The Incredible Journey (Part 12)

The last day of our long, long, long trip...

After debating whether I should stop over in Oregon or just drive straight through to Washington, I decided to go all the way. We had gotten such an early start that we were still going to get to Tacoma by dinnertime.
It's kind of funny, but I got into some trouble in Oregon. I stopped to get gas and didn't realize that Oregon is like New Jersey- you can't pump your own gas. There were no attendants outside so I just pulled up and started pumping, as did the gentleman next to me. Suddenly two attendants rushed out and told us that we were committing a crime and that the service station prosecutes customers who try to pump their own gas because it's against the law. I thought he was joking... but he wasn't. Fortunately they just let me leave (without filling up!) and I drove away wondering what had just happened. I got gas as soon as I crossed into Washington.
Washington was so flat and brown when I crossed the border that I wondered why they call it "The Evergreen State." Within minutes I saw Mt. Hood (I guess?) and Mt. Rainier. Wow. From that far away, I could still see the snow-covered peaks. It was then that I thought I might like Washington.
As we got farther east, the Cascade Mountains appeared and we crossed right through them. Then I got it. So that's why this is "The Evergreen State." Yep, makes sense now.


This place is amazing. So beautiful. Driving through the mountains was so much fun, even with the camper being towed behind us. Finally, after a long day of driving, we arrived and set up camp. The first night I had to dry camp (no hookups at all) but by the following night I was able to get a site with electricity, water, and sewer. And that was home for the next several weeks.
I can now say that I have been to 47 states and my kids have been to 46 states. And my poor, poor van has been right there with us. It looks 20 years old now and has nearly 100,000 miles. (It's a 2006!) What a journey though. What an incredible, awesome journey. I don't regret one bit of it.

It was weird being in Washington without Jason home yet. The anticipation of the journey was over but we were still eagerly awaiting his arrival. The days had passed so quickly when I was driving and now that we were there, the minutes just ticked by so slowly.

We waited. And waited. And waited some more. I knew that there would be a phone call coming to let me know that Jason was coming home. Until then, we waited.
It rained nearly every day at first. It got old really quickly. Plus, we were camping right next to the flight line of an Air Force base, so there were planes taking off and landing every few minutes at times. And, they play taps really, really loud at 10 pm every night. Loud enough to blast you out of bed!
We celebrated the babies' second birthday with (gasp) store-bought cake and cupcakes. It was fun, but Sarah was sick that day so we ended up not eating the cake until the following day.






Sometimes it was hard to keep the little people entertained in the camper. And sometimes they were the entertainment.
Finally, the phone call came. "Your soldier is on their way home..." My kids knew right away what I was hearing because they saw me smiling through the tears. It was finally over.

The Incredible Journey (Part 11)

Leaving Colorado, we were excited to be so much closer to Washington. We were just days away from Jason's return. Things were great... until we spent the night in Wyoming.


Wyoming is really windy and it was annoying to tow the camper with such strong winds threatening to blow us off the road. The camper has a sway bar to control how much the camper sways in situations like this, but it was still unnerving.
We had a rough start to the day, with 3 stops on 3 consecutive interstate exits. There was a potty stop, a camper adjustment stop, and then another potty stop for someone who swore they didn't have to go at the first exit just ten minutes earlier. At the last stop, Matthew reported a strange sound coming from the back of the van. This isn't unusual- the sway control squeaks a bit if we're turning a bit and I was getting back onto the exit ramp from the shoulder. I should have stopped to check it out, but I didn't.
The last night at my dad's house resulted in yet another black eye. This time it was Ryan, who bumped his cheek on my dad's marble coffee table. The worst part is that he was on my lap, with my dad sitting right next to us, and I couldn't grab him in time. It was terrible. My dad promised he'd be a witness for me when they come take me away for child abuse. (Joking, of course!)
Have I ever mentioned that giant windmills freak me out? It's one of my quirks I guess.
When we got to our (civilian) campground that night, everything seemed ok. However, I woke up in the morning to a really rotten day. First, I noticed that our cat was missing. He was nowhere to be seen! I searched the camper and determined that he was not just hiding somewhere. Then I searched the campground for 2 hours, calling his name over and over. The campground was next to a river and in a small town, but there were railroad tracks nearby and I'm sure the coyotes were not far away either. We were devastated. After leaving my name and number with the camp hosts (with instructions to call so I could come back to get the cat) we made the tough decision to leave. As the camp host pointed out, I could have waited for days and not found Pilchard. It was best to keep moving and they'd call if they found him so I could come to pick him up. I was so upset I could barely drive.

As it turns out, I received a letter a few weeks ago. It was from the camp hosts in Wyoming. They wanted to let me know that they had found Pilchard's body in the pasture next to the campground. They thought he'd been hit by a car. They buried him for us. I then had to explain to the kids that Pilchard was not coming back. That was so sad.

As if losing the cat wasn't enough, I also discovered that the strange sound Matthew had heard the day before was apparently our weight distributing bar on the towing hitch coming off. It was gone. A huge, heavy metal bar just gone. And then, even better, I discovered that there was an error with Jason's pay that day and he was not paid. This also happened to be the day that our mortgage payments came out. I ended up spending the day at the Air Force base trying to get it fixed, to no avail. Just my luck. And then Jason called to tell me that he was going to arrive a few days later than expected.
Fortunately, Utah was our stop that night and it was beautiful. We've been there before, but never to Salt Lake City. We watched the fighter jets doing fly bys over the campground and explored downtown. At this point I was still anxiously waiting for a call about Pilchard so I was having a hard time enjoying our surroundings. Lucky for us, we were able to get together with another awesome, crazy family with two sets of twins. (And their youngest set of twins are also Nathan and Ryan. Weird, huh?)
Our kids played so well together and it was so wonderful to actually meet someone else with two sets of twins the same ages as mine. The time passed too quickly and I wish we could have stayed in SLC longer. I was surprised at how much I really loved SLC.

When I saw this photo my first thought was "Why am I still wearing a t-shirt I wore in high school?" First thing tomorrow, I am getting rid of that shirt. I'm a mom, not a skater girl. Good grief.

Matthew and Sydney hit it off right away. I'm not sure which one of them was in charge but there were both ordering each other around and having so much fun. Typical first-born kids.
The next morning we hit the road and headed for Idaho. I'm not sure what I expected to see in Idaho. It wasn't what I expected though. It was actually wide open and the sky was clear and blue. And I didn't see any potatoes... although, I have been informed that they are definitely there somewhere.

We stopped in Twin Falls for lunch. We had to do it.
We drove over this really high (kind of scary) bridge that crosses the Snake River.
And we explored.
We played with tumbleweed.

And then I started to get nervous that someone would fall over the edge so we hit the road again.
That night we stayed in Idaho and watched the fighter jets circling the sky.
The kids colored with sidewalk chalk.
The babies locked us out of the camper and Matthew had to "break in" by climbing in through the storage compartment. Good times.


I woke up to the sound of coyotes in a field nearby. I watched the sun rise over the mountains. I made myself a vanilla latte and loaded the kids into the van. More driving. New places. We were almost to Washington. Almost there...

The Incredible Journey (Part 10)

It makes me sad to look at these (hundreds of) pictures from our trip because my visits with my dad are never long enough. I wish we lived closer to each other and the disappointment I felt 10 years ago when he moved away to Colorado, comes back all over again. My dad is so great with my kids and they just adore him. (And I'm pretty fond of him myself.)
When we arrived at my dad's house, we were greeted by two rainbows stretching across the gray sky. Twin rainbows! We all stood and watched as the two rainbows merged into one, thick double rainbow. It was really a nice start to our stay in Denver.
After a few days in Denver, we headed up to my dad's house in the mountains. We weren't there long before Ryan developed one of his spontaneous fevers. Poor kiddo has the worst timing.
The view from my dad's deck was amazing, as always. The sun was shining over the lake and the leaves were just starting to change colors. The weather was warm during the day and refreshingly cool at night. I swear I could live in the Rocky Mountains forever.
My dad even has two sets of twin Aspen trees growing in his yard. (I think we see pairs everywhere!)
Nathan and Ryan loved my dad's unique antler chandeliers and the huge windows overlooking the lake. They were always staring at something!


Ryan's fever got pretty bad and it was obvious that he felt pretty crummy. He slept a lot for the couple of days that he was sick.

My dad and I took turns holding Ryan and watching the little kids while Matthew and Joshua raced go karts with Uncle Paul. My brother hadn't seen us in 18 months, so it was a real treat to spend an afternoon with him. He's a mountain man now and lives in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. It's a sharp contrast from life growing up in the DC suburbs, but he is really happy there.
The kids even got me out on the track so I could embarrass Uncle Paul. Yeah, we beat him!



Matthew helped Granddad With No Hair get ready for the winter by chopping firewood. The kids just love to help with his projects.
Looking into my reflection in the window... The sky was so beautiful and clear!

We took the kids to the beach one afternoon and watched them build a huge sandcastle. They were very resourceful, grabbing burnt firewood remnants and seaweed to embellish their creation.


In the 10 years that my dad has lived in Colorado, I've always wanted to see a moose. Finally, this trip was the lucky trip and ended up seeing 6 of them! This one was absolutely huge and I jumped out of the van and crouched between the trees to take a picture. It was incredible.
Then we saw a mother and her calf a few minutes later! The baby was bigger than me, I'm sure. They were fascinating to watch and even Nathan & Ryan were shouting "moose" in the van.
We watched the elk in the fields and were giggling at the two babies who were literally racing and playing with each other. What a sight! Then we even heard the elk bugling, which was so different than what I had expected to hear from such large creatures.

We brought the kids in their jammies as we drove around looking at animals just before dusk. It was the perfect time to come across all kinds of wild animals.


On our way back to Denver, we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park. As always, the views from the mountaintops are breathtaking. This time my dad drove and I was able to thoroughly enjoy the scenery.

Back in Denver, my dad and his wife renewed their wedding vows. It was a really small ceremony-just me, the kids, my brother, and one other couple. I took pictures and wrangled babies. The Catholic priest told me that (if I was Catholic) I'd be nominated for sainthood. We all laughed... a little too hard! If that poor priest only knew what my life was really like, he would have laughed too!

After the ceremony, Matthew got the thrill of his life. My dad's friend let all of the kids sit inside his Porsche. What kind of person lets six little kids sit in their Porsche?! It was so incredibly sweet and such a kind gesture. For those that know Matthew, you know he is obsessed with cars. He eats, sleeps, and breathes cars. His world revolves around them. For him to sit inside a real Porsche and even open and close the convertible top, was awesome!

The reception was just an intimate little brunch in downtown Denver. It was great food and it was nice to spend some time with my brother, even if he was half asleep from working all night.











Because Jason was coming home early, we only spent about a week and a half in Colorado. I wish we could have stayed longer. It never feels like enough time and we always have so much fun.
Before we left, I was able to finally meet up with two other twin moms that I've known online for quite some time. We took our kids to the park and enjoyed spending the afternoon there, eating a picnic lunch and talking about life. It was just what I needed to recharge my mommy batteries and get myself ready to conquer the last part of our journey.