Category: Our Family

Today I thought I would take the kids to the pool while Kyle was at work, but then I started to think about how that would work out and the thought was terrifying. None of the kids know how to swim. Ethan has had some lessons and can swim a little, but he does not swim well at all. I realized that if anything went wrong with one of the kids, I would have to stop attending the others to rescue the one, which could then result in others getting in over their heads as well. So we just hung out in the hotel room for the day. The kids kept asking when we were going to go to the pool, but they still busied themselves drawing and watching some TV shows. Lunch and nap time took up a portion of the afternoon and then they watched Wild Kratts again until Kyle got back from work.

We went out and drove around a bit. We checked out the mall, which wasn’t very exciting at all because they are getting ready to remodel. So most of the stores had moved to await the finishing of the remodel. We ended up going to a restaurant called “Elmers” for dinner. I had mango crepes, which were very good, and Kyle got a German pancake:

When we got back to the hotel we took the kids to the pool. I don’t have any pictures because both Kyle and I had to get in to make sure the kids stayed safe, and my camera isn’t waterproof. 😉 We let them play in the pool for a little while before telling them that it was almost time for the pool to be closed for the night and that we needed to go to bed. They really enjoyed the chance to play in the water.

This morning while Kyle was at work, I took the kids to make a run to Target. The hotel has a pool, and we had forgotten to get some swim diapers for the little ones. I also realized that we didn’t have any water to fill our thermos’s up with, and we didn’t get any paper plates when we were out getting food last night. So we got all those things and with school supplies on sale I decided to also pick up some notebooks and crayons and pencils so the kids could draw or color, just to give them something to do. We went back to the hotel to have lunch and nap then we watched TV until Kyle got back from work. TV is something the kids don’t have much experience with at all. We don’t have cable, or dish or netflix at home, we JUST have DVDs. So they were introduced to some new shows, and it turns out that they really like Wild Kratts.

We had been invited to have dinner at the house of one of Kyle’s coworkers, so when he got back from work we loaded everyone in the van to go. I think the kids liked having a chance to get out and play in the backyard. They have pretty much been cooped up in the van, or in the hotel rooms since we left home.

We did not go swimming or play in a pool at their house. Lydia is only wearing a bathing suit because I packed them so we would have them for using the pool at the hotel. Lydia was so excited about the prospect of going in the pool that she had been wearing her bathing suit all day, under her dress. As soon as we got to Kyle’s coworkers house she went down the hall and stripped off her dress and came running out in her bathing suit. We let the kids play for a bit before eating, and then we hung out for awhile before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Before leaving for work this morning, I asked Kyle if he would get my computer hooked up to one of the hotel tvs so that I could put on movies for the kids if we happened to want to watch something while he was gone. He pulled it out, and opened it up and the screen had been cracked! We both vaguely remember my computer bag falling off one of the suitcases when he unloaded it from the van in Winnemucca. I didn’t use it when we stayed the night in Winnemucca, Kyle just didn’t want to leave it in the van overnight. Now we will have to go about getting another replacement screen for my computer before I can use it again. 🙁

Kyle’s employer is sending him on a business trip to Oregon. When he talked to his manager about it, he asked if he could make it a road trip and bring his family, and his manager said that would be fine! So yesterday we finished getting ready and we left.

I actually wanted to leave on Saturday after Wendy and John left our place, but the kids have been taking turns with a stomach bug this week and so that slowed down my preparations to leave town. Actually, after we left home yesterday, we stopped to fill the van’s gas tank just a few miles from home, and as soon as we pulled out of that parking lot to hit the road…Dinah announced that she needed to throw up. So we had to make an emergency stop at the next gas station just down the street from where we filled up. Thankfully though that was the only vomit stop we had to make. 😀

We headed north to Salt Lake City, then we headed west past the Great Salt Lake and the salt flats.

Last night we spent the night in a hotel in Winnemucca, Nevada. We haven’t done much staying in hotels with the kids. Every time we travel, it is usually to a place where we can stay with family, so they were really excited to get to stay in a hotel. Kyle and I woke early, because this bed hog kicked us out.

