Day 9

Thursday

Today really was, well, uneventful. Boring probably isn’t the right word, because we did have fun, but we didn’t do a whole lot. The kids played outside, I got to sleep in, and then we visited one of my best friends from high school who also happened to be home visiting her mom. We haven’t seen each other for fifteen years, but as soon as she opened the door, we picked right up where we left off and it seemed more like we were catching up after just a couple of weeks away instead of a decade and a half. (Yikes! That makes me feel old.) We had a great visit that was way too short, catching up on each other’s lives and talking about where old friends were. My kids all played on her parents’ trampoline, and then when they got hungry, we headed back home to the farm. The kids are alternating between playing outside and playing video games.

We were originally going to head over the mountains to Olympia tonight, but that’s changed, and Zach and Walter want to float down the Yakima River tomorrow in Ellensburg. They’re going to go and find rafts and life jackets for all of us. I’m a little bit hesitant about this, but I guess it could be fun. I love water and rafting, but taking six kids with us, that part I’m not so sure about. This should be interesting…

Total miles traveled: 25. My mom’s farm really isn’t close to anything, so even visiting friends means 30 minutes in the car.

Day 8

Since we left the grocery store last night in Ennis, Montana, we’ve driven another 524 miles. The kids mostly slept well in the car, which makes sense because they’re exhausted. Levi, though, tends to toss and turn when he’s asleep, so being strapped into a carseat is hard on him. Poor boy cries in his sleep without waking up. Stopping to take him out isn’t really an option, because we need to get to where we’re going so he can get out and stay out, but I feel terrible for the little guy. That really is a very long time to be sitting in one spot!

I drove until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any more, and then I woke up Jeff. He took over and managed to make it to Spokane, where he found a grocery store, parked, and was out like a light. I woke up at about 4:30 and started driving, but like a couple of days ago, realized after about 45 minutes that I really wasn’t awake enough to drive safely. It was frustrating to stop again; we were only about an hour away from my mom’s farm, and I just wanted to get there and be done, but it’s better to get there alive (minor details, you know). A 30-minute nap on the side of the road and I was good to go. We pulled into the driveway at about 6:15 this morning.
All of the kids were thrilled to see Grandma, and even Lily, who hasn’t seen my mom in months, reached out for her. We unpacked all of our laundry and started the first of about ten or twelve loads, while my mom painted the girls’ toenails sparkly pink, much to their delight. Having a day to unwind and not have to be somewhere, doing something, is a much-needed break. My brother, his wife, and their two kids arrived from Michigan just an hour after we got here, so it’s been happy chaos here all day.

Today was also the perfect opportunity to clean out our van. Holy cow, there is a ton of stuff in there! After a week on the road, this was a great time to reassess what we’ve brought and what we really need, versus what did we throw in the van that we haven’t used and probably won’t at all. Jeff came up with an entire Army duffel bag of extraneous things, and we’re packing it up to ship back to our house from here. I’m going to box it and probably print the shipping label online, and then have my mom send it in a couple of weeks so it doesn’t sit on our front porch the whole time. Things we’re sending back include:
· Extra backpack child carrier (the hope was that Jeff could carry Levi on long walks, and I could carry Lily, but with a boot on my balance is off, so it’s just not safe. There’s no point in continuing to hope that that plan will work.)
· Andrew’s Scout uniform and some of his extra clothes from camp
· Books I brought to read that I’ve already finished
· Electronics, such as the boys’ cellphones, that we’re not using. We’ve been in so many places without cell coverage that we’re just using walkie-talkies.
· All 15-20 of our rechargeable batteries. At home, yes, we can recharge them. On the road it’s just not worth the time and hassle, and we can get 48 AAs, Kirkland Signature brand (Costco), for just ten bucks.

One of the ways we’re trying to keep the van clean is by having each child keep their things in a box. Before we left Dallas, I found containers that are just bigger than a notebook, maybe 10”x14-15”, and about 4-5” high. The lids are attached, so they open like a book. I bought one for each of the kids, labeled them with permanent marker, and told them that anything they wanted to take had to fit in that box. Aspen brought books and a couple of toys, Levi loaded his with board books and lots of cars, Kendra brought a story tablet, pencils, and books, along with Bananas the Monkey, and Jaden brought a Calvin & Hobbes book or two. Two or three times a day, at different stopping points, the kids spend two minutes getting things back into their boxes before we get out of the car. It’s really helped keep the mess to a manageable level.

Mom and Walter, my stepdad, took us all out for dinner and then bought the kids ice-cream cones at Mickey D’s. Since the farm is quite a ways from town, we’ve still logged over 100 miles today. Total including the drive here, 625 miles.

Day 7

Tuesday

Like the park in Colorado, our camping area in Yellowstone has one centrally located shower building. Since this is the Camp of Ever-Present, All-Invasive Dirt, I was more than happy to take a shower this morning. At least, I was happy until the shower itself. Have you ever had to take a shower that is coin-operated? First bit of advice: don’t plan to enjoy it. The showerhead was an instrument of torture designed by sadists, and I can honestly say this was the most painful shower I’ve taken in my life. The water felt like a hundred needles hammering into my skin, and the water came out so fast that I couldn’t even catch any in my hands to splash on my face—it blasted into my cupped hands so fast that it immediately splashed out. Forget actually putting my face in the water; that would have left visible bruises, I’m sure. The temperature varied from ice water to scalding, which certainly didn’t add much to the ambiance.
Second piece of advice: count your quarters very, very carefully! The shower cost $2.00, quarters only, for six minutes of hot water. After the allotted six minutes, the water reverted to its previous arctic temperatures, and more quarters were required. Since I was not speedy enough to finish rinsing off in less than 6 minutes, and since I didn’t want to spend the day with my hair covered in conditioner, I had to walk three steps back to the changing stall to insert more quarters. Lo and behold, after I put all my remaining quarters in the slot, I was 25¢ short. I could think of no other option than to open my stall door three inches and try to get the attention of someone passing by to help me. I stood there for probably five minutes, dripping and shivering, before I caught the eye of a woman walking by. I quickly explained my dilemma and asked if she’d please run my dollar bill to the change machine just a few feet away so that I could finish my shower. Apparently my face was more pathetic than I realized, because she smiled, handed me back my dollar, and gave me a quarter. I don’t know that I’ve ever been more grateful for 25 cents!

I left the shower building clean, feeling human again, and very, very glad that I’d decided not to bring Kendra and Aspen with me to take showers as well. They would have hated me for years for that experience.

After such an auspicious beginning, though, the day could only go up from there. We were packed and ready to leave by about 10:30, and headed towards the Fishing Bridge (from which, ironically enough, there is no fishing allowed). We were delayed for about ten or fifteen minutes due to construction traffic, and while we were sitting and talking to the kids, Aspen asked for a piece of black licorice. I said no, it’s a treat for later, and we don’t eat in the car. Jeff added that we would eat it when we were stopped. Aspen gave him her Captain Obvious look and said, “Um, Daddy? We ARE stopped.” He had no response to that, mostly because he was laughing too hard. Can’t argue with the truth!

After walking around the Fishing Bridge for a while, and seeing thousands of minnows but no big fish (Jeff saw one, but I didn’t), we hopped back in the car and drove for a little while, stopping in Canyon City for lunch and souvenirs. For this trip, the kids each have their own souvenir budget, and they can choose how to spend it. We’ve talked with them about the amount they have, the number of places we’re going, and we won’t tell them how to spend it or how little or how much they can put on any one item. I did have to specify for the older boys, though, that The Parents reserve the right to veto any purchases of knives or other weaponry. Cue chorus of “Awww, man!” It was interesting to see what each one chose to buy. Both Andrew and Jaden bought bear claw necklaces for themselves, but each of them also purchased a gift for a grandma or a friend. Levi at first picked out a hat—very appropriate, I thought, since we are wearing hats almost every time we’re outside—but the hat lost out to the yellow Pull-Back Action Ranger Truck. Kendra is the proud owner of a pillow featuring a 3D stuffed wolf, and Aspen is carrying around her white bison that she’s dubbed Princess Buffalo.

We finally made it out of Yellowstone at about 4pm. It’s roughly another ten hours of driving to my mom’s house in eastern Washington, and we really didn’t want to drive for another three hours just to unpack the tent and all of our stuff and then have to pack everything back up in the morning, so we’re just going to drive through the night tonight. Stopping at a grocery store in Montana for dinner gave the kids a chance to stretch their legs, and they picked out cheese, crackers, sliced turkey, and Levi decided that we absolutely must have Lighthouse sugar cookies for dessert.

We’re not far from I-90 now, and once we hit that it’ll be a looong ways into Washington. Probably have to stop one more time for gas and a root beer.

Total wildlife spotted in Yellowstone today: 9 bison, one coyote, a pelican, and five elk. I was slightly disappointed that we didn’t see another bear, but I guess you get what you get. Total miles so far today: 150, but we’re not done yet!

