Road Trip USA: First Weekend

One of the items on my pre-trip to-do list was, "Learn how to blog from the new laptop." Guess what item did not get checked off before we left? So, hopefully this works and I can figure out how to upload pictures correctly!

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I spent most of Friday getting things ready for the drive. Saturday morning was surprisingly unrushed as we finished packing and tried to check a few final things off the to-do list. I was pleased to see how much space we had left in the trunk once everything was packed. It will get more full when Mark joins us, but it's not nearly as bad as I had feared.

Saturday my boys had their final soccer games of the season. As soon as Bryce's last game was finished, we said good-bye to Mark, hopped in the car, and drove just over 2 hours to Royal City, Washington. We ate leftover pizza for dinner while we drove and started our first audio book of the trip. When we arrived, we all agreed that the two hours flew past and felt that bodes well for our ability to handle the driving on this trip.

Visiting Royal is always one of our very, very favorite things to do. We arrived just in time to have dessert. Thane and Max volunteered to squeeze lemons to make copycat Chick-Fil-A frozen lemonade.

 In addition, Ashlee made us ice-cream and cookie sandwiches. Yum!

The Fieldings came over briefly and before we knew it, the kids had maneuvered sleepovers. Megan, Jaylen, and Aubree camped out in the media room at Ashlee's, and Andrea took Bryce, Thane, and Maggie with her. If we'd thought it through a little better, we would have switched the sleepover locations (poor Andrea had to get 7 boys and 1 girl ready for church the next morning on her own!), but the kids had so much fun together. Andrea sent me this picture of Bryce, Maggie, and Jerry studying their scriptures that evening. Later, Andrea thanked me for letting Bryce go saying he is "such a good influence." I'm not arguing that Bryce is pretty great, but I think this picture makes it clear that Jerry and Maggie are also excellent examples!

Nellie and Graham were super keyed up, so it took them a while to fall asleep. It took the big girls even longer, though I can't say they were trying too hard. They spent their evening watching Studio C and JK Studios. They introduced Tyler to the Freelancers series, and it was late enough that they were all laughing hysterically.

Ashlee and I stayed up till the wee hours of the morning talking about matters dear to our hearts. I am so grateful for friends like Ashlee. I think God wants us to have relationships of deep connection.

Sunday morning Graham and Nellie woke up at 5 am telling me, "Mom, it's light outside. Can we get up?!" I made them stay in bed till 7, but I don't think Graham fell back asleep. Ugh!

Since we were all up so early, we had more than enough time to get ready for church. Going to church around the country has been one of the things I've most looked forward to while planning our road trip. Attending church in Royal was even better because we know so many wonderful, wonderful people there. Both Sacrament meeting and Relief Society focused on Christ, the Lamb of God. Talking about the Atonement and Grace is my favorite, so it was a very good day.

 After church the kids changed into play clothes in about 5 seconds and got to work playing with their friends. I made Bryce practice his piano, but he didn't mind too much because Maggie practiced right along with him. I'm glad that even though they are getting older, they still have an easy, balanced friendship.

 Ashlee made meat and potatoes for lunch, but the kids all liked the corn bread and honey butter best.

 

We met together for afternoon scripture study, then Jaylen and Aubree played a special musical number, "Peace in Christ," on their ukuleles. 

 At five, we loaded up and headed over to the Allred home for dessert night. Jaylen, Aubree, Bryce, and Maggie left a little early to see how far they could walk before we caught up to them in the cars. It's a different world in farm country!

 Dessert night brought together so many of my favorite people. The kids felt like it was heaven on earth: a table piled with treats, hordes of kids, a big playground including a merry-go-round, and dirt in which to dig. Oh yeah, they loved it.

 I adore the scenery in Western Washington, but the vistas in Royal are also beautiful and stunning. It seems to me that Royal City has a heart beat. When I'm there, I feel connected and grounded. 

 We made a concerted effort to get everyone to bed reasonably on time Sunday evening. Even though I was sorely tempted to stay up late talking to Tyler and Ashlee, we managed to cut our conversation off by 11pm so we could get enough sleep. I loved their thoughts and experiences about helping the poor and needy. They are such great examples to me!

