So I'm finally blogging about the two road trips we took this summer. I made collages of the pictures I took and as I was making them I realized that most of the pictures I took were of Peter and I didn't take nearly as many of everything else that went on as I would have liked. C'est la vie.
We discovered that Peter does really well in the car, not that he does poorly in the car normally but I anticipated that he was going to be a lot more unhappy with the change in routine. The only time he really got upset was on the way to Thatcher, Idaho; we weren't at liberty to immediately stop and take care of him so he got cranky. Perhaps he did so well because we anticipated when he was going to be hungry or have a dirty diaper and tried to take care of it while we were stopped already, though that was not always the case.
Peter
discovered pacifiers on our first trip and has been attached to them ever since. It's a blessing now but it has the potential to be a curse in the future. Who knows he may decide one day that he's had enough with pacifiers and just spit it out and never look back. Wishful thinking I know. :)
Trip to Utah & Wyoming
Andrew's Dad's side of the family had a "reunion" up in Afton, Wyoming over the 4th of July weekend. We had decided a few weeks before that we were actually going to go and then the Sunday before my Mom called and told me that my Grandma (my Dad's Mom) died earlier that morning. The funeral was that Thursday so Andrew arranged with work to leave a few days earlier so we could make it. It was really nice to see so much of my Dad's family; I'm seriously bummed that we didn't get any group pictures while we were all gathered together. I am also really sad that my Grandma didn't get to meet Peter. The funeral was in Layton, Utah and then we all drove up to Thatcher, Idaho, where my Grandpa grew up, so my Grandma could be buried next to Grandpa. My Dad's sisters wanted at least one kid from each family to participate so they had me say the closing prayer; that was probably the hardest thing I've had to do in a long time. I'm grateful that I was able to be at my Grandma's funeral, it really left a peaceful feeling in my heart. I am so thankful to know that I'll be able to see my Grandma again someday.
Friday we headed up to Afton to visit Andrew's grandparents. Andrew's grandpa was so cute! He saw Peter lying on the floor so he went over and picked him up and just held him in his lap. He did that a few times and one time we were just coming in to their house and Peter was in his car seat by the front door and Grandpa came and picked up the car seat and took it into the family room where everybody else was.
Saturday was the big "reunion." It turned out to be nothing more than a potluck lunch. Andrew was telling me about the last time there was a Gardner reunion in Afton and how there were hundreds of people and how the stores were competing to give them discounts. It turns out that 15 years ago there was a monument/memorial dedication for Archibald Gardner in Afton and it was a big deal & lots of people came out for it. He thought that this was going to be big like that... but it wasn't.
Peter didn't get to see any fireworks at all on the 4th. He was sleeping and my tummy was upset so we stayed in our motel room and listened to all the other people lighting up their fireworks.
Sunday we left Afton and decided that we would drive ALL the way home in one go. WOW that was a LONG drive. I think we left Afton around 9 am or so and we didn't get to our house until 3:30 am.
Car ride there
Eating on the road & hanging out with Grandpa Shayne and Aunt McKenzie
Hanging out with Great Grandma Ruth & Great Grandpa Scott and cousins
Car ride home
My mom's side of the family had a reunion August 8-10 so Andrew and I decided that we would go up to Washington early and visit. The drive, according to Google maps, is 25 hours from Sahuarita, AZ to Federal Way, WA and we did it in two days. Let me just say, that is A LOT of driving!! We decided to drive to Layton, UT as our halfway point and then continue on to WA from there because my dad has 3 sisters who live in Layton and they had a comfy/free place for us to sleep. It was really nice to visit with them, even though it had only been a month since we last saw them.
Once we made it to Washington we stayed at Andrew's brother, Jonathan's house where Peter got to meet 5 of his cousins for the first time. I can't believe how much they have grown in just one short year! They really liked having Peter to play with and to bring him toys. It was really cute how much they wanted to help. I was putting Peter down for a nap one day and he was crying because he was so tired and Archie (8) comes in with a very concerned look on his face and wants to know if he can help. He didn't like to hear Peter cry.
I had grand plans of visiting a lot more than we did but once we got there we ended up just being bums instead. Although Monday I got to go to lunch with Melisa, my good girlfriend from work, and then got to see the new office area (they were in the planning stages of moving when I left) which means I also got to see a lot of my old coworkers. Being in the position that I was, for nearly 3 years, I knew and helped practically everyone at the office, so it was nice to see so many faces again. Andrew wanted to visit/show off Peter to a few of his old coworkers too, so we stopped in Lynnwood on our way up to Whidbey Island and had lunch with two of Andrew's friends and then we went to Snohomish and visited his old boss.
We made it up to the island on Wednesday evening and hung out with my brother Reed and had yummy Chinese buffet for dinner. Reed introduced us to Rock Band on the Wii. That was a lot of fun, definitely a game to consider buying. I also got to hang out with my friend Kim. We had a nice long chat and she gave me a bunch of awesome clothes for Peter.
On Friday we got some super yummy donuts from our favorite place Henry's Donut and then headed out to go camping in the Cascade Mountains near Mt. Rainier. We stayed at a nice campground (
Full-screen
Ohanapecosh) near a river and some very large trees. There was one tree, which I forgot to go back and take a picture of, that was 9.5' in diameter and was 900 years old! That afternoon & evening it was so cold that we left Peter in his pajamas and in addition put him in the
sleep sack that I made to keep him warm. Luckily there was a super cute fleece hat in the clothes I got from Kim that we were able to keep Peter's head warm too. From the campground we went to Camp Zarahemla, a church owned campground, for the Lercher family reunion.
After the reunion we headed to Wenatchee, WA to visit the Bacons. They lived in our same apartment complex and thus were in our ward in Kent. They have a little girl, Hana, that is 3 months younger than Peter. It was really cute to watch them interact. At one point she was crying and laughing all at the same time at Peter. Unfortunately Chris had to work but we got to hang out with April. We went to a really nice park by the lake and saw a natural rock formation that looked like Abraham Lincoln's profile (kind of).
All in all it was a nice trip but Andrew thought that it was too long. There's really nothing better than sleeping in your own bed in your own home.
Hanging out with cousins at the beginning of the trip and hanging out with Hana at the end of the trip
Peter's first camping trip
Lercher family reunion
