On Saturday we left Richland and drove across Washington towards John’s dad’s place near Tacoma. We opted for a slightly longer but more scenic route through the Mr. Rainier National Park. I am so, so, so glad we did. It was just breathtaking. I drove the whole way (about 4 hours), and we didn’t stop. In retrospect, maybe we should have since it was so lovely, especially near Mt. Rainier, but I guess we’ll add it to our bucket list for the next time.

We honestly couldn’t get over the TREES. Beautiful, gorgeous, tall, green trees. EVERYWHERE.

This was nearing our highest point in the Mt. Rainier National Park, where we could see Mt. Rainier (behind us) and we drove through a lot of clouds/fog.

It really was too beautiful for our camera to capture. And the air smelled so good and clean that I liked to drive with the window down, even though the temp (which had started around 75-80 degrees in Richland) was close to 50 degrees.

We really enjoyed the drive. If I hadn’t been driving I would have taken more pictures of all the quaint woodsy towns we passed through before we got to Mt. Rainier park. Again, maybe we can stop next time. Once we were out of the park we stopped at the first McDonald’s we saw to use the restroom and change Elizabeth’s diaper. We had some food with us for lunch but we got some french fries and hot fudge sundaes to share. (That was John’s idea; he knows how to make me smile.)

John’s dad owns a bed and breakfast in Lakewood called Thornewood Castle. They were nice enough to put us up in a 2-bedroom apartment adjoining the castle. Our view from our living room:

The last time we saw John’s dad, Wesley was about 3 and Carissa was a baby. This was his first time to meet Elizabeth. On Saturday afternoon, once we were settled, John’s dad got our kids life jackets and we all went to the lake to play.

Wes was happy as ever tossing rocks into the lake the whole time.

The rear view of the bed and breakfast. Our apartment is in the building just to the right of the castle.

John’s dad, Wayne.

John took Carissa and Elizabeth on rides on the boogie boards around the shallow parts of the lake. They loved it.

One of my favorite short videos of Elizabeth because it documents her enthusiasm for life and cookies:

Saturday night after we finished at the lake (and I got sunburned) John’s dad took us to one of our favorite places for dinner: Black Angus (which we haven’t been to in a long time since the one near us in Utah closed years ago). It was so nice to visit with Wayne, and Wes thoroughly enjoyed his ice cream dessert.

Our sunset:

And to give you an idea of its real serenity, a video:

I got access to the pictures John took on his tablet when we were on vacation in July:

I think the area by Twin Falls, ID is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to. And we only got to see it in such depth because we had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere in Idaho and had to spend the night.

Five pictures of the fire along the freeway before we hit Baker City, OR. Thankfully we got past it before they shut down the road so we could continue on our way. After a flat tire in Idaho I don’t think we could have handled another setback.

On Friday in Richland, WA we started the day by taking our kids to the Park of Dreams in Kennewick. It’s right along the Columbia River. It was a really nice park, with lots of green space and a splash pad (which we didn’t let our kids play in).

After the playground we walked along the Columbia River and let Wes toss rocks in (his favorite thing) and the other kids dip their toes in. I was surprised by how clean and clear the Columbia River was. Beautiful, peaceful area.

We stopped and got lunch at a KFC in Pasco. For some reason we were all so hungry and the root beer float hit the spot. Next we went to the Ice Harbor Lock and Dam east of Pasco. We met up with John’s brother’s family as well as my old roommate Carrie and her little family. The actual lock and dam visitor’s center is run by the Army, which meant you couldn’t take in any recording devices or purses. So we have no photos to remember the time by, but we watched the salmon going upstream in their controlled environment. The kids liked that.

After dinner we visited Granny at her care center. The kids got root beer floats!

After the kids were in bed I got to go to the local grocery story by myself for milk, and I tried the local peanut butter chocolate ice cream. A nice treat. This was our only full-day in Richland. The next day we drove to Seattle to see John’s dad.

On Thursday morning we were in Twin Falls, ID (instead of Washington, because of our fun flat tire experience in The-Middle-of-Nowhere of Idaho). I had wanted to stop in Twin Falls anyway to show our kids the waterfalls, so we got that chance. We stopped for breakfast first at McD’s and then headed into the park with the falls. They were so, so beautiful.

