Just a week after we got back from Maui we were in the van...oh wait no...we were in my parents Aspen. Our vans brakes needed to be fixed, but Michael's co-worker couldn't get to them until after our trip so we asked if we could borrow my parents Aspen for the trip. It was so nice of them to let us borrow it, but it was a little different than a normal road trip since they don't have a DVD player. We are not those parents that let our kids watch DVD's all the time, but when we take a long road trip it's a must and they love it. The the lack of the DVD player definitely made the trip a bit more difficult. And yes the kids have their own tablets, but my thing is I don't like them all in their own separate worlds. If they are all watching the same movie together they are actually doing something together and can laugh and talk about it rather than looking at their own screen with earbuds in their ears completely oblivious to each other and their surroundings.
Anyways....
We left the house around 7:15am and our first stop was at The Country Cousin in Chehalis for breakfast.
Owen has entered the phase where he doesn't want to smile in pictures.
Trying to get him to smile...Ella is totally on point!
Finally a good smile from Owen, but Ella eased up on hers. I can't win! :)
This was when I noticed that Owen had warm up pants on. Zeke also had warm up pants and Jack had jeans with holes in them. We were going to a wedding so I had packed dresses for Ella and I to change into and nice shirts and ties for the boys. My boys very rarely wear warm up pants so I didn't even think to pay attention. When we got to Kaiser we stop off at Target to get the 3 boys new jeans!
Our 3rd stop was at MCD's to eat lunch and also change into our nice clothes. The MCD was connected to a gas station so Ella and I changed in the bathroom while the boys changed in the Aspen.
Here we are all dress up!!
Michael's cousin Chase was marrying Dodi down in Eugene, OR. We got to meet Dodi for the first time last summer at the Family Reunion. She's is such a sweetheart and we are so happy for them. Their wedding felt so special and I think it was because we had recently celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Just knowing that they are starting their life together and have so many things to look forward to...I'm so excited for them!!!
The wedding was beautiful! Afterward we went into a different room for the reception. They had a meet and greet time where we got to hug and chat with Chase, Dodi, Dodi's parent and Cousin Gary and Sheryl...Chase's parents. Everyone was so amazed that we were willing to drive almost 5 hours one way with 4 kids to come to their wedding. My thing is typically you only have one wedding so it's important and I wanted to share in their joy. At the reception there was mini cupcakes (Michael's cousin Jamie made 612 mini cupcakes in 3 different flavors. They were amazing!) and punch. There was dancing and the shoe game...which I had never seen before. After that we really needed to go...it was another almost 5 hours to get home.
On our way home we stopped just across the border into Washington and had dinner at Applebees. It was the best experience we've ever had at an Applebees. Our server was so awesome I actually asked to speak to the manager to let him know how wonderful she was. I know that when people ask to speak to the manager it's typically because of something wrong so he said it was really nice to hear that we enjoyed our service.
By this point it was 8pm and I told the kids it was getting too dark to read and we were all going to be quiet. Michael was listening to an audio book so they just needed to rest and listen. Well....Zeke was seriously having a difficult time controlling his behavior. He had been warned time and time again and I had it. I told him if he talked again we would be pulling the vehicle over and he would be getting disciplined. Within 10 minutes we were pulled over on the side of I-5. He cried and I told him that his behavior was unacceptable. We ended up having Ella move to the way back and Zeke was sitting directly behind me. The combination of both of those things did the trick and soon he was fast asleep.
We got home around 10:15pm...it was a whirlwind trip, but I'm so glad we took the time to make it down to celebrate Chase & Dodi!
BTW...the vans breaks got fixed the next week!
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