The Vacation of '09

Yes it deserves a title like that because there was a day in the middle of my fabulous vacation that I am NEVER going to forget - and not for a good reason, but I'll get to that later. Are you ready? This is a long one. Here we go.

We had a great time. We arrived in Sacramento and met up with AJ's sister and his Mom. We promptly went to eat where I got these great pictures of my nieces.

Marissa is 2 years old and REALLY excited to show off her teeth

Lucas with his Momma waiting for some grub

Kylie, Kaydence and Marissa

soooooo cute!

They are the sweetest girls. And I'm not just saying that because they are my nieces. They are so good to my boys and so patient with them. They never seem to get frustrated with them and they always share and look out for my boys. They are great kids.

We got out to Great Grandma's house where we had a big yummy family dinner and as we were about to eat. . . the power went out. So we spent several hours trying to figure out why there was power to the TV but not to the pump for the well. It was a mess, but as it turned out there was a downed power line somewhere. It was a mess. AJ and I collapsed into bed early after getting the kids to sleep. It had been a long day.

The next day we had family photos planned. I hate family photos. I really don't like them, but I endure them because they are a big deal with AJ's family. I know that years from now I will appreciate them, but in the moment I am grumpy. And the moment photos are over I am excited to see how they turned out. . . so I am apparently not consistent on how I feel about this matter. Here are photos of the kids before and after the pictures. It was close to 102 that day and we were outside for pictures so I bribed Lucas (and myself) with ice cream if we could get through pictures without a meltdown.

Lucas found a pipe and a stick to play with - so he's good for the next 5 hours

Nick crashed after a big morning

Kaydence holding Lucas's hand and walking him up past the barns and pond so that he stays away from the horses and the water (both of which are dangerous she informed me).

The next day we left early and drove up to Lassen National Park. I remember when my sister in law got portable DVD players for her kids and we gave her such a hard time about it. "HOW COULD YOU??" we demanded to know. Well now I know how she could. It was the BEST thing that happened to us that day. A DVD to keep the kids quiet in the car. It is like a shinning beam from the heavens shone down onto us and made the 4 hour drive tolerable and at times. . . *gasp* pleasant!!!


Some people might see zoned out kids - but I see a peaceful drive.

My parents decided to come down to Lassen and join us there (where AJ and I first met 10 years ago). We wanted to go back and spend some time in a park that we have such fond memories of. My folks were there waiting for us and they came fully stocked with food and toys for the kids and they fed us dinner and breakfast every day for FOUR DAYS. They babysat our kids so AJ and I could drive through the park just the two of us. This is how I spent the next few days. . . in total bliss.

Do you see this picture? This is me with my emerging beer gut (note the beer) with my dirty jeans and shoes elevated in an extremely comfortable reclining camp chair. There was a red tailed hawk that was circling and landing in the trees around us all afternoon. And I just sat there. Watching it. All afternoon.


Brokeoff Mountain


Crags (view from the campsite). If you aren't even slightly jealous yet than you are soooo not my type.


And this is a tree. One of many that was dropping cones. All the fuzzy wuzzys were out very busily collecting all the seeds they could carry and store. There were golden mantled ground squirrels with cheek pouches so heavy it is truly a miracle they could move not to mention fit into their little holes. And holes. There were fuzzy wuzzy holes everywhere. Everyone felt winter approaching and everyone was really busy preparing. It was apparent that us humans were just in the way. They were so busy they just ignored us (or in some cases rudely yelled at us) if we got close.

Seeds!!! Everywhere.

Naked pine cones!! Everywhere.

And the fuzzy wuzzy's sure knew what they were doing because the first snow of the season fell on us while we were up there. It didn't last long but it got pretty darn cold at night. Good thing AJ's wonderful, thoughtful brother in law offered to let us borrow their trailer for our trip. We were really happy that for once we weren't one of the "poor suckers" stuck in a tent during 27 degree weather. All the tenters glared at us the next morning (just as I would have done if I were in their frozen shoes) probably because we had clean clothes and hot cocoa and . . . socks that weren't frozen to our feet.


And then we left. And this is what happened.

And then after this happened, we discovered that we didn't have a spare tire that fit onto the trailer. So then after a long drive into the next town down the interstate that carried trailer tires and trailer rims this happened.

We finally got the AAA guys back out to help us lift the trailer up after ANOTHER 1.5 hour wait and were on the road once again. After all this drama went down I (hereafter known as the "crappy navigator") chose the wrong freaking road to take us to Point Reyes National Seashore. Oh yes that is right. We went up Highway 1 from Stintson Beach with a 30+ foot trailer towed behind a ginormous Ford Excursion. It's alright. Go ahead and call me a complete freaking dumb ass because on that drive (hereafter known as the drive of "certain death") I called myself far worse names.

This is not a road for someone who has anxiety problems (read: me). And with every single hairpin turn AJ had to inch into the oncoming lane just to make it around the turns. It was truly horrible. Even my normally calm husband was unusually quiet and focused. The Crappy Navigator on the other hand clutched onto the Tom Tom GPS that helped get us into this mess and tried to distract myself by announcing frequently exactly how many more miles we had left on the drive of certain death. AJ on the other hand did not appreciate my nervous chatter as he was trying to concentrate on not running his entire family off of a cliff. There weren't even guard rails to offer a false sense of security. It was 26 miles in the hot seat of hell - and it was a sllloooowww drive. On a side note the Crappy Navigator accidentally flipped on the seat warmer to the chair in one of my dramatic moves to clutch onto something . . . anything, while going around a turn. My butt was ON FIRE and I truly thought that this was just what impending death felt like. I had no idea that the seat warmer was on.
It may not look like a bad road from the pictures but if you have ever driven a trailer you will notice that the critical shoulders on the side of the road are missing and that there are scary things at every turn like HUGE rock walls and cliffs and trees that you really shouldn't crash your trailer into on a 90 degree turn on a 9% down hill grade.

When we arrived in the campground we all collapsed. The Crappy Navigator felt an odd need to throw up but also to kiss the ground. The wedding we were there to attend was beautiful and we had a really good time. I am so glad we were alive to attend. (Dramaaaa Queeeenn). After the wedding Lucas came home and put on some eyebrow pencil while AJ and I weren't looking. He was so proud of himself and we told him he looked really good - and he did.





We returned to Great Grandma's house for more family photos. WHOO HOOO!! This time with a different cast of players than the previous weekend. The kids had fun feeding geese with AJ's Uncle Lucky. And Uncle Lucky had a really good time teaching the kids how to feed geese.


The kids had fun playing with eachother again.


We packed up and headed to the airport early in the morning (4 am). This pretty much sums up how tired we all are: