Sunday, September 12, 2010

We are here!!

Well - we made it :)!!

And it all went according to plan - G and Snowy the Cat flew up on August 1st. The boys and I drove them to the airport. Then N and N and I drove up I5. Following some very good advice from Janelle G., who had mad the trip about 4 weeks earlier, we had purchased a portable, 2 screen DVD player for the trip - it was great! The only problem was that naturally the boys wanted to watch the DVD the whole time we were in transit and I was still in healthy mommy mode - I wanted them to read, color, look at the scenery, do activity books and restrict their viewing time to one DVD every 4 hours, and when I insisted - they protested and screamed and fussed and cried. Still, I had my way, and in retrospect, I should have just let them watch the DVDs - I wonder, why do I create problems for myself??

We left Claremont and made it to Sally's house in Oakland the same day. We were pampered and fussed over - thank you Sally and John :) We went to dinner with Catherine and Adrian and David joined us at the last minute :) We walked by the bay with Mark and Kendra and played and had fun with young Evan :) N decided to get his hair cut while we were there - influenced by The Last Airbender posters and the Avatar cartoon series, he has been asking to have his head shaved and a blue arrow painted on his skull! The crew cut was way to short for my taste, but he loved it!



From Oakland we drove up to Oregon where we were hosted by Janelle and Tom. So gracious - I've been unpacking for about 3 weeks now, and taking care of my three and six year old and the cat and the household - Janelle had just returned to her home after 2 years away, was unpacking and restoring order and was taking care of her six year old and three year old and the under 8 months old and the cat and job hunting! Then here I came with my wild bunch to spend the night!! Thank you, Janelle and Tom!! We went to a great park near by and played in the water fountains, then off to Sonic for dinner, a first for us. The drive from the restaurant back to the house was sooo pretty. The start of the Oregon wine country. I wish we had had time to explore - but we hopped right back into the car and off we went to Washington!



In Washington we had such a wonderful time - my parents have a lovely home and they are always so happy to see us! They even had a very cool swing set installed, just for the boys to use. It was quite a hit, but it did the typical weather thing, with rain making it too wet to use and sun making it too hot! But we look forward to it for next visit. While we were there we were able to visit with our Aunt Karen and Uncle John when Cousins Dana and William hosted a pool party at their new condo. Later they were able to come up to Candle Tree Ranch for a visit and the boys went for a pony ride and swimming in the pond across the street. A lot of fun was had by all!

N went to Horse Country Horse Back Riding Camp for 10 days - To get to the stables you have to cross a suspension bridge - the only way in and out.




At the end of the camp term there is a horse show, and look! Look at that little 6 year old boy, all 70pounds of him, maneuver that horse! I'm no judge, but would you say 500 to 700 pounds of horse? I was so impressed.




And did I mention the trampoline? Susan and Matt always give us carte blanche to come and use the trampoline anytime we would like . . and we like a lot! Thank you Susan and Matt :)



All in all, our trip up the coast was about 18 days - we left Claremont on August 1st and then flew from Seattle to Calgary on August 18th. Thanks Uncle Duff for helping us all get to the airport in a timely fashion!



And I'll address what we found when we go here in my next post!

1 comment:

  1. That trip sounds like heaven. Relaxing and fun.
    Cool idea, starting the blog.
    Isn't technology grand?
    Hey guys! Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete