driving with kids

out and about again

2008-05-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

we're out again! We are currently at Cove Pallisades at Lake Billy Chinook with family and some family friends. The boys love playing with cousins, digging in the dirt,the bugs, and of course, grandpa's boat! It has rained a bit today & Grandpa played a game with the kids inside. They are having a blast! They are hopeful the rain will go away so they can go on the boat again. It is nice camping with others and splitting up the responsibility of the meals rather than doing it all myself like on the road trip. It is nice to just stop and enjoy the campground rather than move on after one or two nights. We didn't bring the bikes because we used them one time in a month, but we totally would have used them here. Bummer! I will post pictures later. :)

Our Driving Stats

2008-05-20T23:13:00.000-07:00

3,542 miles covered

9.6 miles per gallon, average

369 gallons of gas

our engine was running 101 hours (we THINK...It re-sets after 100 hours, and we don't know if it re-set during our trip or how many times...)

~~Tonight, I said I wish we had 10 washing machines, laundry goes so much faster that way. Karry said "we can go stay at a KOA tonight if you'd like." :)~~

2008-05-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

So here's a glimpse of what we listened to on our i-pod. Not everything, as I didn't start jotting songs down until later in the trip. Bolded songs are favorites. Reds are mine, Blues are Karry's, Purples are both of ours, and a ** after a song means it is a favorite of the kids. We also listened to some sermons, and sometimes just talked--that's fun too, you know. :) Our top 2 favorite songs from this trip will have ~~ on the ends. We had our ipod on shuffle mode, so the list is kind of random, but anyways, ENOY!!

Travelin' Thru, Jason Castro
Happy to be Stuck with You, Huey Lewis
Say You Miss Me, Wilco
~~Shout to the Lord (Idol Gives Back)**~~
Wildflowers, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Square One, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Atmosphere Remix, Toby Mac
Gotta Go, Toby Mac
Phenomenon, Toby Mac
Ill M I, Toby Mac
Fresher than a Night at the W, Toby Mac
Burn for you, Toby Mac
Get Away Car, Toby Mac
Stories, Toby Mac
Diverse City, Toby Mac
Trudog, the Return, Toby Mac
Gone, Toby Mac
Atmosphere, Toby Mac
Boomin', Toby Mac
Made to Love, Toby Mac
Holy, Holy, Tim Hughes
Real Gone, Sheryl Crow**
Spending My Time, Roxette
Ooh Boy, Real McCoy
Life is a Highway, Rascal Flatts**
Lovely Day, Out of Eden
Cantina Band, John Williams
These Words are My Words (I Love You, I Love You, I Love You), Natasha Bedingfield
Main Title/Rebel Blockade Runner, John Williams
Route 66, John Mayer
You are holy, Joel Engle
Our Town, James Taylor
Better Together, Jack Johnson
Don't Cry, Guns & Roses
Best Days, Graham Colton
Wild, Wild West, The Escape Club
Everything Glorious, David Crowder Band
No One Like You, David Crowder Band
Oh Praise Him (All This For a King), David Crowder Band
Here is Our King, David Crowder Band
No Need to Argue, the Cranberries
Dafodil Lament, the Cranberries
Mr. Jones, Counting Crows
Right Here Waiting, Clay Aiken
Route 66, Chuck Berry
Be Glorified, Chris Tomlin
Your Grace is Enough, Chris Tomlin
How Great is Our God, Chris Tomlin
Holy is the Lord, Chris Tomlin
Sh-Boom, The Chords
Wasted, Carrie Underwood
The Last Time, Bread
It Don't Matter to Me, Bread
I Can't Make You Love Me, Bonnie Raitt
Love Shack, the B52's
Lonely People, America
Cryin', Aerosmith
Livin' On the Edge, Aerosmith
All that Matters, Addison Road
Hummingbird, Wilco
Poetically Correct, Toby Mac
Slam, Toby Mac
Catcha Fire (Whoopsie Daisy), Toby Mac
Hey Now, Toby Mac
Down So Long, Jewel
Hands, Jewel
A Thousand Days, Clay Aiken
Before He Cheats, Carrie Underwood
Jesus Take the Wheel, Carrie Underwood
Holding Out for a Hero, Bonnie Tyler
Total Eclipse of the Heart, Bonnie Tyler
Getcha Head in the Game-High School Musical**
Don't Dream, It's Over, Sixprence None the Richer
Bop to the Top, High School Musical**
What I've Been Looking For, High School Musical**
Stick to the Status Quo, High School Musical**
~~Hallelujah, Jason Castro~~
Lips of an Angel, Hinder
Midnight Train to Georgia, Gladys Knight
I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You, High School Musical**
Breaking Free, High School Musical**
Start of Something New, High School Musical**
When There Was Me and You, High School Musical**
Hemorrhage, Fuel
How to Save a Life, the Fray
Lost in Your Eyes, Debbie Gibson
We Can Work it Out, David Archuleta
Wild World, Cat Stevens
We're All in This Together, High School Musical**
Blackbird, Carly Smithson
California, Belinda Carlisle
In Too Deep, Belinda Carlisle
Love Never Dies, Belinda Carlisle
Nobody Owns Me, Belinda Carlisle
Fool For Love, Belinda Carlisle
Circle in the Sand, Belinda Carlisle
Lullabye for a Stormy Night, Vienna Teng
You Never Let Go, Matt Redman
Where the Streets Have No Name, U2
Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen
Song 2, Blur
She's a Woman, Chikezie
Blessed Be Your Name, Tree 63
Upside Down, Jack Johnson**
People Watching, Jack Johnson
Talk of the Town, Jack Johnson
Jungle Gym, Jack Johnson
3 R's, Jack Johnson**
I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight, Cutting Crew
Let it Be, Brooke White
Your Song, Elton John
Daniel, Elton John
Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road, Elton John
Candle in the Wind, Elton John
It'll All Work Out, Tom Petty
How Can I Keep From Singing, Chris Tomlin
Daydream, Jason Castro
Yesterday, Syesha Mercado
God Be Merciful to Me, Jars of Clay
Rock On, Larry Boy, Veggie Tales**
Hair, The Cowsiels
It Ends Tonight, The All American
I'll Be There For You, The Rembrandts
Groovy Kind of Love, Phil Collins
I Only Wanna Be With You, Hootie & the Blowfish
Let Her Cry, Hootie & the Blowfish
I Go Blind, Hootie & the Blowfish
Let God Arise, Chris Tomlin
Everlasting God, Chris Tomlin
Sonny Came Home, Shawn Colvin
It's Still Rock & Roll to Me, Billy Joel
California Dreamin', the Mamas & the Papas
Tiny Dancer, Elton John
If I Fell, Jason Castro
Every Breath You Take, Brooke White
Hello, David Cook
Somebody to Love, Jefferson Airplane
Cruisn', Huey Lewis & the News
Day Tripper, David Cook
It Must Have Been Love, Roxette
When the Saints, Sarah Groves
Beautiful One, Jeremy Camp
Good Day, Jewel
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, U2
With Or Without You, U2
Nights Are Forever Without You, England Dan & John
Put Your Records On, Corinne Bailey Rae
Lonely No More, Clay Aiken
Without You, Clay Aiken
All 4 Love, Color Me Badd
Run-Around, Blues Traveler
Regarding Steven, Blues Traveler
Crazy Love, Van Morrison
Time of the Season, The Zombies
Killer Queen, Queen
Don't Stop Me Now, Queen
Blackbird, Sarah McLachlan
As Long As I Can Dream, Expose
Foolish Games, Jewel
I'm Sensetive, Jewel
You Were Meant For Me, Jewel
Come Sail Away, Styx
Elanor Rigby, David Cook
For Your Name, Chris Tomlin
Holiday, Madonna
It's All Been Done, Barenaked Ladies
Born to Be My Baby, Bon Jovi**
Wild is the Wind, Bon Jovi
I'll Be There For You, Bon Jovi
Irreplacable, Beyonce
New Soul, Yael Naim
Far, Far, Yael Naim
Soak Up the Sun, Sheryl Crow
Sunday Morning, No Doubt
Don't Speak, No Doubt
A Horse With No Name, America
Black Velvet, Alannah Myles
Breakaway, Kelly Clarkston
Behind These Hazel Eyes, Kelly Clarkston
Because of You, Kelly Clarkston
Addicted, Kelly Clarkston
Making Love Out of Nothing at All, Air Supply
Long Ride Home, Patty Griffin
Imagine, David Archuleta
Rio, Duran Duran
Too Little Too Late, Jo Jo
The Wonderful Cross, Craig & Dean Phillips
I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing, Aerosmith
Glory in the Highest, Chris Tomlin
Awesome is the Lord Most High, Chris Tomlin
Glorious, Chris Tomlin
Uncreated One, Chris Tomlin
Rejoice, Chris Tomlin
Amazing Grace, Chris Tomlin
Everything, Chris Tomlin
Enough, Chris Tomlin
Not to Us, Chris Tomlin
Famous One, Chris Tomlin
Come Let Us Worship, Chris Tomlin
The River, Chris Tomlin
Unchanging, Chris Tomlin
Walkin' After Midnight, Kellie Pickler
Fading Like a Flower, Roxette
Billie Jean, David Cook
Dream On, Aerosmith
Golden Gate Bridge, Rose Melberg
Loose Talk, Rose Melberg
I Will, Rose Melberg
California, Melissa Ethridge
Could've Been, Tiffany
Happy Together, Brooke White
As I Lay Me Down, Sophie B. Hawkins
(I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight, Cutting Crew
More Than a Feeling, Boston
Forgive Me, Group 1 Crew
Everybody's Got a Song to Sing, Group 1 Crew
Galatea, Joanna McMeikan
You're Beautiful, James Blunt
Little Sparrow, David Cook
Knockin' On Heaven's Door, Guns n' Roses
Angel of the Morning, the Pretenders
Walk Like an Egyptian, the Bangels**
Hazy Shade of Winter, the Bangels
Eternal Flame, the Bangels
The Look, Roxette**

Day 33, Tuesday, May 20, 2008--Home!!

2008-05-20T15:54:00.000-07:00

We're HOME! We've got the laundry going, and we've emptied out the fridge & freezer of the trailer, and stripped the linens, and we've got cupboards to empty and things to organize. We've been going through mail, and checking messages, and the kids are playing with the things they have missed (Isaac-Legos, Kaleb-his Webkinz, Noah-Playmobil horses & trailer). Ruby loves crawling here but is freaking out if she's separate from us. We've been so close to her at all times, she could hear us even when we layed her down for a nap in the trailer. Her crib is a little scary to her now, I think.

Our house feels HUGE. Did it GROW? I can't believe how much space there is here! I'm used to trailer life! Isaac and Noah are playing up in the bonus room, it's strange to have them so far away.

Our cat was a little scared by us at first, and had to sniff us before she'd come out from under the boys' bed. Yes, it's really us, we're here! She's quite content sitting next to me now.

I've been compiling a fun list of songs we listened to on the trip, I'm going to post that later. But for now, I just have to tell you, before we watch anything that's on our DVR, who we think and hope will win American Idol. We've missed it for 1 month...We have to catch up and find out if our favorites are gone!!

Here's who we hope will win:
Karry--David Cook or Carly Smithson
Brenda--Jason Castro or Brooke White

Here's who we think will win:
Karry--David Cook or David Archuleta
Brenda--Jason Castro or David Archuleta

Off to explore this mansion (shouldn't I be paying a ticket price for the entry or something? :), and to get some things done!!

Day 32, Monday, May 19, 2008

2008-05-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

We made bacon and waffles in the morning. Mmm! We also had fresh cherries we'd picked up on the road yesterday, in Oregon--fresh picked, that day, from CALIFORNIA! Doh! We just came from there! ;)
We tried to go pay for the extra night (which I'd talked to someone at the park about on the phone, and they said we'd just take care of that when we got here, but the office was closed when we came in that night), and they had booked our site for the night....There was one other hook up site left, and Karry came to talk to me about it, ran back down to the office, and somebody else booked it during that time......We wanted to stay 1 more night, but had to leave!! Ugh....I was frustrated by the park's dishonesty to me over the phone. It's a very nice park, we'd love to stay here again sometime. Oregon parks seem less flexible than California parks...and busier, which seems so strange to me, it's COLD here!
I brought the boys down to the beach while Karry buckled Ruby into her carseat (she was tired) and hooked up the trailer.
We drove to a new campsite, 30 min south of where we were, dropped off the trailer, and then headed back to Newport.
We ate lunch in a very empty Abby's Pizza and witnessed a road being blocked off (right out in front of the restaurant) because of a bomb threat. Scary!!
We went ot the wax museum, and Ripley's Believe it or Not, and the Underwater Sea Garden. We stopped in the Rogue to see if they had any of their bottled rootbeer. We like different types of bottled rootbeer and wanted to try it when we were in Newport 2 years ago, but they were out. Well, they were out of it this time too!!!
I went into an antique mall, which was very fun. Karry watched Ratitoulie special features with the boys.
We ate dinner at the original Mo's in Newport, and had such yummy dessert. They make a brownie bottom (no nuts!) cheesecake which was sooooo good. We had multiple people make mention of our nice family, 4 kids, 3 boys, and sweet girl tonight. :) Old ladies are particularly fond of Ruby. :)

She was blowing snot bubbles this morning, and she had goobers from raspberry bars (like fig newtons) all over her disposable bib...All of her real bibs are in our dirty laundry baskets...This is what we've got til we get home (unless we buy 1 more cheesy bib from a souvineer shop, which we don't want to do!)!!

