Life with my Sister

I thought my life was busy and crazy until I came and lived with my sister.  Kaylee's life is out of control!  :)  But any sort of life is always funner together!  We always talk about staying up late, drinking wine, and enjoying the silence after the kids are asleep, but this year we are far more realistic.  We collapse on the couch at the end of the day and know that we'll be going to bed really soon after, because these darn kids don't sleep in!  :)
Here are just some random pictures of some of the things we've been doing.

Easton has finally come out of his shell a bit and will actually talk to me!  I never knew that kid had so much to say!  It might have something to do with the fact I have the trailer he can escape to and be alone, and that I brought Willow back to him, but whatever it is, I will take it!

 

I've been to 2 baseballs games, missed one, and there are 2 more tonight!  It's so fun to watch Brendan and Wyatt play!

Brendan at bat:

 Stealing and sliding into home:

Brendan catching :

Wyatt's game was so much colder!  We were freezing!

Wyatt at bat doing the Ichiro

Wyatt about to take a hit.  Turns out his dad gives him a soda every time they stand there and get hit by a pitch.

The Wandering Goose :: vol 19 :: Regal Park

Day 4 of KS-2-WA 2013

Chapter 1 : The Drive
We got up this morning and got in the truck by around 7 with only a 4 hour drive to Kaylee's house!  The last part of the drive always seems to take forever, but at least we were driving all along the Columbia River and we could see Washington in view just on the the other side the whole time!
Here's the John Day Dam

Mt Hood in the distance!

One last bathroom break in Hood River.

Then it was onto Royal's parents house in Kelso to say hi, get some food, and get haircuts!  We got to see a couple of our really great friends there too for a couple hours, then it was back in the car to make the final hour drive to Regal Park!
We were in the car for about 5 minutes when this happened

Jayden kept trying to trick her by whispering in her ear, "Hey Willow!  We're there!  Easton is waiting for you!" trying to get her snap awake, but she'd open her eyes, look out the window, then glare at Jayden and go back to sleep.  Karma's a biotch because then this happened.

And Royal and I had a nice quiet hour ride up to Olympia! 

Chapter 2 : The Campsite
 We got off the exit and I gently woke the kids up and said we would be there in just a couple minutes.  Jayden then proceeded to slap himself in the face "a million times!" to wake himself up.  We pulled into Regal Park and we got our own escort up to the campsite.

The cousin reunion was so sweet.  Hugging and hug jumping.

And we are parked back in my favorite park of all time!

Great green views from my windows.

And my sister as my neighbor for the next few weeks.

And sleepovers in the trailer every night!

It's gonna be a great summer!!!


Chapter 3 : Bugs
1900 miles in 4 days.  I am so over that!  But check out our bug collection.  :)

I need Papa to come over with his truck and trailer washing brushes!

The Wandering Goose :: vol 18 :: Driftwood RV Park

Day 3 of KS-2-WA 2013

Chapter 1 : The Drive
Holy smokes am I tired of driving!!!!  Even when not moving, I feel like I'm moving and I have to keep looking out the trailer windows to make sure we aren't rolling away.  There was not much action today during the drive.  We managed to stay on the interstate the whole time, no scenic routes for us today!  We even managed to coincide bathroom breaks / food breaks with fueling up.  I mean today, we operated pretty much like a well oiled machine.  Well other than the fact that Sam the dog chewed through the cable that hooks the 2 DVD screens together, and there was an impromptu stop to a Wal-Mart (it was right next to the gas station!) to try and find a solution and while we couldn't find the cables that would work, we found a headphone splitter, so they could both listen off of the same DVD screen.  Only Sam liked that cable too, but we managed to stop him before he chewed through it, so we strapped the one and only now working DVD player up to the center console and flipped it up and Royal and I got to listen to Puss in Boots and Madagascar 2 and Tom and Jerry and Pokemon.  Better than whining, complaining children I suppose.  Although we got our share of that too.  The kids are both pretty done with driving too.  We did manage to talk them into driving a bit farther today though.  Our original destination was La Grande, OR.  Then we talked them into going a bit further to Pendelton, OR.  Then at the last minute, or really last hour, we talked them into driving all the way to Boardman, OR.  We kept saying, "Every hour further we drive today is one less hour we have to drive tomorrow!"  I obviously kept saying it a lot because Jayden finally retorts with "I KNOW!  I just can't be in the truck anymore!!!!"  Ok fine.  We'll stop.  :)  We've traveled over 1500 miles so far!

And it was fun to watch the hills turn from this :

To this :

Chapter 2 : The Campground
The campground is actually really great!  We are staying at Driftwood RV Park and Resort in Boardman, OR.  The sites are big with full hookups and big trees around for shade.

