Thursday, May 19th, we let the kids play while we started packing the car. Our goal was to leave by about 1 pm. Hoping this would be about the time kids would take naps, and we could get a few hours behind us before starting to entertain kids. Oh how we tried. We got maybe an hour worth of naps before all 5 kids were awake, and not all of them took a nap. We’d been on the road about 2-3 hours before stopping for some Tylenol. Ella had a fever. Wonderful way to travel. In the next few hours we had to stop 3 more times. We were up around Shasta Lake, and Jameson said his back hurt. I asked if he needed to go to the bathroom, which resulted in us pulling over. Kayden gladly peed outside, and Jameson didn’t know what to do. Kayden did change his mind about what he needed to do, which resulted in pee on his shorts. One kid now in pajamas. We got back in the car, and kept driving. 10 minutes later, Jameson was puking all over himself. I’m about to lose it, as I’m leaning over the seats trying to catch everything in his blanket, and yelling at Christina to pull over.  As I cleaned with wet wipes as  best  I could, Christina walked the kids around.

We opened as many windows in the van as possible, and I even rubbed some antibacterial sanitizer on the seat to help with the smell. One more kid in pajamas. After I got everything cleaned up as best I could, we rounded up the kids again, and continued on. (Later, I was given the tip that if you rub coffee beans into it, it takes the smell out. Totally makes sense. They have coffee beans at the perfume counter. I will now always travel with coffee beans!)

We gave Jameson a bag to hold, and continued on. A few more turns and hills, and Jameson was throwing up again. I leaned over the seat, again, to hold the bag. Only problem, the bag had a hole in the bottom. So I was yelling to Christina, and she wasn’t pulling over fast enough. She thought we had a bag, and I’m yelling to her that it has a hole. So after she finally pulled over, we got out of the car, and started clean up again. Luckily, most of it was caught in the bag. Unluckily, the car stunk. We’d been gone for almost 8 hours, and hadn’t even made it out of California.

We finally made it to Medford, and stopped for dinner. The kids ran around McDonalds (with no play place) for about an hour. We piled them all back in, and then finally, the kids crashed. We were able to cruise from about 9:30 pm till 12:30 am in Portland. Christina and I switched spots, and I pulled in the driveway at 4 am.

Kevin was awake with lights on, because he was getting ready for a guys survival camping trip. We were home together about 15 minutes before he took off with the guys. You know, we hadn’t seen him in over 3 weeks, but to his credit, I told him to go that weekend. I just thought we would be home sooner, and ended up staying in CA longer.

Saturday, we spent the day trying to catch up on sleep. Our long lost friends came to see us, and Jameson was in heaven. He had friends and cousins. What could be better? Everyone went to bed early Saturday night, only I was awoken at 11 pm by a phone call. To my surprise, the guys decided to cut their trip short. They’d done everything they wanted to do for that trip, and rather than spend the night in the cold, Kevin decided to come home and see us. The kids were so excited to have Dad there when they woke up.