Back from Vacation!

To the best of our mutual recollections, we will give you a highlights rundown:

Day 1 Wednesday June 17th

As we were packing to leave, we got the call that informed us our beloved kitty of 8 years, Cyrano had passed away. Our departure was delayed by picking him up from where he was being cat sat and taking him to the vet for cremation.

We departed close to noon and arrived to Sam's mom's house around 10pm. We had some dinner, some conversation and went to sleep.

Day 2 Thursday

We slept in until about 10am and then spent most of the day visiting with Grandma. We departed Amarillo at about 6pm and drove to New Mexico. We found a state park in New Mexico and everyone went to swim in the lake.

Day 3 Friday June 19th

We spent most of Friday driving from New Mexico to Arizona. We stopped in Winslow, AZ at a Wal-Mart and went down to the corner to stand and see if we could see any girls in flat-bed Fords slowing down to take a look at us, ala the Eagles.

We arrived to a campground in Flagstaff after dark where we parked for the night to sleep.

Day 4 Saturday June 20th

After waking up in Flagstaff, we drove up to the Grand Canyon as Andrea was the only one who had ever been before. We spent most of the day at the Grand Canyon. In the evening, we drove down to Route 66 and went to a restaurant in Williams, AZ called the Pine Country Restaurant...it was tasty!!

From there, we drove up through the Hoover Dam, arriving well after nightfall. Despite the darkness, we recognized several scenes from the first Transformer movie. We arrived to the Valley of Fire State Park in NV just after 1 am.

Day 5 Sunday June 21st

The sun in the Valley of Fire woke us up at about 6 am. We tried fruitlessly to sleep until 7am when it was so boiling hot in the tent and the van that we just had to escape.

Since it was Father's Day, we decided to surprise Dad by taking him down to Vegas to gamble. Dropped the kids off at the mall with money and then had lunch. Dad revealed he didn't like gambling. Eh. We roamed around the MGM hotel instead.

Day 6 Monday June 22nd

Sun woke us up early again. Kids roamed around the rocks for a few hours and then we went down to Vegas to explore the strip some more. We rode the inclinators in the Pyramid hotel (snuck in!), and wandered about the town until we were exhausted.

Day 7 Tuesday June 23rd

We managed to sleep in until 6:30 am. Today, the kids goofed off for hours, Shane and Aurora made a bid to climb the highest peak in our campground. They didn't quite make it. Eventually, we checked out of the campgrounds and wandered down to Vegas to get the oil changed on the van. We were waiting until after dark to drive through Death Valley. Finally, we went down to Circus Circus so the kids could check out the casino with the amusement park. The girls rode a coaster, we were amused. :)

Day 8 Wednesday June 24th

We arrived at Malibu State Park in L.A. around 6 am. We slept in the van outside the gate until they opened at 8am. When the rangers got in, we checked in and found our campsite. We got set up and ran to the nearest little town to do laundry. When we got home, we found some "hippies" setting up camp next to us. We went over, introduced ourselves and went back to our own camp around 3 am, after the rangers broke up the party. :D

Day 9 Thursday June 25th

We went down to explore Wilshire Blvd, etc. We ended up getting pretty lost and drove Mulholland Freeway. We sang alot of Tom Petty.

Day 10 Friday June 26th

Caed went to his first day of the Forum and the rest of us hung around camp and then went to a Barnes & Noble so Andrea could take a test for her online classes. We picked up Caed and went for a dip in the ocean.

Day 11 Saturday June 27th

On our last night in Malibu, we spent the evening at camp, met some ladies from Venezuela and Karma gave them a tarot reading.

Day 12 Sunday June 28th

Caed finished up his Forum and then we headed up to Sacramento to see the kids' mother, Faith. Due to horrendous L.A. traffic, we didn't get up there until 1am.

Day 13 Monday June 29th

Spent the day hanging out with Faith and her boyfriend, Doug. Went to therapy with Faith, discussed the adoption, got everything settled.

Day 14 Tuesday June 30th

Just hung out with Faith and Doug at their place.

Day 15 Wednesday July 1st

Began a caravan with Doug and Faith and Doug's daughter, Kira to Oregon. We stopped alot and had 9 people to feed, so as a consequence, we didn't arrive to Faith's Dad's place until about 1 am.

