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3 weeks
July 29th, 2010
Yes, that’s how long our recent road trip lasted. We had a great time at all of our stops, and at least I, thoroughly enjoyed our vacation. Due to the 100s of pics I uploaded, I decided to only edit a handful and have already posted them here. If you just want to see the pics, feel free to follow the link and check them out. If you want the details, stay and read on. Sorry they aren’t “together”, but this was the easiest way.
We began our trip a day later than originally planned (due to me being extremely sick), so missed out on camping at Mesa Verde National Park. At least it’s only about 5 hours away, so we’ll plan another trip there.
We first made our drive up to Moab, Utah and spent a couple of days visiting Arches National Park. We did a lot of hiking, and saw some amazing sites. We stayed at a dive motel in Moab, but it served our needs and even had a pool that we were able to cool off in.
From Moab, we headed further north to BYU, in Provo, UT. The same day that we finished hiking in Arches, we decided (after some creamery ice cream) to drag the kids up the mountain to the “Y”. Beautiful view, especially at sunset. We took the kids to see all of the sites that we “miss” – Los Hermanos, the duck pond, our first apartment, campus (including a visit to any professors that were available in the ECEn dept.), Brick Oven pizza, etc. We were even able to pick up Justin’s nephew Garrett and take him out to breakfast one morning. On our way out of Provo, we stopped for lunch at Bridal Veil Falls on our way to my family’s reunion in Heber City.
We had an enjoyable few days with my family, playing on a huge waterslide, launching off homemade rockets, tie dying t-shirts, visiting church history sites in SLC and running in the Hobbler Half. OK, so only I ran the half marathon, but Caemlyn, her cousin Sara, my sister Andrea, my brother Micah and my Dad all ran the 5K. Way to go! It was nice for me to be able to visit with a former roommate while we were in SLC. More info and pics on my mom’s blog.
After this reunion, we headed further north to visit Justin’s grandma Marge in Federal Way, WA. It was a quick visit before heading down to go through the Portland temple with Justin’s niece Chelsey. This was the beginning of the Tripp family reunion in Seaside, OR. Not much sun was seen during our stay, but we had fun anyway. A visit to the Tillamook cheese factory (can’t forget the ice cream!), playing in the ocean and flying the kite (it was SO windy), riding a bike surrey, the carousel, bumper cars, train ride, trying on all the crazy hats in the hat store, a sand dash and treasure hunt (I missed doing the 5K/10K on the beach, but was tired from the previous week’s half marathon), and even a bridal shower for Chelsey and Owen.
When the reunion ended, we dropped Justin off at the Portland airport so he could come home and get some work done. I drove the kids down to my parents’ house in Yuba City, CA for a visit. We enjoyed swimming every day, a visit to Funderland with cousins, visiting with “old” friends, visiting my grandma and grandpa Hawley and just relaxing. Again, more pics on my mom’s blog. I think she got more pics than I did – I was being lazy.
At the end of the week, Justin flew out to CA and did the long drive home with us. We even stopped for lunch in Holbrook, AZ on the second day and got some fun pics of the kids in a pretend jail.
With all of the driving we did, I really have no complaints. The car ran well, and the kids were mostly well behaved. Even the drive I did by myself was uneventful. Thank goodness!
Thanks to our families for planning such wonderful, enjoyable reunions and providing the opportunity for us to spend time together. We love you!
