On the Road Again
As most of you know, we just came back from an AWESOME trip to California (compliments of Mark and Julie.... it's okay to be jealous of my amazing in-laws) and after contemplating long and hard about the best way to blog about it. The last thing I wanted was to spend days and days and days and days working on a super long post that everyone is going to get bored with in the next 5 seconds. So I have come up with the perfect solution... I am going to split the trip up in sections and post a little a time. Starting out with....
TRAVELING
The road to and from California was...well... okay. I suppose that it could have been a LOT worse. It was by far the worst part of the trip. The Little Guy was a little nightmare for the most part (okay for ALL the part) but it never really got too far out of control. Mostly because (unlike our trip to Vegas a couple of months ago) we were actually prepared for the worst this time. We stared by adding an element that we did not have on the trip to Vegas: someone in the backseat, and by "someone" I mean Julianna. My wonderful sister-in-law deserve a medal for all her services as entertainer, cafeteria worker, and tech specialist. Another fun new element to our trip was technology. Julie was able to download the Little Guy's favorite videos on YouTube unto her Kindle Fire so they were always ready; they were the perfect lifesaver when things got too out of control. We also had a portable DVD player equipped with a favorite of the Keeles (and as of recent me) called Baby Songs.
Because Nathan had to stay until later on Saturday, we left the boys on their own and girls (and the Little Guy) left really early Saturday morning. The Little Guy and I pick up Julie and Julianna at five thirty and we were on the road by six. The plan was to have the Little Guy sleep most of the way, but he didn't (so yeah we got up that early for nothing). Our first stop was in Beaver. We stopped at the McDonald's, got breakfast, and let the Little Guy walked around for about and hour.
Another reason we left so early was so that we could spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa Swenson in St. George.
It was really nice to be visit with them for the day. We played games and then went shopping at the outlet malls (as a side note: I do not feel I got enough shopping done (as we were limited do to a lack of stroller (we didn't bring one because the condo had one)) so I think that a girl's trip to the outlet mall is in order. Let me know if you guys are interested. Grandma already said we could stay there so we wouldn't even need a hotel room). The boys got there around 9:30 and the we had dinner and went to bed as soon as possible super tired from a hard day of traveling. I guess this would be a good time to point out (TMI alert) the Little Guy had super bad constipation during out trip. He got better the week that we were in California but traveling was really bad. He would cry for 15 minutes at a time. We tried everything to help (going as far as a suppository). It was heart breaking to watch.
The next morning we broke up into cars (Spencer, me, the Little Guy, and Julianna in one and Mark, Julie, Adam, and Nathan in the other) and got ready to head out. Were supposed to leave by 9, but, with the Little Guy having problems, we actually didn't leave until 11. We had lunch at Subway in Vegas (we the Little Guy had a really hard time again) and stopped again in Barstow (with a few random bathroom breaks hear and there). Julie was inspire there to give us the Google Maps directions to getting to the condo (they have GPS and didn't need them), and it is a good thing she did! We actually got separated from them when they got stuck behind a Semi about 10 miles before we were suppose to get off I-15 and didn't see them again until 4 miles from the Anaheim exit. I don't know what we would have done if we had gotten lost.
We arrived at the condo around 7 (the sun had barely set since it likes California better and so stays there longer).
That's right, the AC was on
*see all the different blog posts but our fun adventures while in California*
We left Saturday morning at 10:30 (really sad to go) after a really filling breakfast of pancakes and eggs and stared heading back. Once again we got separated from the other car early, but we had directions. I had to say it was really bitter-sweet once we were back on I-15. The Little Guy actually slept a lot of the first part of the ride but once he woke up all heck broke loose. The plan was to not stop until Vegas but we had to get off the exit at Nevada Landing when he was freaking out. Unfortunately, the other car was already passed it so they just continued on. We let the Little Guy play at the play place of a Carl's Jr for about 30 minutes before getting on the road again to meet up with the rest of the gang at Baja Fresh. By the time we got there, they had already eaten but it was actually great because Julie fed the Little Guy and Mark played with him after so Spencer and I were able to eat in peace.
We all stared debating what we were going to do once we got to St. George. Adam and Nathan wanted to just continue driving so that they could be back in Spanish Fork that night. We all liked the idea of it but we didn't know if the Little Guy would be cool with that. Finally our mind was made up to stay in St. George for the night when the Little Guy was freaking out as we approached Mesquite. The only question was, who would stay with us (the Keeles didn't all fit comfortably in one car). The Little Guy actually slept on the ride from Mesquite to St. George (a very appreciated break) so we wondered for a second if we should just go for it, but he promptly woke up and reminded us why we had made the original decision.
We surprised Julie in St. George with cup cakes to celebrate her birthday (her birthday was actually on Wednesday but we had been so tired from the day at California Adventures, she didn't want anyone to have to go get a cake to celebrate then).
Once Mark and kids (Julie decided to stay) left, we sat down with Grandma and Grandpa to watch the Aussie Open and then went to bed. The next morning Spencer borrowed a shirt from Grandpa and went to church with them (Julie and I didn't have anything to wear unfortunately)
So we stayed a took care of the Little Guy (who got stuck inside a magazine rack but was so cute I had to take a picture)
Once we were all back together we went to Chuck-a-rama for brunch. Which let me just say if you have never eaten at the Chuck-a-rama off St. George Blvd OH MY GOODNESS are you missing out. It is absolutely delicious. I think I eat myself sick every time we go there. Then it was time to (finally) head home. It was a really long and tiring trip but we only had to make one stop in Fillmore
We finally got home to Orem around seven (after dropping Julie off in Spanish Fork) and were back to our usual routines the next day.