Day 6

Monday

Whew! I think we plowed through two or three days’ worth of activities today. This is the first time we’ve stayed in one spot for two nights in a row, so we didn’t have to take down the tent and pack up this morning. However, between sleeping in, cranky & uncooperative kids, a poopy diaper explosion all over a sleeping bag and Jeff’s shirt, and having to wash dishes three campsites away (the food-y water attracts bears, so there’s a sink in a closed room), we didn’t make it out of the campsite until after 11am. Note to self: Don’t ever assume we can “get up quick and get out” of anywhere, even if there’s no packing involved!

We headed out towards Mammoth Hot Springs. It didn’t look very far distance-wise, but we forgot to take into account that the average speed limit in the park is 35mph. The hot springs were interesting, and we had a nice long walk, but I don’t know if it was worth the two hours it took to get there! The hike wasn’t more than a mile or two distance-wise, but lots of elevation changes, and after the first twenty minutes or so Aspen was less than impressed with climbing hills and stairs. At one point, Levi sat down in the middle of the trail halfway up a hill, stuck his lip out, and said “I’m staying wight hewe!” Jaden, bless his heart, gave piggy-back rides to Aspen and then Levi. We let the littler kids set our pace, carried them when we needed to, and made a conscious effort not to worry about speed.

The orange color of the rocks in the hot springs is caused by a thermal microorganism that only lives in hot water, so all of the dry, dormant springs are white. Kendra had me take a picture of one cliff that is entirely white except for one orange spot in the middle; she says it looks like a black-and-white movie that someone splashed a drop of paint on. (I know it doesn’t sound that exciting, but the picture turned out really well, so I’ll post it when I can.)

The walk and the drive took a lot longer than we’d planned, but silly us decided to keep going around the outer loop of Yellowstone’s main road. The drive across the northern side of the park was incredible. I know I mentioned the forest fires before, but the damage is so much more evident in this half of the park. Huge areas of forest stand bare of leaves and branches, the skeletons of thousands upon thousands of trees poking sharply at the sky in stark contrast to the green undergrowth beginning to show underneath. In some areas the remaining trunks are weathered and brown, stripped of their bark and looking like a gathering of all the world’s telephone poles. In other areas, the black, charred coating remains, giving the forest the appearance of last night’s campfire. The sweeping hills illustrate the vast size of the fire; many, if not most, are bare and scarred, and a few others remain strikingly green.

We stopped for dinner in a picnic spot that was surrounded by incredible wildflowers. Pink, yellow, and purple covered the entire hillside like an artist’s paintbrush spatter. Jeff grilled burgers and hotdogs that tasted twice as good as they normally do. We mostly ate frequent snacks during our walking around, so that was our first substantial meal since breakfast.

After eating, we headed on the long drive home, stopping at the brink of the Upper Falls in the canyon area. I’ve never been to Niagara Falls, or any other significant waterfall, but the sheer volume and speed of the water as it poured into the basin below was at the same time fascinating and terrifying. The overlook is directly over the main drop of the falls, a plunging, plummeting dive that appears to be at least 100 feet. It was beautiful, but I couldn’t stop my heart from racing, especially as Levi and Kendra tried to climb up the railings and rocks to see better. Yikes would be an understatement! We stayed long enough for a picture with the river in the background—but not the falls, because I could just see the kids leaning back to be funny, and slipping off—and then I was ready to go back to the car.

Total wildlife spotted today: Two buck deer, five elk, two moose, one coyote, a buffalo (bison?), and one adorable (from a distance!) black bear, which we spotted eating fireweed about fifty yards from the road. The buffalo, like the coyote, crossed the road right in front of our car, and the others we spotted in fields next to the road. I did see another bear in a meadow about half a mile down the valley, but no one else saw it, and I couldn’t get a picture at that distance anyway.
Total miles driven: 152. Time spent in the car: at least six, maybe seven hours. It’s 10:20 and we’re not back to the campsite yet. We definitely tried to do too much today and go too far. Lesson learned, hopefully!

Day 5, in Yellowstone

Sunday, 10:30pm

After a picnic lunch, we packed up the stroller and headed for the Old Faithful viewing area. Jeff and I sat on a bench in the front row, while the kids ran around and played. We ended up sitting in the sun for about 45 minutes, and wow was it hot! Lily was the only lucky one, with a shade on her stroller. Levi ran around making laser-gun noises (ptshew! ptshew!) and telling random passers-by, “It’s gonna shoot STEEEEEEM!” Jaden walked around the gravel for quite a while following, and trying to catch, a large grasshopper. Lily and Kendra ended up sitting in the gravel and playing like it was a sandbox, and Aspen and I sat on the bench and played numbers games. She likes to count to 100, just because she can, and she thinks it’s funny to stop at random points so that I can say the next number. I rarely say the right one, she tells me “No, mama, you have to say this one,” and the next time she stops, I say whatever number she told me to say last time. Yes, we’re easily amused, but hey, she’s four and whatever keeps her occupied is a good thing.