 The park bathrooms are really clean and they have a huge clubhouse with an indoor pool and hottub.  Guess where we tired the kids out tonight???

We started timing Jayden's laps and he got his butterfly down from 35 seconds to 27 seconds.  Anything to get these kids tired!
Here is Jayden doing his IM.

The Wandering Goose :: vol 17 :: Portneuf Bend Campground

Day 2 of KS-2-WA 2013

Chapter 1 : Last Night
Oh. My Gosh.  Do I have a newborn in the house?   Because I was up every 2 hours.  The kids went to bed pretty easily, I finished writing my blog about Limon and I went to bed around 10:30.  At 10:34 Willow wakes up crying because Jayden had shut off her lantern and it was dark and she couldn’t figure out where she was and where her pillow was and which way to lay.  So I get her situated and back to sleep.  12:30am I hear a huge thud.  I jump out of bed to discover Jayden has fallen out of the top bunk.  Luckily he fell feet first and only slightly hurt his arm on the way down.   It could have been way, WAY worse.  Jayden has a tendency to sleep right on the edge of the bed and I try to scooch him over towards the wall, but he obviously scooched himself back and slid right over the edge.   I get him hoisted back into bed and shoved up against the wall (btw, I found him in the morning practically looking like wall paper, guess he learned his lesson!), and get back in bed myself.  Only to be woke up by a whining dog at 1:30am looking to get out to use the bathroom.  Got Sam out and back in, and crawled back into bed.  Then, Royal was up around 2:30, getting Advil for his neck and whining and moaning about how bad his neck hurt and how crappy he felt because he wasn’t getting any sleep.   (Um, what??? You’ve been awake this whole time? How about getting your sorry little… oh sorry, off topic.)  So, I get up and grab my bottle of biofreeze.  It’s magic in a bottle and is the only way to get your legs through 200 miles of biking, so I figured it couldn’t hurt his neck.   I bring it back to bed and tell him no telling me no, I am rubbing this on his neck.   I apply the magic aqua colored gel and go back to sleep.  Willow comes rolling in at 5:25am. 5 minutes before my alarm went off. “Good morning Mom! I slept so GREAT!!! I LOVE camping!!!”  So, up we got and off we went! And Royal's neck felt so much better, he even admitted that I was right and he should listen to me more often.  And now it's recorded for all time.  :)

Chapter 2 : Rest Area Shenanigans
Since we got up at 5:30 and were on the road by 6:30, the kids really didn’t eat too much for breakfast, they just aren’t early breakfast eaters.   So, around 8:30, we pulled into a rest area for second breakfasts.  Deviled eggs, protein balls, homemade granola bars, fresh berries, and yogurt were your options for filling your belly.

Then to get some energy out, Jayden and Royal did some sparring in the parking lot.

Chapter 3 : Behind the Wheel
It was so fun to be driving along and all the sudden see the mountains in the distance.  I heart mountains!  Jayden at one point looked out his window and noticing the change in scenery yelled, “Holy Kamoly! Look at those mountains!!!”

Then we crossed into Wyoming and stopped to fuel up the truck and Royal suggested I try driving for awhile.   Okie doke!  I can go forward no problem!

Royal got some strange looks from truckers when they looked down into our truck window and saw Royal sitting in the passenger seat while his tiny, almost child sized wife was driving.  I drove until our next stop about 120 miles down the road.   That’s right out of the almost 1100 miles we have driven over the past 2 days, I’ve only driven 120 of them.   It’s not a bad life. :)

