Wecker World: May 2016

I've been promising and promising, mostly to myself, that I would get this documented before I forgot it all, so here it finally is: the story of our epic road trip of 2015.

In a nutshell, let me quote myself from Facebook on August 9, 2015:

The best thing about vacation is coming home, especially if you left your husband behind. In the last three weeks, the kids and I camped along the Oregon coast (gorgeous beaches), attended one of my BFF's wedding (they'd been dating since high school), tromped about Portland, stayed with family in Port Angeles, WA and visited "Twilight" country, spent a day in Seattle, then drove all the way to SLC, had a baby shower thrown for me, visited more family, camped with the family, and finally drove home. I got to see most of my best friends from high school and got to spend much needed time with both my family and Joseph's family. We spent a little over 48 hours in the car and drove 3000+ miles. The only thing I would suggest not doing is pulling all this off during my 7th month of pregnancy. However, easier to do it all before the baby comes than after. So happy to be home, but glad we have all those memories.

We all really wanted Joseph to come with us, and he was planning on joining us for at least the wedding, but having just been called as bishop and trying to get his company started we decided it would be best for him to have that time to himself. We missed him terribly, still.

Everyone has heard about how beautiful the Oregon coast is and, boy, they weren't kidding. If you ever get the chance to drive along 101 through Oregon, take it! I love the coastal drive in California, especially once you get to Mendocino County and drive north, but Oregon takes the cake, so to speak.

Two of my best friends from high school were finally getting married. They'd been together on and off since high school and they finally took the plunge last summer. They had relocated to Portland several years ago and had their wedding in a quaint coastal town called Cannon Beach. In fact, it's the beach from the race scene in the opening credits of Goonies. Since the drive was a straight shot up the 101, all I had to do was find some places to camp along the way. I decided to camp rather than stay in hotels because 1) my kids love to camp, 2) it was just cheaper, and 3) I'm an adventurer and being 6.5 months pregnant wasn't going to stop me.

I found a campground near Cannon Beach that had a campsite that backed up to a playground and the bathrooms and showers were on the other side of that. How ideal! I could stay in camp and set up and keep an eye on the kids while they stayed out of my way. The campground was separated from the beach by a huge sand dune and there was a trail leading from the campground to the beach.

Aren't these clouds super cool?

These beaches are incredible. They have the softest, finest, cleanest sand I've ever encountered. It almost felt like cornstarch. It was really difficult to walk through though. It's hard enough to waddle along on firm, steady ground when you're in the third trimester, but trying to hoist yourself up over a dune here was like trying to climb a mountain of foam blocks. So, once we crested the summit of "Mount Dune," I let the kids scamper off while I sat atop and took pictures of my brood from afar.

The day of the wedding, Kristen, Keith, Gavin, and my very best friend, JD, drove over from Portland so we could go to the wedding together. We didn't have to be to the wedding until the afternoon, so we went to Tillamook in the morning and visited the cheese factory there.

Kristen and Gavin

Moses and Akiko

Asher and Simon

These crazy kids don't have a license to drive that thing!

Watching the factory workers cut the cheese.

Proof that I was there, too. Someone short took this. I think it was Asher.

We had to leave Tillamook and go straight to Cannon Beach, so we had brought our nice clothes along with us. We got the kids changed in the car and Kristen, JD, and I, being the former dancers that we are, changed discreetly in the middle of the parking lot. You get really good at things like that when you have to change costumes in public. Keith couldn't quite figure out how we did it.

Wendy and Tyler's wedding was beautiful. They kept it short and sweet and to the point. It was a lovely intimate setting. It was also really good to see them and their families again after such a long time.

During the reception dinner, I realized I had left the wedding gift in the car. I went back to get it and realized I'd done something I'd never, ever done before. I locked the flippin' keys in the car! I freaked out for a bit, then calmed myself down enough to pray for guidance. I called Joseph to get the number for the Toyota assistance we'd signed up for. They, in turn, contacted a local tow guy to come jimmy my door open for me. When the guy showed up, he told me how he was getting ready to go back home for the night (it was late in the evening by then and almost dark), but he felt like he needed to stick around for a couple more minutes, so he did, and that's when Toyota called him. Thank heavens for people who listen to promptings, even if they don't even realize that they're the answer to someone's prayer.

