Friday, October 1, 2010

On Vacation

First there was the mind-boggling game of "What-to-pack-and-how-to-pack-for-8 of us" game.
Not sure I won, but I finished that hand at least!
See?














10 new white socks for you,
10 new white socks for YOU,
10 new white socks for you,
10 new white socks for you,
10 new white socks for YOU....
(and so on)














A fleece for you,
A fleece for YOU,
A fleece for you,
A fleece for you
A fleece for YOU,
A fleece for you...
(and so on)














10 underwear for you,
10 underwear for YOU...

Anyway, you get the idea.  It stretched my brain and all my resources - especially when I realized that ALL the girls had worn ALL their pajamas to threads.  That made it hard to keep a pattern with my mantra:

Pajamas for you,
Pajamas for YOU,
Pajamas for you.. and then nothing.  It really messed up my groove, so I moved right along to:

New boots for you,
New boots for YOU,
New boots for you,
New boots for you,
New boots for YOU...

It all worked out in the end apparently, because we left.



Day 1:  We drove from North Idaho all the way to Billings Montana.
Day 2:  We drove from Billings Montana to Denver Colorado.

I know we are driving to the East Coast to see the Fall Color, but I was absolutely stunned by the brilliant color in Montana especially.  In the South-Easterly part there's an awful lot of open land with nothing, but let me tell you that Montana knows how to color its trees and shrubs!  These couple pictures don't do justice to what I saw, but I was the one driving so that made it hard to take pictures (Thanks Babe!).



























Day 3
Day 4:
The kiddos and I have been relaxing at Uncle Wyatt's place while Daddy has been in to the office (his work is based here in Denver) and I got to go spend a "girls night" with some of my best lady-friends.
It got late... like, 12:40 AM late.  Hmm... had a little fun I guess:-)

















(I'm sorry about the blinky picture Carrie, but did you ever NOT blink?)

Today we went to the library and also replaced the girls ragged jams.


































 Needlepoint at Uncle Wyatt's that Grampa made.



































Darling little munchkin underneath.


































So.... onward!!!

8 comments:

Shauna said...

'Lene,
You're my hero! Packing is the hardest part of going anywhere (yes, even worse than the laundry afterward) I think I may have to suggest your method next time we head out to Cali. Where did you get the girls' pjs? I love them!

I think staying up late with your girl friends must be a life-long pattern for you. Although you seem to have cut it short by an hour or three. My parents brought my doll house up for the girls when they came and there was a bit of reminicing about the time a certain friend and I got in trouble for hanging the curtains in it at 3am. Nothing like making parents think there's someone trying to break in!

Any chance your travels might include southern Canada? Please?

Love you, Shauna

Momma Bug said...

I'd like to convince AJ to detour, but we don't have passports at this time. Why don't you meet us as lake Champlaine?
As to the dollhouse... I LOVE thinking of those times! I was just telling someone about those escapades. You KNOW the only reason my party ended at 12:40 was because I had a husband who called, and I still had to drive home.
Well, that and the obvious fact that YOU weren't there. :-)
I love you dear dear dearest!
Packing like items for each child helps me a LOT. There's no way I could do it otherwise.

Momma Bug said...

Oh, and the "jammies" were from Wally World. If you have one in driving distance, I just bought them yesterday.
(I don't mean you to drive HERE, that is, but if you have a wally, wally should still have these clothes.)
;-)

J said...

A,
Delightful to see you and visit--would have liked to catch up more but that will just have to do! You look beautiful.
Love,
J

PUPPPsMom said...

Gah! Just thinking about packing for 8 stresses me out! Pack for 4 this last time was a challenge...but that was mainly because by the time you fit 2 carseats, 2 port-a-cribs, and 2 babies in a tiny honda civic, there's really not much room for anything else! But that aside, I'm impressed with your packing skills. Big time.

RavenM said...

Wow, I have to ditto everyone on the packing thing. My brain gets scrambled trying to pack for the four of us for two or three days! ;-)

Courtney said...

Oh I am so very jealous! You girls look like you are having way too much fun! And what baby is Grace holding? You all look beautiful. I wish I was there. Love you, Courtney AKA Mrs. Smith ;)

Shauna said...

'Lene, I would love to join you on your travels! In fact,that was my first thought, but sadly Karl is busy using all our fuel money to drive the tractor back and forth over the same piece of land.

Also,I understand all too well that there's an international border between you and me! You reminded me that I need to get Levi's passport so he can join us should webe able to visit home.