2012 Road Trip – Day 3

22 Jun 2012 2 Comments

by Ingies in Fun Family Stuff Tags: , , , , ,

We spent the second night and began the third day of our trip in Eureka, CA. We arrived at the hotel Wednesday night just in time to swim for an hour and left right after breakfast the next morning. We minimized our hotel time for two reasons. One, the hotel was kinda yucky, and two, we really wanted to spend the bit of flex time we had playing tourist.

First, we stopped to walk (and sit) on a breezy Northern California Beach where the kids found a few goodies for their treasure boxes they took to Auntie B.

This was also the day we saw the California Redwoods in all of their glory.

The children look positively tiny next to these mammoth trees.

Speaking of giant and looking tiny, Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox were definitely a hit.

Somewhere in a photo album there exists a picture of my ten-year-old self standing in front of these same giant statues.

G had to go back and have his picture taken with Babe again after making his souvenir purchase using the quarters he was accumulating by minding his manners in the car.

R took a minute to go retro.

Another first for R and G that day was experiencing the crossing of state lines in a vehicle.

On the Oregon side of the line in a little town called Kerby was one of the coolest things (IMHO) that I’ve ever seen. It was a purple fountain at this place . . .

We drove by it on our way through town but I made C turn around and go back to it so I could take a closer look.

What do you think? Rit Dye?

Unbelievably cool. The place was full of beautiful things made from burl wood but it was the fountain that had me most intrigued.

Also on the Oregon side of the line and kind of fun but not nearly as fascinating as the fountain was the stop we made in Springfield.  After a bit of searching we found the duplex I called home the three years I lived there. As with the puke yesterday I’ll spare you the picture.

Cheers,
D

P.S. The third day of the road trip was Thursday, June 14, 2012. As usual, I’m a bit behind with my posts.

2012 Road Trip – Day 2

22 Jun 2012 1 Comment

by Ingies in Fun Family Stuff Tags: , , ,

Day two was a big day on our trip. Besides doing a little of this (he is going to make a good daddy some day) . . .

And a little of this . . .

And a little of this (this is a puke face, I’ll spare you the actual puke) . . .

We spent a nice bit of the day visiting my cousin and her family in Mendocino County. They recently moved from Colorado to Petit Teton, (website here), a small farm owned by said cousin’s in-laws. The family operates a small CSA and has a booth at the local Saturday Market where they sell veggies, eggs and yummy jams, syrups and other treats conjured up in the commercial kitchen.

While I meandered through the gardens and toured the commercial kitchen these four little people, whose grammas are sisters, spent time looking for the yaks . . .

(no luck).

Exploring nooks and crannies . . .

Making faces (this is Z’s excited face) . . .

Swinging in the tire swing . . .

And, best of all, socializing with the chickens . . .

Cheers,
D

2012 Road Trip – Day 1

14 Jun 2012 4 Comments

by Ingies in Fun Family Stuff Tags: , ,

Day one was actually three days ago but here it is . . .

One of the things we promised ourselves when my husband’s employer shipped us off to Southern California was that we would take advantage of living in a location where driving to another state does not require passports. This month we are doing just that . . . driving from the Los Angeles area to Eastern Washington to visit family.

Our first day on the road began after C returned from work. We hadn’t even left the house before the tears began. Poor R. Our dear, tender-hearted girl bawled when she had to say good-bye to the dogs. She even left them notes by their food dishes. One for Burton . . .

It reads . . .

And one for Chewy . . .

Which reads . . .

How sweet is that?

Tears and all we piled into the car and headed down the road managing to miss our target departure time by only an hour. C and I had no idea what to expect. We’d checked 20 hours worth of kid friendly audiobooks out from the library. We brought DVDs and books and Happy Squish and whiteboards and crayons and drawing books and an entire cooler full of food. We spent a moment just before heading down the road reminding ourselves to be patient and that this was going to be a great trip . . . and it has been. This may be why:

Thanks to a suggestion from a friend we also brought with us rolls of quarters and dimes.  G and R receive a roll of each at the beginning of each day. Any bickering, arguing, sullen comments, etc. earn the offender either a 10 or 25 cent fine. Whatever is left over at the end of the day is the respective child’s spending money the following day. May I just tell you that this system rocks? This is how good it was . . . each kid had over $14.50 to spend the second day of the trip. Not only has is all but eliminated the bickering, it has eliminated requests for purchase. Not one time has either kid asked us to buy them anything. It is beautiful.

Day one was relatively uneventful. Other than a little skateboarding during our rest stop picnic dinner . . .

The highlight of the day for the children was the hotel we finally pulled into at 10:30 p.m. in Brentwood, CA.

G just had to make use of the nightstand even if it was for only nine hours.

See that cord draped across the drawer? It is attached to the reading light from his bed at home he brought with him. This is the assortment of items he chose to bring with him on this little adventure.

I suspect that like many children, it won’t be the scenery or historic monuments or parks they will remember for the rest of their lives. It will be staying in hotels.

Cheers,
D

Wolf

14 Jun 2012 2 Comments

by Ingies in Stories about the boy Tags: ,

Our boy is now a Wolf. His Tiger days are over. He traded in his orange neckerchief for a gold one.

G was also chosen Tiger Cub of the Year. This is him with his Den Leader, who is amazing. We are so lucky to have her. She happens to be a 100-mile marathoner, a mother of three, a running coach, a hard core Scout leader and the only woman I know who can make pearls the perfect accessory for a Scout uniform. (Collar is funky because scarf was put on by an eight year old. It’s all good.)

We are very proud of you, G!

Cheer,
D

Last Day of School

14 Jun 2012 1 Comment

by Ingies in Stories about the boy, Stories about the girl Tags:

This was taken last August . . .

This was taken last Friday (the last day of school is a uniform-free day) . . .

What a difference nine and a half months makes. (Seems to me that is a time frame in which lots of other things happened in their development a number of years back.)

Next year it is on to 2nd grade and 4th grade respectively.

Cheers,
D

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