Road Trip!

When Logan moved to Spokane earlier this year I just knew that we were going to have to get together with her at least once during the summer. Jen and I coordinated to meet up in Ritzville to play at the water park we went to last year. It's about a 3 - 3.5 hour drive for us about 1.5 - 2 hour drive for them. I love to drive and the kids do great in the van...especially if they get to watch movies! We picked Monday August 22nd as the day we were going to meet. I invited Ga-Ga along for the trip, but her one stipulation was we get a hotel room. I was planning on just turning around and driving home the very same day and she did not like the idea of that. She went online and found a couple rooms and booked them for us. A few weeks or months later....we had this planned for a really long time...Jen texted me and said that the 22nd wasn't going to work out after all. So we changed the date to Monday August 29th. We were only moving the trip forward by one week and mom was able to change our hotel reservation no problem. 

In preparation for the trip I had the kids decorate these cute cardboard boxes I had lying around. I'm not sure what happened to the baby wipe containers that they used last year, but these were great. 

Ga-Ga ended up coming up to our house on Sunday night and spending the night so she didn't have to fight with Monday morning traffic. We planned to leave at 8am, but as you can imagine that didn't happen. First I was trying to get the kids headphones to work so they could watch their movies and we didn't have to listen to them. I could not for the life of me remember how to get them set up. Argh! I gave up and we just moved the sound towards the back of the van and it worked. 

We also had to stop at Safeway to pick up lunch. I knew that Ritzville didn't have a big name grocery store.....at least that I know of. So I wanted to pick up some meat, cheese and fruit prior to getting on the road. Of course it was early so there was only 1 cashier and about 8 customers. Mom took the kids to the van and I stood in line. The cashier called for two different people to come and help and no one ever came. Have I told you before that I despise Safeway!?!?! 

After getting the food we had to run over to the gas station....not to get gas though. A few days before we left my tire pressure light came on. I had ask Michael to air up the tires, but with all the excitement with Charlie he forgot. Mom and I fumbled our way through airing up the tires. I still don't know how much air pressure is supposed to be in my tires. I filled them all up to around 35 PSI and the sensor was still on. We figured it was fine so we just left. A few miles down the road the sensor when off. 

So after all that mess we finally were on the road and it was 8:44am. UGH! 

The drive there was uneventful! The kids watched movies and mom and I talked. We got to Ritzville and headed straight to the water park. They weren't open yet so we drove back to one of the gas stations so the kids could go potty. Then we went back to the water park to wait for Jen and Logan to get there. The water park was supposed to open at noon and it was a little after noon, but we weren't worried because the first time we went there they opened a little bit later than noon....I think it's run by a bunch of college age kids. Jen, her mom Penny, Logan and Conner arrived after a few minute after the kids started playing at the park. 

Best Friend Hugs!!! 

They both wore their BFF rainbow necklaces! Ella also wore the shirt that Logan gave her a while ago. It's one of her favorite shirts! 

Seeing these girls together just makes my heart sing! 

Side note.....Logan is 8 months younger....yes I said YOUNGER than Ella.! Girl is gonna be 6 ft tall for sure!!!! 

Matching their necklaces up to make a complete rainbow! 

The girls of course just picked up right where they left off and started playing! We were sitting at a picnic table enjoying our lunch waiting for the park to open. Around 12:40 we started wondering what was going on so I called the water park. Someone answered and I asked if they were going to open...she said, "No we're closed for the season!" Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?! After she said that I said...What? and then I hung up the phone. I could not believe what I heard. I had checked their website multiply times prior to our trip because I wanted to make sure that they were in fact open. According to their website they are open 7 days a week during summer with the hours of 12pm-8pm. Last time I checked August was still considered summer!!!!!

Jen's mom Penny got on the phone to the Ritzville Chamber of Commerce to try to find out who to talk to about the situation. She found out that school had started that day so that's why the water park was closed for the season. I complete understand that, but the website should have been updated to include four simple words....Season Ends August 27th!!!! 

Thank goodness I decided to ask my mom to come because she was so adamant about getting a hotel room we at least could go back and swim in the pool. If she hadn't have come we wouldn't have had anywhere to go except the park we were at and it was hot outside! I was beyond upset and so was Owen! He is so legalistic so it's hard to for him to understand and accept that they would be closed when the website said they would be open. 

I didn't take any pictures, but the kids did have fun at the pool. I tried to get in, but it wasn't heated. I think they thought it gets hot enough in Ritzville for an outside pool to be heated by the sun. Nope...it doesn't! Thankfully the kids didn't mind one bit! They played and played. Around 4pm it was time for Logan to go. When planning this trip Jen didn't know that Logan's first day of school would be August 30th so they needed to get home so she could get good rest for her first day of Kindergarten. 

One last time putting their necklaces together! 

Trying to get a smile out of Logan! She was just heartbroken and Jen said she ended up crying for 10 minutes! I wish the girls had a longer time to play together. They are so precious! Logan is coming out in October to celebrate her birthday with all her friends over here so we will see her then. Hopefully sometime soon Ella and I will be able to go over there and spend the weekend so they can just play and play for hours and hours! 

As for the rest of the trip it was spent shopping at a gift shop and having Ga-Ga buy each of the kids a toy, eating fast food for dinner, getting ice cream for dessert, staying up late watching TV, eating the continental breakfast at the hotel, going to Starbucks, getting gas, going back to the gift shop so Jack could finally pick out something he wanted Ga-Ga to buy since he couldn't decided the day before, leaving for home, stopping at a gas station for a potty break and a treat, stopping at three different fruit stands, watching movies in the van and finally making it home! 

Later on Tuesday I did call the Chamber of Commerce to talk to them myself. I explained how if the website had been updated with correct information we would have changed our trip to an earlier date or we would have changed our plans and met at the bigger water park in Moses Lake. We ended up spending money in their town and it was all for naught! The lady did say she'd try to find out who is responsible for that website because as far as she knows it's not even maintained anymore. Are you kidding me??? Then the website needs to be taken down! Needless to say I'm still a bit irked about the situation. We are already planning for next years road trip and I think we are just going to go to the bigger water park in Moses Lake. Yes, it's more expensive, but the boys are getting older and wanting more than just one slide so I think it will suit them better. Also Pa will be retired by then and Michael will take the day off as well so there will be one adult per kid so that will be nice!