The boys playing down at the beach, throwing rocks into a little stream.

Kaleb's 2nd attempt at photography. :) His first attempt cut off my head.

Us at Abby's Pizza.

Karry eating his favorite food. I think it was chicken and vegetables. mmmm good! ;)

This was very interesting to see: it looked like little pink shrimps falling off of this not-so-sterile-looking metal thing into a big dump truck. There were birds landing on it all, and eating it. We were really grossed out by this...Is this REALLY how they ship little shrimps? We went in the shop right by there and asked what was in the truck. It was actually just shrimp shells, which, we learned, are used for fertilizer!

The boys with the diver from the Underwater Sea Garden show. They asked him all kinds of fun questions. Isaac's so funny, look at his arm around the guy. Silly kid...

One of the sea lions we saw righ tover the edge o a bridge.

Us at Mo's. Noah (and the other boys) weren't really paying attention to the fact that we were getting our picture taken.

The waitress gave them little shark toys:

Day 31, Sunday, May 18

2008-05-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

In the morning we went hiking in the Redwood Forest. I'll tell you that story along with the photos below. :)
We drove to Beverly Beach to go camping. When I mapped it at home, I had calculated 2.5 hrs between the two locations. I think the program I use at home is desperately flawed because the timing calculations have been off by a minimum of 1 hour, and this time they were off by about 3 hours. Yes....It took about 5.5, maybe 6 hours to get to Beverly Beach from Crescent City. CRAZY!!
We had a campfire with the kids once we got to Beverly Beach. Campfires are so fun!!

Our car looked teeny in the Redwoods. We got permission from our campground to check out late (1 pm instead of 11 am) so that we could take a scenic route on a road where trailers were not advised.
We decided to go hiking. We knew we were looking for a particular trail, and we saw a sign for it, so we pulled off to the side of the road (one of the few areas to pull off on this crazy, gravel road!!). We had no clue that a little bit further down the road, there was a parking lot for the trail we were looking for!!! :)

We walked half a mile down a beautiful trail, and then came to a problem: the bridge was out, and there was (though it's hard to see here) a creek down below.

Our options were A. Turn around, B. Walk across this huge, steep fallen down tree (like a giant balance beam, with a rock-bottomed creek 10 feet below. :) It was scarier than it looks here!!

Option C: Walk across the creek on the rocks.

We chose option C! Karry helped all of the kids across....Ok, and me!! :) The rocks were quite slippery, and it was just nice to have a hand to hold!!

We got to the other side of the trail, not really knowing where it would go. We walked a ways more, and then found a loop that we walked around, which was about a mile, we're guessing. It was amazing...BEAUTIFUL....There is NOTHING like the amazingness of standing below those huge trees. I recommend everybody go to the Redwood Forest and go hiking!!

We ran into another couple along the loop and they shot our photo! Do you see how HUGE this tree is? Wow!!! When we were on this loop, we saw a sign that said that the trail we had just taken was closed, due to the bridge being out, and people were advised to stay off of the trail. Oops! We're actually really glad we didn't see a sign like that on the other side, the trail was SO fun, and going across the creek was an adventure!!

We had to go over some fallen trees, and under some. :)

After the loop, we had to go back down the way we came in, to get to our car. The loop connected to a parking lot. If we'd exited there, we would have had to walk down a very narrow, windy, dusty gravel road for a while (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 mile?) to get to our car. The trail (and even "fording" the creek again) seemed safer than the road!! I thought I'd roll up my pants, take my shoes off and walk across barefooted (wade) this time. It felt like my feet were sitting inside a bowl of ice cubes!!! YIKES! That didn't work!!

The boys and I coming up the trail from the water. It was a little steep here. There were steps to get down to that bridge that was missing, but this was an alternate path. :) Karry said this was the path for wheelchairs (instead of using the steps). Funny guy. :)

It was a Sunday and once again we were missing church, but we were all in awe of God in these woods. The kids were asking how God made the trees, and the ground we were walking on. We talked about Isaac making his pictures, and asked what he has to start with, and he said "paper, and crayons," and Kaleb said for a painting you need paint and paper, and Noah said to make a Lego car, he needs wheels and Legos. We explained to the kids that God started with NOTHING to make all of this wonderful stuff, and isn't that amazing!?!? We can never make what God made, and He did it with nothing.

That's all for the Redwood Forest. It was so incredibly fun going hiking there! Driving away from it was crazy--to see how huge the forest is, and how big it all looks, and to know that we were walking through a tiny little chunk of it and there is so much more to explore! I wanted to go back and spend a month just THERE exploring those woods!! This picture was of one of our views as we drove. I think this was in Oregon.

Sitting around the campfire. We were in Oregon, so it was cold. :) The campfire didn't last long, everyone wanted to go in and get warm!!

Home is in sight...

2008-05-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

I think we are 100 something miles away from Grants Pass. Our plan is to drive 2.5 hrs today to get to Beverly Beach (in Oregon), after a visit to the Redwoods, of course, and then stay at Beverly Beach either 1 or 2 nights, and then drive 2 or so hours back home. I am torn on whether to stay 1 or 2 nights. This has been a fantastic road trip and we've enjoyed it very much--in that sense, I don't want it to end. On the other hand, I am missing home life...The things I miss the most:

Warm Showers...well, showers with warm temps that last more than 5 min. Today the pilot light was out and my shower was very, very cold.
Our Cat...I worry that she must be lonely! Our friends are checking on her, but the poor little thing must miss us so much.
A couch to relax on...we have a couch here, but it's Isaac and Kaleb's bed. When they're down for bed, all we have is our bed. I just want to hang out on the couch for a bit.
Not wearing "camping clothes." Even going into the city, I've constantly felt like I looked like a camper. I just want to dress up pretty 1 day, and then the feeling will be over. :)
Our own laundry room...We've seen some pretty decent public laundry rooms, but it stinks to have to fork out $10 in quarters every time we do laundry. Most of the laundry facilities close at 8 pm, so no throwing a load in just before bed. We got a new washing machine a few (or several?) months before we left on this trip...I miss it. :)
Our backyard...Just letting the boys run out and play in our safe, fenced backyard while I cook dinner or clean up the family room or whatever. Playing at playgrounds on the road always takes at least one parent standing out at the playground, in the hot sun...
Closet Space...I'm kind of tired of all of my clothes being wrinkled!!
Cooking....I've cooked very few meals on this trip, and I really like to cook. I've been reading Rachel Ray and Bon Appetite magazines and I want to cook!!!
Familiar Faces...We have seen so many zillions of strangers on this trip. Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came.... :)

Karry misses work, but then he added "a little bit." :) And TV. And shaving in the shower.

The boys miss toys and stuffed animals. Ruby misses space to crawl.

Day 30, Saturday, May 17, 2008

2008-05-17T23:43:00.000-07:00

We left Jellystone at Cobb Mountain and started driving towards Crescent City. I think we left around 11:30 am, and our GPS said it would take 5 hours and 45 minutes, or something like that.
Not long after we were on the road, cars were stopped and we couldn't really move (it's not easy to turn around a trailer!!). I grabbed food out of the trailer for us to eat for lunch. We got my computer to try to map out another route. We were just stopped there...We saw several emergency vehicles drive past us and even heard a helicopter.
After quite a while (I think an hour or so), cars started moving, yahoo! But they told us to go to the side...There was a power line that was low, and we wouldn't clear it...We had to wait with the buses...We finally got to go, I don't know exactly how long it took, maybe 30 or 45 minutes more.
We stopped 2 times for potty breaks, and to get gas, and to get cell signal to call our campground (we hardly had cell signal all day!!).
We drove through the Redwood Forest and it was beautiful. At one point we saw a semi truck and it looked so tiny compared to those trees!!!
In the evening, we stopped in Eureka for dinner at the Samoa Cookhouse. I'd read about it in one of the California books. There used to be cookhouses in all of the logging towns. This is the last one left in the west! It's all you can eat, but they serve what's on the menu that night and you don't have a choice. Kids 4 & under are free, the other two kids were like $5. You get iced tea, tea, or coffee free with your meal (or you can order other drinks). Tonight's meal was a vegetable soup, salad, homemade bread (and croutons), roast beef, fried chicken, baked potatoes, corn, and apple pie with whipped cream. It was all very good!! The setting was fun, and we all enjoyed it (although the boys were getting a bit sleepy!!).
We got to drive through some redwoods in the dark. Thankfully the signs along this part of 101 have been so clear--amazingly clear--big flashy electronic (solar powered) lights saying "sharp grade ahead, use caution," or "35 mph turn--your speed, 38" or whatever!! We saw 2 elk!! Around dusk is when we see so many animals! I forgot to say that near the Yogi Bear camp, after going grocery shopping, we saw SO many deer!! Like maybe 15 or 20 on our 3 mile trip to the campground!!
Karry and I started brainstorming on a book we're going to write together. :) More details coming whenever it's published. :)
We pulled into our campground at 9:30 pm. It was a verrrrry long day!!!!!

The accident that held up traffic so long. I wonder if the person even made it. There was smoke when we first pulled up to the scene, and no emergency vehicles were even there yet. I wonder if the person (or people) even got out before it caught on fire? Were they killed when the car flipped? Was the helicopter life flight?

Noah at the cookhouse.

Ruby with her messy bib!!

Karry with the baby smiley wavy girl!

Kaleb, who ate all of his chicken to go on what he was certain was a tractor ride...but it wasn't...Karry just said, ok, well if you're so sure it's a ride, you have to eat all of your chicken before you can go on it. That kind of motivation always works for Kaleb. I felt bad for him that there really wasn't a ride. ;)

Me & my Isaac buddy. Isaac loves to sit by me at dinner. He's a cuddly boy, especially when he's tired. Tonigth he was really tired. He didn't even want apple pie, just bread with jam on it.

The boys next to a buoy, which was outside the cookhouse (and I think there was also a museum there of old logging stuff, but we didn't see all of that--just some stuff inside the restaurant).

Day 29, Friday May 16, 2008

2008-05-17T23:18:00.000-07:00

We were originally going to be leaving Jellystone in the morning and heading to Crescent City.
We decided to stay an extra night. Jellystone has been such a fun campground!! It was a true vacation from the busy vacation!
I woke up with a cold and a headache and took a nap in the morning when Ruby went down (after I made French Toast!). Karry brought the boys out on a pedal boat around a pond! Fun!!
It was super hot out, so we all went swimming. It was Ruby’s first time in a pool, and I think the first time our whole family has gone swimming together (I’ve been in the water with the boys for swimming lessons, but that’s it!!). We spent 2 hours in that pool—nice and shallow (3’ to 4’ and then 3’ again) and perfect for the boys. Noah wasn’t crazy about swimming and preferred to sit on the edge and kick his feet in the water (we did pull him in and try to get him to swim with us though!!). Kaleb loved it the MOST of all of them. He did not want to leave, he wanted to stay there for the rest of the day!
We came back to the trailer to eat a light lunch (us—french bread w/spinach dip, the boys—cheese & crackers, and yogurt), it was so hot out and we didn’t want much to eat.
We were planning to go out on the peddle boats again, but the office was closed and we couldn’t get the life jackets. We just let the boys run around the grass & play by the big Yogi Bear figure while we sat on a bench in the shade.
It was time for Ruby’s afternoon nap (ok, our day was a little off—it was really about dinner time, but we were exhausted and figured she was too!!). We got her down to sleep & played Jungle Book for the boys, and then we got to take a nap. I still wasn’t feeling great, and when Ruby woke up, Karry brought all of the kids to the (very nice) playground and let me keep sleeping. He woke me up at 8:30 pm. Yes….I know, our day was a little strange!!
So then, at 8:30, Karry started a fire, we fed Ruby dinner, and then we cooked little smokies and then smores over the fire. The kids went to bed around 10 pm, and we stayed up a bit to see the special features on the Breach dvd (great movie!!). CRAZY, but very fun day!!! (breakfast--11 am, morning nap--noon, lunch—4 pm, afternoon nap--6 pm, dinner—9 pm…a little off, but fun!!).

this is our campground, and our fire pit is on the left. I think every 2 sites share a fire pit, but there were only maybe 12 families camping in this place that has over 100 sites. The sites were very spacious. Rustic (unpaved--some look like they used to be, and the grass was a little high in some areas, esp. next to the fire pit, I thought!), but the campground was overall a very fun place for families to stay. The drive there (coming from the south) is CRAZY, but we had such a nice time, it was worth it!

This is a Yogi Bear stuffed animal we got on our road trip cross country, at a Jellystone Park in Maryland. Kaleb got this bear when he was 2. :) He knew we'd be coming to this campground on this trip (Disneyland was a surprise, but we told him about this campground) and he brought his Yogi Bear. We just thought this was such a cute photo!!!

Day 28, Thursday May 15, 2008

2008-05-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

We left Half Moon Bay and drove toward the Jelly Belly Factory.
We mapped it incorrectly, apparently, and ended up at a Jelly Belly store, about 20 minutes away from the factory.
There was an outlet mall that we drove past—we have driven past several on this trip, and I don’t usually care that much about them (they’re the typical outlet mall stores). This time I saw 2 stores I really like & haven’t seen before—Bath & Body Works and Gymboree (outlets!!). I got to run in to both stores, and found some particularly great deals at Gymboree!
We finally got to the Jelly Belly Factory & we were starving for lunch. We ate at their café, which cost around the same as a meal at Disney (though it was better food!). We got 1 philly cheese steak sandwich & onion rings to share, 1 small pizza & French fries for the boys to share, 2 bottles of water, and 2 small lemonades for the boys to share--$30. Can you imagine if we didn’t share?
Well, the factory tour was free! We got to wear some funky hats and then walked around the factory and learned how they make the famous jelly beans.
We got some jelly beans at the store, and let the kids each pick out some of their favorite flavors. That was fun!
It was SOOOO extremely hot that day, our car thermometer read 103. In San Diego, Kaleb had prayed for sunshine (during the 60 degree days), and his prayer was answered. On this day, Kaleb asked “can I pray that it won’t be so sunny?” and we said “sure!!” and he prayed for that. Later, randomly, Isaac said he wanted to pray for Grandpa, that he’d be safe if he did any dangerous jobs. ;)
We drove north to Cobb Mountain. The roads were crazy, and windy with 20 mph switchbacks. I hate roads like that (these ones were super duper scary!!) and I was thankful that our next campground would not be one we were commuting to & from every day!
We arrived at our campground around 6:30—it was a Jellystone (Yogi Bear) campground, and the boys have been excited about it the entire trip!
We needed groceries (esp. milk!), and asked if there were any stores near by. Karry unhooked the trailer, and then we headed off to a grocery store (3 miles back down the crazy road we had come up!).
We got food for 6-7 meals, 3 boxes of Capri Suns, a couple of days worth of baby food, some snacks, and some dessert, and spent $100—and this was an expensive grocery store. It was a little store, where a loaf of sandwich bread cost about $5 (but we’re camping in the middle of no where and needed food!). The meals (even at this expensive store) cost less than half the price of what we would spend on average @ the theme parks, and we’ve got more quantity than we’d get sharing a plate at a theme park. Crazy!!!
We got back & fed the kids some chicken nuggets, leveled the trailer, put the kids to bed, and then watched “A Cinderella Story” (which we had picked up from Walmart a while back).

Our boysies with a jelly bean. We weren't allowed to take photos on the tour, so we have 2 photos of our trip there & that's it. :)

I look like I'm so excited about the jelly beans or something. I don't know why I look so excited. :) See the hat I'm wearing? We all had to wear one on the tour. Wowie zowie, think I wanna frame this one.....NOT!! :)

Day 27, Wednesday May 14

2008-05-17T22:32:00.000-07:00

We drove into San Francisco and went to Pier 33 to catch our boat! We were heading to Alcatraz!
Alcatraz was pretty darn cool—we all did the audio tour (well, everyone except Ruby). The boys had a lot of questions about the tour and the whole place. It was super interesting to learn about the lives of the guards’ families (who lived there on the island also!).
A bit of trivia for y’all—do you know who came up with the idea of putting expiration dates on milk? It was during the Depression, and kids were dying from drinking curdled, old milk. The answer—Al Capone. He used his convincing (not asking) to get a local farmer to stamp the due dates on a little cardboard flap on the tops of glass milk bottles. Now, of course, everybody does that. 1 good thing Al Capone did. :)
In 1962 there were 3 men who escaped Alcatraz who were never found. For months (or years?) they’d been gathering spoons from the lunch room an digging away at the vents at the back of their cells (there was a cover plate on it that covered up the holes they were making). One night (after the lights went out, which was always at 9 pm), they climbed through those holes and up the pipes & onto the roof. They got out of Alcatraz and created flotation devises out of rain coats. The next morning, when the guards tried to get them up, they said the guys wouldn’t wake up—the guys had cleverly created “dummy heads” out of soap, with hair and everything (I’m not sure how!). They never found the guys, but the official statement was that they probably drowned. One of the prisoners said that those 3 men were studying Spanish & probably went to South America. Crazy!!
There were tons of other great stories, I recommend y’all visit! It made Karry and I want to see all of the movies about Alcatraz that are out there!
After Alcatraz we went to lunch at the Rain Forest Café, which the kids had been asking to go to every time they saw it. The place is decorated like a jungle and there are big animals that “come alive” every now and then. It was a very cool place.
We went back to Chocolate Heaven to pick up a few more Flake bars, some chocolate bars (Cadbury) that are nut-free and made in England. Mmmm. :)
That evening, we drove to Hayward to have dinner with Karry’s boss (who works in Oakland), Amit, and his wife Jas. It was really fun getting together with them!! They have 2 little boys (3 and 1-1/2, Avi and Rohan) who played with our boys. Ruby loved the space to crawl, and the fun toys. We munched on some yummy spinach dip with bread and other goodies as dinner cooked. Jas made pasta, and salad & bread for dinner (yum!) and there was ice cream and chocolate cheesecake for dessert. She made some YUMMY Indian Chai Tea for us. Oooh, I think I need her recipe! :) We really had fun hanging out with them & hope we didn’t stay too late! We’ve been busy doing so much these days and haven’t had a lot of conversation (besides small talk in line for a ride, or whatever) with people besides ourselves. It was really nice to spend the evening chatting with Amit and Jas, and I know that the boys really enjoyed playing with their boys!!

Noah with more of those yummy donuts from Pier 39!

I think I'd want one of the top cells--those people could see out the window. :)

Ahh! Where'd that key go?

Whew! The door is open!!

The city views are beautiful from Alcatraz. They said that sometimes they could hear laughter & noises coming from the city, which would drive the prisoners crazy. It was a constant reminder of what they were missing out on.

The boys and I at the Rain Forest Cafe.

Karry & Ru-bear. :)

The big elephant that kept making noises.

Lombard St., the crookedest street in the world, I think. It used to be so steep that it was really too steep to drive on, so they added the turns to soften the grade. It's still very steep and very crooked. We wouldn't have made it down this street with the trailer!! :)

Isaac loved going down the hills!! Kaleb and Noah were sleeping. :)

Ruby, with Rohan in the background. Ruby hasn't been in an exersaucer in so long! I usually put her in it at home when I'm loading & unloading the laundry (so she doesn't eat detergent, or kitty litter or whatever is in the laundry room!!). She usually handles it ok, but this time she LOVED being in it, I think especially in the middle of all of the kids playing!!

Our boys with Avi, playing together.

Me with Ruby. She knows what to do when we pull out the camera, doesn't she? :)

Amit and Jas. They were very sweet to us!!

Day 26, Tuesday, May 13, 2008

2008-05-17T22:18:00.000-07:00

I wrote this on the 13th in MS Word, but we haven't had any internet until today, the 17th!

We headed out to Pier 39 early in the morning.
We stopped at a donut shop with mini donuts & got a bag for the kids. Of course, we had to try some---ooh, they were the best donuts I have EVER had! YUM!! Karry said they were just like the donuts he made when he was younger, at his parents’ store. Having that type of donut again had him talking about where we could fit a donut machine in our house. :)
We stopped at the French creperie for our breakfast. We split a crepe with ham, eggs and cheese inside. It was very good!! We sat outside on the pier and ate w/the kids.
We went to a few more shops along the pier, and then walked down to pier 33 to buy tickets to visit Alcatraz (on Wednesday).
We had to check out of our hotel by 11 am, so we did that, and then drove to the Exploratorium (a science museum) where we got in free w/our Omsi membership.
It was a fun place, but eventually (like 1:30) we were hungry for lunch and their café (along with half of the museum) was closed for an upcoming event. We drove back to Fisherman’s Wharf and had lunch at the Boudin sourdough place (the deli, not the full service restaurant…it was a difference of $6.99 or $14 for a sourdough bread bowl with clam chowder!!). The bread bowls were not nearly as good as Splash Café, where they had toasted the bread and it was SO good!!! This place was fun though. We picked up a small loaf of bread to go with the dinner we cooked. :)
We left downtown and drove those crazy windy roads again (at least 20 minutes of crazy switchbacks) to get to our campground at Anthony Chabot. The kids fell asleep in the car and Karry hooked up the trailer. I read a book while the kids slept. :)
We drove to our new campground, set up camp, and washed 6 loads of laundry (and I remembered later that I forgot our sweatshirts that were in the car and have been over-used…bummmmer!).
Karry cooked up some t-bone steaks that I had packed in our freezer from home. I had a basic spice rub that I’d made at home & he used that + butter and cooked them in a skillet, YUM! He also boiled some small red potatoes that I picked up back in Chula Vista, and then I topped them with salt, pepper, spinach dip powder, parmesan cheese, and butter. Mmm! I SO can’t wait to get home and cook creatively again…I miss having the time, space, and ingredients to do that!!
We cleaned up the trailer, put away laundry, and I scrubbed the bathroom again (oh it gets gross so quickly…I like not sharing a bathroom with the boys at home. :)…That was it for our day!!

P.S. it’s nice to be back at the trailer again, the hotel felt like a huge mansion. I think we must have had a queen or king sized bed, we’re used to a full here and it’ll be strange going back to our king at home. It was weird just having to walk so far to put things away in the hotel room. Things are so close in the trailer—it always feels cluttered and messy, but when you want to put something away, it’s just an arm’s reach or a short walk away. We did love being right in the city. The sewers in San Francisco stink at night, fyi—if you’re ever walking around there at night and smell something, just go stand over one of the sewer plates and you’ll see where it’s coming from!! Icky…Praise God for the amazing weather lately. I’m not sure of the temps, but we were told San Francisco would be cold and we’d need coats—no such thing! It’s been sunny—warm enough (but cold in the shade) to wear jeans and a t-shirt with the sweatshirt ready just in case. :)

The boys loved all of the hands-on exhibits.

Isaac built a "camp" out of these little shapes that velcro to each other. He really wanted to go back there after lunch to finish his camp, but we just didn't have time to do that & make it to the new campground (and do laundry) before dark.

Day 25, Monday, May 12

2008-05-12T23:27:00.000-07:00

We left our campground around 10 or so to go into the city of San Francisco.
We were going to do a "49 mile scenic drive" and wanted to stop at the visitor's center to get a map. We drove around the city for an hour and a half and never found that visitor's center!!
The kids LOVED the hills in San Francisco!! They were putting their hands in the air and saying "weeeee" and even Ruby made happy noises! The roads are SO incredibly steep!!! Going down isn't a big deal, it's going up (and then stopping at a light when you're at such a steep angle!) that's hard, I think.
We decided to stop looking for the visitors center and to go to the Exploritorium, which was the starting point for the sceninc route in a book I have. Our gps guided us down a road and then said "turn left" where there were no left turns. The only option was to go straight, and straight brought us onto the Golden Gate Bridge. Oooops!
We decided to go to Saulsilito, a small Bohemian town on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. We had lunch at a small cafe there, which was run by a woman from Greece. It was great food, but kind of spendy--and we thought Disneyland was expensive! :)
Saulsilito was a cute little town with fun shops & a pretty water-front atmosphere.
We're disappointed by our campground's distance from the city, and the awful crazy roads to get there. Our campground's gate closes at 10 pm, so we can't really spend evenings in the city...And that 10 pm deadline is for safety, because those roads are NOT safe after dark...so we'd rather be driving them by 8 pm at the latest. We decided that for 1 night we'd stay in the city--leave our trailer at the campground, and find a hotel in the city.
So, tonight we're in a hotel, near Fisherman's Wharf in the Marina District in downtown San Francisco!! Our original plan (prior to the road trip plan) was to stay inside a city (to rent a furnished apartment or do a house swap or something!) for a month. This is our one night of city life. ;) I read in one of my books that this particular hotel we're staying at is kid friendly and the best value for the $$ in the area. Hotels in the city can be expensive, this one is one of the least expensive that I could find. Every hotel we talked to mentioned a fire code that wouldn't allow our whole family to stay in one room. Yeah right...Anyways, we'd be forced to get 2 rooms that are connected, or a suite. We ended up getting THE penthouse suite at this hotel, the Wharf Inn. I've never stayed in a penthouse suite--how fun! :) It's not as impressive as it sounds though. This is really a motel, I guess, because the doors are on the outside--so imagine a low end motel with 2 rooms, a living room, and a small kitchen (that reminds me, no joke, of my great-grandparents' kitchen--in other words, it hasn't been updated!!). We have 2 little porches and a sliver of a view of the bay! It's nice, and the kids LOVE it, but the best part about it is the LOCATION!!!
Tonight we walked along the bay area to see all of the fun shops, including a sourdough factory. We went to Hard Rock Cafe on Pier 39 (we had a discount card from the last Hard Rock we went to :). We walked up Pier 39 and saw fun shops (like a puppet shop! Isaac and I played in there for a bit!), and a place called Chocolate Heaven (oooooooh!), and a 2 story carousal which Karry and the boys rode on. I was snapping photos of Ruby while they rode, and a man walked by and (without looking at me) said "flashes are not good for children's eyes." Ok dude, thanks for the tip!
We walked to a Safeway in the city to pick up some milk and baby food, and then back to our hotel. We have wi-fi this one night, and then won't have it again for 2 more nights. We're waking up early to walk along the pier again, to go to the donut shop and maybe the creperie (it all looks soooo good!), and then to walk around as much as we can (while we have free parking in the city) until check out time at 11 am!!
We've booked another campground for the next 2 nights, one that's a bit of a closer drive with less windy roads (but still no wi fi :( ). It's an RV park, probably lacking the beautiful rustic nature of the state parks, but it has laundry facilities (our current park doesn't, and we need to do laundry!!), and it's close, and there's no gate closing time, and it's pretty much what we need for commuting into the city...just wish we'd booked this one earlier!
We're hanging out in the city 2 more days, and then heading up to another campground that's up north (where I think we have wi fi) on Thursday.