Chapter 4 : What Gas?
Ok, so way back in the beginning of the day, Royal wanted to avoid going through Denver and Cheyenne, so I did some finagling on the GPS to get us traveling down the right roads.  And then I never did reset the settings once we were going on the proper course.   This, while not a very major thing, set us off on an almost catastrophic path. :)  You see, the GPS led us off of the main interstate and onto a scenic highway.  And Royal and I didn’t really study any maps before we left so we didn’t really know which roads we were going to be taking and we knew we had a cut off highway somewhere to get us to a different interstate, so we didn’t really think about which direction the GPS was taking us.  Ironically, this all happened around a time where Royal and I were having a discussion about how he likes to drive from point A to point B as fast as he can with as few stops as needed.  And I was saying how if we are going to be doing a big cross country trip, let’s at least pick one place we haven’t seen that’s mostly on the way and go see it.  Let’s make the drive out more memorable and more fun in my opinion.  I just feel like if you drive I-5 through Washington, would you really think, “Oh, what a beautiful state this is?” or would you be thinking, “Washington is nothing but city after city! Bleck!”  But if you drove Hwy 101 up through Washington, I’m almost positive you’d think the state was so much more beautiful.  That is, as long as you don’t get car sick on the windy roads. :)  Sometimes the scenic route gives you such a better feeling for a state.  So, anyways, we get on Hwy 30 and Royal says, I have less than 50 miles until I need gas.  I’m all, “Oh, I’m sure we’ll be fine, there’s gotta be gas somewhere.”  Turns out I was wrong.  Royal says, “I’m outta gas in 27 miles”.  So, I use the GPS and the nearest gas station is 25 miles away.  Royal shoots me a look and I’m all, “Oh, we’ll totally make it.”  Then we look ahead and see hill after hill after hill.  I start suggesting we put the truck in neutral on the downhills and coast down them to save gas.   The truck says 19 miles to empty, the GPS says 17 miles ‘till gas.  The truck then says 15 miles to empty while the GPS says 15 miles ‘till gas.  The truck says 11 miles till empty and the GPS says 13 miles ‘till gas.  Holy crap!  This is not good!  And I warn Royal that if we really run out of gas, I will probably start laughing about it, so please don’t get mad at me for it.   The truck then just says REALLY LOW FUEL.  In other words, fill up now nimrod.  And we climb hill after hill after hill.  Then finally our exit!  I’m squealing, “We might actually make it!!!!”  But it’s at the top of one more hill with a stop sign at the top.  Royal gets to the top and is all, “I’m not stopping!!!!”  We turn the corner and it is all downhill to the gas station, so even if we die, we can at least coast.   I can’t believe it, but we actually make it there.  The kids and I are all in the car with our hands raised yelling, “Praise the Lord! We made it! Thank you Jesus!”  Royal would have too, but it was probably better for him to keep his hands on the wheel.   It was totally a miracle.   We pull into the station and I yell, “Ice cream for everyone! This is something that needs to be celebrated!!!”   And we did.  We ate ice cream and couldn’t believe we didn’t run out of gas.  It. Was. Awesome!

 Chapter 5 : Our Campsite
After our gas incident, we drove for another 2 hours or so (a total of 11 hours today….way too much…I feel all buzzy…but at least we are just that much closer to our families!) and we stopped in Hot Lava Springs, ID.   That’s right, we’re in Idaho tonight!  The first campground on our list was full, so we just stopped at the next closest one, Portneuf Bend Campground.  It only has power at the campsites, so no water or septic, but we can manage for 1 night.  I am in need of a shower, but I guess one more day isn’t gonna hurt.  It is BEA.U.TI.FUL. here!  The campground is all grass, we are surrounded by big hills, and there is a little creek that runs through.   The campground is practically empty, so the kids and Royal and I and Sam just walked and explored and Sam ran around like a crazy dog.  I don’t blame him after being cooped up in the truck all day.   He even refused to come inside the trailer until we were putting the kids down for bed.  He just laid underneath the trailer all stretched out in the shaded grass.  Couldn’t really blame the poor creature.  11 hours is too long for just about anything living to be cooped up! :)  But we are only 13 hours away from Olympia and while Royal would do it all in one drive, I took a poll with the kids and we all voted to split it up into 2 days!
We had trains running right across the road from us.

An after dinner game of hide and seek.

Views from our campsite

The Wandering Goose :: vol 16 :: Limon KOA (again!)

Day 1 of KS-2-WA 2013

Chapter 1 : Getting Ready
We bought a new truck to pull the trailer with, that was the first and most awesome upgrade we did this year.  The kids have way more room in the back seat and the truck is able to pull the trailer with no problems.  There will be no top speed of 45mph going over the passes this year!  I figure a new truck is less likely to break down on us, so this year I've predicted the truck will do just fine, but the trailer will probably explode.  It should be exciting!!!

Chapter 2 : The Neck
Royal destroyed his neck sleeping one night.  He woke up last Saturday and couldn't move his head at all.  He was walking around with his head all jutted forward and moving his whole upper body when he needed to look at things.  I kept singing to him, "Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto" because he looked like a robot whenever he moved around.  Hilarious.  But Royal didn't take it easy.  He mowed, edged, and weedeated the lawn.  Then Sunday, neck not much better, he pruned some trees and did a bunch more yard work.  Monday he woke up and still was in quite a bit of pain, so I told him to crash mine and the kids' chiro appointment later that day.  He said he couldn't because that was right during basketball.  Ok, sure, whatever.  He called me later at 2pm, after he'd played basketball (and "totally dominated" he says), but now his neck was worse and his fingers all tingly and could he please have our chiropractor's number.  So, he goes and see's Dr. Ashley on Monday, and then again everyday until we left today.  His neck's mobility really is much, much better, but he still says it hurts pretty good.  Then while driving down the road today, Royal says, "Hey watch the road for me, for a sec, Dr Ashley told me to stretch my neck a bunch."  And then proceeds to do this:

And this :

Um, safe????  I'm not too sure.....

