Should I stay or should I go now?

It's day 1 of our vacation. We are driving from Seattle, WA to Redding, CA (615 miles).

Here's the lead up.
Tuesday night - 6 haircuts.
Wednesday morning - chiropractor appt for me. Shopping for the road with my 4 kids and 1 of their friends (it was super quick). Some play time for the kids while I finish laundry and wonder how we will finish a gallon of milk and loaf of bread by morning. I pack one suitcase for 4 kids. 1 suitcase for me (with room for nubby to pack himself. I have 4 kids, that's enough to account for). I managed to squeeze in a trip to the nail salon for a manicure/pedicure. It's been 2 years and it was wonderful. Miss R came in with me and got her nails polished pink (so cute). We go home and finish running through the list of what to pack for 6 for 10 days.

Wednesday night - hubby gets home. I give him the rundown. I realize the hamster drank almost all his (her) water in 3 days. Crap. We have a pet and we are leaving town. I call a neighbor kid and offer $5 to come feed and water Zippy 3 times, but don't hold him - he bites. Now that we are under control, it's time for me to go to bookclub. (never a dull moment cor me). I pick up my friend and head to our friends house. Lots of great food and wine later (have you ever had Pimm's liquor and 7up? Yummy). We discuss "Edgar Sawtelle" (terribly long and leaves so may, whats! I drop off my friend and get home at 11pm (we plan on leaving at 5am).

Later Wednesday night - I got home and see my neighbors garage doors open. Their bedroom light is on and I go ring the doorbell. A bunch of cars were broken into on Monday (including mine - nothing was missing from the Mom minivan with a million "Dora or Max and Ruby DVDs). So, we chat for a few minutes about the other neighbor who had his house broken into at 3pm through the front window and I wonder if I'll ever sleep tonight. I go back home and 2 minutes later, the police car I saw down the road is driving down our street with his flashlight on looking in the yards of our street. He then parks at the entrance to our street with his flashers on. What the he'll? First we have car break INS (granted I left my car unlocked) then I find out the neighbor was broken into and we are leaving for a 10 day vacation...in 5 hours. I have to be up at 4:30am. Marc and I chat until 1am and I finally calm down enough to fall asleep. If someone does break in while we are gone, they will find nothing great to take. We brought our laptops and there's not much else. Hopefully the neighbors will keep an eye out.

Thursday morning - should I stay or should I go now? It's 4:30am. We slept for 3ish hours and we have a 12 hour drive ahead of us. I hate waking up early, but I love getting to Redding early enough for the kids to run off all their pent up energy. We opt to leave. Showers, bags in car, kids in car, all windows shut tight, and we bit the local Starbuck for a triple shot mocha finally get on the freeway at 5:40am.

Woo Hoo for vacation Woo Hoo for road trips I love that the kids can handle a 600 mile drive with minimal fighting 2 hours down and

from the mouths of babes...

My kids are on summer vacation. I would say we are not busy, so they are bored...but we are busy and maybe that's why we have all the fighting. We've been camping over 2 weekends, three of the kids had daily swim lessons for 2 weeks and now the older two (ages 10, 8) have 4 days of tennis lessons from 9-12. I've been able to entertain the little two (ages 4, 5) because there is a jogging track across the road with a fitness playground and an elementary school across the baseball field. We have been out and playing hard.

I guess I pressed my luck by making a stop at Home Depot (after McDonalds as their bribe lunch). They acted like they were still in the park. We had a long discussions about "park" behavior and "store" behavior. None of this lecture sunk in because they acted the same way at the grocery store. We had another threat discussion that if they made a whiny, yelling peep while at the chiropractor - they all 4 would be grounded. I don't care who started it. I don't care why you are yelling or hitting, just no peeps!!


