The Bravest Woman Ever

For Spring Break this year we celebrated the first few days at home with the older boys going to baseball camp, afternoons with friends, and then...mom was the bravest woman ever and drove the kids (minus Tyler) to Spokane for a few days. Birch and Tyler were off to Utah for General Conference.

To help understand the magnitude of this trip I should tell you that I have VERY little experience driving on the freeways, and I was scared to not have another adult in the car to throw the children food, switch DVDs, solve arguments, etc... I didn't decide until a day before that I was actually going to attempt this feat. I knew once I told the kids there would be no turning back. Well I did it!!! We left early in the morning on Thursday and got into Spokane early in the afternoon. The kids were super proud of me and Alex did a great job entertaining Chloe and feeding the kids snacks.

Once in Spokane I really hardly saw the kids. Each house we went to was FULL of cousins -- 20 in all (all under ten years old). We spent the following four days playing with our cousins, taking a bread making class from the Bosch store, "watching" General Conference (not too effective with that many kids around), eating great meals, celebrating Uncle Logan's 30th birthday, hitting some of my favorite bargain stores, and even a tad bit of relaxing.

Not a great picture of Alex but the only one I have. Alex loved hiking up Aunt Annie's backyard hill.

Coop was one busy boy -- here he is covered in homemade pizza sauce playing with cousin Avery.

Alysee just eats up her older cousin Malia. These girls, along with two other cousins, created a whole "show" for us adults to watch, including cup cakes for refreshments.

Nate was in heaven playing with his boy cousins that are close to his age. Watch out...they are WILD together!

Chloe loved getting to know her two cousins that she will soon be making dances up with as well. Haley (on the left) is just a month older than Chloe. This picture makes Chloe look bigger than Haley but in reality these two little girls have a corner on tiny-weenyness.

I was amazed how tiring it is driving. Staring at nothing for hours made my eyes tire. Since the kids were using the car's sound system to watch DVDs and I didn't have a front seat travel partner I found that I do have the capability to eat for just about three hours straight. Wow--what a talent! I'm so glad we went and were able to be apart of the Spokane fun...but Birch don't get any ideas. You still are the main trip driver of the family!!

I sure married into one wonderful family!!!