Getting (My Family) Ready for a Girls Road Trip

So excited for my girls trip coming up tomorrow. I am headed to Oregon for my little sisters collage graduation. So proud of her (way to go chicka!). I've been looking forward to it all week but also realize it is a lot to have The Gent home with the kids for five full days. So, I tried to make it as easy on him as possible. Here are a few things I did to hopefully make it easier for The Gent.

 Homemade pumpkin apple muffins

 Homemade french bread

 Outfits for the kids all laid out

 Girls hairstyle lessons for The Gent

(quite entertaining for me and he is such a good sport)

 The Girl so excited to have her dad do her hair

 Coke Zero for The Gent's sanity

 Hidden message written in Sharpie for when it is empty that says, "Don't worry, there is a backup stash in the pantry. Love you"

 Breakfast in the crockpot

A little gift for The Gent with a few of his favorite things 

(even though we celebrated Father's Day a week early, I didn't want The Gent feeling like he wasn't being celebrated on Father's Day)

Hopefully all of the pre-prep makes it easier for my family while I am gone. The Gent is awesome in so many ways but I love that he wanted me to be able to take a girls trip with my aunt and SIL to celebrate my sister's accomplishments.

Oregon, here we come!

Missing His Buddy

This is The Boy, about 9 months old, with his cousin, D. The Boy and D love each other and have always had this special little bond. Always.

About a year ago, D and his mom moved to this loverly place in Oregon.

D with his mom

And that is when The Boy began missing his buddy D. Big time. So, earlier this year, we decided to take a road trip to find his buddy D. The Boy didn't care that it was 14 hours in the car. Whenever he wanted to get out, he would ask, "we are going to D's house, right?" and we would reassure him that we were, that it was just a really long drive. And he was peachy keen THE entire drive (seriously the best he has EVER been in the car).

And when we finally got to Oregon. The Boy and D were ecstatic. They were joined at the hip the entire trip.

They had a great time together and even though D had to remind The Boy a few times not to sit right on him or to just let go of him or to let him sleep, they were sad to have to leave each other. And The Boy has wanted to go back ever since. Whenever we are in the car for more than 20 minutes, The Boy will ask if we are going to D's house. And I remind him how far away D's house really is. The Boy misses D. And if we could drive to see D every weekend we would because The Boy and D love each other so much and really wish they weren't so far away from each other because then they could have movie nights every weekend and they could call each other up at the last minute and go to dinner and they could hang out until they both just fell asleep on the couch.

And so could their moms.

Chicag-a!

Here I am in Chicago. Yes, at the internet cafe. Gotta check the email (we can't help it). It rocks. Kim and I have about two minutes left on our little timer here and are headed to the park and then to get pedicures. We are taking some fabulous pictures. I'll share when we get back. We are having a fabulous time and are headed to our Audrey Woulard photography workshop. We are so excited. I am going to come back much more knowledgable (at least that's the plan!). See you when we get back everyone. Hope you are having a fab time. Miss us. I miss my fam. Hi fam! Love you guys.

Be good for daddy. :-)

Back to Real Life

Here we are. Back from our trip. I'll have to go through all of the pics and post some for you. For now, I'll just give you the top five things we loved about our trip to Oregon.

1) The Scenery. Everywhere you go is just beautiful. We loved the river and the trees. The vineyards and the orchards. The tree farms and the flowers. Everything was just amazingly beautiful and green even though we weren't there during the summer when it is all in bloom.

2) The Safari. It is a drive thru safari where all of the animals roam freely and can walk right up to your car. It was a lot of fun. The drive there. . .well, it was long and wet and we wondered if it would be worth it. It was! The sun came out about 20 minutes after we got there. The kids loved it and so did we.

3) The Van. Totally worth renting. Super nice. When we picked it up it only had 2500 miles on it. Brand new, Dodge Grand Caravan. The Gent wants a mini van now. lol It was perfect for the drive. The kids were so good because one of us sat back there with them and could entertain them. And we could all ride together once we got there which D and The Boy loved!

4) The bridges. So many different kinds and made out of so many different materials. My sister says that she loves to take pictures of the bridges and I can definitely see why. They are everywhere and they were fabulous. Too bad we couldn't stop at every one for pictures. With a car full of kids, sick of driving, stopping for pictures came far and few between :-(

5) Our family :-) L and I have always been so close and when she moved to Oregon we didn't know what to do. Before it was talking on the phone every day, coming over at the spur of the moment and letting the kids play. Now, we talk on the phone sparatically and web cam but it just isn't the same. D and The boy are best buds. I think D will miss The Boy's mauling and hugging every other second. The Boy had to be right by him every step of the way. He had to sit on his lap, give him a hug, kiss him or just touch him every step of the trip and Dariun was just secretly loving, I mean hating it. Dn would tell us every other minute that The Boy wouldn't leave him alone. And it was true! The Boy couldn't get enough of him. It was so good to see them and hang out like we used to. Long drive and all, we're glad we could visit!

We had a great time. I'll bust out the pictures soon! As much fun as it was, we are glad to be home!

Road Trip!

We are headed out of town tomorrow morning to visit my sister in Oregon. We are road trippin it and hoping that we all survived the 13 hour drive (probably more like 18 with all of the stops I know we are going to have to make). The Boy loves driving in the car and can hardly wait to take the "far, far, far drive to see D." He thinks it is going to be great fun. The Girl on the other hand, hates being in the car for even ten minutes. She cries and huffs and puffs and wonders why you aren't holding her when you are right there. Needless to say, I have had a lot, A LOT, of anxiety about the trip. Deep inside me I am so excited. Excited to go to Oregon. Excited to see my sister and my nephew who we haven't seen since they moved to Oregon almost a year ago (which is so long considering we were always together when they were here!). But even with all of those things, the thought of how The Girl might be in the car and wondering if we can survive if she isn't entertained enough have gotten the best of me. I have begun wondering what we were thinking planning this trip. Maybe it would have been worth the money to fly. Sigh. Too late now. All the bags are sitting in the entry way, the rental car is booked and so is the hotel. My sister is waiting (we really are excited to see you :-) and we just hope we survive. I know once we get there we are going to have a great time!