The day after the wedding and its festivities, we packed up camp and drove to Portland to stay at my brother's house for a couple days. My brother, Mike, and his family were in Utah, so we stayed at his house with Kristen and Keith while Mike stayed at Kristen's house. We had visited Mike a couple times before, but had never really explored Portland while we were there.

I took the kids to the temple, the International Rose Garden, and then to a downtown park along the river that had a fountain. It was a gorgeous, not too hot day to partake of and we enjoyed every minute of it.

In the visitor's center

You can kind of see the kids by the benches.

Gorgeous, peaceful, calming.

Akiko thought I should be in a picture, too.

The roses were still in full bloom.

Asher found a rose he liked and wanted his picture taken next to it.

Moses hiding in the bushes.

My princess in a beautiful garden.

My budding photographer, Asher, took this picture of a perfect bloom.

I love my goobers!

So many varieties of roses!

It was a hot day, so I treated the kids to some creamsicles.

I told Simon he could keep his pants on, but he really didn't want to get them wet.

Akiko had no qualms running through the fountain...

... but the boys were a lot more apprehensive.

After our stay in Portland, we drove up to the Olympic peninsula in Washington. Joseph's sister, Kailee, was living there in Port Angeles, so out of the way, that nobody would take the time to visit them. I was already on a road trip of epic proportions, and it was only a five hour drive, so it wasn't a big deal. Besides, I think Washington is also an amazingly beautiful state and I love Seattle, so win-win for me!

I wish we could have stayed there a little longer than we did, but my trip was already super long as it was, so we hit the highlights and just let the kids hang out with their cousins and get to know them better. I'm not a Twilight fan, but I did read the books, and since we were already out there, Kai and I thought it would be fun to drive out to Forks and La Push. It was a sunny, beautiful day, and we saw neither vampire nor werewolf, so that was disappointing. Just kidding. It's a lovely place to visit, whether you're a fan of the series or not.

My kids like to climb on rocks in La Push.

I decided to take the kids to Seattle for a day, since it was across the sound and it's one of my favorite cities ever. Instead of driving all the way around Puget Sound and fighting city traffic, I parked the car on Bainbridge Island and we rode the ferry into Seattle.

Our first stop was Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, since it was right next to the terminal. It's just a fun gift shop/museum of weird things. After that, we walked over to Pike Place Market, which just has a fun atmosphere. The famous "gum wall" is there, so we checked it out. It was gross and smelled strongly of chewed gum. Nuff said. We were hoping to see some fish throwing at the market, but mostly it was crowds there to see fish throwing and nobody purchasing any fish for them to throw, so that was kind of a bummer. We just window shopped for a little while longer before we walked to the monorail. We rode that to the Seattle Center and saw the Space Needle (way too expensive to take the kids up into it). There was a cool climbing playground there, so we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out there before we headed back to the ferry and back to Port Angeles. I wish I could have spent more than a day there, but I didn't have the time or money. I will definitely take the kids back there someday.

So many weird things to try to explain to my kids. So much fun.

The "gum wall". Yeah, it's as gross as it sounds.

Monoraaaail! Monoraaaaail! Monoraaaaail! Mono... D'oh!

Not the iconic entrance, but I forgot to take a picture of it on the way in.

Does this one really need a caption?

We met Darth Vader and a storm trooper when we got off the monorail.

The three big kids had a blast on this thing. There was a much smaller one for littler kids.

We ran into ~~Peter~~ Spiderman on our way out.

Bye Seattle! See you next time!

Fun fact: I have been to Seattle, oh, a half dozen times or so. I've never been rained on. I even spent three weeks there one summer.

We had to leave Washington because my daughter and my sister were throwing me a baby shower. I didn't really feel like I needed a baby shower for baby #5/boy #4, but Akiko loves helping me plan them, so she enlisted my sister to help her out. Most of my family and Joseph's family live in Utah, so it made more sense for us to travel there for the festivities.

Port Angeles to Salt Lake is a loooong drive, so I planned out a stop exactly halfway in La Grande, OR. I had researched and found out there is this campsite just out of town that was free, so I made plans to pitch the tent there. After driving in the car for nine hours, we got to the "lake" and it was so primitive, I nearly started crying. There were twelve sites and one vault toilet for all of them (so the sites nearest the toilet were already taken, therefore making a long walk from any other site), no running water, no tables, and I couldn't find a site that had enough room for one small tent, let alone the two small tents we had.

I'm no stranger to roughing it. I could have dealt with the conditions if it were just me or Joseph and me, but I could not handle those conditions being seven months pregnant, traveling alone with four other young kids after having driven nine hours. I considered backtracking half an hour to my "plan B" camping spot, but it would have been dark by the time we got there. I called Joseph, bawling. He said, "Just get a hotel room." Simple as that. He didn't need to tell me twice, or convince me that was a good idea.

The lady at the hotel was really sweet and let us have one of the roomier suites for the price of a regular room when she saw the crowd I was running with. It had a microwave and a dining table, so I just boiled some water in the coffee pot, heated some other things up, and made our camp meals for dinner, rather than spending more money to eat out. I also got a much needed shower. I slept really well that night, which I'm sure made a huge difference for my nine hour drive the next morning.

I took no pictures of the baby shower, but my sister has a bunch. It was really cute though. It was a Harry Potter theme and my sister came up with (or found on Pinterest) lots of really cute ideas for the decor and food. Two more of my best friends from high school were there, besides all my sisters-in-law. It was a fun afternoon and I feel very blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

Kristen also planned a big camping trip for the Brady side of the family. The only ones who couldn't make it were Mike and his family. It is a lot of hard work to pull off something like that, but Kristen made it seem effortless. It was a lot of fun watching my kids bond with their cousins.

One afternoon, the whole family took off on a hike. I was just getting more pregnant every day and had reached the apex of my limitations, so I stayed behind. All alone. For almost three hours. Being alone is something that I crave, having such a large family as mine, but you know what it is? Really lonely. So lonely I couldn't even nap. I took a long walk, tried to play some solitaire, eventually found a spot where I had a bar of service and talked with Joseph for a bit. I guess I've just reached a point in my life where I don't know what to do when I'm suddenly all by myself and not catering to the needs of those who rely on me the most. It was nice having a break, though. It just felt weird.

2/3 of the Brady cousins and an exchange student.

Mike did happen to be in town on a night we were in Utah, so my mom had a big family dinner. His family had already left to visit their other family in Idaho, so I didn't get to see his cute wife and kids. We did finally get a rare picture of the four siblings. We live in three states between us, so these get togethers are a rare opportunity.

After being in Utah for about a week and visiting with various family members in the area, it was time to go home. We'd been gone for three weeks. I missed Joseph so much. The kids missed California and their cat. I was reaching the severely miserable end of my pregnancy. The only problem was that northern California was totally on fire. There are five ways to get into Humboldt County and the three "easy" routes were closed with a fourth being threatened. For about a week, I obsessively checked the CalFire and Caltrans websites, hoping that I wouldn't have to drive all the way into southern Oregon just so I could get home.

I always stay overnight in Reno when we travel to and from Utah. The morning we were to leave Reno, the route through Lake county, which happens to be the easiest route, but had the largest fire, opened up, and we were able to get home without incident or delay.

Joseph's picture of the red sun from the Ruth Lake fire smoke haze.

I'm so glad we were able to do this trip. Planning it was crazy (I started planning in January). Most of it went as planned and on budget. I'm glad my kids are such great travelers. They're so used to the trek to Utah and back; we do that one once, usually twice, a year. This trip, I feel, was a rehearsal for an even bigger trip I'm hoping to take in the next year or two. We're going to take a church history road trip. It's going to be awesome and I've already begun making tentative plans. Most of all, I love making memories for my kids.