Chapter 3 : Sam
Sam got a major upgrade this year.  With the new truck, he got promoted from hot box in the back to getting to ride in the cab with us!  I think he will be much, much happier!  He just lays on the floor at the kids' feet.  I think it also helps that it's not 110 outside!

Chapter 4 : The Ride
 Well, the ride today started out a bit exciting.  We had just pulled onto K-96 out of Wichita and somehow managed to merge into a bunch of big rig traffic.  This never happens on K-96, it's almost always wide open.  But we were following another truck and trailer, and there were like 3 semis and tankers around us, when a semi truck pulls right up next to us in the left lane and tries to merge right.  Only we are still in the right lane.  Royal swerves partway onto the shoulder while the semi truck is halfway in our lane now, but because we hit the rumble strips the trailer is really starting to swerve back and forth and Royal is trying to get control of it again and finally the semi truck sees us and gets back in his lane, and Royal tries to get back in our lane, but the trailer is still swinging.  It felt like forever before we were back in control again and I thought for sure we were crashing or were going to lose the trailer or something disastrous was going to happen.  But Royal managed to keep it together and then quickly passed all the big trucks and after that we really had no problems!  Blue skies and sunny!

AND we didn't miss I-70 this year!!!  See, we are off to a slightly better start than last year!  Head West, Young Man!!

Our goal for the day was to make it out of Kansas.  We didn't leave our house until 12:45pm - Royal had to work in the morning, so we knew we couldn't get super far, but we had to at least cross a border and a timezone!

And guess were we ended up for the night?  Limon, CO!  Sound familiar?  It's the exact same campground, my dad and I got towed to last year when the truck's fuel pump died.  At least I knew they would have clean bathrooms!  We arrived here around 6pm MST, so it was a good 6 hours in the car, but the kid's did awesome, not much complaining and pretty darn happy. 

Chapter 5 : The Bathroom
The bathroom in the trailer has always been a huge novelty for the kids.  They use it All. The. Time.  I never knew anybody could go to the bathroom so much until we started camping in the trailer.  This year though, the excitement of a low to the ground toilet just hasn't had the same effect.  Usually 45mins into the drive (if that!), Willow is desperate to go to the bathroom.  Today, it was hours and we were stopping for gas before she finally got out to go.  I'm not sure whose kids these are, but I'm kinda liking the less bathroom drama.  I mean, I put them to bed tonight, and they didn't get out once to use the bathroom.  Crazy!  We shall see if it lasts.

Chapter 6 : The Campground
Well it's just about the same as last year.  Dusty, dirty, but with clean bathrooms and a warm pool!
We are planning a really early departure in the morning, so we didn't even unhook the trailer from the truck, just put down the stabilizer jacks to keep the movement to a minimum.

After dinner, the kids went swimming while Royal and I took turns walking Sam around the park.

 Now to bed and we shall see what tomorrow brings!

Short Girl Syndrome

Well, we've been searching and looking for months, and in the end I ended up losing my car to it, but Royal and I finally bought a new vehicle to pull the trailer with.  And because they are so gosh darn expensive and we could get more for my Pilot than Royal's truck, we ended up trading my car in.

So, now the kids and I are rolling around in this!

The kids were ecstatic and refused to get out of the car most of the time.  So many buttons to push and places to sit.

Even Sam wouldn't get out. 

He's starting to panic that we are going to leave him behind.  He's figured out something is going on and anytime the trailer door is opened, he's inside laying on his bed.  A few times I'm looking for Sam around dinner time and we find him shut in the trailer.  He doesn't always get out when everybody leaves and the door gets shut with him still inside. I'm pretty sure he doens''t mind.  It's probably a good thing we are taking him with us this summer, I'm not sure he would forgive us.  :)

Alright, I kid, I kid.  We did NOT get a minivan.  Especially to pull the trailer with.  We got a new truck and while I was having the dealer install a bed liner and steps - because otherwise I'd have to take a running leap to get in - they gave me the minivan to drive around.

 Jayden is in love with it.  He gives it hugs and has named it Dodgey.

And now that this is my new ride, I've decided I'm going to start listening to country music again and I'm going to need a pair of cowboy boots to help look the part.  Royal keeps threatening to get me one of those stupid stickers that say "Silly boys, trucks are for girls" and I keep threatening to put on pink camo seat covers.  And now that the kids and I are are going to be rollin' around in this truck, it's probably pretty obvious I'm trying to overcompensate for something and am suffering from Short Girl Syndrome.  Soooooo, I've made up a poem about it.

There once was a girl who was fun.

But stood only 5 foot 1.

So she got a big ride

To make up for her size.

She thought this was safer than guns