We took a 2 week road trip and traveled what seemed like the world. Ok, not really. We went from Malibu to St.George (only stayed in St. George 5 hours), then to Provo, Provo to Reno, Reno to San Lorenzo, San Lorenzo to Cedar Ridge and Cedar Ridge back to Malibu. For anyone who has traveled with two small children and no portable DVD player, then you know what I am talking about. We listened to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire most of the time we were in the car unless I protested and then we got to listen to the Disneyland Fireworks show over and over. He calls it "Wishes."
In St. George we had a nice visit with Jim's Uncle John and his family. We went to Andrew's, Jim's little cousin, 2 baseball games and Isaac had a great time riding his bike with all the other kids around and watching Andrew play. It was nice being back in Utah and having TONS of kids EVERYWHERE we looked for Isaac to play with.
After arriving at 2:30am in Provo to the Slinker Family's home we were eager to get some much needed rest. It was great to be back with that family. They were like our pseudo-family while we were living in Provo for 5 years. The main reason for our visit was Becky's bridal shower. Becky had a wonderful shower and Jim and Isaac had a FANTASTIC time playing games with the boys. We visited with some of our other friends and went to some of our favorite places like Tucano's, the BYU Creamery, Cracker Barrel and BYU bowling ally. Isaac was able to play with kids old friends from the neighborhood and the Slinker kids. I think he was in heaven. One of his friends, Traven, was particularity fun to play with because he had a wresting mat in his house. His dad, Chad, knows Jim from high school and is the wresting coach for a UT high school. The boys had a great time wresting one another. We were really sad when our days were up in Utah.
On our way to Reno we hit a snow storm. We were glad that we left when we did because we caught the end of the storm. Isaac loved seeing all the snow falling and it covering everywhere we drove. We stayed st Circus Circus in Reno and much to Isaac's delight, there were fun games everywhere. He had a great time playing all games by the casino.
In the Bay Area, Vanessa had a bridal shower to go to of one of her old friends. It was a great shower and she enjoyed it very much. Jim and Vanessa also meet with people from PriceWaterhouseCoopers in SF for a lunch meeting. We went to Boulevard and it was delicious lunch that went very well. We also had time to visit with Jim's family a bunch and some of our friends.
Our last stop was in Cedar Ridge at Vanessa's parent's cabin. The kids loved being outside and seeing all the birds, squirrels and deer. Isaac made a bird feeder with a pine cone, PB and bird seed. Elizabeth loved eating marshmallows when we were all making s'mores and Isaac just had fun eating s'mores. We went to Columbia for the day and Isaac had fun mining for gold, drinking a sarsaparilla in the saloon and candle dipping. We had a great visit.
We were happy to be on the road to head home again and Isaac and Elizabeth were thrilled to be eating cheese puffs. That was their "treat" for the road. I t was fun to look back in the rear view mirror and see Isaac holding out a cheese puff and the seeing Elizabeth hold our her tiny hand and grab it. If we or Isaac wasn't quick enough at giving her a new cheese puff, she would start yelling her gibberish at us until she got one.
We had a fantastic trip but we are happy to be home and sleep in our own bed.