During the day we passed by two LDS temples: Twin Falls and Boise.

We stopped in Boise at the Walmart (getting a little lost in the process) to get some food supplies. I sat in the car and read “Eat, Pray, Love” while Elizabeth slept and John took the older kids inside. At some point during the day someone found my camera and used it.

It was a long day of traveling. Near Baker City, OR we passed a wildfire along the side of the freeway. We drove past it, stopped in Baker City for gas and ice cream from DQ, and by the time we got back on the freeway the road behind us had been shut down. SO glad we got ahead of the fire! I’m not sure could have handled another major overnight delay.

It was a relief to get to John’s brother’s house in Richland, WA. The kids were overjoyed to run free in the backyard, which had a trampoline and basketball standard.

The kids also really liked playing in their 7-year-old cousin’s room. So many toys!

John’s brother made us dinner and we enjoyed catching up. Tomorrow our vacation could really begin.

Day 1: Wednesday, July 16, 2014

We packed up our car, packed up our kids, and stuffed everything and everybody into the car. This was our first road trip as a family.

Wes is 6, Carissa is 3, and Elizabeth is 20 months. John and I typically dislike spending time in the car and dislike driving, so we were planning for the worst when it came adding three young kids to the mix. John found some TVs we could attach to the car seats so the kids could watch DVDs. That was a major lifesaver again and again during the trip, at least for the older kids. There was not much that would keep Elizabeth entertained for long.

The plan: to leave in the mid-morning and drive about 10 hours to West Richland, WA.

The actual: We left around 10 am and got as far as southern Idaho when this happened:

I was driving and ran over some debris from a semi-truck tire. It was a HUGE piece and even though I tried to miss it, I didn’t. A few minutes later an alert came up on my dashboard indicating low tire pressure. We were about 8 miles from the next exit, and we took it.

Where were we? The middle of nowhere. Really! Look at the window of the gas station we stopped at:

Our flat tire happened in the most sparse portion of I-84 in Idaho. It’s desert. There’s nothing for miles and miles and miles and miles. We were truly fortunate that we were only 8 or so miles from a service station, and we were even more fortunate that our tire lost air gradually instead of blowing so we could make it to the exit instead of being stranded on the side of the road.

As we drove home after our vacation I took a picture of the exit with the gas station. Can you see it?

The gas station had a sheep and some llamas in front that the kids watched while they ate snacks.

I started out optimistic with the flat tire but with each passing minute and each additional thing that went wrong my hope gradually faded. We found out when we got to the gas station that we didn’t have cell service. There was a number posted at the gas station of a tire repair service but no way to call it. The gas station didn’t allow phone calls. There weren’t many people coming in or going out of the gas station (“middle of nowhere”), but I was able to ask an elderly couple if we could borrow their cell phone. John called the tire repair shop and got directions. It was in Burley, 45 minutes away. John had to change the flat tire and put on the spare. Did I mention it was about 1:30 in the afternoon, sunny, and 100 degrees?

He tried to take off the flat tire but the lug nuts were stuck. For a while it seemed hopeless we’d ever get that dumb tire off the car. Finally in desperation I stopped a man who seemed to work at or own the gas station. He was feeding the llamas, and I asked if he could help my husband. He went out and was able to help get the nuts loose so John could get the tire off.

He put the spare on, but then he had to find a place for the flat tire. It didn’t fit in the same space the spare had been. He had to pull out everything in the trunk and repack it around the flat tire. I think John should get a gold star.

Finally, finally, after a couple hours, we went on to Burley. We spent a couple more hours at the tire repair store getting the valve stem fixed ($100 for that tiny thing) and figuring out what to do next. The kids watched PBS Kids on the TV and ate free popcorn. There’s a golden lining to everything.

We had lost so much time we wouldn’t arrive at our destination until after midnight, and that’s if we didn’t stop at all. We pulled out a tablet and booked a hotel via Priceline.com in Twin Falls, ID.

It was the Red Lion Hotel, which isn’t really a 5-star place (really a 2.5 star that calls itself a 3-star joint), but it was a place to rest for the night. We took the kids to dinner at an OK Italian place next door to the hotel, and then we drove over to the welcome area by the bridge that leads to Twin Falls from the freeway. When you’re on I-84 driving past Twin Falls you have no idea about this river here. It’s totally hidden until you’re on top of it.

