Did you miss me?

I'm still getting the hang of this and realizing I should upload my photos from my iPhone for each day and then go back in and edit. Instead, you get this long, but sweet update of my photos and my trip.

My Dad is getting married (Mar 20th) to a wonderful woman we call Betts. My Mom died 5-1/2 years ago. Betts is wonderful and a perfect match for my Dad. So, with this marriage, there is a merging of 2 homes. My Dad is moving into her house and clearing out his. He has already moved once since my Mom died. Most of the old house was cleaned out, condensed and repackaged into his new, smaller house. Now, he is repacking, condensing and downsizing his holdings to move into Betts house. The reason I ramble is coming. My Mom painted these large paintings when she was younger that my Dad has hanging on his walls. One goes to my brother, Scott and the other goes in my house. They are large and I can never fit them in my car while I am visiting with the kids. So, I took the seats out of the minivan and drove to California to get them. I could of had him ship them, but then I wouldn't have been able to take my mini vacation and spend time with my family.

My short adventure began Friday morning. I left Seattle at 9am, I arrived in Redding at 6:30pm. Yes, it takes 9-1/2 hours (without kids) for me to drive 600 miles. I made a stop in Kalama for coffee, food, gas and bathroom. I didn't stop again until 1/2 way through Oregon (the longest state in the US when you are driving).

My biggest worry was driving over the highest pass with snow bearing down on the region. My goal is to get over the pass before dark when the road starts to freeze. I barely made it, but it was a great time to go over with some beautiful white mountain views.




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Of my favorite sights along I-5, these are my favorite. The Siskiyou pass means I've made it through the worst of the snow areas without needing to put on chains. The "Welcome to California" sign means I'm almost there and I've made it through the longest state. (I realize it's not the longest, but it's 308 miles long. At 60mph, it should only take 5 hours. I've never made it out in under 5-1/2 and usually it takes 7hrs. I swear there is a time warp somewhere in the state).

Finally, this picture....this picture...is home. I know I am home when I see Mt. Shasta. This beautiful mountain was my compass for 18 years. I knew which way was North when I spotted. I knew I was near my hometown and my safe place while in college. I know it's where I can relax and pretend life has stopped. I am home and I am on vacation!! My camera on my phone doesn't do it justice, but I smile everytime I see this mountain.

So, I made it to my Dad's house and it is empty. It's pretty strange, but he's only lived here 2 years, so I didn't attach my sentimentality to it. We went to dinner Friday night and everyone arrived at Betts house, at the same time. Betts worked a dinner for membership for Turtle Bay (great place to visit in Redding), my brother, Bryan and my sister-in-law, Robin arrived from Sacramento and my Dad and I pulled up to the house at the same time. 

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Saturday was moving day. I'm very proud to say, I didn't take everything I could from his house. Marc was a little worried. I placed 2 bookshelves in the van (can never have enough bookshelves), my Moms paintings and 2 boxes of books, photo albums, food blender and a few knick knacks. Some of the stuff is going to my brothers, Scott's, house. My van looked rather empty. But, it's enough. I realize a home is made of memories, a house is full of stuff. We loaded up our cars and went back to Betts house. 

This is where the vacation fun started. I unboxed the Wii Fit Plus and showed my Dad how to play. My Dad, my brother, Bryan and I took turns playing the different games. We had tears in our eyes creating each others characters for the Wii (only because we were exaggerating any body part we could). We had dinner and searched for cruises to go on this year. Of course, there are a million other little things that happen, but for your eyes, I am trying to limit the length.

Sunday morning Betts made breakfast (again). It was delicious and I was not looking forward to the drive home. I finally dragged myself to the car and headed for the freeway. I was hoping to avoid the freezing temperatures and snow on the way home. The benefit of driving North is that the worst of the mountains and weather is at the beginning of the trip, instead of the end. I made it over Shasta Lake and it started to snow. Not a lot of snow, but enough to make me nervous. I stuck it out and after the town of Weed, CA, the snow stopped. 

Before Weed, there was 2 feet of snow on the sides of the freeway, after Weed, there was nothing. No snow at all. It was REALLY windy though. Sitting in my car at the rest stop, I could feel the wind moving my car and bouncing it. Walking at the rest stop was just as strange. It was almost difficult to walk into the wind because it was blowing so hard.

I made it out of Weed and up the mountains to Siskiyou Summit. The snow was barely falling, but the clouds were thick. The trucks were stopping at the top, but I kept pushing on. Once over the summit, the clouds cleared, the road was freshly covered in gravel and I made it down the summit without speeding or slipping. 



The rest of my drive was fairly uneventful. I had to stop a few extra times. My back and legs were not happy to be driving again for so long. This was a good test as to whether or not a can push myself to drive the kids cross country in a week. I'm thinking we might need 2 weeks so that we can have a day of driving, followed by a day of play. To pass the time in the car alone, I listened to music and then movies. I brought some of my favorite movies to put in the DVD player. They were movies I've seen enough times that I can picture them so that I can listen to the dialogue and not watch the movie. Luckily, the DVD player is installed behind my head or I would have been tempted to look. Movies like "Mamma Mia and Under the Tuscun Sun" are fine to listen to. "Sliding Doors", not so much. There is too much going on that I wanted to peek and see where the movie was. I realized that movies have a lot of music over scenes that are great to watch, but very hard to visualize. It did make the time go much quicker though.

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My travel time ended up being 10-1/2 hours. I got home at 9:30pm. The kids were happy to see me and I was happy to see them. I missed my bed and family. I love taking a mini vacation though to remind me how wonderful ALL my family is.

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My photo was taken at Cama Beach. My husband has become a true PNW (pacific northwesterner) by wearing shorts and boots in January just because it's 50 degrees.

our cousins

These are our cousins. We drove 12 hours to see these cousins. Well, actually, I made it from Seattle to Redding in 11 hours. We woke up at 4 am to see our family. We started driving at 5 am. I had to turn around to get my phone. Luckily I was only 1 mile down the freeway. We had a beautiful sunrise to enjoy that lit up Mt. Rainer as we headed for the Oregon border. I really enjoyed driving during the day and not into the night. This might become my new routine. We made it to Redding around 4 pm and were able to visit with my brother, Bryan and his wife, Robin. They drove up for the day to see us. I love them!

So we went to dinner at my cousins house and saw my cousins from Georgia. We haven't seen them since November 2005! Their two kids are the same ages as my middle two. It was a blast. I'm still trying to remember how we squeezed so much into 3 days. Really, 2 days.

My oldest, Miss M, stayed home with Dad to stay in school. She had a few school events that week. Mr C was very happy to get out of school for a few days and visit his family. We drove all day Wednesday and then had dinner with my Dad and cousins. There was myself, my brother and 3 of my cousins there. And then our kids, 8 in total. I love that these second or third cousins (or is it 2nd cousins - once removed), can play together and know each other so well. Little C will be 3 this July and he woke up in the morning saying "all my cousins are coming over to play? They will all play in my room again?" It's wonderful to hear.

On Thursday, we met up for Starbucks for breakfast and took the kids to the park. Redding has a great wood structured park with a spray zone attached for those hot days (and there are hot days!) Luckily, this visit, there were none. We went to lunch and decided to drive up to Burney Falls. Beautiful drive and even more beautiful waterfalls. Unfortunately it was raining when we got there, but I live in Seattle and always have umbrellas in my car. We hiked down to the bottom and took some pictures before hiking back up. I so need to work out. The hike up was very lung breathing unfriendly! We drove the hour back to Redding to attend my cousins 8th grade graduation. I said we did a lot! We all headed home after that to get some sleep.

On Friday, it rained! We met up at Starbucks after my kids got haircuts. We went to the Mt. Shasta Mall to play in the soft playground in the mall. It was dry inside. We had Round Table for lunch. Apparently there are none on the East Coast. It was delicious. We can fill up a room when we all get together. There were 6 adults and 7 kids (plus 2 teenagers), I should remember to not get outnumbered by the little ones. We decided to take the kids to see "Up!" and had an hour to kill. We went to the Sundial Bridge and walked across. The kids enjoy hanging from the cables like little sloths. We went to the movies and enjoyed 2 hours of kid quiet time. Afterwards we agreed to meet up at my Aunts house and think about dinner and just talk. My Dad didn't hear this part and ended up at my cousins in Anderson. He said he had a nice visit there too. We ended up meeting him in town for dinner. By the time we were done visiting (we weren't really, but it was late), I had to haul off my tired kids for baths and bed. It was 11 pm and we had a 12 hour drive ahead of us on Saturday.

Saturday ended up being a late start. I was in no hurry to get back home. We took our time. We left Redding at 10am and made lots of stops along the way. Going to the bathroom, running around and stopping for food. I paid for it at the end of the night when 13 hours later, I finally pulled into our driveway...exhausted.

Will I do it again? Of course! I love my cousins and had the best time. I hope that after this tour in Iraq (for James, my cousin) that we can go visit them. They will be moving for 3 years and then finding a new home. We are going to persuade them to pick Washington so that they are closer to us. Hint...Hint!

first airplane ride

We survived a 3 hour flight to St. Louis, MO. The background story is my husband, Marc, didn't want to go. He says it's a hole and never wants to go back. I, of course, want to see everywhere and really want to go. 12 hours before our flight, my husband was still trying to cancel our hotel. Secretly and outwardly, I was happy that he was unsuccessful.

