Collecting Moments

 

I'm not sure where this quote came from, but I found it on Pinterest. It is so simple and makes so much sense. It reminds me of this past weekend.

I worked long hours all week to take Friday off so the kids and I could go visit daddy, see where he's working, and give him a break from having to drive the 22 hours round trip to come see us for a couple days. I had major anxiety thinking about dragging our poor children all that way and what could possibly go wrong. What if they whined and cried the whole way? What if we got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere? What if, what if.

But what if it didn't? What if we made the trip fine, I let the kids watch movies for 11 hours (of course, I can't help but point out every cow, dam, windmill, big powerline, etc. to try to break them from their screens for two seconds)? And then see daddy for three full days of fun? What if...it was fine? 

I knew it would mean long days for me all week, but I kept telling myself "you got this." Yes, dragging a toddler and preschooler in and out of gross rest stop bathrooms and finding the random Fred Meyer when rest stops are nowhere to be seen is a major inconvenience, but I am sure that the positives of this trip will be engrained in my kids' brains for the rest of their lives. 

These are some of the moments we collected: 

Road-trippin'

Sunrise somewhere on I5.

 

When I say we went to Oregon, what I really mean is California.

The lower "dot" is where the RV park is.

Rest stop bathroom break!

 

Family adventures:

We made it to daddy!!!

Stop 1: Redwoods.

Family

Wandering, looking for dinosaurs.

D-man kept seeing dinosaurs in the trees.

Look! There's a dinosaur.

 

Stop 2: The ocean! ~Gold Beach, OR

Daddy and Kj strolling the beach

D-man's first time at the ocean!

 

 

Mr. Seal at the Chowder House. D-man loved the clam chowder.

And of course, a little bit of downtime in the trailer and RV park.

 

 

 

Piggy back? Monkey back? Not sure what they call it.

And more road time.

I5 by Grants Pass, OR

 

 

I've noticed, OR has a lot of transmission lines.

Boredom. (and nice of D-man to share his bagel with moose)

 

All in all, it was a great trip. Worth the 22 hours in the car and the frustratingly frequent stops with the kids. I questioned my sanity only a couple times and overall, we had a blast.

 

I have to agree with daddy's comment that although we are only together every other weekend, the time that we are together is so much more quality than we anticipated it would be. It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, but when we are only all together every other weekend, we are spending super quality time and making memories that I know the kids will cherish.

Snuggles

I got a text from daddy around noon on Friday that he was driving home when he got off. I told him that he's lost his mind but I can't wait to see him. Twenty-two hours of driving to see us for thirty-six, if that. It was so great though. We barely left the house and spent lots of time snuggling. It

Bedtime snuggles

Daddy and D man shot the new bow.

We played on the swingset. 

I snuck in a run. 

Pardon my grossness.

On Sunday, we had lunch with grandma and grandpa and auntie K before daddy hit the road home. Other than being too short, it was the perfect weekend!! 

Bye bye daddy. See you next weekend. 

Everything's better when we're together

This weekend was Labor Day and daddy had four days off, so he made the 11-hour drive home to spend the weekend with the family. It was so great having him home. I cannot believe he's been on the road just over a month. It seems like AGES. Ages, I tell you. I had a list of things I wanted to get done around the house, but really I just wanted to hang out and we got in a little of both.

Mt. Hood

 

Daddy's first raptor rebuild

Daddy's line truck

On Friday night my parents took the kiddos so daddy and I could have a nice quiet dinner. My mind was going crazy trying to decide where to go, Wolf Lodge, the nice place in Sagle, and we settled on the closest restaurant (since he had just driven 11 hours, he didn't really want to drive an hour or two to dinner, duh) and we went to Twigs, sat outside and the evening was perfect.

 

New dress and heels. Ready for our date!!

(I'm the world's worst selfie taker.)

Date night!!!

Daddy brought home a hard hat just for D-man. At first, he acted too cool. Farmers don't need hardhats he said, but as soon as daddy left to run an errand, he wore it around the house and wouldn't take it off for two days.

Taking a break from his hard work to strike a pose.

Saturday we made a trip to Cabela's because D-man has been talking about seeing the animals for a few weeks and I promised him we'd go there one Saturday. Then up to the grandparents for dinner so daddy could hang out with his parents for a bit. 

Riding the four wheeler at Cabelas with puppy. 

Sunday daddy spent part of the day trying to fix a light in the kitchen to no avail and then we had to make the trip out to Cabela's again because the cute bow that daddy got D-man was a dud. And while we were in Post Falls, we decided to continue the trek to one of our favorites and had dinner at Moon Time in Coeur d'Alene. The kids loved the root beer that came in a glass bottle and D-man ordered PB&J and was super excited about that. Kj had a good time coloring and playing with some stickers that were on the crayon cup. 

Dinner with daddy. 

Monday came, and daddy had to pack up his clean clothes and cooler full of food that I had made and rounded up from some very generous friends and family. 

Pioneer Woman breakfast burritos anyone??

This was definitely the hardest goodbye so far. I hate having no idea when we'll get to be together again as a family. I'm so thankful for Facetime and texting though, at least we can talk and see each other through the phone a few times a day!

Facetiming daddy

 

 

On the horizon: Hoping for extra hours the next few weeks, self control so we can save up and hopefully hit the road with daddy some, and a pretty quiet September, other than preschool starting again. Onward and upward.