They made it through. Alive. And quiet. We made it home. Alive. And quiet. I've managed to not open that bottle of wine and am able to relax before I go back outside to start painting the front steps railings (I've spent two afternoons scrubbing the wood). The younger two have managed to listen to my "no video games or TV today" rule and are playing nicely in the backyard. Older two are playing a card game and keeping the peace (for the most part). When suddenly, Mr C needed to use the restroom. Here's the exchange of words:


Mr C: You steal any of my cards and I will destroy you!!
Miss M: Wow. That sounds ominous.

I guess the "park" behavior is simmering under their skin and I need to sneak out front to sit in my favorite chair and finish my book club book before they erupt again.

And the winner is...

I know I've been AWOL. It's summer break and the sun actually came out to play. I guess 4th of July really is the beginning of summer here. After years of living with LOTS of sun, it's hard for me to adjust that the sun doesn't come out in May or even June. We actually wore our winter jackets to the fireworks display, but it was warmer than in years past and we only needed our hooded sweatshirts.

So, we went camping last weekend (wish I could find my card reader to download my photos) and we are going camping again this weekend. Talk about opposite ends of weather. Last weekend was freezing!! I shook most of the night wishing we had brought extra blankets. This weekend it's going to be 95-99F and I'm sure I will only want a thin sheet (I'll bring a blanket just in case). We are camping near a lake, so we'll see if I dive in to regulate my body temperature. I'm not going to complain though because the sun is out and I very dearly miss the sun for the other 10 months of the year.


Now back to the blog title....


I was hosting a $40 CSN gift certificate giveaway. I linked to a fellow blogger who was doing a $50 gift certificate to help increase the chances that you could win one. That $50 was awarded by "life as I see it" on Friday, July 2nd. Now it's my turn!


I'm not quite savvy enough to show you the random.org results, but I had 5 comments, so I plugged in 1 to 5 and was awarded the magic number 3.

Magic number 3 is Carmen!!

Carmen, if you are out there, I've sent you an email via your blog link. I'm forwarding your information to Jessica at CSN stores. Congratulations!!

 

CSN giveaway

Well, well. I wasn't sure about doing a giveaway, but thought I would give it a try. So far, nothing. So a simple comment, a little ditty about your plans this summer (or next summer) posted in the comments would be great. It's pretty easy and a $40 gift certificate from CSN stores will be yours.

I'm ending my giveaway on Wednesday, July 8. See my post about the giveaway here.

And if this doesn't entice you enough, go here to read more on "The Lunatic Cafe"s blog or like "Life as I see it" to enter to win a $50 gift certificate to CSN stores.

So, add some comments and maybe win a total of $90 in gift certificates. Go on, add a comment.

Thank You!!

Lake Chelan, WA

Marc, the kids and I drove over to Lake Chelan, WA on April 9th (a Saturday). I have been there once, when we first moved here, and Marc had never been. It was a sunny day, so we hopped in the car and made the drive. We drove out I-90, turning off at Cle Elum and driving through Wenatchee (I thought it was faster). It was 214 miles and about 4 hours. By the time we got to Wenatchee, it was time for lunch. We stopped at an Applebee's and ordered food. Another quick stop for some Starbucks (I'm an addict) and we were on our way.

Because it's not summer, Lake Chelan was very quiet. It was a little colder than I would have hoped for, but it was beautiful. There was snow on the mountains and a great view of the Lake from this park in front of the Best Western. I would love to come back out and stay the night here, some day. The kids were thrilled to play at the park and even more excited to put their feet in the oh-so-cold water. 

We finished up at the park and drove through the town of Chelan and to the end of the road in Manson. We had some pizza for dinner. We drove back into Chelan and got some soft serve ice cream. These things were huge. And Miss R learned all about centrifugal force (she spun around and her ice cream went splat!). Luckily, mom is nice and after a few licks, I gave her mine. We left town driving down the other side of Lake Entiat (Hwy 97) into Wenatchee and then followed Hwy 2 home via Leavenworth (which was 184 miles). We got home around 10 pm, exhausted but happy. It was a fun day with the family.