Day 16 Thursday July 2nd

Got up and explored Gary's land on Larch Mountain, beautiful area! Shane, Karma, and Caed stayed on the mountain to hang out with family; Sam, Andrea, and Aurora went down to Tualatin to visit with Andrea's cousin, Gabby.

Day 17 Friday July 3rd

Sam, Andrea, and Aurora spent through lunch with Gabby and her family, then headed back up the mountain for the weekend. Went up and spent some time talking with Faith's family, good time camping.

Day 18 Saturday July 4th

Continued camping, Aurora went for an ATV ride with Shane, went to fast and was thrown off, only to get run over by the ATV. Trip to the ER! Fortunately, she was not broken, just deeply bruised, days of crutches ordered by doctor.

Went out to fireworks after ER (Aurora was piggybacking with Andrea for the most part), fireworks show was rather lame, all resolved to not attend again. On the walk back to the car, Andrea found a $20 in the road. :)

Day 19 Sunday July 5th

Doug and Faith needed to head home, so they bid goodbye early in the morning. We remained with her Dad, Gary, visiting. Andrea's Dad and step-mom came over and spent some time with the family. Good times.

Day 20 Monday July 6th

Headed down to Portland to stay with Faith's sister, Heidi and her family. Hung out in the basement and upstairs, visited lots.

Day 21 Tuesday July 7th

Went back to Tualatin to visit with Gabby again and see another of Andrea's cousins, Rachel and her two girls. Played at the park with them for a few hours before heading out to dinner at a Mongolian Grill. It was our first time at one, what an interesting experience! Decent food, too.

Day 22 Wednesday July 8th

Spent the entire day with Heidi and family. Stayed up wayy too late for driving home.

Day 23 Thursday July 9th

Woke up fairly early and hit the road for the long haul home. Decided to drive straight through with passengers napping for a turn at driving.

Day 24 Friday July 10th

The days were really all bleeding together for the last week or so, we just built up sleep deprivation over the course of the vacation. We drove home through eastern Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas. We saw a really awesome thunder/lightning storm in Colorado after we passed Denver, it was like surround sound only with an entire storm, it had a huge eye!

Day 25 Saturday July 11th

Arrived to Sam's mom's house at about 6 am and decided to crash for awhile. Adults slept until about 1pm. Spent some time visiting while showering and then hit the road for the final leg home.

Day 26 Sunday July 12th

Arrived home about 3am. We were relieved to be home to sleep in our own beds! We remembered we didn't have a Cyrano to greet us at the door or sleep in bed with us. We still miss him.

Can't wait til we have an RV and can sleep comfortably while visiting! The Nevada sun will probably still wake us up wayy too early, but we bet we could sleep past 7am in an RV. :)

Wowee!!

Wow, this trip has just been a blast and we're not even a week into it. As mentioned previously, our first stop was in Norman, Oklahoma, to stay the night with a family we met on an unschooling list. They were great...seven kids and not a moment without someone to watch or interact with. We visited the omniplex in Oklahoma City with them and had even more fun, plus learned lots.

After we departed Oklahoma, we drove through Kansas and ended up spending the night in Kansas City, mere miles from the Missouri border. On Thursday, we made it all the way to Minnesota where we camped in a state park and hit the Mall of America on Friday.

The Mall of America was very exciting. We think it may be so named because you can find just about every major store in America in the mall, including a Best Buy! We do highly recommend a trip to the mall, it's worth it. Friday night, we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows at our camp site.

We packed up Saturday morning to hit the road and head east for Detroit, but we didn't get very far before our car started dinging at us like there was a door open or something, but it gave us no message. We finally found an open Chevy dealership and took the car in to find that the electronic module on the passenger sliding door was not working properly. We were able to not have it replaced (big $$), but we did have to pay to have it diagnosed and the noise cleared, etc. As a result, we're on a much tighter budget than we began.

This has not dampened our spirits, however. We drove straight through from Minnesota to Michigan to save $$. Everyone has declared that this is a great vacation and so it shall remain.

On the road again

We started our road trip today!! We left Austin at 11:30am and arrived for our first stop in Norman, Oklahoma to visit an unschooling family we met in an online group. We're staying the night with this wonderful family and then visiting the omniplex with them tomorrow before hitting the road again.

We decided to leave the camp chairs and most of the camping gear at home (save for the tent and the sleeping bags), which gave us more space for things like coats--we're headed to the northeast don't cha know. :)

We'll keep you updated as we progress across the country. If you're reading this and would love us to stop and visit, drop us a line!