We stuck around to watch a couple people who were preparing to jump off the bridge. But they had parachutes. Even so, it was kind of nerve-wracking to watch them. Poor Wes couldn’t see but I took a video so he could watch it later.

Walking back to the hotel from dinner:

Elizabeth grabbing a cold one before bedtime:

Statue of the founder of Twin Falls. And Carissa:

I actually had wanted to stop at Twin Falls sometime during our trip to show the kids the waterfalls, which we had the opportunity to do the next morning before continuing our journey. It just happened differently than I had planned. And thus ended our first day of vacation.

We had this brilliant idea to go to Salt Lake City the day after Thanksgiving and to stay in a hotel right by the new downtown mall.

Then we remembered it was Black Friday. But we went anyway.

Getting ready took most of the morning, as things do with kids. When we were all finally packed we were on our way to Salt Lake City. We checked in to our hotel downtown, parked the car, and started pulling stuff out. That’s when John said, “Where’s the suitcase?” and our conversation went something like:

“I don’t know, didn’t you pack it in the car?”

“No, I thought you did.”

“No, I thought YOU did.”

And so we checked ourselves out of the hotel and transformed our overnight plans into a short daytrip.

We began at the Leonardo, a science and creative arts and technology museum.

Our first stop was the creative studio. Carissa, Wes, and I each made something out of clay. (Elizabeth played on the beanbag.)

Wes and Dad made a train. I made a turtle. Carissa made…I’m not sure what it is.

Next we went upstairs where the kids played in the pixel station.

Next was the green screen room. The kids could stand in front of the green screen and see themselves on a TV with a weather map behind them. They thought that was neat, but even neater was holding up a green piece of fabric and making themselves disappear on the TV. Cool science!

See how Wes is partially missing?

The kids spent a lot of time in the Motion Capture room, where they could dance to music in their bare feet. A motion sensor could pick up one person’s structure and while you dance, you can see your skeleton move with you on the TV screen. Carissa was too little for the motion sensor to detect her, but it worked for Wes. (P.S. Do you notice how he’s pulling the same dance move in the picture below as in the picture above from the green room?)

The kids loved dancing in this room, especially Elizabeth. Good thing the place wasn’t busy.

Even I got to rock it out with my kids.

John helped the kids make a stop-action film in the room near the dancing room, but I guess I didn’t take any pictures. They also used a paintbrush to touch a computer screen and create art.

By now it was 5 pm and kids (namely me) were getting hungry. We took the Trax train back to the City Creek Mall and walked around to find a place to eat. Turns out that on Black Friday, at a new mall, on the night Temple Square turns on its Christmas lights, restaurants are pretty busy around 5:30 pm. We went to four different places but all had an hour wait. We went to the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and got this picture:

I thought that might be the closest we’d get to the lights, but we decided to take a quick stroll through them before heading back towards our car. At least it was above freezing, which was especially nice since I left our kids’ hats and gloves and my scarf in our car back at the hotel parking lot.

It was about 6:30 pm. We thought we would go back to the hotel and end up at a drive-through somewhere. This was a little disappointing since we had been looking forward to a sit-down restaurant (which we haven’t done in a long while). Just as we were headed back through the mall towards our car John pointed out a Brazilian steakhouse. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask, so for the fifth time I asked what the wait was, and for the first time I got a “You can come right in” reply. Hallelujah!

It was a Brazilian churrasco-style menu where they serve yummy fresh-grilled meat at your table, and you can get additional sides from the salad bar. We were hungry, and the children were tired. It was pricey but we didn’t care. We weren’t paying for a hotel anymore, so why not?

And it was delicious. The filet Mignon, grilled pineapple, garlic mashed potatoes, cheesy bread, caramelized bananas, fresh Parmesan… Yep, it was a tasty dinner. Carissa made it through the whole dinner happily, but progressively more tiredly.

Elizabeth fell asleep in the stroller not too long after we sat down. Wes ate a little and then crawled into my lap and fell asleep around 7:45 pm. We enjoyed our peaceful dinner.