A few months ago, I decided it would be a great idea to take a 10 day trip with the kids. We knew Zach couldn't take that much time off work, so my mom graciously agreed to drive with us to Sacramento, up through the Redwoods, and on to the Oregon Coast. Zach joined us once we got up to Oregon.
Though we missed having Zach with us the whole time, it turned out to be one of my favorite vacations of all time. The beauty was just incredible. Like "I could drive up the coast of Northern California and Oregon every year of my life and still ache with the beauty of it" incredible. I am usually a "drive there without stopping just to get there as fast as we can" sort of person, but we took this trip a little slower and thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. (Except maybe the part where Eli was puking and so, so sick AGAIN . . . but I've mostly forgotten that part of it..)
We stopped somewhere in Nevada for lunch. We found a great app that gives you directions to parks in any town you are in. Hello--where has THAT been my whole life? Anyway, we were directed to this beauty of a park, which is like the Hilton version of our Best Western-like Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove. We were joined by a bazillion 2nd graders there on one of their end-of-year field trips. (Which totally reminded me of going to Hillcrest Park for a picnic and playing at the end of our school years in Brookings.)
Despite Eli's iffy stomach status (of course he threw up the morning we left), we ALL had a great time:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that I am a terrible photographer. I don't worry over it so much. It's just life, you know? But what KILLS me is when I forget to at least document an event that I want to remember. We met up with my good HS friend Meredith Gardner Felshaw at another park in her current hometown of Winnemucca. We went to the park, let the kids play, and caught up on life. And I forgot to take ANY pictures. Lamesauce. Seriously. After a good visit, we headed on to Reno for the night.
Eli still wasn't up to snuff, and enjoyed a little snuggle time with Gma Tina:
After an incredible drive through the Sierra Nevadas, we made it to Sacramento. We dropped my mom off at her sister's and we headed out to El Dorado Hills to visit our good friends, the Finlaysons. I took ZERO pictures of our families together. I took ZERO pictures of Pris and I. Um, lamesauce again.
If we had, it would have looked a little something like this. . . except everyone would be a year older:
In my defense, I was dealing with a pretty sick an ornery 2 year old. And the rest of the kids were having so much stinking fun with their friends that I don't think they would have sat still anyway. We went to the library, enjoyed lots of meals and play time, walks, splash pads and parks, swimming and church. It was delightful to be together.
Kye at the splash pad:
Playing games:
Lucy cooling off:
I'm pretty sure this was the only smile I saw on Schmee the whole time we were there. But he's pretty dang cute, so it makes up for all the grouchiness:
On the morning we left for the Redwoods, Eli was having another wave of sickness. He couldn't stop yarfing and was just plain miserable. He'd been dealing with this stomach thing on and off for 2 months, and I was kind of at my wits' end, wondering what the heck was going on with him. We asked for a blessing for him from a couple of men in Pris's ward before we left, and they blessed him to overcome the illness. It was the turning point for him. Though he felt a little sick for another few hours, he has not had any issues with his stomach since then. Tender mercies are wonderful things.
0 comments:
Post a Comment