Disneyland Flashback

About 10 years ago we decided to take our kids to Disneyland.  At the time we had three children ages 6, 3, and 1.  We left Grandma's house early in the morning, parked, and purchased tickets and were ready for a fun day at the “happiest place on earth.”  A few hours later, our oldest child announced he was bored and wanted to go back to grandma's house. We brushed him off and took him on more rides only to hear him say again that he just wanted to go back to Grandma's house.  After quite some time of listening to him whine about having to be at Disneyland, I kind of lost it.  In not the nicest voice, I told him that we had paid a lot of money to get in, we were staying until the end of the day, this was the happiest place on earth so he better stop whining about Grandma's house and just enjoy the day.  We did stay to the end of the day and had a good time, but we haven't returned to Disneyland since.

Donner State Park

For the first part of our big trip we are doing a road trip to Grandma's house.  Instead of driving the usual I-15 south to Southern California, we drove over to Reno, on to San Francisco and down the California coast.  The first few days went well, but shortly after crossing the California border I suggested we stop at Donner State Park and I heard, “do we have to stop?  Can't we just drive to  Grandma's house”.  I ignored the plea and we stopped at Donner State Park for a few hours.  Later when we were nearing San Francisco someone asked how long it would take because he just wanted to get to Grandma's house.  The kids did think the Golden Gate Bridge was pretty cool (and it was literally cold there).  But that was all the patience they had for San Francisco.  After telling them of other things we could do there, they decided they would rather start driving to Grandma's house.

Redwood State Park

We forced them to stop a few more times to see Redwood State Park (and yes they liked it), the Santa Barbara Mission (they thought it was boring) and to see some relatives.  But the the prevailing theme through it all was “when can we get to Grandma's house”.  I felt like it  was Disneyland all over again!  Here we are trying to take our kids to new places to experience new things and they just want to go to Grandma's house.  It is going to be a long year if anytime we want to do anything we hear, “let's just go to Grandma's house.”

 

Santa Barbara Mission

Prologue

Just like every good book, every good trip has a prologue, a little backstory before the actual thing, this is ours.

For the last week, we have been eating corn dogs and sitting on the floor. At the yard sale a few weeks ago we sold most of our furniture, and this last Thursday we got rid of the rest of it. Then we really got to sit on the floor, and eat off the counter.

Every time we go on a vacation, our mom goes into vacation mode and doesn't shop for groceries for a week at least beforehand. This time was a little different. She didn't shop for nearly a month, by the end we were really down to the last crumbs in the pantry.

As of Saturday, this trip kinda stinks. We had to work a ton to get everything packed and the house cleaned. But this Saturday (today) things are looking a lot better. We are at our Grandparents house in California, with plans for the beach, swimming, and playing with our cousins during the week!

Uggh. Cleaning.

We cleaned a lot before this trip. Everything had to be absolutely perfect for my mom.  We had to scrub all the walls in the whole house, vacuum everything at least 10 times, mop the floors, go without the Wii for 2 days :(, sleep on the ground for 2 nights, and shove everything we owned into our two cars. It stank!

Terri's House

Starting out we had a nine hour drive to Reno, Nevada to my dad's birth mom's house. We arrived just before dinner. We had some turkey sloppy Joes for dinner and for dessert we had a cold chocolate cake with a creamy chocolate frosting all over it. It was super delicious. For breakfast the next day we had waffles with some homemade syrup. We had some blueberry, blackberry, strawberry syrup and a regular flavor. They were both good.

Terri had a nice old black Labrador Retriever named Reno who died the day after we left.  We are sad that he is gone.

Technology is great...

Huawei Mobile Hotspot - MiFi

One of the things I like about technology is when it works.  There is nothing better than technology that works.  Last week I picked up a MiFi device, the last piece in our technology arsenal for this trip.

A MiFi talks cellular data on one side and WiFi on the other.  The other day while Elaine was driving on the freeway I was online and working on my laptop using the MiFi.  Isn't that amazing?!?  We were going 65 miles per hour on a freeway and I had speedy Internet access.  On another occasion we needed to research hotels so we pulled into a parking lot, fired up the MiFi and laptops and had a reservation in a matter of minutes.  Isn't technology great?

There were a few other times, however, while driving through a valley or remote area that the MiFi became unusable.  I can easily overlook this shortcoming of the cellular networks because the technology is just so cool when it DOES work.

Of course, MiFi access isn't free and we won't use it when free WiFi is available but it is definitely good to have as an option.

Away we go!

Wow! After the crazy and hectic pace of the last few weeks we are on our way.  This is a family picture on our last Sunday in Utah.  We left shortly after this picture was taken (and after changing our clothes).  It is hard to believe that we are on our way but it feels good.  We've assembled and packed most of the gear we'll need for the next 11 months.  We've sold, given away, or trashed everything we don't need.  We've packed and/or stored the rest.  With much help from family and friends we've cleaned our house.  According to our kids the house is the cleanest it has been in years.

Especially in the last few days before we left people asked, "Are you excited?"  My honest response was, "I feel no emotion except stress."  Now that we are past that and actually on our way I am starting to feel the excitement.  I feel anticipation.  I feel a little anxiety.  I am pleased with my family that we have worked together to get this far.  I feel large amounts of gratitude for many reasons, not the least of which is the great support we feel from family and friends.  I feel some sense of simplicity due to the fact that we have less stuff at the moment.  I have also become unhappily aware that the clock is ticking on our adventure and that each day that passes brings us closer to the other end.  We'll have to enjoy each day as it happens.

Thank you to everyone for the love and support in helping us get to this point!

Garbage bags rip

While cleaning and organizing for our trip one of the children had the assignment to help throw away a bunch of trash and then haul the garbage bag out to the garbage can.  He was tired and was resisting everything that morning.

Eventually the trash bag was full and he dragged it from the basement, up and out to the garbage can.  Elaine and I both mentioned separately that it would be better if he didn't drag the bag.  He resisted these suggestions and continued dragging the bag.

Later, I found a trail of trash going from the front door to the garbage can.  It puzzled me at first but then I remembered seeing the plastic trash bag being dragged across the tile and cement.  The trail of trash led to the torn garbage bag.

My son didn't deny that the bag had torn while he dragged it.  He and I worked together to re-bag the trash.  Some times when we resist doing what's right or in the right way we make a bigger mess.  I hope he learned that.