On The Road

Every Summer we try to take a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Washington. Because of Valerie's arrival in the middle of the summer last year my whole family came to visit us instead. So this year we planned ahead and decided it would be fun to come at the same time as my brother Jon and his family so we could all be there together. Then the blessings started pouring in and Ryan was working again, and had no vacation time. I still planned to caravan up with my brother, but the thought of driving for 12-14 hours in a car alone with my kids was not leaving me very comforted. I know Jon and Jenny would have helped where they could, but I also knew that I would probably be stopping a lot because of the baby, and while I am grateful for my old cars I am not sure either one of them would have done that great on the long drive.

My parents came to visit last week for my cousins wedding. They drove down in their big Sequoia. After a couple of days we decided it might be better if the kids and I just got in their car and drove back with them. My kids were out of school and we really didn't have much going on for the next couple of weeks. The only trick was going to be getting us home, but my dad was willing to drive us back too. So Sunday the kids and I left to go spend two weeks at Grandma's.

It was amazing how good my kids were on the drive. We left our house at 5:ooam and arrived in Vancouver at 5:30pm.
Valerie was even pretty happy............. for most of the drive.
I think having me sitting right next to her the whole way really helped.


Because it has been so rainy the whole drive was beautiful. Usually it is all pretty brown until you get to the gorge, but not this time.

Josh was two the last time we made the drive to my parents, so this was like the first time for him. Once we hit the gorge, he was in heaven. Bridges, tunnels, trains, dams and waterfalls everywhere he looked. Sometimes there were two trains at the same time. At the end of the long drive we got to drive over a bridge to get to Grandma's. That was the best for Josh.











When we arrived, Ellen had dinner ready and the kids were so happy to be out of the car, that they ate and played until bed time. The drive could not have gone better, and we are so excited to have two whole weeks to visit with my family.