The eruption itself was impressive. I videoed it with my camera, but it still doesn’t capture what it’s really like, because you can’t see the scale and it’s hard to tell that it’s shooting steam and water over 100 feet in the air. I was surprised at how long the eruption lasted; I guess I thought it was a twenty- or thirty-second blast, but apparently it can be anywhere from 90 seconds to five minutes. This time, it was over 3 minutes. It was just as much fun for me to watch the kids watching the geyser: Lily sat and just stared, Levi clapped and said “Wow!” too many times to count, and the older kids all had their mouths open.

What really made it memorable, though, was the man who came and sat on the ground in front of us. Just before the eruption began, he pulled out a Native American flute and began to play. The haunting, lonesome melody echoed as hundreds of people sat silently in awe of the plumes of steam and water shooting skyward. Rather than detract from the geyser, the music complemented it perfectly.

After ice cream sandwiches and a Junior Ranger hat for Lily at the General Store, we drove to our campsite. We’re on the outside of Loop C in Grant Village, which puts us a 2-minute walk from the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake. Now, I’m an outdoorsy person, I love to camp, and I don’t mind the insects and being outside, but the amount of dirt here is just crazy! The campsites are dirt, and at the end of the evening the kids had black feet and a crust of grime everywhere on their bodies. You can’t use soap at the campsite because it might attract bears, and the only showers are a five-minute drive, so we ended up heating up some water and washing the kids off with washcloths. Even after a washcloth, hot water, and several rinses and scrubbing, Jaden and Andrew are still brown-footed, although it’s a little bit better. We carried them to the tent so they couldn’t pick up more dirt, and everyone slept like logs.

Product rave for the day: Blue Lizard sunscreen. A message board I’m a member of, Dallas Area Moms, had a discussion a while back about sunscreen and the dangers of oxybenzone (which is in nearly every sunscreen on the market). Quite honestly, I thought it sounded alarmist and kind of like “The sky is falling!” at first, but after doing some research on oxybenzone, I decided that it’s something my kids don’t really need to be exposed to. Blue Lizard uses zinc oxide and titanium dioxide instead of chemicals, and is manufactured in Australia. Where US waterproof testing requires the sunscreen to still be present at 80min in standing water, Aussie testing (so I’m told) is 240min in a whirlpool. I’ve been putting it on all of us in the morning, and even up here at 8000+ feet the only slight sunburn we’ve gotten so far is when I forget to reapply it at dinner time, or on the kids’ scalps when they don’t wear a hat. If you know of other non-chemical sunscreens or places to buy them, please leave a comment or send me an email!

Total distance since our last mileage check: 492 miles.

Day 5

Sunday, 11:30am

We drove and slept, took turns, and sometimes just pulled over for a 20-minute nap with my head on the steering wheel. I woke up at 4:30 and started driving again, but realized after about 20 minutes that I really wasn’t awake, so I pulled over again. We finally started off at about 6 am, 90 minutes from Old Faithful according to our GPS. 90 minutes, that is, if you actually just get in the car and drive!

7am: stop for cold cereal and get everyone dressed. This, of course, takes an hour. It’s chilly outside, but not too bad. The first thing I noticed as Jeff opens the doors to get clothes out is a mosquito the size of a small bird. Mosquitoes in Texas are small and silent, so you usually don’t realize they’re there until you’ve been bitten several times, but these Wyoming mosquitoes have all the subtlety of a small helicopter. The kids and I were able to kill all the bugs that flew into the car, and our breakfast was accompanied with much smacking. Drew and Jace thought it was a great excuse to whack someone’s head and yell, “Dang! Missed it!”

The Grand Teton National Forest was gorgeous, and the mountains appeared out of nowhere, still dotted with snow. The lakes, rivers, and canyons are breathtaking, even just from the car windows as we drove straight through. We did stop long enough to take a picture at the Grand Teton sign, minus a sleeping Lily.

We’re now driving through Yellowstone. It’s so odd to see everything so green, and yet there are many many places where the hills and meadows appear to be distant porcupines or pincushions. The forest fires of the past few years are plainly evident, marked by scarred and bare trees that still stand tall above the new growth. What’s even more remarkable is the occasional full-grown living tree standing among the dead, the rare lone tree that somehow managed to survive the fire. I know it sounds cliché, but the wonder of nature and God’s creations is absolutely magnificent here. There just aren’t enough words to do justice to all of the sights here.