After we made our accidental turn onto the Golden Gate Bridge. ;)

Me w/the kids at a view point

Alcatraz!

The 2 story carousal

Day 24, Sunday, May 11

2008-05-12T23:07:00.000-07:00

Isaac greeted me with a Happy Mother's Day picture when I came out of the bathroom after my shower in the morning. :)
We packed up early and got ready to go. I cleaned out the car, and then munched on some cinnamon crisps leftover from Disneyland. A squirrel outside was watching me, so I threw some at him. Not long after, a buddy joined him. Shortly after that, I saw a ton of movement in the bushes around me & other squirrels, so I hopped in the car!! While Karry hooked up the trailer, there were tons of squirrels hanging around our campground!!
We drove on those windy roads again, and then some straighter ones that looked like they were right out of a picture book of back country Ireland. It was SUCH a beautiful drive!
When we got close to our campground, we had to drive several miles on roads with major switchbacks, and then we missed the campground and had to turn around and do it again! YIKES. I didn't realize the campground we would be staying at (in hopes of visiting San Francisco everyday) would be such a crazy long drive outside of the city. If you map it, it looks like a 30 min drive. If you drive it, it's more like 45 min to an hour, and the roads are so incredibly crazy-curvy (Kaleb said he felt like he was going to throw up) with no guard rails, and huge drop offs next to us.
The campground, Anthony Chabot, also has those drop offs. It was difficult getting the trailer in there, with huge trees on each side of the narrow roads and drop offs on the sides. Karry's a trooper (and getting more and more experienced at manouvering that trailer!) and he handled it fine.
We set up camp, let the boys play a bit, ate lunch, researched San Francisco in our library books a bit, and then went out to dinner.
We ate dinner (Mother's Day!) at my new favorite restaurant chain, called Il Fornaio. They make their own breads, and pastas, and the kitchen is open so that the customers can see the chefs in there w/the wood fire oven (for pizzas), etc. It was impressive, and the food was SO good! We had dessert to celebrate Mother's Day, as well, and I had apple crepes with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce, and Karry had a 2 layer creme brule (vanilla and chocolate), and the boys had ice cream with cute little cookes. We all loved it!!

Days 23 Saturday May 10

2008-05-12T22:21:00.000-07:00

We drove along Highway 101 (right next to the Pacific Ocean!) up to Big Sur.
The drive was BEAUTIFUL and also scary, and also made some of us feel like we were going to puke. :) We saw a sign that said 80 miles of switchbacks ahead. Our campground was in 60 miles, but we needed to keep going north on that road the next day. ;)
We stayed at Pfiefer Big Sur State Park. I booked it online w/no problemes, but when we pulled in, they told us our trailer was too long for that park! They did have an "emergency site" they'd let us stay in though, which was long enough (though not in the beautiful trees, it was in a field--it was ok though!!). We didn't have hook ups, so we had to conserve water & use the generator when I needed to defrost our meat for dinner in the microwave. Karry and I had foil dinners cooked over the campfire (a little bit too done) and the boys had hot dogs.
The HUGE redwood trees were SO pretty to camp under and the sky looked huge. There were fun critters around us...Karry went on a little hike with the boys, where they encountered 3 baby skunks!! One lifted it's little tail end into the air and Karry got the boys out of there!
We met a couple from Holland and their 2.5 year old daughter shared her ball with our crazy boys for a bit. It was fun talking to them! We invited them over for hot chocolate that night, but they were getting ready to go back to Holland (after being here 2 years!) and it was their last night on "Holiday" and they had some things to do.

You can see a glimpse of the roads we went on. See how the mountains (hills?) go in and out? The road followed those mountains (hills?), constantly curving like that--not many pull outs for a big trailer like ours. We did pull out when we could, to let people pass, and pulled out once to use the trailer's bathroom.

A small glimpse inside our car--Isaac watching a DVD with his headphones on (so we don't have to hear it!), and feeding Ruby a bottle. He's a great big brother, giving her snacks when she needs it, singing "twinkle, twinkle little star" to calm her down, giving her toys, etc.! :)

Day 22, Friday, May 9

2008-05-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

We went to Avila Beach (thanks for the suggestion, Shari!). It was awesome. Best things about Avila Beach: 2 playgrounds (NICE ones), great community (lots of moms with strollers walking around), bike trails, calmer waters (I think because of the way the beach faces, if you look at the map), the ocean isn't too far from the parking area (not too far to walk w/kids), free parking, plenty of dry warm sand, plenty of wet sand for castles, not too busy, warm but not too hot, nice area to wash off feet, public restrooms, outdoor sinks for washing hands, 2 great picnic areas (1 on beach w/bbq pits @ each table). I think I want to come back to this beach every year, it was SO awesome!!!
Ruby was quite the snacker today--she ate all of her snacks I had packed (for the day) before we got to Avila Beach (a 15 min drive), after having breakfast + a bottle! Isaac helped give her snacks in the car (he sits by her).
We had lunch at Splash Cafe at Pismo Beach (thanks for the suggestion, Celina!). We had the "World's Best Clam Chowder" in bread bowls, and the kids had hot dogs and curly fries. It was so yummy!!
Pismo Beach was rough & windy today, so we didn't hang out there long--we went in a few of the shops though.
We went to an RV supply place at Grover Beach. Karry asked if I thought we needed anything, and I said "a flat screen TV." :) The guys at the store said they didn't have any, but they could order one (Karry, was of course, being funny when he asked about it). :)
I got to stop in a bead shop and then a bakery right next door that was SO incredibly cute. I picked up some yummy dessert for this evening.
We tried to get everyone to take a nap. Isaac and Kaleb whispered and kicked each other, Ruby stayed wide awake and then crawled all over us and punched keyes on my computer. ;)
We played on the dunes right by our camp site. I think if I were a Roger Hargreaves character, my name would be Miss Cautious. I was scared of the kids walking off the ridges of sand (10' or more drops...they saw them as big slides...I saw them as soft sand waiting to cave in on my little kids!). Kaleb said "it's ok Mommy, we'll just walk up this big hill and we'll be ok." :) The boys LOVED running around out there, and so did Karry. When we were coming back to our camp, some bigger boys ran out there ahead of their mom, and Kaleb said "it's pretty dangerous out there," but they didn't listen. ;)
Tomorrow we head out to Big Sur. I've read that the roads around there are pretty crazy (a big cliff w/the ocean down below). I'm glad we're heading North & the ocean will be on our left!! Pray that I fall asleep while we drive or something!! :) Our trailer sways in the wind, and roads along the coast tend to have more wind--which makes it harder to control. The thought of narrow, curvy roads next to a cliff (with wind) scares me!
We’ll be dry camping tomorrow night (no water except what’s in our tanks, no electricity unless we use the generator) and I’m guessing they don’t have any internet connections there! I'll write more whenever we're online again (we're at a state campground after that, for 4 nights--not sure about that one either).
PS, pray for Ruby, it's almost midnight here and she's been coughing through the night. Poor girl! I'm worried about her!!

1 of the playgrounds at Avila
There was a pirate ship there. See the pretty condos in the background? I read on Wikipedia that an oil company leaked oil in Avila in 1994 & has had to pay 30 million to demolish and completely rebuild the contaminated town. They took out all of the old dirt and brought in fill dirt. There was a town like that in WA (contaminated waters & soil) I studied in college, and the women were having miscarriages there...I wonder about Avila? It is now a beautiful town. Had I not read that, I would have no clue!!

Noah in his play jeans at the playground. ;)
My lovely family! We did get the kids' meals @ the wild animal park the other day, the buckets looked like perfect sand buckets to me. The boys carried thier "collections" of sea shells in their buckets all day.
Ruby in the backpack, which stands up nicely if we take it off and set it down.

An area with little tide pools and rocks to climb on.

Oh, I also read that there's been 1 reported shark attack at Avila (since the 50's), and the woman was swimming way off shore w/a wet suit and flippers (50 feet or 50 yards) with the seals. The seals disappeared, there was a big bubble, and then her friend couldn't find her. Lifeguards found her later and she had fatal wounds, just like those from a white shark. That was 2004, and tourism declined a bit in Avila after that, but it's picked back up now. It's a fishing town (a whole pier devoted to boats unloading fresh fish), and a tourist town.

My family at Splash Cafe. Ruby was in her stroller down low, these stools & table were high up.

Me with my bread bowl.

Splash Cafe.

The dunes.

Our campground is behind us on the left.

The line to the right of Karry was like a 15 or 20 foot drop off. It was like something out of Aladdin where the sand gobbles up the cave of wonders. ;)

It was SO fun to walk barefoot through the sand though. This is Kaleb's footprint & my footprint together.

Oh yeah, and the boys got to ride bikes tonight while I cooked dinner. Kaleb's $35 Walmart bike randomly broke and Karry had to put it back together. Well, it's working again--that's all that matters, right? :)

Day 21, Thursday, May 8

2008-05-09T22:08:00.000-07:00

Got the trailer ready to go & brought the trailer to Legoland ($1 more for parking & right up front!).
We caught some of the rides we had missed, got "Granny Fries" (apple french fries w/vanilla sauce..mmmmm!!!).
Got some Legos by the pound (tons to choose from--every type and color of Lego you can imagine!)--we let the kids each get 1/4 of a lb. Isaac & Noah had no problem (Isaac picked out too much). Kaleb just wanted finished products, or little people. He just doesn't have the vision like his brothers. :) He barely filled his bag and said he was done (but he did manage to put a handful of flowers in there—flowers? Buddy? He said he wanted to build a garden…). :)
When we got back to the trailer, Kaleb plopped down on the couch and said “it’s good to be home.” HOME? :) This is the boy (er—one of them) who was just saying “I want to go home” the day before. We had the kids go potty, packed up Capri suns and snacks, buckled into the car and drove that “home” right out of the Legoland parking lot.
We left Legoland @ about 3:30, and our GPS said it would take 5 hrs to get to our campground near Pismo Beach. 2 hours later (after crazy rush hour traffic), it still said 5 hours!!!
We pulled over in a big parking lot to make sandwiches to eat along the way. Less than an hour after that, Isaac said he had to go potty and couldn’t wait, and the other 2 boys chimed in “me too" (yes, they had gone when we stopped for dinner!).
We were on Ventura Highway, and I remembered a song about that highway and couldn’t remember who sang it or how it went. I called my parents to ask them. :) I think it’s America, but I need to look it up. My mom sang it for me & she thought it was by Bread, but it’s not on the greatest hits album I have on my ipod. :)
We drove on crazy, windy mountain roads. Karry didn’t realize we’d be going over mountains & didn’t put in a fuel additive that makes us have more power. We were going 35 miles per hour up a hill (with the pedal to the metal!) in a 55 zone with a string of cars behind us. YIKES! Going down the hills was scarier to me—Karry didn’t even have to push on the gas and we were going down fast—the weight of the trailer pushing us, of course...Scary!
We got into the campground at about 10:30 pm, and just had the kids go potty and then climb into bed. No jammies…No kids’ teeth brushed, except for Noah who really wanted to. :) We were all so tired, and Karry had to set up the jacks, and the sewer, water, electrical, and all of that…

Day 20, Wednesday May 7

2008-05-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to go to Sea World. Karry had never been there before, and I haven't been since I was a little kid. It was pretty awesome to see the shows, especially. Those animals (marine, and the pets we saw in the "Pets Rule" show) can do some pretty amazing stunts!!! Wow! We were wowed by the "Shark Encounter" exibhit (see the shark below--there was glass above us and on the sides of us, and sharks were swimming behind all of that glass!!). The kids loved the penguin exhibit (Kaleb, especially). Noah liked the huge Clydesdale horses they had in stalls there.

