Trip to Washington/Oregon, Day 1

This might be painful for some to read through.  Lauren, Emma and Landon each have some kind of "I-thing" like an Ipod, Ipad or Iphone, so we have hundreds of pictures to sort through of any experience we all share.  I took pictures on our actual camera, too, so I might have to document this family vacation very slowly.  What a mess!

Anyway, we had a great time on our vacation!  We drove from Rexburg to Pendleton, OR to Vancouver, WA to Netarts, OR back to Pendleton, OR then to Boise, ID then back home to Rexburg.  We left Monday, July 22nd and returned home on Thursday, August 1st.  I'll try to document via photos and leave a lot of words out...




We stopped for lunch in Ontario, Oregon, which is almost exactly halfway to Vancouver.  I had made egg salad for sandwiches the night before.  We learned that Levi hates the feeling of grass on his legs, so when we put him on a blanket, he actually stays put!  He is also obsessed with Landon's big drink cup.







We ate lunch at a State Park right off the highway.

 


Poor Lauren was running a fever and felt like crap the first day of our trip.





Levi did better than expected in his carseat all day.  We remembered to include a line in our family prayers about "bless Levi to not cry and to be happy in the car."




Levi did well in the car, but not as well that first night.  He slept fine in our queen-sized hotel bed, but only when one of us was not in it.  Landon and I each took turns sleeping on the floor.  Not a great start to the many nights ahead.




Really hard to move pictures around on this website after they've been downloaded, so some will be out of order.  This is proof that I was also on this trip.





Our first stop was to buy gas and go potty in Bliss, ID.  There was a beautiful tree and some comfy grass to let the kids stretch their legs and play.





Levi always smiles so big when he gets to sit on Dad's shoulders.




This happened once in a while in the car.  He's not much of a car sleeper, unfortunately.




This one is a car sleeper. 




This is the view from the pool area at the Red Lion hotel, where we stayed that first night in Pendleton.




The hotel pool was outside!  We all swam, even Mom.  Gotta love Priceline...$49/night for a 3 star hotel!