Headed for Old Faithful now; the kids are playing happily in their carseats (no electronics! Hurrah!), and since it’s Sunday morning we’re listening to a church CD. Jeff’s sleepy, so it’s my turn to drive.

Day 4, part 2

9pm Wyoming time

We made it to Laramie at about 5:30pm. After talking a while in the car, neither of us wants to spend all day tomorrow driving to Yellowstone, which is another 6hrs+ from here. We stopped instead at a decent sit-down restaurant, had dinner, and then walked to the Big K-Mart across the parking lot. Jeff realized during the rainstorms the other day that we’d forgotten to pack our ponchos, so I grabbed a few at K-Mart, along with another few odds and ends, and a thermometer.

Thermometers aren’t necessarily something you’d think to pack, but if you have small children, don’t go far without one! Aspen has been acting very sluggish lately, not eating well, and tonight she felt a little warm. I couldn’t tell if it was because she’d been sitting in the sun in her carseat, or if she was actually sick, but a quick check with the thermometer let us know (thankfully) that she’s OK, just tired and hot.

I ran back to K-Mart and grabbed some window sunshades.
It’s funny, but in my work as a certified carseat technician I am constantly telling parents not to attach anything to the windows or seatbacks. Things such as mirrors or suction-cup window shades can become projectiles in a crash. In my role as a mom, I decided tonight that keeping Aspen and Lily from getting sunburned and overheated was worth a little projectile risk. And heck, who am I kidding? We are packed to the gills, and there are projectiles everywhere already. The Sprinter windows are quite large, and since we are headed north, both girls get a lot of afternoon sun. Tinted windows can only do so much, so I’m doing exactly what I advise parents not to do and sticking up a suction-cup shade. (Actually, I’ve put two on Lily’s window, and the two together still only cover about 2/3 of the window area. BIG window!)

So since we don’t want to spend all morning and afternoon in the car, after our leisurely dinner and shopping trip we went back to the van and got everyone ready for bed. Diapers changed, night-time pull-ups on, medicine dispensed to those who need it, and we are just going to drive all night. The kids are watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and by the time it’s over they should all be asleep. Jeff is driving for now, and he’s currently yawning so we may switch soon! I’m sure we’ll have to stop and sleep at some point, so we’re hoping to make it to Yellowstone by 8 or 9 in the morning.

Day 4

What a difference a night makes!

Thursday night, we were camped at a state park with pit toilets, no running water at the sites, a 5-minute walk to a shared pump, no showers, and sites so primitive that we had to clear out rocks before we could set up the tent. We only saw a few people there, and the loop on which our site was located only had two other spots that were in use. Pitch black at night, a million stars, and the only sounds after dark were the occasional animal squeak.

Friday night we just needed a place to sleep and didn't plan on any recreational activities, so we reserved a spot at an RV park called Garden of the Gods Campground. Holy cow, was it ever the polar opposite of Eleven Mile Park. So many RVs, you couldn't sneeze without hitting one. So close together, I think they shoe-horned them in; I'm not exaggerating when I say there must have been a hundred crammed into this small little camp. It's located in the middle of the city, so you could see the light-pollution glow and hear sirens and cars driving by all night. The upside was the hot showers just 20 or 30 feet from our tent, but it was about as urban as "camping" could possibly be.

Got up, showered (yay! It's been two days.), all packed up, and hey, where's Andrew's retainer? I was gobsmacked that he could lose it that quickly, when he'd made it through the entire week of Scout camp with no one to ask him where it was and he managed to not ever misplace it. This is retainer #3, which he's already lost once, and I was so mad I had to bite my tongue so I wouldn't say anything unnecessarily negative. He did find it after a little while, tucked into the inside of his sleeping bag, which was by that point already rolled, strapped, bagged, and put into the bottom of the van's cargo area. Sheesh!

On our way out of Colorado Springs, we took a quick detour to Helen Hunt Falls in north Cheyenne Canyon. Lily and I stayed at the bottom and got pictures of the kids & Jeff on the bridge that crosses the falls. Gorgeous! After they kept hiking, she and I eventually made it up to the bridge (veeeerrrrrry sloooooooowly), where she stood and stared at the water for ten or fifteen minutes, completely captivated. That is, of course, until someone came along with a small dog, and then it was "Pup-pee!" for the next twenty minutes after that.