Oh what a great trip it was. Look for the other post for all the other fun things we did
TRAVELING
The road to and from California was...well... okay. I suppose that it could have been a LOT worse. It was by far the worst part of the trip. The Little Guy was a little nightmare for the most part (okay for ALL the part) but it never really got too far out of control. Mostly because (unlike our trip to Vegas a couple of months ago) we were actually prepared for the worst this time. We stared by adding an element that we did not have on the trip to Vegas: someone in the backseat, and by "someone" I mean Julianna. My wonderful sister-in-law deserve a medal for all her services as entertainer, cafeteria worker, and tech specialist. Another fun new element to our trip was technology. Julie was able to download the Little Guy's favorite videos on YouTube unto her Kindle Fire so they were always ready; they were the perfect lifesaver when things got too out of control. We also had a portable DVD player equipped with a favorite of the Keeles (and as of recent me) called Baby Songs.
Because Nathan had to stay until later on Saturday, we left the boys on their own and girls (and the Little Guy) left really early Saturday morning. The Little Guy and I pick up Julie and Julianna at five thirty and we were on the road by six. The plan was to have the Little Guy sleep most of the way, but he didn't (so yeah we got up that early for nothing). Our first stop was in Beaver. We stopped at the McDonald's, got breakfast, and let the Little Guy walked around for about and hour.
Another reason we left so early was so that we could spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa Swenson in St. George.
It was really nice to be visit with them for the day. We played games and then went shopping at the outlet malls (as a side note: I do not feel I got enough shopping done (as we were limited do to a lack of stroller (we didn't bring one because the condo had one)) so I think that a girl's trip to the outlet mall is in order. Let me know if you guys are interested. Grandma already said we could stay there so we wouldn't even need a hotel room). The boys got there around 9:30 and the we had dinner and went to bed as soon as possible super tired from a hard day of traveling. I guess this would be a good time to point out (TMI alert) the Little Guy had super bad constipation during out trip. He got better the week that we were in California but traveling was really bad. He would cry for 15 minutes at a time. We tried everything to help (going as far as a suppository). It was heart breaking to watch.
The next morning we broke up into cars (Spencer, me, the Little Guy, and Julianna in one and Mark, Julie, Adam, and Nathan in the other) and got ready to head out. Were supposed to leave by 9, but, with the Little Guy having problems, we actually didn't leave until 11. We had lunch at Subway in Vegas (we the Little Guy had a really hard time again) and stopped again in Barstow (with a few random bathroom breaks hear and there). Julie was inspire there to give us the Google Maps directions to getting to the condo (they have GPS and didn't need them), and it is a good thing she did! We actually got separated from them when they got stuck behind a Semi about 10 miles before we were suppose to get off I-15 and didn't see them again until 4 miles from the Anaheim exit. I don't know what we would have done if we had gotten lost.
We arrived at the condo around 7 (the sun had barely set since it likes California better and so stays there longer).
That's right, the AC was on
*see all the different blog posts but our fun adventures while in California*
We left Saturday morning at 10:30 (really sad to go) after a really filling breakfast of pancakes and eggs and stared heading back. Once again we got separated from the other car early, but we had directions. I had to say it was really bitter-sweet once we were back on I-15. The Little Guy actually slept a lot of the first part of the ride but once he woke up all heck broke loose. The plan was to not stop until Vegas but we had to get off the exit at Nevada Landing when he was freaking out. Unfortunately, the other car was already passed it so they just continued on. We let the Little Guy play at the play place of a Carl's Jr for about 30 minutes before getting on the road again to meet up with the rest of the gang at Baja Fresh. By the time we got there, they had already eaten but it was actually great because Julie fed the Little Guy and Mark played with him after so Spencer and I were able to eat in peace.
We all stared debating what we were going to do once we got to St. George. Adam and Nathan wanted to just continue driving so that they could be back in Spanish Fork that night. We all liked the idea of it but we didn't know if the Little Guy would be cool with that. Finally our mind was made up to stay in St. George for the night when the Little Guy was freaking out as we approached Mesquite. The only question was, who would stay with us (the Keeles didn't all fit comfortably in one car). The Little Guy actually slept on the ride from Mesquite to St. George (a very appreciated break) so we wondered for a second if we should just go for it, but he promptly woke up and reminded us why we had made the original decision.
We surprised Julie in St. George with cup cakes to celebrate her birthday (her birthday was actually on Wednesday but we had been so tired from the day at California Adventures, she didn't want anyone to have to go get a cake to celebrate then).
Once Mark and kids (Julie decided to stay) left, we sat down with Grandma and Grandpa to watch the Aussie Open and then went to bed. The next morning Spencer borrowed a shirt from Grandpa and went to church with them (Julie and I didn't have anything to wear unfortunately)
So we stayed a took care of the Little Guy (who got stuck inside a magazine rack but was so cute I had to take a picture)
Once we were all back together we went to Chuck-a-rama for brunch. Which let me just say if you have never eaten at the Chuck-a-rama off St. George Blvd OH MY GOODNESS are you missing out. It is absolutely delicious. I think I eat myself sick every time we go there. Then it was time to (finally) head home. It was a really long and tiring trip but we only had to make one stop in Fillmore
We finally got home to Orem around seven (after dropping Julie off in Spanish Fork) and were back to our usual routines the next day.
Oh what a great trip it was. Look for the other post for all the other fun things we did
I love reading your blog! And I love that picture of Little Spencer in the magazine rack:)
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