Trip vs.Vacation

Just so no one misunderstands, this was a trip, not a vacation. See, there is a difference. On a vacation, you don't drive 6763 miles, you don't unpack and repack 14 times, you don't spend 7 full days in a car with 6 bodies and tons of luggage, you don't drive kids to and from basketball camps and EFY, you don't do laundry, you don't try to fit in visiting everyone you want and need to, you don't make doctors appointments in states you don't live in, you don't need an oil change in the middle, and your husband doesn't work remotely for portions of 2 weeks, staying in town so that he can help drive to the next location.

However, a trip like this is full of so many memories and I don't know that I would really trade it. It is so comforting to be with family. We have amazing brothers and sisters who fed us well and gave us comfortable places to sleep. We played lots of games, cuddled with lots of nieces and nephews, enjoyed beautiful scenery, crossed 15 state lines, laughed until we cried, and took hundreds of pictures.

Maybe sometime we will hop on a plane, hop off and grab a taxi to deliver us to a hotel where we will unpack and stay put for a week and actually vacation, but probably not anytime soon.

19 More Days....but who's counting?

Just wanted to interrupt the travel log to mention that Lauren does her daily countdown of how many more days until she gets on the plane to head off to school. She is SOOOOOO EXCITED!


We arrived home Monday night late and were at the hospital at 8 am Tuesday morning for the final round of chemo. She is struggling with this one and hasn't felt very good. Let's hope she improves quickly over the next few days so that her enthusiasm isn't thwarted!

Road Trip - The Oregon Coast

I love the beach!!! I told the kids it was my therapy and I will now try to recreate the entire beach experience as best I can.

Anticipation - walk down the path and this is what you see...

Then you go to the end of the walkway and look to your left...

Look to your right...

Keep walking and you start running down the hill ...

There is nothing quite like the Oregon Coast, especially around Haystack Rock. It is therapeutic to go there. I love to put my feet in the sand and watch the waves and smell the ocean air. We haven't been there for 4 summers - way too long.

If you are lucky, you will come upon a sand dollar. (and Rachel's flip flop tan)

Lauren's favorite thing to do there is to take pictures from all different angles.

Some of us enjoy exploring the ocean life attached to the rocks.

Others enjoy building sand castles.

The wide open space is plenty of room to throw footballs, frisbees, trac ball or baseballs.

These 2 girls always dig some kind of hole and get in it.

The water is a bit chilly but beautiful.

It doesn't get much better than a campfire on the sand while watching the sunset and eating s'mores.

Thanks Mom and Dad for bringing me here for as long as I can remember!

Thanks Blair for driving 3000+ miles to get me there again!!!

Road Trip Post 1

This is Nathan doing this post. This time to get to Utah, we went down through Colorado to see Arches National Park. It was 105 degrees when we were there, so we didn't hike too much.

This is Rachel, Megan, and I standing in front of Double Arch.

Us three again being crazy under Sand Dune Arch.

For the 4th of July we were in Utah and went to the Balloon Festival with Gma and Gpa Hyde and the Edwards.

We went to Gma and Gpa Holbrooks house. Grandma doesn't remember very many things, but she'll remind you many times that she was born in Logan.

We had a 4th of July BBQ with all our Hyde extended family at Greg and Wendy Hyde's house. This is our big family picture. Uncle Brad had to take the picture, so he isn't in it.

Last year, Dad wanted to ride the bobsled in Park City but couldn't because he had had a knee surgery previously. This year he finally got to do it.

Trying to be excited going to Gma and Gpa Hyde's house in Oregon(it meant more driving!!). We were sick of being in the car!!!

This is us having dinner at their house(I took the picture - the empty seat was mine).