Our goal from here is Yellowstone, but even if we drive straight through we wouldn't make it until after midnight, and that's too long in the car for the kids. We'll probably just drive as far as we can handle, and when they start to melt down about being strapped in, we'll stop for the night.

Today's tip for long road trips: If you're traveling with a child under the age of 6, bring a small potty-training toilet. I bought this one on clearance a couple of months ago with this trip specifically in mind, and it's been a life-saver. There's been more than one occasion that we've heard the "I need to go!" cry when we're miles from anything, and rather than try to find a (dirty yucky seedy) gas station or try to have them squat by the side of the road, we can pull this out and have them sit on it instead. Once they've gone, we stick a disposable diaper into the bowl to absorb the liquid, and then wipe it down with a Clorox wipe. We wrap the diaper in a couple of plastic shopping bags and toss it at our next gas stop. Even including the clean-up, it only takes about five minutes, and it's so much easier than the alternatives!

I don't know where we'll stop tonight. If it's off the interstate enough that we can't find a wireless connection, it may be two or three days before I can log on again. (Despite the dates and times on this and the last two or three posts, I'm changing them to reflect when they were written, but I've actually uploaded them all within about ten minutes of each other.) The kids are curious to know who's reading, though, so leave us a comment! We'd love to hear from you!

Day 3, continued

We'd planned to go back into Colorado Springs before eating dinner, but realized partway there that we wouldn't make it, so shopping will have to wait until Saturday. We're not out of anything, but we keep remembering little things that would sure come in handy. I've been making notes on my phone when I remember, but I'm not carrying my phone everywhere, so I may still be forgetting things! It's so odd that we have no cell service at all up here. Kind of freeing, really. We passed one of the campsites that had a small pop-up trailer set up, and a camper on the back of a truck. The couple who own it travel like this all the time; it's not a vacation. Jeff asked me, "Can you imagine living like that?" Well, no, I can't, but there is part of me that would love to get rid of all of our material things and just drive. Take my family, see the country, and not worry about anything. This trip is kind of like that on a teeny tiny scale, and small things like Jeff's job weren't an issue, I would seriously consider something like that.

We brought with us enough clothes for the kids for 8 days, so we only have to do laundry once a week. Rather than try to load and unload eight people's bags every night, plus toiletries & diapers & shoes & sleeping bags, we figured out a better way to pack. Each set of clothes, shirt + shorts + underwear, is packed into a gallon-size ziploc. Each duffle bag is packed with two ziplocs per child, plus pajamas. All of the socks are in a plastic grocery bag, stuffed into the bag of sweatshirts & jackets. When we set up camp, the only bags we have to get out are shower stuff, one bag of clothes, and the coats & socks if it's cold. Makes life much easier!

After we left Eleven Mile, we headed up the South Platte River to Camp Alexander, which is just outside of Lake George. We arrived just in time to see the evening flag ceremony and end-of-the-week awards ceremony. Honestly, I think Drew has grown three inches this week! When his troop headed into the assembly area, Jaden and Kendra yelled "There's Andrew! I see him!" and I had to ask, "Where?" I didn't recognize him! According to his Scout leaders, Drew has had an awesome week. He's completed almost all of his Tenderfoot requirements, didn't get homesick at all, and handled himself very well. Since this was the longest he's been away from home, and since kids with Asperger's usually don't handle change well, I was hugely relieved and very grateful to his leaders for taking such good care of him.

Dinner was delicious: barbecued chicken, vegetable lasagna, rolls, potato salad, rolls, chocolate chip cookies, and big slices of juicy watermelon. We ate until we were stuffed, and then spent the next hour collecting Andrew's things, making one last trip to the Trading Post, and waiting while he showed Jaden around the tents and all of the "cool stuff" (Jaden's words). Once we got everyone back to the van and tried to find more room for another two duffle bags, a camp cot, and sleeping bag, we headed out to Colorado Springs. It's about an hour away, and then we'll head towards Yellowstone first thing in the morning.

DAY 3: 40 miles

Day 3

DAY 3
Brrrrrr! We knew it would be cold (hello, Captain Obvious, we’re camping in the mountains!) but it’s still a little bit of a shock to wake up and be able to see your breath, when you’re used to the 100-degree weather in Dallas. But hey, we were dry! No rain! We woke up and got everyone dressed in jeans, sweaters, jackets, and even socks and shoes. Normally my kids don’t wear socks from about April 1st until about November or so, so it was odd to have to break out the winter clothes while packing for a summer vacation.
Breakfast was a new experience for us. None of us realized that the large rock next to the picnic table had several small tunnels burrowing under it, home to several ground chipmunks. Much to the kids’ delight, we were bombarded with small furry visitors the whole morning. Cute? Check. Funny? Check. Mischievous and devious? Check, and check. It was fun to watch Lily, who spent the morning squealing and giggling with delight. Since the only animal she knows is ‘puppy,’ we got to listen to a mixture of chipmunk chatter and “Pup-pee! Pup-pee!” over and over again. They ran under her feet while she sat in the stroller, checked out our tent as we ate breakfast, and happily grabbed every crumb and Goldfish the kids dropped. I made the mistake of handing half of a Kashi cereal bar to Lily, then setting the rest of it on the table. I heard scrabbling, the kids started laughing hysterically, and I turned around to see a very happy chipmunk scampering off with the rest of her breakfast. The little rascal had jumped up on the table, unwrapped the rest of the bar, and made off with enough food for a week!
And while I stood and washed dishes at the table later, one furry friend decided that my leg would be a good shortcut to get up on the table. He climbed as far as my knee, but changed his mind when I jumped and yelled.
We went on a short hike before lunch, short being translated as “only a mile and a half but it took us two hours.” Between my foot (recovering nicely!) and a 3- & 4-yo, we were happy to even make it that far. Actually, I shouldn’t complain about Levi’s short little legs. As everyone who knows Levi is aware, he doesn’t walk, he runs everywhere, and the hike was no exception. Aspen, on the other hand, got tired pretty fast, so really we tried to stick with her speed. Lily was happy to walk around a little bit, but oh, was she mad when Jeff had to put her back in the backpack carrier!
Back to the campsite, make turkey sandwiches and get everyone fed and OH CRAP here come the dark clouds, pack up the tent quick before the rain gets here! We got everyone & everything loaded, and raindrops hit the windshield just as we were leaving the park. Oh, and don’t be fooled by our “quick, get it packed!”, because it still takes us at least half an hour to put away the tent and get the air mattresses/sleeping bags/clothes/food/dishes back into containers and bags.
We’re going to eat with Andrew tonight. More later.

Day 2

“Just driving today” is probably not a phrase I’ll be using again. Less eventful? Nope!

We left the Amarillo KOA at about 10-ish, I think. The highway from there to Colorado winds through a lot of small towns, a lot of slowdowns, and it’s not terribly exciting, which wasn’t bad because Jeff, Jaden, and Aspen crashed as soon as we started driving. Leaving Amarillo and driving through the rolling hills, scattered plateaus, scrubby sagebrush, and the occasional irrigation circle made me feel like I was in eastern Washington again. The landscape was nearly identical to the farmland area where my mom lives. I cranked up my music and drove for quite a while, while everyone else slept.

We cut across the corner of New Mexico on our way to hit 25 North to Colorado. Kids stayed asleep, and we passed through in about an hour or so. Aspen woke up and asked, “Are we at our buhcation yet?” When I said yes, her next question was, “Can we go back to our other campsite?” I laughed, but she really didn’t understand that we’d be staying in a different place pretty much every night!

Once we crossed into Colorado, we could see quite a few scattered rainstorms ahead of us. At first it was kind of cool just to watch the lightning, but pretty soon we realized we’d be driving straight into one of them. That’s where our boring day ended! The rain came down pretty hard, which wasn’t unusual for us since Dallas thunderstorms can pour buckets and then some. After a few minutes, though, I noticed some white spots on the road. Before I could finish the sentence “Why is the road white?” we were being pounded with hail. The hail was so heavy and loud in the car that Jeff and I had to shout to hear each other. Since we were in the middle of a mountain road, there was no place to pull over, but I could only see about 30 yards in front of me so progress was reeeeally slow. We drove like that, yelling back and forth and me staring at the road so hard my eyes hurt, for what seemed like half an hour, but it was really only about ten minutes. Honestly, I think that was more of an adrenaline rush than any roller coaster I’ve been on in a long time! Amazingly enough, there are no visible dents on the Sprinter. How that happened I have no clue, since the hail was nickel-sized at least, and so much came down that in places it looked like it had snowed.

After Jeff woke up and we’d switched drivers, we had a long debate about camping vs. staying in a hotel. Since the forecast called for scattered thunderstorms and a 50% chance of rain, I was less than thrilled with the idea of being in a tent. Jeff was concerned about how much a hotel room would cost us for two nights (understandably so, since a few phone calls put our 2-night stay at $200-350). An interesting discussion ensued, since I was a bit steamed that we could afford a new grill we didn’t really need but not a hotel that we might, but we finally decided to just head to the campground and pray that we’d stay dry. We ended up at Eleven Mile State Park, which is about 20 minutes from the Boy Scout camp where Andrew is. (NOTE TO SELF: Always make weather contingency plans ahead of time, so there isn’t an argument when the situation arises!)