Monday morning we were up and ready to go early. We said good-bye and drove away by 7:30 am. The kids were not happy about leaving; they would have been happy to stay for at least another week. I think leaving places might end up being the hardest part of our trip.

 Monday was the longest travel day of our whole trip. By the time we arrived in Springville, we'd been in the car for 12 1/2 hours.  We had our moments of fussing and arguing, but overall, the kids were all excellent! It helped that we fixed the DVD player in our car, and I let the kids watch a movie the last two hours of the trip. The good news is that from now on, all other travel days should seem easy in comparison to yesterday!

Road Trip USA

People. You know I get crazy ideas, right? Some of those nutty ideas just won't leave me alone. I don't remember exactly when I got the idea to do an epic cross country road trip, but once the seed slipped in, it quickly took root and has grown into a mighty oak.

I've spent the last year planning out the details of where, when, who, what, and how. I've really enjoyed the planning, though I'll admit that the big picture planning was more enjoyable than the nitty-gritty details (and some of those details are yet to be finalized!).

But now, ready or not, we are heading out!

Last week I hit the "what-the-heck-was-I-thinking?!" point, as the reality of the trip started to sink in. "So much driving! Nine weeks?! Seriously? This could be a disaster."

Once I got that out of my system, we settled down for the final preparations. There is so much that we had to do to get ready for the trip, but even more to do to get ready to be gone for two months.

My kids might argue that one of the best things about getting ready for a road trip is getting the car washed. And boy was our car dirty!

 

We front-loaded most of our homeschooling curriculum, so we finished most of it in the last couple weeks. We ended art, science, piano, and violin early.

We had to wrap things up with our co-ops and say good-bye. They will finish out their years without us. Aubree is not thrilled about being gone for so long; she's especially sad to be missing the end of her last year in Homes United. She knows she will have a good and worthwhile time once we're on the trip, but it's hard to leave her friends and miss out on fun activities, including dances, class parties, recitals, birthdays, hikes, back-packing trips, and end-of-year celebrations.

You see, we are so unbelievably blessed in the network we have in our lives. Between church, FLEET, Homes United, our neighborhood, family, and our friends, we have so much love and support. It's hard to leave for an extended amount of time. It's nice that it's just a temporary separation. The week leading up to leaving, our friends went out of their way to spoil and help us. 

Elizabeth watched my kids for hours on what ended up being the busiest day of the week for me. She made them lunch, let them picnic on her deck, let them help her make homemade play dough, then let them play with it (and make a huge mess) at her house. This is Elizabeth's first year homeschooling, and we have loved having them as homeschooling friends.

Tallie and her kids went to Trader Joe's and bought us a huge bag full of their favorite road trip snacks. They even personalized their choices. For example, they bought Thane watermelon jerky, because it was the strangest thing they could find and Thane loves weird food. Even more than this incredibly generous gift, Tallie has been a wealth of information and support in planning our trip. She took her three kids and spent ten months touring the USA, Mexico, and Canada last year. She makes our trip look like child's play!

The Dance's came over for one final play date before we left. While her kids kept my kids happily occupied, Stephanie helped me pack.

Instead of taking individual suitcases, I decided to pack a day's worth of clothes for everyone in a packing cube. Stephanie helped me track down clothes, coordinate outfits, fold them, and pack them neatly. Her help made an overwhelming, monotonous task enjoyable.

As hard as it was to prepare and say good-bye, we are so excited to be heading out on this adventure. As much as I love, love, love our friends, communities, and activities, I am looking forward to taking a break from it all. I completely acknowledge that I eagerly and cognizantly get myself involved in a lot. I wouldn't change that, but I hope this trip gives me a chance to really be in the moments with our family. 

As an extrovert, my go-to is to always have other people join us on outings and activities. Our trip will have lots of opportunities to spend time with cherished friends and family (hurrah!), and it will also have a lot of times when it's just our family. I think that will be good for us. I am certain there will be hard times, but I sincerely hope that the end result is stronger familial bonds, shared memories, lots of laughter, and a wonderful family adventure.