It was in the 60's today (and will be for the rest of our trip through California--buuummmmer!). We all wore pants and sweatshirts, but would take off the sweatshirts every now and then as the sun broke through the clouds. Despite the chilliness, Kaleb's face is burnt, my face (esp. my nose) is bright red, and Karry's head is hurting and red. Bummmer! We didn't think about sunscreen on such an overcast day!!

Kaleb peed his bed again this morning. What is the deal with that? He doesn't do that at home! It's a big deal when he does that--we have to wash the sleeping bag, and sheets, and his pillow too (how does he get it on the pillow??).

Today the trailer has been feeling like such tight quarters and multiple times today the kids said they just want to go home. This morning was stressful--with such a huge mass of laundry (sleeping bag, etc.), where do we put it, and how do we walk around it, etc? It was a little tricky. The living area of the trailer is a hallway. Ruby crawls there, the boys walk there or sit there and play. Just walking from the bedroom to the bathroom can be such an obstacle course with all of the kids and stuff sometimes. It feels like we brought too much stuff (wish it wasn't so crowded with stuff in here), and yet, we didn't bring enough of what we need. We stopped at an Old Navy today to pick up one more pair of pants for each of the kids & me. I packed for sunshine, not 60 degree days! ;)

We're looking forward to our theme park days being over. We got free tickets to go to Legoland one more day, so we're stopping in there for a few hours tomorrow on our way up north. After that, we'll be done with theme parks. While it's been fun, it's been so expensive. We've bee spending at least $30 everytime we have a meal at a park like that (and we usually share meals and drinks--I can't imagine what it would be like if we always bought our kids the "souvineer bucket" kids meal deals...). I can't wait to just be camping in the woods or at the beach and have a simple ham sandwich in the trailer!! :)

We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow, driving about 5 hours towards Pismo Beach (after a bit at Legoland). Pray for sunshine! We want sunshine! Pray that no more kids pee their beds!! :)

Day 19, Tuesday May 6

2008-05-07T21:51:00.000-07:00

On Day 19, we chose to go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Not the San Diego Zoo--we could've gone to either (or both, had time allowed) with our Go San Diego passes, but we just went to the Wild Animal Park. We'd heard it was pretty cool, and it was. :)

It seemed like we were much closer to the animals than at the Oregon Zoo, which was nice. When we go to the zoo back home, it seems like we always walk past several exhibits where there are no animals (they are sleeping/hiding/whatever). Here, we always saw animals, and many times they were laying or standing out in such a way that we could get great photos.

We did a ton of walking--down a big hill, then back up another big hill. I raced the boys a lot (whenever there weren't other people on the pathway!) while Karry pushed the stroller. Isaac kept saying "come on Mommy, let's run!!"

Our Go San Diego passes gave us 1 ride on the carousal (fun!) and 1 trip on a tram that went around to different animal exhibits. That was pretty cool.

The zoo closed at 5 pm, and we wanted to do something else but really had no clue what to DO in this area. I called my mom, who's been here before, but she didn't have any brilliant ideas for us. :) We wanted to see the city, but not without a destination. We put "Hard Rock Cafe" into our GPS and off we went...We ate dinner and saw about 3 whole blocks of the city and we were content. :)

Day 18, May 5

2008-05-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo, I'm caught up on blogs!! This morning (after Kaleb let us know that he'd wet his bed--thank goodness we put liners on the kids beds!!!), we got ready for Legoland. It was cold out today--60 something. We wore pants and brought sweatshirts & wore them most of the time.

Legoland was pretty fun. Nothing, of course, compares to the magic & attention to detail of Disney! The height restrictions for the rides were a little difficult for us--kids had to be 36" for most rides (that was ok, except Ruby couldn't ride those ones), and there had to be someone 48" or taller with each kid. That meant we had to do each ride 3 times so that each boy could ride it. We couldn't squeeze 2 boys with 1 parent, and I think there were only 2 rides our whole family could go on together. Bummer!! Nevertheless, the kids thoroughly enjoyed the rides, as well as the huge lego models everywhere.

Days 16 & 17, May 3 & 4

2008-05-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 3

I went back to Downtown Disney for a few hours with Ruby. I got the chocolates I wanted. I just looked around at other shops. I got a few things at the Build a Bear (exclusive Disney items) for the boys for Christmas.
Karry brought the boys to a car wash with him. He planned to vacuum it out too. They had a service for $29, and they washed, waxed, and vacuumed our car, and washed all surfaces inside. It looks SO incredibly nice and detailed, I was amazed at that cheap price! (Before we sold our mini-van, we had it detailed and it cost around $100, I think, and this $29 job looked just as great if not better!!). Are there any places like this back home??? :)
Karry and the boys had McDonalds, I had clam chowder and a bagel in Downtown Disney, and Ruby ate chunks of bagel as well. :)
I washed about 10 loads of laundry...No exaggeration, I'm serious. :)
A lot of our clothes (Ruby's, especially) are staining. It might be the washing machines, it might be the fact that we're not doing laundry often enough. BUMMER! I put "stain stick" on the Walmart list.
We cleaned up the trailer, got ready to leave the next morning, and Karry and I rented a movie from the campground office (which was no good at all, so I won't mention the name of it). We have a mini dvd player in the trailer and we can watch movies in our room when the kids go to bed. :) We have no TV though, so we're missing our shows. :(

Sunday, May 4

I blogged some in the morning, trying to catch up!! Disney days were so long and crazy, and I didn't have time to blog much!
We did 2 more loads of laundry....yes, we create a LOT of laundry!!
We got the trailer ready to go. We drove for almost 2 hrs to San Diego!
We like the San Diego KOA better than Orangeland, the last place we were at. The last place was nice, but it was kind of strange. There were people who had been living there 30 years (because it's cheap monthly rent) and they had old, orange and brown striped trailers with picket fences and yard decorations around them. It was odd...There were the Disney tourists with their obviously travle-able vehicles, and then the permanentely parked folks with decks built off of their trailers...Yeah...Strange! Now we're at a place with obvious campers--nice. :)
We went to a Walmart in Chula Vista (where we're staying--just miles north of Mexico!!). That Walmart was CRAZY!!! It was crazy shopping with all four kids, in the first place--then the crowded Walmart made it even crazier. There were multiple folks who either didn't understand the words "excuse me" when I was trying to get by them, or they just didn't care (and I think this is the case, because many just looked at me and wouldn't budge). I had to be pushy to get through the crowds, which is incredibly uncomfortable for me. I left that store exhausted, and since it wasn't a Super Walmart, I still didn't have eveyrthing I needed. Blah!
We found a Food 4 Less, crowded as well, but I went in alone this time and got everything I needed.
Note: at so many places lately, we have had glares from black folks when they see us with Ruby. It's made me sad. I wish they'd just be nice and talk to us...In line at Food 4 Less, there was an African American family. I asked how old their baby was, she was 10 months (smaller than 8 month old Ruby!!). I told them that we had a 8 month old girl we had adopted. They asked if it was our first, I explained that we had 3 boys--1 we had also adopted. I mentioned that I liked their 7 year old's hair, the mom said "oh, I need to moisturize it." I asked "what do you use?" and she asked, with a smile, "did you adopt an African American baby?" and I said "yes," and then we had pleasant conversation after that. She wrote down some product suggestions for me to use on Ruby. I can't tell you how delighted I was to have that conversation with them!!! They were SO nice, and I was beginning to believe that all African Americans out there were opposed to our family raising a black baby, and I was wondering how Ruby would ever connect with people who look like her....That conversation gave me HOPE!
The boys got to play outside in the rocks some, and I re-organized the kitchen cupboards.
We had picked up a few movies at Walmart, and last night we watched the 5th Jannette Oke dvd in the Love Comes Softly series, "Love's Unending Legacy". I loved it...I like cheesy, sappy stuff like that... :)

Day 15, Friday, May 2

2008-05-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

I woke up the boys and told them it was our last day at Disneyland. Kaleb said "yeah! I'm going to tell Grandma and Grandp---oh, they're not here...." :(
Being the first born that I am (hee, hee), I carefully planned out a schedule for us. I asked the boys what 2 rides they wanted to go on. I wrote down things like "9 am to 10:30 am, Fantasyland," and then the top 5 rides in that area, in priority order (oh yeah, after we all voted on the rides).
The schedule went SO well! It went faster than we even hoped, and we were done with some of the afternoon things early on. We hadn't planned to head over to California Adventure, but we ended up having time to!
We saw Crush at California Adventure, and Isaac asked him why turtles have spots. He never really answered the question, he just said "I do? Wow, you're making me kind of self conscious! How many do I have?"
We rode Dumbo, Snow White, Peter Pan, Casey Jr., Roger Rabbit, Pirates, the Haunted Mansion (Isaac's new favorite ride, ever since we told him that his friends Maggie and Molly love that ride. :), the Rockets in Tomorrowland, and Buzz Lightyear.
We rode the little raft over to the Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island--a total MUST see for little boys. There were tons of caves to walk through, and lots of places to climb and explore. SO FUN!
We had ice cream on Main Street. In all of the times I've been to Disneyland (my birthday this last Sept, 1 time with Karry before we had kids, and 9 times as a kid), I don't remember ever having ice cream at the parlor on Main Street, though I always wanted to. :) It's always busy. I was SOOOO impressed by how careful they were when I said I can't have nuts, though!! They checked the ice cream contents and the cone contents, and they prepared it all in a separate room. WOOOOWWW. I have never had any place care so much. It was yummy ice cream!!
We got to see a bit of the fireworks and the crazy crowds there on a Friday night, but we didn't stop for long, we kept moving & watching. :)
We brought the kids to the car & then I rode the tram back to downtown Disney. I went to the World of Disney to pick up a few things. Then I went to the chocolate shop (which is so great, and they prepare nut items separate from the non-nut items, which is so wonderful if you're allergic like me!), and they had closed, 3 minutes before I got there....I was sad. :(

Me with Isaac & Noah.

Karry with Kaleb & Ruby.

Our family on Snow White. You can barely see Ruby in between Karry and Kaleb.

Our very RED family with Minnie! Ruby's wearing her pretty Minnie dress again! Yes, seeing Minnie (before Ruby got anything on her dress) and snapping such a photo was on our list!! :)

Isaac and I on Roger Rabbit. Actually Ruby's in there too! :)

The boys w/the treasure on Tom Sawyer's Island!

Me w/my ice cream cone at the parlor on Main Street.

Karry with Ruby. She'd got quite a bit of spit up on her dress, and then something else while she was squirming when I was changing her diaper...Lovely...I had to change her clothes, and the change I had for her was pink. Her hair pretties were still red and white, and so was her bib. :)

The rockets that the boys had been eyeing. Faster than Dumbo and an ankle killer for adults because they tip out so much & you're at such a strange angle!

Day 14, Thursday May 1

2008-05-04T23:54:00.000-07:00

My parents left in the morning. They boys were sad as Grandpa and Grandma's big motorhome drove away. :(
We hung out at the campsite for a while, I blogged a little. :)
We drove to Santa Monica, which took us about 40 minutes.
We parked on the pier, in a parking lot that was on rickety wood. It had a "6,000 pound" weight limit listed, and I remembered discussions earlier in the week with my dad about how much a suburban might weigh. I was a little freaked out. :)
We walked to the end of of the pier. There were shops, musicians, and lots of tourists.
We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we had lunch at the restaraunt at the end of the pier. I didn't realize until we sat down and looked at the menu that it was a Mexican restaurant (I don't usually choose Mexican, though it's totally yummy, because it makes me get sick).
We split 2 kids' quesadillas between the boys & got french fries with those. I picked out the 1 item on the menu that didn't look like it would make me AS sick. :) It didn't have any red sauce--it was a seafood burrito with white sauce. Karry and I split that & it was very, very, very good!!
Noah's flip flops (his first time wearing them) were painful and he was having a hard time walking. We stopped at one of the shops along the pier and picked up some little crocks for him, and some Santa Monica tees for the boys. :)
We went down and played on the beach. There were SO many people laying out on the beach, tanning. People were staring at us! We noticed that there weren't any other kids there!!
We jumped in the water as the tide came up--the water seemed rougher than along the Oregon coast.
We sat down on the beach and let the boys run around and dig in the sand. Ruby had her first sand experience! She loved it and didn't try to eat it at first--that came later. :)
We decided to leave by 3:30 pm in hopes of heading back to camp, doing some laundry, and changing clothes before leaving for Medieval Times at 6 pm (the show started at 7).
Driving back to camp took TWO HOURS!!! Our youngest 3 and I got a pretty good nap while Karry drove through the crazy traffic. So glad we left early, we got back to camp at 5:30, ust in time to go to the bathroom, shake the sand off of ourselves and pack up a bottle for Ruby!!
We went to Medieval Times, which the boys LOVED and said was better than the Pirate show. They do a GREAT job there! Only problem--they have no high chairs. Babies are lap babies there (unlike at the Pirate show, she got a high chair--though she was scared and fussy most of that night and in my lap anyways!!). Karry held her this time and had a hard time eating 1/2 a chicken with no silverware and a baby in his lap!! What a fun night though!!!
Isaac says that at his birthday this year, he wants to be a king, with a crown and everything. I found a great, fun crown at the gift shop at this show. It's under our bed, with the other Christmas and Birthday gifts I've been picking up along the trip. :)

The boys on the pier.

Karry & the kiddos

Me & Ruby

Ruby loved sand!

Medieval Times--Karry & Ru

The flash was turned off--oops. This was the king and the princess.

Day 13, Wednesday, April 30

2008-05-04T23:35:00.000-07:00

This was my parents’ last day at Disneyland with us. We wanted to go on rides that we would not be able to go on without the extra help from them. :)
First thing, we took the train from Main Street to Tomorrowland. I don’t remember ever riding that train before, and it’s pretty cool!!
Karry and my parents brought the boys on Autopia. We pretty needed 1 adult per kid and Ruby couldn’t ride on that one. I took Ruby shopping with me. :) I went in the Star Trader shop and looked at Mickey Mouse Star Wars toys and got the boys some little Disney racer cars to put in their stockings (a Nemo car, a Sully car, and a Buzz car).
We tried to get Noah on Soarin' Over California at California Adventure, again. He loves that ride (did I mention he calls it the "baby swap" ride?). The guy working at the ride wouldn't let Noah on...Huge bummer!!
Since we were at CA Adventure, we went on Monsters Inc., again.
We rode Buzz Lightyear at Disney, again (they boys love it).
I think we also did Pinnochio again, and possibly Peter Pan.
We were looking for "Hidden Mickeys" everywhere and we can tell you where a few are, if you care. :)
We went on Pirates again.
We sat down on Main Street to see the Prince Caspian pre-parade, which we were excited about. Karry read the story to the kids, and we're excited for the movie to come out. The Prince Caspian part of the parade was lame-o and not worth the 30 minutes of reserving the curbside with our bums! :)

Kaleb and Noah on the train. Noah's hair was spikey to try to get him on Soarin' Over California. It didn't work!!

I went into the Disneyland Emporium while we waited for the parade.
Karry brought the boys to the fire station for a bit.
The Prince Caspian pre-parade. Yup. This is pretty much it!

Day 12, Tuesday, April 29

2008-05-04T22:59:00.000-07:00

Ruby threw a screaming fit about getting a bath, getting her hair pretties taken out, and getting her hair fixed.
Shortly after that fit (in which we had soothed her with a bottle of milk), she threw up in the trailer and then needed a change of clothes.
We went to Knotts Berry Farm
There was hardly anybody there and we had pretty much zero wait time for rides.
The kids LOVED the kiddy rides there. They have many more “thrill” rides for little kids than Disneyland has. The kiddy rides at Disneyland are slow & have stories behind them. At Knotts there were fast, spinny, and thrilling rides made for little guys like ours!
Noah was slightly too short to ride some of the kiddy rides by himself, so Karry or I had to squeeze our legs into those rides and sit by him. :)
Ruby threw up at Knotts Berry Farm (we think that it was the combination of the heat & her snotty nose). Poooor girl!!
When the park closed (6 pm) we had dinner at the Knotts Berry Farm chicken restaurant (yum!!), and then mom and I looked at a couple of the little shops.

The boys & me, riding their favorite ride there, I think--these cars go straight & then speed up and spin around the corners. Noah was too short to go by himself and Karry thought it might be a bit of a squeeze for him to fit in there. I was the lucky one. :)

Karry did ride with Noah on the semi-truck ride (it was a little bigger :).

Here are Isaac & Kaleb on that ride.

Here we are at a Western stunt show. Noah loved it and kept giggling about all of the silly stunts! Yes, we got to sit in a covered wagon. :)

Karry w/Ruby at the stunt show.
The boys with Snoopy.
Sleeping Ruby got to cuddle with Grandma while Karry, my dad and I took the boys on the Log Ride. Fun, fun, fun! (Isaac and Kaleb weren't crazy about it though!).

Noah on a carousal.

This was a ride that went up and the dropped the kids down faster than it went up. They had to lift their hands for the lady to pull the bar up or to puet it down. Our boys LOVED this ride!!

This is Noah on the "great skate," another kiddie thrill ride. Noah loved this one! Isaac hated it. ;)

The hot air balloons, which we went on twice. Noah wondered why there wasn't any fire in them, and he said that this ride was better than Dunbo!

Karry w/Ruby and her lovely puke on the ground. Nice, huh? She's smiling though--at least she felt better after this!!

Disney Pictures from April 23 & 24

2008-05-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

April 23, 2008

The boys with Mickey.

Me, holding Ruby while the boys played in the character's houses (Chip & Dale? Donald? Can't remember which one this was!)

Noah, my dad, Ruby, me, my mom & Kaleb all sitting by the fountain in Toon Town. Ruby was letting Grandpa feed her a bottle. Whew!

Karry & Isaac

Grandma with Noah

Our fun Mary Poppins encounter.

Kaleb and Noah at the Disneyland parade. I got these light up spinny toys at the Disney Store on clearance for $2.99, $3.99 and $4.99. The same sorts of things were selling for $15 at Disneyland!! Ours were slightly different than the ones there and pretty COOL looking! :) Kaleb go Nemo, Noah got Pirates of the Caribbean, and Isaac got Peter Pan.

Karry and Ruby on a ride. So many of the rides had the "no lap sitting" rule, so Ruby had to sit next to one of us. She's getting to be so big!!

Kaleb riding on a carousal.

Our family! Poor Ru is down in that stroller--should've picked her up for the photo! :)

The boys on the extra Dumbo figure that's set up for photos. :)

April 24, 2008

The boys at the Chip & Dale Breakfast.

Karry & Ruby

My parents

Kaleb and Noah. Noah's holding his little Buzz Lightyear "cell phone" that I picked up at Walmart before we left. I woke up the kids on the 24th and gave them the phones and said "I want you to call Chip & Dale and tell them we're on our way and we'll be having breakfast with them very soon." They were SO excited!! :)

I wanted to get a good photo of Ruby's dress before she ate & got food on it! Our friend Erin made this dress, and it is SO cute!!! It's got Ruby's name on the front, and it has little bloomers that say "Minnie" on the backside. So many people made comments about Ruby's beautiful dress!! (Thank you Erin!!).

The boys w/Pluto at the park.
Me & Ruby at the Pixar Play Parade.

Noah & Ruby in the stroller. I thought this was so cute!!

Someone took our picture for us! We were waiting for the parade, and right behind us was a waterfall and some water. It was a nice, cool spot!

Lightning McQueen in the parade :) The parades at CA Adventure were not nearly as busy and crazy as the ones at Disneyland. We really enjoyed this parade.

Isaac w/my parents @ the parade.

Our cute Noah!!

Kaleb loved the bubbles at the parade!!

Noah w/Ruby at the parade. It was a little chilly there, so I put some leggings on under her dress. :)

Day 11, Monday, April 28

2008-05-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

We went to Disneyland again.
This would have been my parents' last day with us, but somebody they met gave them their leftover tickets.
We tried to do our "early admission" this day, but we found out (when we were stuck in the parking garage at 8 am, with cars in front of, behind and beside us) that it only opens early on Tues, Thurs, Sat & Sun. The park opened at 9 that day. YIKES!
We rode the monorail into Disneyland while my parents pushed Ruby up to the front gate with the stroller.
We shared 2 breakfast meals between 5 of us--we're getting good at eating cheap at Disney. :)
We went on Finding Nemo early in the morning. When we got off the monorail, we thought the line was right there. We realized much later that we had cut in line.....Oooooooppps...We seriously don't do that on purpose!
The kids got to meet all of the Pooh characters.
The adults went on Space Mountain again.
My mom and I learned about "cell phone jewelry" and I got a pink shiney mickey mouse head to attach to my pink cell phone. So cute. :)
We saw the Billy Hill & The Hillbillies show. Karry and the kids ate lunch, my parents and I had ice cream for lunch. :)
We rode on Pirates again and the boys all liked it. They weren't afraid this time, and neither was Ruby.
We went to a Pirate Dinner show that night. The kids got to go up on the stage, Isaac and Noah were the brave ones!

Ruby finally warming up to Grandpa, giving him a high five!

Noah doing some rock climbing in line for Nemo. :)

Grandpa and Kaleb.

Karry and Ruby in the submarine.

Isaac LOVED the jungle cruise.

Tigger & the boys.

The Pooh Bear ride. It scooted forward maybe 10 feet after this and then stopped, the ride broke down. We didn't get a chance to go back and ride it, yet.

We caught Minnie (and Mickey) just as we were about to leave the park.

Kids on the stage at the pirate show. Our boys are in there somewhere!

Day 10, Sunday, April 27

2008-05-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

Our car's external thermometer got up to 103!!
We went to Hollywood, saw the walk of fame and the Chinese Theater.
We ate lunch at a Johnny Rockett's. The kids even got milkshakes, which they enjoyed!
We saw lots of creepy looking aspiring actors in costumes (Mickey Mouse, Yoda, Super Woman, Batman) hoping tourists would take their picture and then tip them. It was hard to keep Isaac away, he loves characters. They were really creepy though!!
We rode in an air conditioned mini-bus and went on a 2 hour tour of Hollywood homes.
We saw teh homes of: Bob Barker, Demi Moore, Bruce Willis (who lives across the street from Demi, to see his girls), Courtney Cox (she's taught her daughter to stick her tounge out at tourists), William Shattner, Elton John (1 of his), Madonna (1 of hers), John Travolta (1 of his), Jennifer Anniston & Brad Pitt's first Hollywood home, the gate & hedges of where Tom Cruise lives.
We saw the hotel where Janice Joplyn died, and we saw hotels and restaraunts that are owned by famouse people (Johnny Depp, Leonardo DeCaprio, Cameran Diaz).
We drove down Rodeo (Ro Day O) Drive, where the stars shop. Then we drove down the next street up (Sunset Blvd?) where the "cheaper shopping" is (imagine all of the most expensive stores at our malls & that's what you'd find there!).
Overall it was a fun tour of Hollywood and neat to see once, but I don't have a burning desire to go back there anytime within the next decade or two. :)
We ate dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp.
We saw a spider on our ceiling, Karry tried to smoosh it, but then it wasn't in the napkin he was using. The only place it could have fallen was on our bed, but we couldn't find it. LOVELY! My parents found mouse #2 in a trap. Ding dong, the mouse is dead, the mouse is dead, the mouse is dead! :)

The famous Hollywood sign. It used to say Hollywoodland and was an advertisement for a housing development. A mudslide caused the "land" part o fall down, and at one time an actress jumped from the "H" to her death. The sign was re-conditioned by the city at some point (60's? 70's?) and now has fences & motion detectors around it.

A view point we stopped at during our tour. You can tell by the following photos who was manning the camera this day. :) Not I!

I have the same size hands and feet as Meryl Streep, and same size hands (I didn't check feet) as Susan Sarandan. :)

The kids holding their hands up to Shirley Temple's (when she was a little girl). Shirley Temple is a cousin (3rd? something like that) of my Grandmother. Funny thing, Kaleb's pinky fingers bend in (they aren't straight) and Shirley Temple's do the same thing!

Had to catch the famous Mouse on the walk of fame!

Day 9, Saturday, April 26

2008-05-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

Cleaning day! We were avoiding Disney on the weekend!
Karry started laundry while the kids played at the playground (next to the laundry room). I cleaned the trailer.
Karry and my parents brought the kids to an In & Out Burger, I got our laundry and kept cleaning the trailer--scrubbing, organizing.
When the boys came in with their shoes on (and were totally dirty from playing outside) and stood on the toilet lid to look in the mirror, I wondered why I'd spent so long hand-scrubbing the floor and bathroom. :)
Isaac got a bloody nose from the heat. My parents had some Gatorade to give him to help. He got red Gatorade all around his mouth and it wouldn't wash off. Lovely!
Ruby threw up from the heat, all over her carseat. We used my parents washer/dryer unit in their motorhome to clean it.
We took a long nap!
We went out to Tony Romas for dinner (we miss Tony Romas! Come back to Oregon, please!).
We put the kids to bed and then played games with my parents in their motorhome (right by our trailer, and we had the baby monitor).
My dad made a fake "mouse" out of a clump of dog hair he found on the ground outside (gross!), and tied it to fishing line (clear) to drag it around and he made it look like it was moving. He got mom and I!!

