Road Trip!

Ahhh...the dreaded road trip with 4 kids stuffed (literally) in between 5 sets of golf clubs, 3 skateboards, 3 helmets, 6 pillows, 6 suitcases, 4 bags of travel essentials (such as toys, game boys, CD players, cars, trains, books), 2 portable DVD players with multiple required chords, 1 large cooler full of food, and 5 or 6 other bags of various snacks intended to lure the kids into eating too much so that they would become drowsy and sleep! Good times!!! Oh, I forgot to mention the most important item that traveled the estimated 2,000 mile round trip with us---my copy of Breaking Dawn! Any of you familiar with that will know that my road trip was great! I was really good at tuning out the four kids all demanding one kind of treat or another for 11 hours straight so that I could finish my book!

Anyway....let me back up a little bit. Paul had to travel to Renton, Washington to do some interviewing for a new store he is opening up there. Since my Grandpa and my aunt and uncle live a couple of hours southeast of there, we decided to make a family vacation out of it. We had a great time visiting with my relatives! Paul was able to run up north for a few days to do his business, and then he rejoined us later in the week. My grandpa is 90 now, so this was probably the last chance I had to visit with him. Here are some highlights of the week:

Having lunch with 4 generations--My Grandpa, my Aunt Bev, Me, and the kids.

The kids LIVED in the pool! Luckily, it was sunny and hot most of the days we were there! The younger boys really gained a lot of swimming and high jumping confidence as they spent many hours a day jumping in the pool off the high deck and swimming the length of it. The slide was a blast also!

My aunt and uncle live practically on top of the country club. He owns his own golf cart which to my kids means he should be worshipped, especially when he lets them drive it! Each night, my uncle took one of the boys and then Paul out to play golf at the country club! They thought it was the best!

My cousin was house sitting for a gal who lived on a beautiful lake with tons of ducks and geese. We went over every night to feed them. There was a mother duck with a bunch of little tiny ducklings in the lake. The kids especially loved them. They were less than fond of the big mean geese who came over and practically snatched the bread right out of Eric's hand since he was about beak high! Feeding a few means feeding all the fowl on the lake! As soon as we started to feed a couple, ducks and geese from every direction and distance across the lake would make a beeline for our grassy area and fight each other for a bite of bread!

My aunt and uncle live up on a hill. They have fabulous views of the valley off their deck. One night while we were out enjoying the evening, there was an amazing sunset! We really just enjoyed seeing another part of the country, visiting family, and enjoying some of nature's beauty.