Late Posting

Okay, so we've been home for a few days and I have gotten myself lost in the mess of every day life, but I did want to wind up our adventure to San Diego for you.

Before leaving Portland, we headed to a relaxing morning at Ikea, with 6 kids! Actually, we were very blessed that "Miss Ann", Seth and Emma's favorite babysitter from YEARS ago, met up with us at the hotel and went with us to Ikea and helped wrangle all the kids! Thanks to Ann, Jeff and I were able to actually look and talk about things. All I have to say is that it is a good thing Spokane does NOT have an Ikea. It could be very dangerous for me! We did find a storage shelving unit, which we purchased and a few odds and ends, and had lunch there. It was kids eat FREE day!! Whoo Hoo!!! We had an ice cream to go, said our good-byes to Miss Ann and headed on a 1 hr 40 min drive to The Dalles (that was a breeze compared to most of our daily drives!).

Our arrival at the Iverson's, in The Dalles, was timed absolutely perfectly, for dinner... hamburgers, bbq chicken, chips, macaroni salad, and ice cream for desert! We had the distinct pleasure of meeting, having dinner, and enjoying the company of the head pastor at the church the Iverson's attend! Doug, Becky, and Zach were true troopers by feeding and housing our whole clan! Feeding and housing 8 people is quite an experience. The kids had a blast sleeping in sleeping bags and blankets, on cots, mattresses, and couches. It was like camping for them! Our time with the Iverson's was priceless!

Sunday morning came and Jeff got to experience old times and played bass with the worship team, while Doug led worship at church! It was a blessing and brought back fond memories of our early years of marriage. The worship was uplifting and the word that was spoken from the pulpit was challenging! We were able to stay for lunch and enjoy some more delightful fellowship and had to say good-bye to our dear friends and to our vacation!

We finally arrived home Sunday evening around 8:30 pm. Tucker promptly went over to our neighbors and said, "I'm home.... Did you miss me?" We unpacked the car, Jeff set up my new Wii Fit Plus, and finally fell into bed about midnight.

It was a fantastic trip and are very thankful to Ba and Pop and Aunt Bone for all the fun!
We will make one final post in the next day or so and share with all of you, some of the things we learned while on our trip.

Mitz

New Day, New State

Sorry for the lost of a post yesterday. I thought it a bit more important to spend some good, quality time with the kids, swimming in the 80 degree outdoor swimming pool, in the booming metropolis of Redding, CA. We all had a blast, especially Tucker, who seems to LOVE jumping into the pool, in my arms.

I am actually going to first tell you about today, since it is fresh on my mind, since it just happened. We had a tasty breakfast at the Lumberjack and headed out of Redding to Portland, OR. It took us 9 hours to go that distance, with several potty breaks in between. I also got to drive my own car for the first time in almost two weeks! I am happy to say, I remember how to do so. Jeff has done an AMAZING job at driving us across the country.

We were treated to good food and good fellowship upon our arrival. It was so good to spend the evening with our friends from our old growth group in Spokane, Holly and David Counts. The food was so yummy, but the fellowship and getting caught up on our lives was far better. Jeff and Holly played a rousing game of Mastermind, which Holly did win, while David practiced his PA stuff on my kids! They had a blast being his guinea pigs! The excitement of the evening was when the apartment security showed up to respond to a disturbance of the peace call. Little A was just making too much noise jumping up and down. If we were too loud, David and Holly, then our neighbors in the hotel should probably should be put in front of a firing squad.

We finally arrived to our FINAL hotel at 10:40 this evening! We were the last of their reservations to check-in. After checking in, I was given the low-down on the pool/spa and breakfast, which begins at 4 AM!! Yeah, I said, don't expect me to be the first in line! Tomorrow we plan to see Seth and Emma's all-time favorite babysitter, Miss Ann!!! We will also go to Ikea (last call on any orders for us to pick up anything for you) and head to the Iverson's, in The Dalles, for the LAST night of our trip! It is hard to believe we are quickly approaching the end of our vacation!

Now, let me tell you about yesterday! What a day!!! We checked out of the hotel and decided to walk the 1.3 miles to the Train Museum. It was really nice to get out and get some exercise. As we arrived they were moving one of the steam engines onto the turntable to put it back into the museum. That was pretty cool! After we paid for our trip through the Train Museum and spent about 10 minutes in there, we realized we WEREN'T in the Train Museum, but the History of Sacramento Museum. SInce we had paid for it, we went through and learned quite a bit about the history of Sacrament. I guess the museum does it's job. We finally made it to the Train Museum and the boys were in their element. Emma and Claire enjoyed walking through and make believing they were actually young ladies living in the time of the train era. They were very cute. It was a cool adventure and we appreciate the Kuhs suggesting it to us.