I guess the flash of my camera woke some of the others up, so I just went on taking more pictures. 🙂

After getting some breakfast from the hotel, we resumed our journey. Only now we weren’t using a highway, just state roads. The difference between the highway and the state roads is significant. Along a highway there are plenty of exits along the way to fill up, or get food, or to make a potty stop, but it seemed that along the state roads we took it could be over a hundred miles before there was ANY place to stop, and even then, there was no guarantee that it would have gas, food, or bathrooms!

There is also a contrast between Nevada and Oregon. As soon as we got to Oregon it was amazing to see how green everything became, compared to the deserts of Nevada.

Also driving through the forests the trees are MASSIVE!

We had planned to have my grandparents meet up with us in Springville for lunch, but we were behind schedule due to leaving a day later than intended, and we just weren’t going to make it there in time for lunch.  I called Grandpa Tom to let him know and see if we could work out a visit some other way. In the end we decided to visit them on Thursday after Kyle gets off of work. So we continued on our journey to Springville and got checked into our hotel rooms, before going to dinner.

We went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. It was right across the parking lot from our hotel rooms, so we could just walk there. I had never been to Outback Steakhouse before. I liked the small loaves of bread that they brought out for us to nibble on while we waited for our food. We figured out what the kids wanted and ordered our food and then we waited. It seemed like we waited forever too, the kids started getting impatient with the waiting. That doesn’t usually happen when we go to restaurants. We asked our waitress about when the food would be out and she responded with a comment that felt like she was blaming us. “Well it took you guys a long time to order”. Well even if it did we ordered a LONG time ago. They finally brought the food out and I helped Lydia cut up her steak bites so that it would be easier for her to eat them, but as I sliced them, I noticed they were totally red inside. I had asked for them to be medium well. As far as I’m aware, medium well means mostly BROWN with just a hint of pink in the middle. We asked the waitress about this as well and again she made us feel like we were complaining unjustly by telling us that “medium well does have red in it”. I was angry by this point. Medium well should have a slight bit of pink in the middle, but you CANNOT give a three year old RED meat! That is just not safe, and they knew that meat was going to a kid, it was a kids meal for crying out loud! They did take Lydia’s meat back and re-grill it to brown it up some. I just didn’t want to ask for well done meat because so often when you say “well” they bring you meat that you can’t chew it’s so done. Lydia being three, I wanted the meat slightly softer than that so she could actually chew it. We left the restaurant that night feeling extremely disappointed in the service to say the least.

Before returning to our hotel rooms we got in the van and headed to the store to get some food for breakfast and lunch for the next few days. Adam would have been very upset to have had to gone without milk the whole time we are in Oregon so we made sure to get some of that too. Kyle also drove around a bit to show me a bit of town so that if I want to leave the hotel while he is at work I would have some idea of where I’m going.

Wendy and John are going to meet up with my parents in southern Utah to go to the Castle Dale Pageant for Wendy’s birthday today, so they spent the night here last night on their way down. We had Debby over for dinner as well, and Wendy had brought some dessert. Debby went home when Rexton got cranky. After the kids went to bed, I prepared some baked french toast to sit in the fridge overnight, and John helped Kyle move the treadmill downstairs.

With our new bedroom furniture there was no way to get both the recliner and the treadmill back in our room, and with a new baby on the way I decided I wanted the recliner back in the room. So the treadmill has just been in the living room since, but Kyle and I both don’t want it there. John was willing to help to see if it could be taken downstairs, and it fit through the door!

This morning Debby came over and we had the baked french toast for breakfast. Then Kyle encouraged me to take Debby and Wendy to our stake clothing exchange. Since Wendy is expecting their first and they don’t have any baby clothes, this was a chance for her to go pick up some free stuff. Of course she doesn’t know what they are having so she got to pick cute stuff for both boy and girl. Debby also picked out some stuff for Rexton and any future baby that they might have. While we were gone Kyle and John and the boys worked on mowing the lawns and getting the yard taken care of.  After we girls came back, it was time for Wendy and John to be going so they could meet up with my parents, but I think we did a good job of making our time together this weekend productive. 😉