Pre-Trip Extras

*Katie and her kids joined us for General Conference the first weekend in April. Though they weren't sour dough, we did have traditional waffles with strawberries for breakfast. Bryce loves to set up his tent every time it's General Conference. Bingo remains a hit when the kids are listening to the talks.

After Conference, Piper organized a "show," and this time around we had royalty in attendance.

*On the Saturday of General Conference, we listened to talks in between soccer games. Aubree invited Lily over for the afternoon session, and the two cute old ladies crocheted as they watched.

*It rained the entire Spring Break, so we had to be creative with our outings. One afternoon we joined friends at the pool.

The big kids and the little kids had a great time.

*We did get a little bit of sunshine once Spring Break ended. Go figure.

*Bryce wants to make a book full of Dance pictures, so he asked me to get this picture of them playing Apples to Apples.

*Aubree and I celebrated her half birthday with a date to Red Robin. She's not very adventurous with her choices of location or food. This time around she ordered her usual never-ending root beer float and plain cheeseburger. Here's to 13 1/2!

*Aubree had her last dance before our trip. It was held during Spring Break, so our pre-dance numbers were low. Apples to Apples for the win again.

*Before our friends tore out this bush in front of their house, the boys had fun jumping into/on top of it.

*One evening Nellie was running from my room and tripped right in front of the door. Her forehead collided with the door frame.

A goose-egg just in time for Easter. Ouch!

It was looking a little better a few days later.

And when her face is covered with do-a-dot marker, you can hardly even notice the bruise!

*Graham had his first experience trying to forge my name. He sincerely didn't realize that he wasn't supposed to sign for me, but he didn't do too bad of a job (his attempt is in black, mine is in blue).

Poo Poo Point

Non-local friends, it's true; there really is a popular hike nearby called "Poo Poo Point." I thought it warranted post title status.

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This summer, the young men AND young women in our ward will be doing a High Adventure hike up Mt. Baker. Aubree is incredibly excited to be able to have this adventure, mostly because it's a chance to spend 4 days with friends.

In preparation for the big trek, the youth are required to participate in training hikes and activities. So far they've had two hikes. For the first they hiked up McDonald Mountain. Aubree walked with her friends, and they were content to stay at the back of the pack. Later, the youth leaders confided, "After the first hike, we were a little bit worried about Aubree. We weren't sure if she was going slow because she was busy talking or if it was really hard for her."

Last Friday they had their second hike, this time up Poo Poo Point. All of Aubree's girl friends couldn't make the hike because of a young women's regional basketball game. 

So this time around, Aubree stayed right at the front of the group with all of her guy friends.

She even spent a good portion of the uphill hike holding the hand of one of the leader's seven-year old daughter.

The youth leaders told me, "Yeah, we're not worried about Aubree any more. She'll do great."

Despite the rain and mud, Aubree stayed with the boys and ran all the way back down the trail. She pretty much loved it all.

Easter 2019

I really wanted to host a seder meal for Easter this year, but with the preparations for the road trip, it sadly just wasn't in the cards. Next year.

This year was decidedly low-key. The neighborhood egg hunt took place at the same time Bryce and Thane had soccer games, so Mark took Aubree, her friend Lily, Graham, and Nellie.

The sun came out to shine her approval on the whole event.

Bryce and Thane were disappointed to miss the hunt, so I arranged a mini-hunt for them Easter morning. I hid 7 eggs for each kid. The eggs were color-coded and hidden according to age and ability. (And yes, they are all wearing their Christmas pajamas. It seems kind of fitting to tie Christmas and Easter together.)

Nellie's eggs were easy, but it took the big kids quite a while to find their eggs. That was fun.

We missed Aunt Deanna's Easter gathering because it was held on Saturday instead of Sunday, and we had three soccer games. So sad! Instead, we celebrated at home with french toast casserole for breakfast and a fairly traditional ham and potatoes meal for dinner.

Of course, the most important part of Easter is celebrating the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We may not have pictures, but we made a point of reading and studying the last week of His life, leading up to the glorious morning of resurrection. Because of Him, we are not alone. Because of Him, our sins are forgiven. Because of Him, we can live forever. Happy Easter.