From Coast to Coast

Having just recently left the Atlantic coast we had to visit the Pacific coast or we wouldn't feel complete. So instead of spending Black Friday bargain shopping we went to the beach. It was cold, but we all found something to do.

Adam brought his metal detector and each of the kids took a turn searching for treasure. Lauren was the only one who actually found anything. I believe her final tally was 2 pennies, 4 soda can pull tabs, and a rusty screw.

Kate spent the first half of the trip running around, but she was tired, cold and not her best self.

Her sweet cousin Daniel wrapped her up in his jacket and carried her around until she fell asleep and then held her while she napped. He's going to make a great dad someday.

I love that my kids are each others best friends. If nothing else traveling has really cemented their relationships.
Rusty reading poetry...

Ben didn't have much luck with the metal detector but he did discover the tentacle of a giant sea monster- Eww!

The kids spent a good deal of their time exploring caves, tide pools and collecting interesting rocks and crabs. Here is Lauren showing off a pretty cool sea star.

Mike is a talented architect-to-be so it shouldn't be surprising that he spent his time creating a sand castle masterpiece. His work on a computer design program inspired Lauren and he sent her home with a program to begin experimenting.

Thankful fors

Traveling for the last 8 months has definitely given me a unique appreciation for home. I've found that many of the things that I've always taken for granted are really blessings. Not that I've really been deprived or been without, but here are some of my new "grateful fors."

*Roads that are free (of course this is relative in that we pay taxes for our roads, but I'm just happy not to have to dig for change to pay tolls)
* Free parking
* Milk that isn't price regulated by the government (I suppose this may be relative too as I'm sure the government still regulates it some how, but at least it's less obvious)
* Parking right outside the door to my house
* Ground level entry to our home
* A fenced yard (even if it is just rock)
* FREE laundry (again relative in that you pay for detergent and electricity, but it's much less painful than spending $20-30/week to use pay washers and dryers)
* Home projects (Weird I know, but there is something very fulfilling in improving your space)
* Furniture and home decor
* A Barbeque
* Having an instant network of friends (in our ward) wherever we go
* Entire days without having to use the car!!!

Turkey Day

We were so happy to be with family for Thanksgiving. This was our first trip to California since last Christmas, but in many ways it feels like coming home. We usually stay with Rusty's brother Adam and his wife Cheryl and their kids Daniel, Michael and Hallie. My kids love it there!

Even though the boys are quite a bit older they are so patient and accommodating of our little ones. They take them to the park and listen to all their stories. They let them pull out all their Legos and toys and even sit and build with them. My boys are always inspired by the amazing things the big boys can do and build. My boys were thrilled when Mike, Dan and Hallie told them they could bring home two huge totes of Mega Blocs and Legos. It is all they have played with since Thanksgiving. Because my kids are so close together in age it's fun to have "big kids" around. They think they are pretty great!! When we left Mike and Dan even took the time to write the kids special cards and notes.

And of course they all love hanging out with Hallie, especially Kate. In her eyes Hallie has it all, and her room is a girls wonderland of Barbies and babies. Hallie even passed on a few baby outfits which Kate has been using to dress up her babies. Of course it probably took Hallie a week to dig her room out after "sharing" it with my kids.

What a blessing to have a place we can go where we feel so comfortable. There is never enough time and we just soak in as much as we can get. This year Cheryl and Mom Clarke out-did themselves in creating a masterful feast. Of course Rusty contributed his expert taste testing skills to ensure that everything was top notch.
This is the Before picture

Here is the AFTER- Cheryl with her Turkey Masterpiece

And of course here is Adam with the other Turkey (love you Mike!)Dad Clarke attacks the bird with carving finesse

The Feast has been laid.....
The Kid's Table- in true childhood fashion they ate olives, jello and rolls and in 5 minutes were off to play.
And of course me and my favorite person- rejoicing in the bountiful blessings that are ours!

Having a Ball in Baltimore!

There is so much to see and do along the east coast we just couldn't begin to do it all. Luckily Rusty took a course in Maryland for his continuing education requirements so the kids and I were able to spend a few days checking out Baltimore.

DAY ONE -SATURDAY

The first day we used our science membership to get into the science museum. The kids designed containers and participated in an egg drop, played in the children's area, did the dino dig thing, and spent the day exploring and learning.

Ben's favorite was the Submarine
Chipping away sandstone from fossils.

Dallin's favorite was this giant wall made of those tiny plastic sticks that hold whatever shape you push them into. It was cool and self contained in that kids could push from either side.

DAY TWO-SUNDAY

The next day was Sunday we went to church in Baltimore. It was fun to meet the mother-in-law of my neighbor in Enoch in Relief Society. She and her husband are serving a mission in the area.

DAY THREE-MONDAYMonday we visited the Zoo. We got in free with our zoo membership- which is a good thing, because the zoo was mediocre and a lot of the animals weren't available due to cold weather. We still had a nice day running around outside enjoying the beautiful fall weather.
I think my kids got tired of my oohing and ahhing over all the beautiful leaves. But I couldn't help it. I LOVE the fall!! The best part of the zoo was the children's area. They had several fun displays the kids enjoyed. Such as a lily pad leap across the water, larger than life birds nests, a tree slide, and turtle shell spinners.

DAY FOUR-TUESDAY

I had a major debate over the last day. We were trying to do this trip without breaking the bank, but I wanted to do something fun and memorable for everyone. There is an enormous aquarium and a huge children's museum. If only we would have know we could have hit the aquarium Friday night for really cheap, but now it would be over $20 each to go. The children's museum was about 1/2 as much so we opted for that.

