Roadtrip Part 1

We were a bit crazy this summer and took a 3 week road trip throughout the West. The main goal was to see family...Chris' family reunion was this summer in Colorado, my grandparents live in Idaho and my mom and siblings are in Oregon. Beniam was a travel champ. For the most part he just sat in the back and watched movies and talked and talked and talked and built sculptures out of pipe cleaners and colored and looked at books and talked some more. Evangeline...not so much. Our precious girl has a shriek that puts the Nazgul to shame and it intensified on this trip, leaving Mama and sometimes Dada in a puddle of frazzled nerves. Beniam didn't really seem notice the ear-piercing noises coming from the other side of the car until towards the end of the trip. To top it off, the poor thing got altitude sickness in Colorado (we were at almost 9000 feet). But it really was a great trip, despite my stinky attitude at times and my girl's opera antics.

































We stopped in Las Vegas for 2 nights to give the kiddies a break from driving. The hotel we stayed was super inexpensive and had 4 huge pools. The Johnsons cousins stopped with us and the kiddies had so much fun. The buffet at our hotel was crazy. We are not usually big buffet people but it is fun every once and awhile. Where else can you have eggs benedict and biscuits and gravy at the same time? And then 4 hours later go back for pizza, chinese food, mexican food and ice cream? A little over the top, but a nice treat for this mom. Beniam couldn't believe that he could have all of his favorite things on one plate at the same time...and then get an ice cream cone. Hurray for vacation!








































And then 10 hours onto Colorado...At these reunions there are packs of children running everyone. Thankfully, everyone gets along so well...we always have a wonderful time and although homesickness does start to set it, we are always sad to say goodbye. Beniam had SO much fun with all of his "new" cousins. I didn't take too many pictures. I was a little busy cleaning up after my sick kiddies. But! We still had fun! The following pictures are from a little family fishing expedition. Our little fisherman caught 5 fish on our trip!