We went to the airport 3 hours early. We needed to check 4 bags, 2 car seats and walk with 4 kids (ages 7, 5, 3 and 2). We ended up using curbside check-in. Saved us a lot of time and hassle dragging our bags. It was worth every penny. We took a 11 am flight so we had enough time to grab some breakfast and let the kids run off some steam. We boarded last and had a great flight. We managed to snag a free upgrade at Thrifty to the new Town and Country mini-van. The seats turned so that the kids could face each other. It was great fun and entertainment for them. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza in downtown St. Louis. We had a HUGE room with 2 queen beds and a pull out couch. The best part was we had a view of the Mississippi River and St. Louis Arch from our room. We found a great breakfast place about 2 blocks away at Panera Bread. It was non-smoking (smoking is still allowed in Missouri restaurants) and had great bagels that we could take with us everyday.

The sites - there is a lot to see and we only had 3 days. Unfortunately the timing and weather didn't allow us to go see a Cardinals game, but we will be back for that. We spent the first day sight-seeing. It was the nicest day of the trip. We viewed the museum at the base of the Arch. It is small and easy for the kids to see everything. We bought a ticket to the top of the arch and had time to do a riverboat cruise first. It was a beautiful bright day to ride on a paddle boat. The Mississippi was smaller than I thought, but it has a fast current and the driver had fascinating stories and facts to share with us. The beginning of April is a great time to go to Missouri as everything was relatively uncrowded. We went back to the Arch and got in line for our ride to the top. This is NOT for the claustrophobic people. The elevator is tiny!! It has 5 seats (we held our youngest on our lap) and is small enough that I had to lean forward to not hit my head. It crawls up slowly to the top. The top is very small. I never realized that I was afraid of heights until we were up there. The kids loved climbing the walls and leaning out over the windows that look down at the water and ground. The views of downtown were impressive, but after 10 minutes, I was ready to go. My family got a thrill out of watching me stand in the middle with my arms crossed and panic trying not to set in.

We drove around town and into Indiana for the rest of the day. We stopped at the Cahokia Mounds in Indiana and walked around for awhile. It was closed and would be more interesting to see the museum. We made a pilgrimage to White Castle for burgers. The kids and Marc LOVE them, I think they were pretty gross and opted to eat a few fries instead.

The next day we went to City Museum. For anyone with kids, this is the place to go. It is 4 stories of exploring for kids. The museum uses recycled products to make everything. There is a giant whale for them to climb in to get to the 2nd floor. There are paths and tunnels and slides everywhere. The bad part is trying to keep track of where they are. It is not a place to carry a bag because you need to crawl and stoop through many narrow openings if you are trying to keep track of them. The top floor has an art studio and a train. There is even a circus performance twice a day. There was a great outdoors area for them to explore (if it had been open). Due to rain and chance of thunderstorms, the outside was closed. We spent many hours here though. Afterwards, we went for pizza and got my coveted St. Louis toasted raviolis. They were delicious. We went to the Union Station mall after that. It looked wonderful online and is very pretty to see a converted train station. But in the end, it was just a mall.

The last day was reserved for Forest Park. An amazing HUGE park that has museums and the zoo. We could have spent all 3 days here. We didn't make it to any of the museums, but we spent 5 hours at the zoo. The zoo is free after paying $10 to park. We bought wristbands for the children's zoo, caroseul and train ride. We used our local zoo pass to get 1/2 off. The zoo has the BEST penguin exhibit I have ever seen. Also the hippo exhibit. The hippos have a glass wall to watch them swim underwater. They were swimming along the glass wall and pushing off to turn around. This scared my 2 year old, but was awesome to watch for the rest of us.

We flew home on a Saturday on an 8am flight. We didn't have the luxury of curbside check-in because our car rental was off site. But the driver was really great to carry our luggage over for us. We managed to get everything inside in one trip and hold on to all the kids. We got checked in and had time to grab coffee and pastries from Starbucks at the airport. We managed to sit behind the same man going both to and from St. Louis. The kids must have been really good because our flight wasn't full and he didn't ask to move. We had coloring books and puzzles for the younger two and our PSP and Nintendo DS for the older two. The movie was the same both ways and wasn't geared towards children. The way home felt a lot longer, but they did good. I am looking forward to more flights and vacations with them.

The only thing I would change would be getting suites when we travel. It would be nice to put them to bed and go into another room to read or watch TV without disturbing them. They all had a hard time falling asleep with the TV or lights on. And Marc and I weren't ready to turn in at 8pm each night.