and then move to IL and continue to be good friends. They are definitely a gift… Good friends like that are hard to come by and such blessings!

We made it back to the hotel around 9:45 p.m. and the kids were exhausted. It was easy to pop them into bed. They were all asleep pretty much instantaneously I think.

I can’t believe we’ve been gone two weeks! The time is really flying by! We miss everyone at home, but we certainly haven’t been longing for home yet! Maybe a month really is a good length to be away! I was dreading it.. and by the end I may still be dying to get home… But for now, it is good!

C-

Another fun & busy day!

We started out with a yummy banana blueberry waffle & bacon breakfast made by grandpa.

Then we got all packed up, showered, and out the door around 10:30 a.m.

We headed towards Western WA. It was a fairly typical trip - nice in Eastern WA, raining & cold in Western Wa. I slept through a lot of it while the kids watched a movie. (I have seen the scenery many a time, so I’m sure I didn’t miss much.) I tell you this new Suburban we have totally puts me to sleep - I’m not sure what it is!

We stopped in Issaquah (where Matt & I went to college) for lunch. We were planning on going to XXX Rootbeer, but when we got there it was absolutely packed! They were having an old-fashioned car show, and there wasn’t even a place to park, so we left and went to McD’s instead.

We arrived at our hotel in Lynwood around 2:00 p.m. We got checked in… It is really nice! (which I’m glad, because we are here for 3 nights.) HUGE room & HUGE Whirlpool bathtub - which I am going to climb in as soon as I get done writing this. It is strange how hotel rooms can all be around the same price and some are just okay and some are wonderful… Guess it just depends on the town? Matt took a short nap, and then we headed to Babies R’ Us which shares a parking lot with the hotel. I hadn’t been in one of those for years. We finally got Annika an umbrella stroller - hot pink! I’m guessing we’ll probably use it while we’re in Colorado.

Next we headed over to our old neighborhood. I was curious how I would feel going there. I found that I do miss the area in general - close shopping, the mountains, our friends, and the mild climate… But I didn’t really miss the neighborhood much. Our current house is much more spacious, and the yard is wonderful, and the people are great. We really are so blessed and it was reassuring to me that it is nice to visit home, but we still belong in IL.

We had a nice visit with our former neighbors. The kids enjoyed playing and it was just a relaxing enjoyable time. It was fun to pick up where we left off and just enjoy their company.

The kids were in bed by 9:00. Annika had a bit of a hard time falling asleep, but she is out now. The whirlpool is calling my name! Talk to you tomorow!

C-

Day 10 involved laundry and more laundry - all day long. The wash machine had a bit of a mishap which made it a longer process than expected. Oh well! The rest of the day - while waiting for laundry to do it’s thing - I hung out with Matt’s mom and Annika. The boys went to Blue Lake to the family cabin, to put the dock in. Sounded like they had a great time!

In the evening the boys made stilts with grandpa - fun times!

After everyone was in bed, Matt & I went on a “date” to Wal-Mart… As we needed a few things. Of course I ALWAYS end up picking the worst line. The person in front of us had two separate WIC orders, and just walked off… (leaving her checks there and everything) So the lady had to figure out how to void all that, what to do with the items etc.

We came home, I worked (& played) online far too late, and collapsed in bed about 1:00 a.m.

Day 11
After only 5 hours of sleep… I was a bit on the tired side. I stayed up way too late, and then Annika was up at 6:00. After breakfast, more laundry & play I snuck in about an hour nap while Annika napped around 9:00.

When I got up we got all the kids bathed, and I showered and we hit the road a little after noon. Thankfully, when I say we “hit the road” I mean a half an hour drive. We drove into Moses Lake - where my parents live. We grabbed lunch at Taco Time and ate at the park that is across the street from the chuch Matt & I grew up in - and met in - and got married in - and baptized Dane in. After we ate, we went into the church and talked for awhile with Dane’s godfather - who works at the church. (That means we saw all the godparents on this trip, except Annika’s - who live at home in IL)

Next we headed to the baby store where my sister works. What a fun place to work!

Then we headed to my parents house. The boys played Wii with Uncle Kevin and Annika played for awhile and napped. We had dinner and next up was family pictures. We had planned to take them in my parent’s beautiful yard. However, the wind picked up right before the photographer arrived. We went out there and our hair was blowing everywhere… So we made the trek to her studio in Royal City (about 1/2 an hour drive). I’m hoping some of the turned out… We took A LOT! We get to look at them next week.

Then, since we were so close, we drove into the actual town part of Royal City - she was out in the country, to show the boys where Matt grew up & where grandma currently works.

Then, we headed back to Ephrata to G’ma & G’pa’s house. The kids were all in bed around 10:00.

Tomorrow we have about a 3 1/2 hour drive to the other side of the state. Lots of fun stuff planned there!

Great Fall, MT to Ephrata, WA

The normal - got up, had breakfast, packed up, hit the road - It was 10:00 a.m. MST, but we were entering into PST in the afternoon, so we just changed our clocks right then and there.

Took my normal catnaps, and drove for a bit. It was slightly more exciting since we were going through all the mountains. I still say Montana is sooo big and long to drive through! I also said when we moved that I was never driving that again… (I planned to fly..)but here we are… At least we are going home a different way - to places I have never been - so that will hopefully help the driving go by faster.

We had lunch in Missoula, MT - at Quizzno’s - yum! I actually fed our kids today.. I forgot to mention that yesterday we made them eat Pop-Tarts that were in the car for lunch. Remember, we THOUGHT we were behind schedule? (when in reality we weren’t) They survived.

