When I say WE, I mean ME and the THREE CHILDREN!
Does that explain why it has taken me almost a month to blog about it.
A month ago I would have said I do not recommend taking three children by yourself on a 14 hour voyage,
but now that we've been home,
I've seen the pictures,
and I hear my kids talk about how much fun they had,
I say DO IT!
But follow these Do's and Don'ts of our trip!
We travelled through 3 states
California, Oregon and Washington
making our way to Astoria, Oregon
where my sister and her husband live
because their oldest daughter was baptized!
DO
Buy your children Nintendo DS's as an early birthday present and give it to them the day of the trip!
DO
Borrow your in-laws GPS Navigation System and become best friends with the little voice that says "turn left now"!
DON'T
Freak out when you pull up to a gas pump in Oregon, reach over to grab your wallet then turn around to get out of your car and see a strange man standing at your window waiting to pump your gas because you are in Oregon.
DO
Have a backup plan in the form of a Hotel Room just in case you really don't want to drive all 13 hours, only 6 of them!
DO
Make sure that it has an indoor swimming pool.
This is Astoria.
A little city right on the ocean built on a hill!
Really one of the cutest cities I have ever been too.
You may know this city by this house. . .
Recognize it?
It's the house from GOONIES.
Yep.
GOONIES was filmed in Astoria.
(So was Kindergarten Cop - and it just so happens that my neice actually lives across the street and attends the school that that movie was filmed in)
I feel famous!
DO
Hope that your 2 year old stays like this for 2 more hours. Just 2 more hours!
DO
Cross over about 12 bridges on your voyage.
(good things they don't charge tolls like around here - we would have been BROKE!)
DO
Try to convince your kids that you can hold your breath across an entire bridge!
DO
Make sure to visit a lighthouse.
DON'T
Stay for longer than 10 minutes or the weather will turn UGLY!
DO
Try to go to Oregon when the weather is nice. . .
But if you don't
DO
Send your son to the beach only to be picked up by the wind and knocked into the ocean!
Luckily he didn't float away, just his flip flop's did!
DO
Try to get pictures of all the cousins together.
DON'T
Expect a perfect picture.
DO
the same with the Brother and Sisters
DON'T
Pull out the MEAN MOM LOOK while posing for a picture because it will be captured on film!
DO
Have an amazing Easter Egg Hunt Planned for the Beach.
DON'T
get mad when the pouring rain forces us to have just as amazing of an Easter Egg Hunt inside!
DO
Have a ridiculously large amount of FOOD, FAMILY AND FUN!
And,
If you've never done it!
DO
Sing your heart out to Madonna's MATERIAL GIRL
with a 3 year old BOY!
And for your sake
DON'T
after 6 days of being by yourself with 3 kids
and having spent hours and hours and hours in the car
encounter Mt. Shasta looking like this in the middle of APRIL!
That's what happened to us so we were forced to stay in the same hotel as on the way up. We ate the HomeTown Buffet across the street from our hotel on Easter Sunday for Dinner. Let's just say, we didn't exactly fit in with that crowd.
I should have requested the same room we stayed at the first night, but didn't (because I didn't want to make it a hassle) Our ceiling leaked when the occupants upstairs decided to take a shower. Unfortunately we didn't find out about this little problem until after midnight when my 3 children were all sleeping in one room. I was not about to wake them up to change rooms, so I just listened to water fall in a bucket and it put me right to sleep.
The next morning luckily we woke up to clear roads. So we made the last 6 hours of the drive home to find Daddy waiting for us with open arms and a clean house!
There you have it!
Our SPRING BREAK 2010!
**And just in case you were wondering what Kyle did the entire time we were gone. He was at a work conference. In Monterey California. In a Hotel Suite overlooking a Golf Course. Eating Sea Food every night. Wishing he could be with us!
