We did it, we survived an extremely long car ride with our children. It actually wasn't too bad. Our drive up to Washington took us about 13 hours, so it was long. But, we did make a lot of stops. Our funnest stop was in Twin Falls where we watched some base jumpers jump off the huge bridge that is there. The height of that bridge is dizzying. It is an amazing sight, and just off the freeway.
The older boys really were good the whole time, except that they had the uncanny ability to say they were sick or had to go potty just after we passed an exit. I bribed them with wrapped prizes, it was great. I brought so many, including some from my mother in law, thanks Darla, that I even had some left over when we got home. The DVD player was also a lifesaver. Adam was a little more difficult, but he was pretty good the whole way. He was done after 12 hours though, he started screaming and throwing everything we gave him. The way home wasn't as long and so he did a little better. The best part, no one threw up! This truly is amazing in our family.
We had a fun visit with my parents and brothers. Here are some of the highlights:
Floating down the Columbia River in our raft
And playing in the water after, we couldn't keep Adam out of the river, he loves water.
Driving to Portland (yes back in the car for a few more hours) with my parents and visiting waterfalls along the way. This is Horsetail Falls, we also went to Multnomah Falls.
We had a fun time in Portland just walking around the city. But, the most memorable part of our trip was eating pizza in an old haunted hotel. Before we went there I asked Jacob if he wanted to eat pizza or Chinese. He chose pizza. So we went to Old Town Pizza. While were choosing a place to sit Randy found this tiny room in the back with a table and a couch. He wanted to eat in there, but I got the creepiest feeling in there, I chose a spot as far away from that room as possible. Then while we waiting for our pizza I read the story on the back of the menu. It turns out that room used to an elevator shaft and a woman who lived an worked in the hotel was thrown down it, and haunts the building today. When Jacob heard this he said, "I don't want pizza, I want Chinese." He was so freaked out he hardly ate.
Driving to the Oregon coast and eating ice cream at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, seriously some of the best ice cream I have ever had.
Playing at the beach, even if the water was cold. Unfortunately Adam had a reaction the new sunscreen I bought. I had to give him benedryl and he slept the whole time we were at the beach.
Fireworks at Grandpa and Grandma's house on the 4th of July. Areal fireworks are now legal where they live. I would say there were 10 to 15 people in my parents neighborhood who were doing them. It was so fun to just sit in their yard and watch them all.
Thanks mom and dad for the fun trip. We can't wait to see you again.
I think he liked it. I left him in the high chair for about 10 minutes trying to decide how I was going to clean him up. I tried wiping him with a wash cloth, but that just spread the mess around. It is really hard to clean someone up who doesn't want to be cleaned up, he didn't make the job easy. I finally just took him to the bath tub.
Pulling dirty clothes out of the hamper and stuffing them in Jacob's drawer. He also likes to pull clean clothes out of Jacob's drawer and put them in the hamper. He is constantly making more work for me.