We then drove all the way to State Line (ID/WA) and stopped at Cabella’s for about an hour to walk around and burn off some energy. The kids tried out the laser shooting range, and everyone got Croc’s (except Ryan & Annika - Ryan didn’t really want any, which was good because they didn’t have any in his size, and they didn’t have Annika’s size either.) We saw lots of deer, and one accident. We’re not really sure what happened with the accident. We followed 2 ambulances and a fire truck with their lights on for approx. 10 miles, so we figured something was up ahead. There was a guy in the road (we’re thinking maybe he was on a motorcycle and the motorcycle was in the ditch. We didn’t see the motorcycle, but there was a police officer looking in the ditch. Then, there was an SUV further up that had also crashed in the guard rail…. so I’m not sure if those were related or what - it was kind of strange.

Annika had her fair share of crabby moments. We figured out she doesn’t like Star Wars (that’s my girl!). She was crying and crying and as soon as we turned the movie off she was happy. Too loud, too much action or something.

We finally made it to Ephrata about 6:45 p.m. PST. We met Matt’s parents at the local Mexican Restaurant and had a nice meal. The boys were a bit hyper, but were able to contain themselves. They were just tired of sitting for 2 days straight, I am sure! We then made our way to Matt’s parents house, let the kids play for awhile, and got them in bed around 9:00. I was out by 10:30 or so.

Annika isn’t so sure about her grandpa yet. Hopefully she will warm up to him! Matt’s mom just had surgery on her foot, so she is not as mobile as she would like to be, but she is doing okay.

Day 10 involves no long car trips! YEA!

It was a long day of driving… We went from Rapid City, SD to Great Falls, MT

We got up at 7:00 and I had all the kids take baths since they hadn’t for a couple days. Then we packed up and had breakfast. We hit the road at 9:30 a.m. - a half an hour past our desired departure time.

Dane was feeling much better today, thankfully.

We went through the very last bit of SD, the tiny tip of WY and then Montana… ALL DAY. I must say I really don’t enjoy driving across MT. It is pretty in places, but overall, it is just boring- there isn’t much there, (at least on the highways we were on - we didn’t go much on the interestate - it was mostly 2 lane highways) and it is a big state! I took lots of cat naps to try to make the time pass. We encountered one construction zone where you turn off your car and wait for the pilot truck - that was a 15 min. wait - the sign said expect up to 30 min., so not bad I guess!

The most exciting part of the drive was highway 500. Our GPS directed us onto this highway, and I don’t recommend it! The first 7 miles were just fine… but then all the sudden it was mud roads, cattle guards, and free range cattle & wild horses! (we had cows on both sides of us at one point) Oh, and lots of deer too! Picture a windy dirt road, with huge potholes, places you might get stuck in from all the mud, extreme bumpy washboard sections etc. Matt always likes to take my cars off-roading and I don’t let him very often because he usually ends up breaking something, so this was his chance! (thankfully nothing broke) Funny we didn’t encounter 1 other car on the 22 mile stretch! There were a couple farms out there. We were trying to figure out what they do in the winter when there is snow.. You wouldn’t even be able to tell where the road was! Good thing we had plenty of gas and no emergencies because who knows how long we would have been stuck out there before a car passed! (oh and no cell phone service) I guess that is what OnStar is for! Thankfully we eventually came out on a civilized road again!

It was at this point that we realized that our GPS was still on central time, and we were really in mountain time, so we weren’t as behind as we thought we were! We instantly were able to take an hour off our trip! YIPPEE! We ended up in Lewistown, MT at 5:00 p.m. and had a nice dinner with Matt’s Grandma at a local hotel restaurant. The service was a bit to be desired, but the waitress was trying… she just kept making mistakes, but the food was good!

We left around 7:00 p.m. and ended up in Great Falls around 8:30 p.m. The kids were pretty much in the car all day, or required to sit at the restaurant, so they were a bit hyper when we got here, but they settled down fairly quickly and were asleep by 9:30 or so.

Tomorrow we plan to make it to Matt’s parents house in WA!

Oh my goodness… I am so tired!

It was a good day. Annika woke us up at 3:15, but went back to sleep, but then was awake by 6:15, but that is really 7:15 her time, so that’s not too bad. The boys slept until almost 8:00 - 9:00 their time!

We had breakfast at the hotel, and then hit the road. Dane was feeling slightly better, but still not himself.

1st stop - 10:15 a.m. Bear Country. We met my parents & brother there. You drive around in your car and look at animals - the bears being the main attraction - I always have loved that place! Then at the end you can get out and look at baby bears etc. Spent some time in the gift shop, and then headed to my parents moterhome for lunch.

2nd stop - 1:15 p.m. Reptile Garden. They have some exhibits, and then we watched the snake & alligator shows. We got poured on heading to the snake show, but thankfully the bleachers for the show were under cover. The funnest part was looking at & petting the GIANT tortoises. I was bummed we forgot the camera in the car! More time at the gift shop…

3rd stop - 4:00 p.m. Mt. Rushmore. Dane was worn out at this point, so Matt, Annika, Dane & I sat on a bench viewing the mountain while everyone else went on the little 1/2 mile hike. We finished the trip off with ice-cream cones.

4th stop - 6:30 p.m. Flags to Wheels - Go Karts, Laser Tag, & Video Games.

5th stop - 8:30 p.m. Cabella’s. Shopped until closing - at 9:00. Then headed back to my parent’s motorhome for dinner in the parking lot.

Got back to the hotel about 9:45 and jumped into bed. The poor kids totally need baths, but instead they just collapsed into bed. I’m pretty much ready to snooze as well. Tomorrow is a big driving day.

C-