Wet, Wet Washington DC

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... it was certainly the west of times- I meant the wettest of times. We were hoping to sneak in a quick trip to Washington DC to see some of the sights before we headed west. Unfortunately our visit coincided with the arrival of some pretty heavy rain due to Hurricane Ida. Luckily we had all of our winter coats with us so we "weathered" the storm just fine. As a bonus the rain kept most everyone else away and we had free reign to most of the museums and monuments.

We decided to park the car and pay for a tour bus rather than trying to find parking or hiking in the rain. It was awesome to actually visit the famous monuments in DC I just wish we had more time. One and a half days is not enough to see DC.

I'm not sure why or how this ended up being Ben's take the picture day, but he insisted on taking at least every few photos, not bad for a 5 year old eh? We visited the American History Museum and the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian, but even then we only saw a small part of those museums. We were able watch an IMAX movie at the Air and Space Museum which was fun, but it made it difficult to see much else.

Don't forget to "take the left turn at Albuquerque"

For anyone who hasn't been subjected to numerous hours of Looney Tunes (it was one of the new dvds we picked up for this trip)... Just re-name this post My Favorite Museum. If you have Looney Tune expertise you will realize why this was my children's favorite catch phrase as we passed numerous road signs ticking off the miles all the way through New Mexico.

I've been to A LOT of museums in the last year. I've been to children's and science museums in many of the biggest cities on the East Coast- many of which are nationally recognized. So after seeing so many museums you may be surprised to know that my favorite museum (so far) is Explora Children's Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On one of our trips across the country I was looking for something we could do to break up the ride and decided to check it out, after all it was free with our membership. Honestly my expectations were low. Their website is not impressive and regular price for entry is only $3-$7 per person, Where many of the museums we have been to admission is $20-$30 plus per person.

We've been to Explora twice in the last 6 months and each time we go my kids (and I) learn so much. At Explora interactive doesn't mean a flashy display with a button for the kids to push- interactive means they learn by DOING! Not only are the displays conducive to exploration and experimentation, but there are many staff members roaming the area eager to help the children explore and learn. And the museum is set up so that when kids create something they have a space to display and share it, which inspires other kids to create and display.

Unfortunately pictures just can't do justice to this awesome museum, so you'll just have to take a left turn next time you pass through Albuquerque.

These are pictures of the big kids working on their chain reaction creations.

When we went this time we made time to run around outside for a little while just to breathe some fresh air. FYI the orange face is Lauren's craft project.

I wish I could say that this picture reflected Kate's demeanor for the week or day or even the hour, but she was definitely teetering emotionally. She was unpredictable during the entire trip with mood swings and hysterical crying fits at random times. I was getting worried that we had scarred her already challenging emotional psyche, but after 2 days of consistent sleep in our rental home in Arizona she is beginning to stabilize. Phew, because I was at the end of my fragile emotional psyche too. As a bonus they don't charge any extra for anyone crazy, I mean brave, enough to ride the sky bike- Rusty obliged the children by taking a daring ride over the museum for them as they were too short and didn't weigh enough to do it themselves :)

Road Trip

You know you have been in the car driving for too long when...

* Your kids watch the red box movie you rented twice in English and then decide to watch it again in French...

* and they think it's more funny in French

* Your 4 year old decides the stamp from her McDonalds Happy Meal is eyeshadow and rouge and the chalk from her activity kit is lip stick- and you don't care as long as she is happy (The kids were happy to have a new traveling activity kit to alleviate some of the boredom- thanks to Aunt Richelle. One of Kate's other favorite past times was strapping her baby doll into Rusty's Hat as a car seat- that's what she's holding in the picture if you can't tell.)

* You've passed so many time zones the clock in your car is totally irrelevant

* It takes an industrial size vacuum to clean all the crumbs out of the car

* You become skilled at passing items to the back of your van and changing the DVD in the player strapped behind you while still keeping your eyes on the road and steering.

*You can predict within 10 miles when your 5 year old will need to have a potty break (I'm not sure why, but Ben was the only child who required regular potty breaks- boredom?)

* Your children no longer ask "what's for dinner tonight", but "where's dinner tonight?"

* Where you stop for dinner is determined by who has a kid's eat free night on that day (Just a note that on Tuesday and Saturday at Denny's you can get 2 free kids meals per paying adult meal- for a family with 4 kids and 2 adults that drink water- you can eat a real meal for pretty cheap and for anyone traveling in the South Shoney's has kids meals for less than $2 SWEET!!)

* You find yourself excited to see what food options are available at the next exit (Our goal was to avoid McDonalds and other fast food as much as possible- We would typically eat breakfast at the hotel, snacks in the car, skip lunch, early dinner at a sit down restaurant. Over the two weeks of travel only 2 visits to McD)

* You spend more on gas in a day than you do on food and housing. (with 2 cars that wasn't so hard)

* In spite of having an oil change just before leaving, your due for another upon arrival.

* You begin to appreciate the diverse beauty of our amazing country as you pass through such varied terrain. As we drove through the country I often thought about what the land would have been like before it was "settled." How incredible it must have been to be some of the first people to set foot on land that had been preserved and prepared for our day. And how grateful I am that they built freeways and rest stops along the path for those of us less adventurous.

On that happy note I will leave the rest to your imagination. We had a great time on our trip to the East Coast, but it is nice to be done with the drive. We were very fortunate to have taken the southern route through Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma although it was rainy, we avoided the major snow storms passing through Colorado and such. We were blessed that we didn't have any trouble with the cars or the kids. In fact no one took Dramamine and no one threw up!!! It was a successful Road Trip!