This was right outside our trailer door--Noah lounging in the grass. :)

Day 8, Friday, Aril 25

2008-05-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

Spent most of the day at California Adventure
It was VERY hot!
Saw the High School Musical 2 parade, and the Electrical Parade
Brought all 3 boys on Soarin' Over California. Noah loved it the best, but hasn't been able to meet the height requirement since. We used the "baby swap" option on that ride, and he now calls that ride the "Baby Swap Ride" and asks to go on it.
We saw an amazing Aladdin show, with live music, a flying carpet & a funny Genie--the kids are still quoting his lines.
We saw Playhouse Disney, which the kids LOVED.
We saw Crush (from Finding Nemo) and Karry asked him if turtles have hair. Crush asked "why, were you looking to borrow some?" and then commented on the sea moss on Karry's face. :)
We went on a river ride, and Karry & my parents went on California Screamin'. The kids and I had ice cream while they went on that ride. :)
We ate at the Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney, which I don't recomment to anyone. We got snobby service, kids meals were $10 (outrageous!!) and they don't have a changing table or any counter space to change a baby. Not kid friendly at all!
We went to Disneyland and rode on Buzz Lightyear again. The boys love it!

The boys waiting for the High School Musical 2 parade. It was HOT out there! I made these shirts for them with simple red t-shirts from Walmart and white puffy paint.

Karry w/Ruby at the parade.

My parents, dad with Isaac's sunglasses on upside down. :)

The boys--right outside of the place we saw Crush.

A picture Isaac drew at the dinner table. Left top: Ursala's friends, below that, Flounder, below that on the left, Ursala, then Sebastian on her right. On the right, of course, Ariel. I love the sea shells. :)

The Electrical Parade. It was a pretty cool parade!!

Mice, Eeek!

2008-04-26T09:11:00.001-07:00

I'll post more later, but I just wanted to share that last night, as Karry was unlocking our trailer and I was holding sleepy Ruby in the motorhome (and as all of the boys were asleep on the couch in the motorhome), I saw a little tiny mouse run across the floor and hide under some carpet right in front of the couch!!!

I hate mice. They're right up there with ants for me (and ants are a problem at this campground, though we've not seen them in our trailer yet). Mom and dad have had mice get into their motorhome before--they live in the woods, where they have signs of bears and other creatures--so there are likely mice living all around there. They had a mouse trap set up, and mom went back to check it and found a little dead mouse there. 2 mice...at the very least...

We have no signs of mice in our trailer. I would think that the tray of chocolate chip cookies (covered only by a paper towel) would have been attacked if there were mice. Still, I kept waking up wondering when they would come right in and invade our space. There is an AC vent above me and a heater vent right beside my bed--mice could fit through those vents...I wonder how mom slept. Oh, I feel sorry for them. Mouse clean up is NOT fun....

Days 6 & 7, April 23 & 24

2008-04-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

This'll be a quick post & I don't have time for photos right this moment! We're heading out in a little while.

Day 6~~
We hung out in the trailer for a while, I blogged, we cleaned up a bit, the kids got to watch a dvd in Grandpa & Grandma's motorhome, and then we went to Disneyland just after lunch and stayed there until almost closing. We saw the big parade, which the kids loved. It gets chilly at nights, so Karry and my dad ran out to the motorhome to get sweatshirts. I put baby legs on Ruby's arms while they were getting sweatshirts (and a blanket on her lap). She was so cute, as usual. :)

since the days are blending together, I'll type Disneyland highlights after Day 7. :)

Day 7~~
We woke up very early and went to the Disneyland Grand Hotel for a Character Breakfast with Chip & Dale and friends at 7:30. The food was yummy. We got free vallet parking for up to 5 hours, so we walked to Disneyland from there. We had to be back to the car by 12:15 (we got there at 7:15), so we headed back to the campground for lunch. I cooked up beef stroganoff that I had pre-made & frozen at home, and we had it over rice and with some salad. We had all of the kids lay down for nap, I made some chocolate chip cookies, and then we took a nap too. It's hard to make cookies in a little propane oven. The bottoms were burning and the tops were still raw. I ended up flipping them over half-way thorugh, which worked quite nicely!! When we were napping, my parents went out to get their propane tank filled up, and they picked up more milk for us. Around 3 we headed back and went to California Adventure to catch the Pixar Play Parade, which was very fun and the boys liked it A LOT! Ruby has learned the parade wave and now waves at every character!! We went back to Disneyland that night, since C. Adventure closes at 8 pm and D-land closes at 10. Karry and I got to ride Space Mountain once before the park closed. We had gone on the Buzz Lightyear ride (again) and afterwards, Grandpa bought the boys Buzz Lightyear guns. They were perfectly content shooting at things the whole time we went on Space Mountain. :)

Highlights:

Ruby is warming up to Grandpa and Grandma, she doesn't cry around them anymore unless they try to hold her when she's really tired. :)

The kids love meeting the characters, ESPECIALLY Isaac. We had a fun encounter with Mary Poppins, and Isaac held his little autograph book up to her (which I got at the Disney discount store!!) and asked her "can you write my name?" and she said "well, I need to know how to spell your name," and he told her. Then we told him, "no, you're supposed to ask her to write HER name," and then he went back up to her (and there wasn't a line for her, thankfully!) and had her write her name. She signed all of the boys' books and had some discussion about if Polly, her umbrella/friend could talk (to which she replied "why of course!"). Kaleb told her he thought Donald Duck was on vacation because he wasn't at his house, and she told him that where she is from, it's called a "Holiday." Later that day, she was in the parade and she looked right at Isaac and waved at him. THAT was fun!!

The boys' favorite two rides are Buzz Lightyear and Monsters Inc. They're not crazy about 3D shows, even funny ones like the Muppets are a little too much for them.

Karry and I have learned to share meals at the park, or to order kids' meals which have plenty of food! I wasn't crazy about the idea of spending $5.99 for a Uncrustables pbj, little carrots, grapes, and a juice box. Instead, I brought Uncrustables with us, and juice boxes, and raisins and chips. The boys had that for dinner last night.

Our bike trailer doubles as a double jogging stroller, and we brought that to the park yesterday. It's too wide to fit through the main front gates, so they have to let us in a special gate which can be annoying. The bonus is the amount of storage in it! We can shove all of our sweatshirts in it (8!), plus food for the kids, and nobody can even see that there's a storage compartment there--so they don't know we're packing food in. :) Tricky! Plus, when the kids get tired of walking, we can switch off and have one boy ride with Ruby--which she really likes, too!

My parents drive their motorhome to the park. It costs a few $$ extra to park it, compared to a car, but we get up front parking, right by the tram. That's sooo worth it. Plus, if we need to, we can go back to the motorhome to rest, take contacts off, or whatever!

We are heading off to Disneyland again today. Actually, first we're going to C. Adventure to see Playhouse Disney, which the kids are going to love! It's going to be 80 degrees today, I think it's a great day to introduce the boys to SPLASH MOUNTAIN!

I haven't had time to e-mail people back lately, I am sorry. Our days have been pretty full and we're getting back to the trailer late and crashing. Yesterday's lunch dishes are still in the sink and the trailer's looking messy. Tomorrow is going to be a laundry/clean up day since we're avoiding all parks on the weekend!!

Off we go!

Our Trailer

2008-04-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

We thought you might all like to see our "vacation home" aka our trailer! :)

When you walk in the front door of our trailer, there is a couch in front of you and a door on the right. The door goes to our bedroom, and here it is. :) This is the blanket my sister made me when we were still living at home with my parents. It's falling apart now, but it's a perfect camping blanket! We have cupboards above our bed, where I'm keeping towels, diapers, swimming things and games.

This is our little closet to hang our clothes up. At the end of our bed, I keep a laundry basket with our folded clothes piled up inside. I got some long narrow plastic tubs to stick things inside the bottom of the closet, too.

This is my little nightstand beside the bed, with all of my books. We keep a sleeping bag in front of it to stop the drawers from sliding open while we drive. I keep the kids' homeschooling stuff, coloring stuff, our first aid stuff, paper, pens, etc. in this nightstand. I think I brought 6 books for reading on this trip. Karry says that's why the trailer weighs so much!

This is a view of the trailer from the bathroom. The couch is folded out into a bed. The door at the end is to our bedroom. The door on teh right goes outside.

This is another view of the trailer, from our room. There's a curtain to close off the back section and make it darker, which is nice when the kids go to bed.

This is the door, and Ruby's highchair, and our bucket of shoes. This is changed a bit now. I am using this tub as our laundry basket for dirty clothes, and I got 2 smaller tubs to separate kids' shoes from our shoes (which also makes it so easier to find the shoes we need!). I never realized our shoes would take up so much space! Each kid has good tennis shoes, play shoes, flip flops, and sandals. Now we've got room for the generator to go right next to the tubs of shoes, also--which is good--it's heavy, and the weight should stay close to the front.

This is the couch, made into a bed. The first night, we just left it folded out and drove with it like this. We usually fold it back up into a couch every day and throw the kids' blankets on our bed. Isaac and Kaleb sleep here together.

This is the photo collage I made before we left. It's of us camping!

This is Isaac & Kaleb's bed again, with our amazing stereo system above it. :) It actually does have a jack that the ipod can plug into, and there are speakers in the ceiling. It's like surround sound. :) As I type we are listening to Veggie Tales music. :) I keep all of our snack foods in those cupboards. I bought a month worth of packaged snacks like fruit leather, and chips, etc.

This is our kitchen! I'm glad for the cover that folds over the stove top, it makes a counter space when I'm not using the stove. When I stand at the stove, the table is right behind me and perfect for more work area. We've got pots, pans, plates, and all of our cooking utensils, towels, bibs, etc., down below, and basic cooking ingredients (flour, spices, syrup, etc.) up above.

This is our table! Under one side (left) we've got Karry's stuff--you know, trailer essentials like the level and whatever else he uses. :) Under the right side we've got the griddle, the big skillet, the toaster, and things like that. Up above, we've got Ruby's food right above the window in that little area with the railing, and more food and snacks for her on the left. On the right we have cups, mugs, hot chocolate and tea.

There's a cupboard on the left of the table, and a shelf. We keep the garbage & recycling by that shelf (a big temptation for Ruby, unfortunately!!). That cupboard is perfect for random things we need to put away when we come in, and it also houses some extra juice boxes.

On the right you see the fridge. On the left you see Ruby's "crib"--it's a bunk area with a baby gate across it. Also, there's Noah's bunk above.

This closet is right across from the bunks. I got these drawer units to use as dressers, and it's workign nicely. This cupboard is packed!!! Each kid has a drawer of clothes. On the top right we have cleaning supplies & extra paper towels. On the left, we have outside toys like the baseball bat, etc. Our ziploc bags are in here, and all of the kids coats and sweatshirts are hanging up.

This is our bathroom. Small but it has everything necessary!

This is our bathtub, aka storage space when we're not showering. We moved the bike trailer to the back of the suburban instead, and the generator is up front now. We just have our laundry basket with dirty clothes in the bathtub now.

This is where we're living! Hope you enjoyed it!

Pictures from Days 1-5

2008-04-23T09:03:00.001-07:00

This is our trailer & suburban, after our first night in the Roseburg WalMart parking lot.
The boys:

Ruby:

Karry

Me, with WalMart in the background :)

The boys running at a rest stop

Isaac with a stick collection :)

The boys coloring in the trailer

Me cooking dinner. I bought some boxes of Hamburger & Chicken Helper to make simple meals on this trip. We don't normally eat like that. We had Chicken Helper and it was so darn salty. Do people really eat that much salt? We weren't crazy about it!

Our baby tiger in her cage :)

The bikes--they're getting pretty beat up on this trip, and I guess they were on the verge of falling off. Well, thankfully we picked most of them up for great prices at WalMart (like $35 for a kid's bike, and like $60 for mine)...Still, we don't want them ruined!!

Our trailer & my parents' motorhome at the Bakersfield WalMart. There were big power lines on the left side of us...That was kind of creepy to me, I'm paranoid about things like that. ;)

My mom with the boys, eating oranges

Noah and an orange tree:

That's all folks!!

Day 5, April 22

2008-04-23T08:02:00.000-07:00

This was our first day at Disneyland!! We didn’t tell the kids where we were going, just that we were going to do something special. We all loaded up in Mom & Dad’s motor home, because motor homes can park way up close to the tram, by the busses. We teased the kids that we were just going to drive around in the motor home all day—and wouldn’t that be fun? :)

When we were on the tram, Kaleb heard the announcer guy say “welcome to Disneyland Park.” Kaleb kept emphasizing the word “PARK” and thought we were at a Disney PARK and was super excited about that. :) He didn’t know we were at DISNEYLAND! I think they were a little shocked but super excited when they all found out!

I spiked up the boys’ hair this morning—mostly so that Noah would be tall enough to make it on the rides. It worked for the first one—Thunder Mountain Railroad! So maybe we’re mean parents, but we figured that the boys (especially Isaac) would THINK they were scared of the big rides, but if they actually tried them, they would love them….So before showing them too much of the park, we were determined to bring them on a fast ride, to show them how fun they were. Kaleb liked it….Isaac and Noah did not.