My whole family is now sleeping, I can hear Jeff snoring, so I should end this post and head to bed myself. Pray for a good night's sleep for Little A, she is having some real hard nights. Sleep well everyone.


Mitz

Holy Hugeness Batman!

Cruising down The Generals Highway, we saw some really cool, tall, and amazing sights!

We were able to get up early, eat breakfast, and head out of Fresno by 8:15 am. The lady at the check-out desk was pretty impressed with our little brood. After fiddling with the GPS and the highway, we were finally on our way to see the giant Sequoias. At 11 am this morning we were at 7600 ft elevation. I was feeling very close to God. We finally made it to the spot to see General Sherman, the 2200 year old, 1368 ton, 275 ft tall Sequoia. If you filled it with water, you could take a bath for every single day for 27 years. It was quite the treacherous trek to see the tree, since it snowed up there yesterday and there was ice just about everywhere you turned (Claire found a patch of ice accidentally and hit the ground, hard, on her bottom and had to borrow Skyzr's pj bottoms, because they were the easiest clothing article I could get to.). Those are some pretty cool trees God put on our planet. I wish the weather had been a bit better, so we could have stayed a little longer, but alas, the treacherous walking, especially while walking with a baby in your hands, and the lateness of the day, we had to move on. On our decent from the mountain, we hit some road construction, which put us 1 hour behind schedule. We drove through some really beautiful area and saw LOTS of orange groves. So at 3 pm, we were at a mere 400 ft elevation (that's a pretty big drop!). A HUGE SHOUT OUT GOES TO MY BIG SIS (also known as Aunt Bone) FOR SUGGESTING US TAKE THE SEQUOIA TRIP! IT WAS SO WORTH IT! As we passed back through Fresno again, I felt like Clark Griswald in "European Vacation", "Look kids, Big Ben, Parliment. Look kids, Big Ben, Parliment....", but instead, "Look kids, Fresno, CA. Look kids, Fresno, CA..." The kids seemed to be none too pleased that we were back in Fresno.

We have arrived at destination number 5 of 9. Whoo hoo, half way there! We are in Sacramento and plan to hit the train museum before moving farther north, to Redding, CA. Tomorrow will be a real short day for us, driving wise, only 2 1/2 hours. Only time for 1 movie and a bit of reading (By the way we read Skyzr's book on the building of the Erie Canal, read a 10 more pages in "House at Pooh Corner", and finished reading the "Heroes of Then and Now... Mary Slessor"- honestly EVERYONE of you should read this book!!!!). We dined tonight, while looking for remnant pieces of quantonium, at In-n-Out, in Modesto, CA. Claire did say she saw Galaxar's ship hovering over the city. Not too bad burgers, for not too bad prices. Much like Dick's but much less greasy! I am glad I can now say I am one of the ones who has eaten at In-n-Out. Now on to my next achievement.

We have just decided tonight that while in Portland, we will be stopping at Ikea, since it is only 1 mile from our hotel. Does anyone need us to pick anything up? Here's your chance. But do remember that we don't have too much room in the car. We are actually coming back with more than we left with (and not a single San Diego t-shirt to show for proof of our visit). Actually it is more food that we are coming back with. My mom did not want to leave anything at the rental house, so just about all the leftover stuff... cereal, frozen gallon of milk, 4 loaves of bread.... is all coming home with us!

So the time has now come to say good-bye to all of my followers out there. Thanks for following us and making me feel loved. We will be seeing some of you in just 2 days, while some of you in 3, and some of you in 4, and then I don't know when I will see the rest of you... if not before, we'll see you in heaven.

His view, my correct view

San Diego was cool. Really need to come back soon. Maybe someone other than the 5 year old will do the rides. We decided to win the lotto and spend a few months to really explore all the city and surrounding area has to offer. We did not see one bikini. Nor did we see one fat guy in a speedo. So, you can understand our need to return. The USS Midway was the best part of the trip for me. Can't believe how much our service men are made to suffer before they even get to the fighting. I would not want to spend YEARS on that huge metal headbanger. I also liked the one mexican meal we had there. Thanks sis-in-law! Other than that it was pretty boring ;) Since I just use two fingers to get this into the awesome mac, I'll turn it over to the only good half.

jeff


It was sad parting ways, with my parents, but we all have real lives to get back to. We were able to pull out of the driveway before 9 am and headed northeast, to Fresno, then to network TV (do you know where that line comes from?). It was a short 5 hour drive today, well actually 6 with LA traffic (yes, LA traffic only added 1 extra hour... actually it probably only added 35 minutes, we stopped for lunch today, instead of making lunch, while driving). It was nice to have a short drive, to get to the hotel early enough to partake of the warm pool and relaxing hot tub. You'll NEVER guess where we had dinner. Fresno was the only town I couldn't find a good restaurant at restaurant.com. We had a Costco pizza (it sits just behind our hotel). Well actually the KIDS at the whole pizza, while Jeff and I shared a caesar salad. Then we shared a few Very Berry Ice Cream. It was a cheap and quite tasty dinner.