 

Me and Miss R playing on the swings (I spared you the photo of me swinging)

Marc teaching Miss R how to skip rocks in the water

Mr N thinks tossing the rock is the same as skipping it

Miss M was being my little mermaid of the sea (and tempting the little ones to climb the rocks out to the end)

Miss M and Marc had to put their feet in the snow melt water

So, every one else did it too (except me, are you crazy. It's snow melt water). - Mr. C

Miss R, who claimed it wasn't so bad

Mr. N trying to get back to the rocks quickly

 

The view from the park at the beginning of the dock. I can't wait to see the difference this summer.

Guest Bath makeover

I started painting our guest (kids) bathroom about a month ago. I was nervous about this makeover. But, I knew the color would be fine over a larger scale (at least I hoped). I'm pretty happy with the results and wanted to share them with you. It's not completely done, but done enough to let friends and family use the bathroom again. (This is the main bathroom at the end of the hall that most guests use. It's also the bathroom the two youngest kids share).

View into the bathroom from the hallway

View of the bathroom from the bathtub (behind the curtain)

 

Our next step is to replace the vanity and sink. Probably the light bar too (at least fix the burned out bulb).

A place to hang the towels (whenever they decide to stop using my bath and actually use this bathroom again).

Maybe next year, we can replace the vanity with this:


 
and the floor with this:
 
obviously, we would need much less tile in the bathroom.

to giveaway or not to giveaway

I have been approached to offer my first ever give-a-way (said in a big announcer voice). I'm a little excited and nervous to do this. So, like life, I am plunging in and just doing it. Ready?

CSN has offered to sponsor a giveaway for my blog!! Not familiar with CSN? Well, they are a huge online group of over 200+ specialized stores that sells a variety of home goods. There is a current article in this months Better Homes and Garden talking about a fabulous home makeover where the wife of the owner of CSN stores was challenged to decorate her home from his websites. She did a great job. 

Maybe you are in need of a sleeper sofa or other large piece of furniture - well CSN has it! Personally, I love the products that are offered and I love Palliser Dane Leather Sleeper. They also have stores for cookware, fitness equipment, baby and pet products, office supplies and more. Basically, anything and everything! And, for one lucky reader of "My travels with 4 kids" a $40 gift certificate to any CSN store could be yours!! Just check out some of these items you could pick for under $40:

  Some prints from The Wall Art Store:
          

or bowls from Accent Furniture Direct:
      

or cute carry on bags for all that travel we do from luggage.com:
     


What ever you want/need, CSN stores are going to have it.

So, how can you win this fabulous $40 gift certificate?

Rules (there are always rules, but I'll keep them simple):
This giveaway is for U.S. and Canadian residents only (though I don't know why). Please be aware that there may be shipping charges (though most everything has free shipping) or in the case of Canadian residents, international fees, for certain products.  This gift certificate is only for $40. You are free to spend more, but that will be on your dime (not mine).

How to enter this great giveaway:
1. Mandatory entry: You must be a follower and/or subscriber of my blog to enter this giveaway. See all those cool people on the upper right hand side under the title "followers"? You want to be one of them. So click the little follow button, leave a comment telling me that you follow my blog, and you're automatically entered!  

2. Want to increase your chances of winning? Here are two more ways to get an entry:

- Blog about this giveaway. Leave a comment indicating that you've done so and post the link in a comment for me to see!

 

 - Tell me which sleeper sofa you would love in your own home.

That's it!! So simple. Follow me and blog about this giveaway with a link back or tell me which one you love. That's three (3) possible entries to win this gift certificate.  I will use random.org to generate the winning comment number. Good luck and I hope you enjoy this giveaway!

Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry. You have until Wednesday, July 7, by midnight Pacific Standard Time to enter. I will announce the winner of Thursday, July 8th.


Be sure to tell a friend!