2nd installment of CA/Az Adventure!

Okay...here I am, still in Arizona, with another quiet moment. Not sure how long it will last as Nathan will arrive home any moment from the Rawhide Rodeo with my 3 Rodeo stars, who are hoping to enter the Sheep Riding Heat!

Where was I? Oh yes, last Tuesday, about to arrive in LA. Of course, I say I'll write the short version, but we all know, whenever I say that it never actually happens!

We had the expected times where babies cried and cried because they were so tired and just couldn't go to sleep and then after 2 hours of crying would finally drop off, and we'd hear the expected "I have to go to the bathroom!" or Nathan's "well, I guess we better stop for gas". We try to plan these things, but it never failed. The babies never slept for very long, but there were only a few really long stretches. We stopped at one cute little gas station just in Northern California where I took 3 kids in to the bathroom (which had an old fashioned bathtub with a giant barbie doll with weird hair in it-scary) and then Nathan came in with 2 more kids and the people started asking if we were Catholic. We don't actually get that much at home, so it took me a while to get what they were saying, then they all laughed, as they always do when we tell them we just don't have TV...it's getting a little predictable! One thing I have to say that's different is that nobody has asked us if we've seen that show...which I get from almost every stranger at home. Maybe it's because Jon & Kate aren't doing so well that people have finally stopped asking. I appreciate though, that no one here has asked me about the Duggers, because I must point out that 5 kids is NOT THE SAME THING AS 19!

Back to the road...we were all getting a bit weary from waking again before 4 and heading out, so by the time 7 pm came, we were all a little tired. The funniest memory was of Levi who suddenly couldn't stop talking. (I know what you're thinking!) We were driving over the Grapevine, with the finish in sight and I was having all those memories of all those family trips coming in over the Grapevine with Grandma and Grandpa's house in my mind, all ready for another set of adventures! Levi, on the other hand, was just having hilarious random thoughts. He just started talking "Why do they call it Fall? Does someone fall? Do you know how airplanes get up in the air? It's all about air pressure. The air pushes up under the wings and on top of them. Do you know that I just asked the Holy Spirit to come into my life? KAAAZING! WRRRRR...He's coming in right now!" He had a few other funny things, but after the Holy Spirit sound effects, I just couldn't remember the rest!

We arrived around 7:30, which is funny because it's just what time the GPS said we should arrive with no stops. I admit, there was only the one 45 min stop and all the rest were gas station or side-of-the-road stops. We pulled in to Grandma Trims and I just love that feeling, even though it isn't quite the same now that Grandpa & Grandma are no longer there. It's exciting for me that my kids get to do the same things we did-run up to the attic to make sure it's still the same, check out the banana tree to see how much it's grown since Levi chopped it to the ground 2 years ago (It was way over Nathan's head and looking healthier than ever), checking out the laundry shoot and trying to slide down it-like that's a new thing-every one of us grandkids has gotten stuck in the laundry shoot at one time or another!

My Uncle Bill & Auntie Barb were there to meet us, so we unloaded loads and loads, fed kids, put them to bed and Nathan went to Trader Joe's to buy 2-buck chuck...I mean groceries! We sure slept well that night, after 2 long days and very early mornings!

Wednesday-1st day in LA. Nathan ran all over town to buy sculpting stuff-1000 lbs of bronze and things we can get cheaper with no shipping costs. The kids relaxed and we played at Grandmas all day. That evening I took Caleb & Acacia with me and a small group of reletives to go see my cousin Colleen's final performance as she completes her Bachelors of Music (or BM!) She had to write all her own music and direct an orchestra to play her music. It was pretty amazing. Caleb & Acacia were great other than Acacia dropping a couple of smuggled in Skittles on the floor as we all heard them rattle all the way down the floor. We later met Jose, the gay friend, and learned that gay guys have some sort of gay-detecting GPS where they can tell how many other gay guys are in their direct viscinity. I won't comment on that one. Caleb & Acacia and I headed home and I turned down the opportunity to celebrate with Colleen at the Cha-Cha Lounge. It was great to see her though, and her very fun Argentine husband, Miguel.

Thursday-Aquarium Day. We met up with my cousin Kim, who is living in Virginia these days. She and her Dad and little Elianna Karis and another cousin, Ian, who is 11 and an instant hit with my kids, met us out at the Long Beach Aquarium. It was pretty amazing-although we'd done the outside last time on free shark night, and I must say, that's the best part anyway. After spending $80 and doing the tour, petting the sharks & sting rays, etc, the kid's favourite part was eating our picnic lunch outside and chasing the pigeons! We were pretty worn out by this time and we all asleep by 8:30.

Friday-Beach Day. We went out to Santa Monica Beach on Friday with ... a bunch of cousins! Actually, it was mostly Kim and Ian, but Kim's husband Nathan had just arrived, and Kim's sister, my cousin Andrea had also arrived in town. We had a fabulous time at the beach, as we always do! It was funny to see Eden act exactly like Levi did last time at her age. She went in the water for 3 seconds, fell down, cried and then parked herself in her towel and poured water from a bucket into little water things for the next 45 minutes, happy as a clam! Caleb, Acacia & Levi were thrilled with the waves and just wished we had thought to bring surf boards with us! Finally, I held Edens hand and ran ahead of the waves for a bit and she was sold. She did that very happily for a good chunk of time until she fell again and repeated the process. Charis was not thrilled with the cold water, but her cousin Elliana was just crazy about it! They couldn't keep her away-and she had a huge grin on her face and didn't care how cold it was! Elliana's only a couple of months over than Charis, so they'll be good friends, I'm sure. They're also just the same tiny size because Elliana is 1/2 Chinese and just a bit of a thing, but she's 3 months older than Charis. They're actually not all that interested in each other at this stage, but they're cute together.

Friday night my parents arrived with Bert, Tia & Jeff. With my cousin Glen also living at my grandparents, that made 15 people staying at the house-so lots of fun!

Saturday-the big day! Saturday was my Auntie Jean's 80th birthday, which was the reason for the occasion. People started arriving around 10 that morning...all kinds of people. I think there were a good 150 who showed up and they all stayed until 4 or so. At 4 the non-family left, leaving about 75 for an early Thanksgiving dinner of just the close family! These are the family parties I remembered. Tons of people, tons of food and tons of cousins and fun to be had. It was most fun for me to see my kids playing with all the cousins and friends just the same as I always did. Auntie Jean wanted a Hymn Sing in the backyard, so some other cousins were playing a guitar and cello or something-I don't think they actually formed a true group, but it worked. Too bad Colleen couldn't make it to orchestrate a real orchestra! It was wonderful to sing the old hymns together though-I was volunteered to join the "young people" to sing up front with the actual good singer and I got my kids to stand up there-oh well, everyone sang and it was a lot of fun. Did I mention the food was fabulous? It was supposed to be a little tea and they thought they should order pizza just in case there wasn't enough food-which is hilarious because there always ends up mounds and mounds! Orange scones, devonshire cream, fresh strawberry jam, Sees candies, little peanut butter-chocolate covered treats, mounds of those little sandwiches filled with smoked salmon locs, cucumber, cream cheese, etc...tarts, chocolate cake, huge fruit displays...it just went on and on! Eden ate an extraordinary amount of fruit. I'm not exactly sure how much. She just kept disappearing inside and very adorably asking any adult to pass her a stick of fruit until finally an Aunt noticed how often she was disappearing with it and let me know! Anyway, after the tea came the turkey/ham dinner and finally, after nearly 11 hours of party, we collapsed into bed, fed up and worn out, out of words and feeling like that was a party worth all those long miles of driving!

Our 5000 km driving Adventure

I thought I'd get a chance to write something on this blog before now, but you can only spend as much time in a day as you have available...so this is the first thing to go! I'll try to do a quick version of our whirlwind vacation!

We thought we'd leave on Tuesday morning, then I convinced Nathan we should get over the border the night before...then his work was mostly finished up, so I convinced him to leave Sunday night, so off we went! Our friends, Josh & Sundhya have been good enough to house-sit for us, so they're taking care of the place.

Left Sunday on the 1 pm ferry. Got through the border extremely easily considering last time we were in there for 2 hours while they checked out our story, our vehicle and everything else. This time they just had Nathan pay a $10 fee for business and we were on our way! Ate pizza, and got to my cousin Kathy's place in Mt Vernon, WA by 6:30 or so. We had a nice visit, went to bed and woke up at 3:30 because we thought the wind was going to lift the roof off the house. I don't think I've ever experienced wind like that before! We got up, packed the kids in the truck and were off before 4am! We drove all day until arriving at my Uncle Paul's in North Bend, Oregon around 3 or so. I was glad to get there that early so we could visit with my Grandfather who is now in a nursing home. When we arrived, he was in the hallway in his wheelchair and seemed happy to see us, even though I don't think he knew who we were. I had prepared myself and the kids for that as best I could, but it's still hard. I explained who we were, and he just kept saying it was so good of us to come, but never really gave us any indication that he really knew us. I had sent a slide show of our last trip to his place for the 6 weeks we spent there nearly 2 years ago, but I don't think he connected the details. Just said his mind wasn't working properly but he was sure glad we came.
The kids loved Uncle Paul & Mi Young's huge rec room and were thrilled to run around after being in the truck all day. Unfortunately we didn't get to the sand dunes-just saw them, because the babies were sleeping as we drove by and then we wanted to visit Grandpa and then get home to get settled in for dinner. We had a fabulous lamb dinner with Paul & Mi Young and were all asleep by 7:30!
On Tuesday, we woke up at 3:30 again and decided to set off to try to make it to LA by Tuesday night. It was raining like we couldn't believe! Crazy weather. I was really hoping we would get to LA than night because staying in a hotel with 5 kids is really not a lot of fun! Drove all day and finally stopped at a rest stop for a picnic lunch and a game of bocce and a lot of running and jumping and climbing in Southern California. By now, the weather was sunny & warm and beautiful...more later...the family has arrived back!