It was just getting dark when we set up camp in a big open spot at the top of the hill overlooking Eleven Mile Reservoir. It's very picturesque here! I took pictures of the kids rock-climbing and the sun setting on the lake, but I probably won’t be able to upload pictures until we get to my sister’s house in a week or so.

DAY 2: 405 miles today.

Intro

Welcome to our vacation! Our family, which consists of me (BreeAnne aka Bri), my husband Jeff, and our six kids--Andrew (11), Jaden (8), Kendra (7), Aspen (4), Levi (3), and Lily (1), will be spending the next four weeks on the road. A friend suggested that I blog about it, so here I am!

We won't have internet access the whole time, so most of my posts will be written on Word while we're driving and then I'll be able to upload them when we hit a Wi-Fi spot. We are starting out from Carrollton, Texas, which is just north of Dallas, and headed up through Colorado, Yellowstone, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Wish us luck; four weeks in the car will either be a great vacation, or we'll end up trying to kill each other!

We're off!

Wow, what a way to start a long trip!

I’m writing this as we’re headed out on day 2. Our plan was to leave yesterday (Wed) at about 10am. Ten o’clock came and went, though, and we still had a loooong way to go with packing and cleaning. Normally I’d be tempted to just leave the house messy and not worry about it, but who likes to come home to a pig sty after a long trip? Besides that, with as long as we’re going to be gone, any dirty laundry or dirty dishes would be cringe-worthy by the time we got back, and that’s just gross.

Jeff and I spent the last two days before leaving working like crazy. Since he can’t always remember which clothes belong to which child—understandable when three of them are nearly the same size—I was in charge of packing for everyone, and he did laundry, cleaned, and packed kitchen things. I know it should be obvious, but packing for eight people for a month is a lot of work!

We finally got done with everything at about 5:30pm, loaded the kids up, grabbed all of our “Oh yeah!” stuff, and drove out at about 6pm. Yikes! It’s a 6-hour drive to Amarillo from Carrollton, but we didn’t realize at that point that we weren’t really even on our way yet. A quick stop at Wally World to return some jeans and shoes we didn’t need, then off to Costco to get a new Coleman air bed, since we’d found a hole chewed in ours by some rodent invaders. (Not to get on too much of a tangent, but I love Costco’s seasonal merchandise. You never know what they’re going to have, because it’s never the same thing twice, and it’s always the best deals. Hard for me to resist, even if it’s something we don’t need.)

So we headed in and grabbed two air mattresses, and then Jeff stopped dead in his tracks. Right across the aisle from the airbeds was a red, shiny, portable grill. Jeff had asked for a portable grill for his birthday, and I’d found a small table-top propane grill with a carrying handle that worked pretty well. We had that, along with a propane camp stove, packed in the back of the van. This new grill, though, was a handy-dandy Coleman model that is just miles better. Jeff isn’t a huge impulse shopper, but he was dead serious when he looked at me and said, “I know this wasn’t in our plans, but I want that.” Since it’s a grill and a stove combined, it takes up less room than the two that we already had, and since we are packed to the gills, I really couldn’t argue with that.

We bought the grill (and MY impulse purchase, the boxed set of Planet Earth DVDs—woo hoo!) and headed back to the van. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much we could do with it except go back home! 15 minutes’ drive back, unload the other grill and stove, help Jeff unpack and assemble the new one, remember that we forgot to pick up a prescription for Jaden, run to Albertson’s pharmacy fifteen minutes before they close, wait for a phone call because the insurance won’t pay because it’s been too soon since his last refill, get a “vacation override” approved, and finally head out of town at 9pm.

We made it to Amarillo at about 3am. Jeff set up the tent, got all the mattresses and sleeping bags ready, and then we got out the kids, who were by that time wide awake because they’d been sleeping since before we left Carrollton. A six- or seven-hour nap did wonders for them, while Jeff and I were both dead tired because we’d napped for maybe 90 minutes while the other one drove. It was NOT the best sleep I’ve had by any stretch, although I finally did fall asleep out of sheer exhaustion despite the children climbing over me and bouncing on the air mattresses.

One pancake breakfast later, we’re all packed up and on the road to Eleven Mile State Park, just outside of Colorado Springs. Since all we have to do today is drive, hopefully it’ll be less exciting than yesterday was!

DAY 1 total travel: 375 miles