That's a wrap

It was kind of sad Friday morning to pack up our bags (and boy did we cram everything in) and make our way back home to jobs, errands, laundry, stifling hot weather, and what I refer to as "the drudge". We said goodbye to the ocean until next summer.

On the way home we stopped to see some family and gave the kids a good break out of the car. Jeremy and Molly have a lovely backyard with tons of room to play and run and Kendle was excited to see her cousins.

After that it was back in the car, destination Irrigon to stop and see my folks and more family. We felt pretty lucky to be able to see so many people in one day. We were glad to be back in the Eastern part of the state. Riley was counting how many "Obama" stickers we saw as we were driving home compared to how many he's seen around our neck of the woods. I'll just say, there's a reason we like living where we do. Ha. After visiting and eating some yummy dinner, it was once again back in the car to drive that last 45 minutes home, unpack the disaster of a car, literally throw the kids in bed, and then crash. There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed after a week away from home. Ahhh......



*Some things about this trip that I would definitely do again:

-I packed Kendle her own mini-backpack for the car (and she packed it on a few of our outings)with a new coloring book, reading book, some crayons, pencils, paper, a few treats, a bottle of water, headphones for the DVD player and about five movies. That kept her pretty self-sufficient and almost completely entertained the whole trip, and it made her responsible and in charge of keeping track of her things. Soooooo glad I did that. Next time I might try and find a cheap disposable camera for her to take her own pictures with as well.
















(check out those muscular calves)

-We decided to take our little car instead of the Durango and although we had to pack a little lighter (which wasn't such a bad thing) and at times I felt a bit claustrophobic, we saved SO much in gas. It was totally worth it.

-I'm so glad I planned lots of things to do. In the past I haven't done this and we would waste lots of time trying to figure out what to do and where to go. This way we could look ahead at what we were doing the next day and plan and pack accordingly. I felt so much more prepared and relaxed.

-We packed lots of food and snacks and a big cooler. Our family always gets really burnt out on eating restaurant food during trips so we brought lots of lunch supplies with us. We ate breakfast at the hotel everyday, packed a lunch, and then only had to eat out for dinner. Everyone in our family really enjoyed that a lot more. We had some fun picnics and we only ate at McDonald's once the whole trip, YAY!

-Staying the whole week made the packing, the drive, and preparation more worthwhile. I'm glad we planned on staying that extra night, to give us one more day of fun.

It was a great trip with my fun family and I can't wait to do it again next year!