Tuesday, December 2, 2014

We're Home!!

11 days is a long time!! When you have family spread across a state that happens to be 2 states away, that's how long it takes to see everyone (and there are a lot that we still didn't have the time to see this trip). In total, we drove almost 2200 miles. That's something along the lines of 37 hours of driving time. 
There will be a few trip related posts, but I'm going to start with the pictures from my phone and get those outta the way.
 This is my Uncle Stan, my dad's brother. We spent some time at Ranch and Home, and then hit Famous Dave's for BBQ. It was such a treat to get to spend time with  both Uncle Stan and dad together.  They made us dinner two nights we were there.
 The kids love running timed laps around dad's yard to see who's the fastest.

 These are at the hotel my dad gets for us.  They have a great breakfast, and the fire's always warm and toasty, which is great because it was quite cold.

 Above, this is Bigg's Junction, Or, looking across the Columbia River to WA.  This was on the drive up. (pictures are not in order.)
 These were also on the drive up.  This was the kids first stop to play in the snow this trip.

 Below, when we headed north, we left and drove up to Shasta City. We stopped there for the night, and drove the rest the next day.  This was a glimps of Mount Shasta.
 And this is what the whole mountain looks like when you can see it.  It's also the side of Black Bear Diner where we had breakfast.
 We stayed at the most homey hotel in Shasta City, it was under $100 a night, and was a suite with a bedroom. It was old, but comfy! I think it was called the Swiss Chalet or something like that.
 On the road.
 This was actually in Oregon on the way home yesterday. We do not have snow tires, and we got a bit nervous because the forecast had been for clear weather, and clear roads.  It was snowing really hard!
 that temp says 18, the coldest we saw this trip was 6.
 On black Friday, Myles got a machine called the Sew Cool! It sews felt together without using thread, and the needle is encased in plastic, so there's no way for fingers to get to it.  He made a doll of his cousin, Ava.
 Below, on the way from Tacoma to Ellensburg, we stole 45 minutes to stop back in to the Bass Pro Shop in Tacoma, which houses this awesome bowling alley. The kids bowled a game before we started our drive east.

 I picked up two of these, one for me, one for my mom.
 This was earlier in the trip. The cousins have a short Thanksgiving Break, so we talked one of them into skipping school and spending the day with us. We took the kids bowling that day. (we realized how much bowling we would do if we lived up there since it was pouring rain the whole time)


 When we drove from Kennewick to Tacoma, we took a southern detour to Silver Lake. It's said to have the best fishing in all of WA state, and there's a small hotel on the lake that you can fish from your balcony at....so we had to check that out for possible future use.  That's the base of Mt. St. Helens just below the clouds.

 Below is White Pass, WA. This is where my sister and I learned to ski when we were little. We stopped on the way from Kennewick to Tacoma.

 Myles making yellow snow for the first time.
 Brian thinking " I'm cold and I have to potty and the lodge isn't open. I'm going to have to walk down the road to a gas station. I love WA."
 The skiing isn't opened yet, but there were quite a few people hiking up and skiing/boarding down.


You can click any of these to make them bigger. There were just a lot, so I kept most small.

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