They all sort of liked Pirates of the Caribbean, but it was a little scary for them (it’s a pretty creepy ride, if you think about it! We’ve got sensitive lads, you know!). :) Ruby did not like Pirates, she gripped on to Karry so tight and kept trying to crawl up him to get away!

The boys liked Star Tours—all but Isaac, that is. I lost my Oaklies on that ride, but went back and the cast members used a flashlight and found them right under my seat. I was so glad!!

The boys watched a Jedi Training show, and kids could raise their hands if they wanted to participate and learn how to use a light saber. Our boys enjoyed watching, but they were scared to go on the stage. When Darth Vader came out, Kaleb was totally freaked out, and I had to take him away from the stage. All of the kids who were on the stage got to fight Darth Vader with a light saber—pretty cool! I think Karry wished he was a little shorter so he could’ve been up there too. ;)

We ate lunch in the motor home—it took us about 20 minutes to get there, from the Pirates ride, which isn’t bad! We had sandwich stuff & pasta salad there.

The boys (and Karry) loved the Buzz Lightyear ride!! We got to shoot Zorg, which was pretty fun. Everyone was a fan of Autopia, we’ll be riding that one again, for sure!

We didn’t see any characters up close, but Kaleb saw Goofy from the top of the double decker bus.

Isaac was too scared to go on Space Mountain, so he hung out with Grandpa and Ruby. Karry, Kaleb, Noah, my mom and I all stood in line. When we got up to the ride, the man working there wanted to check Noah’s height. He wasn’t fooled by the spiked hair—he stuck his finger through it and said “nope, he’s not tall enough.” Bummmmmer….He gave us a pass so that the adult with him could come back on quickly. My mom stood out with Noah while I rode with Kaleb, and Karry rode alone. I think Noah was actually relieved, he was a bit scared of the ride but didn’t want to admit it. Later, he was saying “I wasn’t scared, I was just too little.” :) Kaleb loved the ride! It was darker and faster than I remembered it. When the ride was over, I went back on with my mom, and we sat in the very front row. That was creepy, and even faster! My contacts felt like they were going to fly out of my eyes!

The lines haven’t been too long—usually about 15 minutes (Nemo was 45 minutes though, we didn't attempt that one yet).

We saw Honey I Shrunk the Audience, which got a bit intense. Mom and dad sat out with Ruby as she napped in the carseat. Noah and Kaleb both cried when the cat turned into a lion and appeared to come out into the audience (3D) and we covered their eyes when the python came towards everyone.

The kids all worked to earn money the week before we left (my motivation to get them to be my worker bees, beyond their normal chores). Their money is burning holes in their pockets (though they didn’t bring it with them Day 1 at Disney). They’re looking at everything they can see (whenever a ride exit goes through a store) and saying “oh, maybe I’ll buy THAT!” I think the most any kid has is $7, and that’s Isaac, and that includes his $1 from the Tooth Fairy. They’re going to find out soon that toys at Disneyland are expensive!! They don’t know that I’m planning to do some Christmas shopping here, later. They have a lot of fun costume things—pirate eye patches and swords, etc. I saw them last time I was here and wished I had more packing room & could grab some things for Christmas (I did get 3 stocking stuffer items last time). This time we have storage under our bed in the trailer. Ha! They’ll never know!

I am so glad I picked up some things at the Disney Store back home. I got some light up spinny things for $2.99, $3.99 and $4.99, and the same sorts of things are $15 here! I am going to hide them in the backpack and pull them out during the evening parade when all of the other kids have them. Tricky momma! :)

This is Noah's spiked hair: Here we are on the tram:

And here's Karry with Ruby:

Isaac was being Grandma's boy all day, clinging to her constantly. A couple of times, my parents did a bait & switch, and this was one of them. :) Grandma was holding on to Isaac, and they very cleverly switched Grandpa into her place. We shot a photo and showed Isaac. We asked "who's holding you?" and he said "Grandma." He looked at the picture and said "Grandpa???" and turned around and started laughing! It was quite funny!

Ruby was starting to warm up to Grandma, and even smiled at Grandpa once and didn't cry around him at all. She cried over a woman talking to her in the restroom when I was changing her. She's not really crazy about strangers, but Grandma & Grandpa are not as strange to her anymore. :)

Here we are at the front of the park. This was at the beginning, and it was hard to get the kids to look forward for a picture, they were so interested in looking around and seeing everything!

The boys were exhausted by the end of the day!! This is them in the motorhome on the way back. No carseats, yes--I guess we don't technically have to in a motorhome (like a bus), but they do have seatbelts. It's a very short drive to the park, and we don't pick up much speed, so it was ok...Sleeeppy boys.... :)

We thought they might sleep in on Day 6, after that long day. It is now the morning of Day 6, as I write, and we'd hoped to make it a lazy morning (& sleep in) and we're going to the park after lunch today. 7:30 is about as late as they'll sleep in, I guess!!! Ruby was standing at her baby gate and babbling, and the boys were all awake, saying things like "I have to go potty" and "I'm hungry mommy!" Time to start another crazy day! :)

Day 4, April 21

2008-04-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

We started at the Bakersfield WalMart and had to do a tiny bit of shopping. I was looking for diaper doublers for Ruby because even an hour & a half in the car makes her wet through her clothes...They didn't have any...I bought a bigger size diaper to put over her existing diaper, and that worked fine.

We had under 3 hours to drive today, which was NICE! We stopped to fuel up, and to eat some lunch at a Jack in the Box.

We drove through what looked like mountain on each side of us. They were green, and grassy, and beautiful. My mom called them the "grapevine," which I hadn't heard of. We passed so many semi-trucks, which makes us a little nervous as our vehicle set up is already so wide--there is no margin for error with a huge truck next to us!!

Our silly GPS brought us off on another highway that turned into 101, and then back onto I-5, for some strange reason. We drove through downtown Hollywood and faced crazy California traffic, lovely. Karry's hands hurt from gripping on that wheel so tightly!

The kids were great. I picked up little magnetic toys at WalMart, and didn't realize that every single magnetic piece would need to be punched out (which, of course, was hard for the kids). I think I spent an hour of the day doing that (exaggeration!!). Ruby's new diaper solution worked great.

Our ending destination? We were going to be here tomorrow night, but now we're at Orangeland, a campground 5 min from Disneyland with orange trees in every site. The kids LOVE the oranges!!!

Grandma (my mom) messed up yesterday and told a friend on the phone "we're going to Disneyland with Karry, Brenda and the kids" and the kids were like "wow, we're going to DISNEYLAND????" and Grandma told a little fib, "well, I was just teasing our friend because he really likes Disneyland..." I think they bought it, amazingly!!!

I can't tell you how excited we are to bring the kids there!!! They are going to LOOOOVVVVEEE it!! They saw Magic Mountain roller coasters off the freeway today and wanted to go ride those roller coasters. They were bummed when we said they were for big kids.

Ruby screams about Grandpa looking at her or Grandma holding her. Yikes! Hopefully she gets used to them soon!

Tonight we're grocery shopping, cleaning out the car (it needs it!) and getting ready for tomorrow's big day! Wooooo hoooo!!

I'll post a bunch of photos later!!

Days 3, April 20 (was going to be Day 1!)

2008-04-21T16:23:00.002-07:00

Day 3~~
We started at Sacramento KOA and stayed there until about 30 minutes AFTER check out time (oops!). We had to do laundry, because Noah had peed his pants and Ruby had wet through her clothes a couple of times on the trip. Ruby was just about ready for a nap when we were going to do laundry. Karry decided to take the boys up to the playground (right next to the laundry room) and let htem play, and he'd do laundry. I hung out at the trailer while Ruby slept. I got to read more of my book and take a little nap myself. I was so appreciative of that break, after being in confined spaces with my loud, crazy boys for so many hours!! I was a little bummed that I couldn't get the supposed wireless internet to work ;), but being "forced" to read a book was ok too. :) It made me realize how quick I am to grab my laptop when I get a break, and how much I love to read and don't often choose to do so.

The land is beautiful. There is so much agriculture, it is AMAZING to look at it all!!!

We met up with my parents in the afternoon--they left after us, but they drive faster than us. :) We stopped for ice cream at a Foster's Freeze which looked remarkably similar to a Dairy Queen.

We drove on and ended up sleeping in a WalMart parking lot in Bakersfield.

Day 2, April 19

2008-04-21T16:23:00.001-07:00

Some highlights:

~Brenda had to stop in at the UPS store in Roseburg to drop off a package (which we would have had done back home, had we been there!). The man at the counter was delighted that we were taking a road trip, and even MORE delighted that we had adopted 2 out of 4 kids (and shared that he adopted 4 out of 7!!), and after the transaction was completed, he handed Brenda a $5 and said “this is a discount.” :) Wow! Nice!

~It’s neat to hear the boys say things like “I love this land!” and, just like my little brother used to say “I’d like to climb that hill!” :)

~We made it through the Siskiyou pass just FINE. It was snowing on us, lightly, but there wasn’t any on the road.

~We drove a long distance today—all the way to Sacramento. I think we were in the car for about 6 hours, total.

~We stopped twice and let the kids run around at rest-stops, got snacks, drinks, etc. out of the trailer.

~We got gas 3 times today (the most expensive place costing $4.05 per gallon!!!)

~I read the Bible out loud in the car this morning (the chapters designated in the book Karry’s using with his men’s group).

~Karry and I listened to an audio sermon we’d put on our ipod called Blessed are the Poor by . Keller (I looked at all of the sermons that people I knew were recommending on their blogs and we downloaded them for listening!). It was a great sermon, I recommend it, and it actually tied in super well with the Leviticus stuff we read this morning!

~We heard another Odyssey story, and the kids watched 101 Dalmatians and also the Wizard of Hass (Veggie Tales).

~This sitting down thing (for long periods of time) is not working for Ruby, she’s wet through her diaper twice now…Ugh…Diaper doublers? More stops?

~I made 4 bead necklaces today. :) What a fun hobby!

~Homeschooling works out ok on a road trip. :) I brought little spiral notebooks and colored pencils for each boy in the car. Isaac wrote the words “MEMO BOOK” on one of the pages (copying it from the cover), and then asked me how to write a few more words. When I was making dinner tonight, I had the boys do a few pages in some preschool and kindergarten workbooks I brought.

~Ruby went to sleep with no tears and no hesitation tonight.

Day 1

2008-04-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends! We finally have internet access and can post what has been going on!!

DAY 1~~ (April 18)
We decided to leave early because of snow forecasts in the Siskiyou pass. Karry worked from home on Friday and Brenda finished up laundry, packing, putting things away in the trailer, and cleaning up the house a bit—whew! We were short changed on packing time because of Brenda being sick (better now, by the way, thank you for prayers!), and then leaving early made us have to rush, rush, rush! Our original thought was that we’d leave the house at 3 pm when Karry was off work…yeah right….Then we thought 4 pm….No…We were heading out of our neighborhood at 6:30.

First thoughts/moments:
It was very windy, and the trailer is heavy (esp. with 3 cases of bottled water, a generator, clothes for a family of 6, snacks for the next month, etc.), and it was “fish tailing.” That was pretty scary to us (esp. Brenda!). We got to about Salem when we realized that we left the oh-so-important manila envelope with all of our tickets (Disneyland, Sea World, Medieval Times, Go San Diego passes & Knotts Berry Farm) sitting in our den. Thank goodness my (Brenda’s) parents were in Clackamas and had a key to our home & were willing to drive out there to pick them up. They were already planning on joining us at Disneyland anyway, so this worked out.

Our original goal was to sleep in Grants Pass. Ruby got a little fussy, and we were getting tired, so we decided to pull off in Roseburg and sleep in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

The kids did great for that first trip—all of them. We listened to an Adventures in Odyssey story, and didn’t play any DVDs (yet!) They were just so excited about the trip!!

Ruby had a hard time falling asleep, but she was very tired. Karry installed a baby gate across the opening of the bottom bunk in our trailer, and that is Ruby’s “crib.” She wasn’t quite sure about it and the boys kept calling her a baby tiger in a cage. :) When she did fall asleep, she slept through the night!

I (Brenda) had a hard time falling asleep too, so I stayed up reading “The Birth Order Book” by Kevin Leman (thank you to David & Lora for the book!), and admired my first-born traits. :) (you know, I could be an astronaut, president or architect—most have been first born kids or only kids—Karry, the baby, could be a comedian :).

Kaleb fell off of his bed once (but doesn’t remember that!), and people drove through the 24-hour Wal-Mart parking lot pretty fast all night, but other than that we slept well!

Oops!

2008-04-16T09:49:00.001-07:00

I made a mistake--if you subscribe to posts, it doesn't end up in your e-mail box. Tell me if you'd like posts to go directly to your e-mail and I'll be happy to set that up! Just e-mail me and let me know!

Getting ready to go!

2008-04-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

We are getting ready to go on our road trip, as we leave THIS Sunday! I (Brenda) have the flu, which is slowing things down a bit. My biggest prayer is that Karry and the kids do not get sick. We need every spare moment and everybody to be healthy!!!