Our Spring Break Trip to Idaho

On Friday, March 19th, the four kids and I left for Idaho to see our good friends and spend a few days with them. It was a challenge to get out of town though! First I had an early morning doctor's appointment so I planned on going to that, coming back, loading up the kids and taking off by 10AM. No problem! I had the van all packed the night before, everything was ready, I was totally prepared. HAHAHAHA!!!! As I go out to leave for my doctor's appointment my van wouldn't start! Arg! So I took Nathan's beast of a truck to the doctor's. When I came back I tried jump starting my an with my friend, Heather's, car. It took a while, but we got it figured out. I left home (only 10:30ish, not too bad) and head to Les Schwab. I was hoping they would tell me my battery was fine and we had just left something on accidentally as we were packing up the night before. I didn't think we did, but I was hoping it was just an honest mistake like that. Nope, not so luck. The battery is bad, so 45 minutes and $60+ later, we finally hit the road. Now it is about 11:30AM, only an hour and half behind schedule! I was planning on making more stops on our way, but now we had to drive straight through, pretty much.

The rest of the trip was great though. The kids traveled exceptionally well, we listened to a book on CD and they watched a movie and played together. We stopped for dinner and let them get their wiggles out in a playland, and it was really good drive.

We pulled over on the side of the road so we could stretch our legs and watch these cool paragliders. They kept waving to the kids and flying back and forth overhead. This was pretty neat for the kids!

We finally got to our friends' house around 8:00PM. We made good time. No I didn't speed (too much), but we lucked out with the kids being good and everything going smoothly. Oh, and I also wouldn't let them drink too much so there were no unscheduled potty breaks, yes, I dehydrate my children on road trips, shame on me! Just kidding. They would get Capri Suns about 20-30 minutes before a scheduled potty break stop and we would stop every 2 hours or so for a quick break. My leg was killing me too so I had to stop that often for me!

Here is my friend, Chauntelle, two of her kids, Lisa and Tanner, and Ben checking out some bears. Pretty cool! We were driving by this bear research facility and the bears were out in the viewing cages and she asked us all if we wanted to stop. The older kids all said "no" and Ben said "yes!!!" Chauntelle was very cute, she told them that she is stopping because the younger ones always get the shaft and don't get to do things because the older ones vote against them. So she pulled over, just for Ben. How sweet!

Lisa, Reagan, Nick, and Tatiana playing in the pool at the local college rec center.

Ben and Tanner climbing the backyard tree as Jim made pizzas on the grill! Yummmm!

Grayson being so sweet and playing with Andrew.

The whole gang, minus Andrew who is probably on my hip as I take the picture. Andrew was pretty glued to me the whole time. Come to find out, he had an ear infection! Poor little guy!

McDonalds! Every kids favorite.

Ben and Grayson bowling. STRIKE!

Lisa and Tatiana, born two days apart, and the cutest pair. When I said, "you two are two peas in a pod." Tatiana said, "but I don't like peas." We just laughed.

It was a very fun weekend with our friends. We left on Friday and came home on Tuesday. We all missed Nathan/Daddy and looked forward to getting home to him. Thank you Chuantelle and Jim for all your hospitality! Thank you Reagan, Lisa, Grayson and Tanner for all the fun!