Oregon Roadtrip

The weekend before Halloween, Dave and I took a trek over to Grants Pass, OR to visit Shae, Beth and crew. Little Caitlin was going to be blessed and Aiden was singing in his primary program that Sunday. We were excited to see them and also spend some time with my parents who were also going to be visiting. We decided we would split the 10 hour drive into two days, leaving early in the afternoon on Thursday and driving to Bend and then finishing up the last 3 hours of the drive on Friday morning.

Thinking we were clever, Dave and I decided we should be ready to leave by noon on Thursday knowing full well that it would be more like 2:00 pm. Around 6:15 pm, we finally piled into the little white Honda and were ready to take off when Dave asked me if I had the attachment for our iPods. We had downloaded a bunch of books from the library for our roadtrip. I said, "yes, of course" as I pointed to the car charger for my iPhone thinking it was an adapter. Dave just looked at me and laughed telling me that wasn't going to play our iPods. After a few laughs, I went in the house to find my specific iPod attachment. We plugged it in to make sure it would work and wouldn't you know, it was out of batteries. So we decided rather than drive the Honda and run the risk of falling asleep without the books on our iPods, we would pile into the Pathfinder. Of course it was full of tools and supplies, so we quickly unloaded that, and loaded it with our baggage and junk. We were finally set to go and we were only 6 hours behind our original goal! I don't know why it is so hard to get out of town...and we don't even have kids! We'll have to start 2 days in advance when we do.


It was quite a fight to get to Bend. We did good for the first few hours of our trip until after stopping for dinner in Burns. Dave got behind the wheel and we got pulled over in less than 5 minutes into the drive. The officer told us Dave had stayed in the median too long when pulling out into the road. Oops. Luckily we didn't get a ticket. We drove and drove and drove and it wasn't too long before Dave was so tired he couldn't drive anymore. I was tired too. So we pulled over and took a quick catnap. We drove some more and only had gone about 30 minutes when we had to pull over again. We were exhausted! Another catnap. Finally, I took over behind the wheel and got us to Bend at 1:30 am. This was huge! Anyone who knows me knows I'm slightly narcoleptic especially in a car and even worse when it is dark. But somehow I was able to stay awake and give Dave a chance to rest. He was so exhausted. So much for those books on our iPods keeping us awake. Needless to say, Dave and I have both come to the conclusion that we will never be that old couple who buys a motor home and roadtrips all over the country.

We had a great weekend in Grants Pass. It was so fun to finally meet Miss Caitlin in person and kiss her chubby cheeks. And of course, it was fun to play with Aiden and Brooklyn. They love Uncle Dave and wanted him to chase them, tickle them, and play with them non-stop. And he pretty much did all weekend long. Unfortunately it rained the entire time we were there and we weren't able to see Aiden play in his soccer game on Saturday morning. There was a brief window of no rain on Saturday afternoon, so we headed to the local farmer's market where we saw wonderful produce and sampled some of the famous donuts there. We also took home some homemade tamales for lunch. Yum!

Grandpa and Caitlin

Playing "I Spy" with Grandma. Brooklyn looks like she has her own version of "I Spy."

Grandma and Aiden dancing at the market

Chocolate donuts and sprinkles...a must have at the Saturday market

Brooklyn and "her Bampa" - she would say "my Bampa". When asked if he was Aiden's "Bampa" too and she said no, "my Bampa".

Sunday was a wonderful day. Shae gave a beautiful blessing to Caitlin and Mr. Aiden did a great job singing in the primary program. There were just a few times he forgot to sing and was twirling around instead. He said his part perfectly. Beth made a delicious dinner afterwards and it was great to just enjoy the day together.

Future Daddy in training

Looks like Aiden is winning!

Sweet Caitlin after her bath...look at those cheeks!

Blessing Day

Beautiful Blessing dress from Grandma and Grandpa Johnson

Look at that nose and lips

The cowardly lion...we were looking for Halloween costumes in Beth and Shae's dress-up box

We headed home on Monday after a weekend full of good family time. Thanks Shae, Beth, Aiden, Brooklyn, and Caitlin for a wonderful weekend! You'll have to venture over to Boise soon!

We hit lots of snow on our way back driving through Crater Lake National Park

A quick stop at Trader Joe's in Bend on our way back...we stocked up on a few of our favorite TJ staples!