Tomorrow we continue our trek north, with a slight eastward, then southern route. We are going to go through the Sequoia National Forest, on our way to Sacramento. It will be a longer day, but hopefully a fun and educational day (By the way, for all you home schooling people out there, we have been able to continue with some of our work... the kids are doing some of their read alones and I have been reading to them, in between movies, while fighting our way though the 6 states.). I saw on weather.com that Sequoia National Forest had a chance of snow last night. Let's all pray for a bit warmer weather than that.

Well in order to get up early and get out of here to make our schedule, I need to go to bed.

I'm off until tomorrow.

Mitz

Whoa. I like messin' with mommas blog.

We appreciate those dummies of you that keep reading this drivel.

Today we did not go to the beach. Too cold. Paradise isn't very paradisey the rest of the week. I guess southern California will have to wait until next time for me to run naked through he surf. Today we attacked the NEW San Diego Children's Museum. It is no longer new. Did you know, they only have family restrooms there? That was the best thing there, or at least what I learned. Fired up the old bar-b-q and had a mans meal-Steak and taters. Some salad for the women folk. I am going to HATE getting back to work (although I will do a lot less walking). The kids only fought about half of the day. What a great mom's day gift. Tucker got to pet a porcupine. Daddy got to hold a baby for a few hours, it should be an olympic support/sport.

Do you ever think before you speak? I do...NOT! But, you all know that. One more day and then six hundred hours on the road with six hundred kids. Does anyone know how children happen? We apparently never learned. I got cable even, they still kept coming.

Back to the blog. We did mostly nothing and it was GREAT. You sometimes need a vacation from the vacation. Two days after yesterday the boys go look at naval ships. Including an aircraft carrier. With aircraft on it. Imagine that. Almost like they planned it. Hmm. The girls are going to stay home and practice being barefoot and pregnant. We may go to the Mt. Solodad cross too. It looks a lot like a cross, hmm.

We give all the credit to Jesus. He continues to give us grace in spite of our silliness. Now if someone would pay for all the credit...

Alright, that's enough for a long time (you hope).

jeffers

Said, Hey babe. Take a walk on the wild side.

It is amazing how much longer it takes to get a family of 6 kids ready and get out the door, to spend a day away from the home, with a picnic lunch included. First, you have to feed the kids (because you know they are already up before you are clearly ready to be up), then you have to pull out there clothes, round them up and get them dressed. Next, you have to help clean up from breakfast (you certainly don't want to come home to a dirty home). Don't forget to put away the fold out sofas, or you will have a mess when you walk in the door, after a very long day. Remember that your day is going to be spent outside all day, in the sunshine and upper 70 degree weather, so PLEASE don't forget to put sunscreen on all of those said kids, and don't forget yourself or you will be VERY sorry later during the night (Speaking of sunscreen, I have decided that vacations are bad for my allergies. As some of you may know, when Jeff and I were away for our romantic vacation for our 15th wedding anniversary, I had an allergic reaction to something in my dinner the first night. Well I seem to have had an allergic reaction to the HYPOALLERGENIC sunscreen that we bought. I have a very itchy and not nice looking rash on my arms, neck, and legs). Pack up lunch, while the same said kids are taking one last trip to the bathroom (it is a 35 minute drive to your destination and you don't want to have to make a pit stop). Finally, make one last trip through the house to make sure you have everything and pack up the cars and get out on the road. So, you started this whole ordeal around 7:30 am and are finally out the door at 10:30 am. Whew, and now I am ready to take a nap, while Jeff drives us the 35 minutes to get to San Diego's Wild Animal Park.


What a really fun and completely exhausting day! Did you know that the Wild Animal Zoo is over 1800 acres big? It has LOTS of great walking trails and a plethora of cool animals to see. We certainly did not get there in time to open the joint, but we were there to close it! The 6 hours we had there were not nearly enough hours to see even half of the stuff. I guess we will just have to extend our vacation another week, in order to see the rest of the Wild Animal Park, Sea World, and the San Diego Zoo (although with a day and a half there, we were able to see most of the park). Oh wait, we have a real life we have to get back to. BUMMER!!! So I will share with you each of our highlights of our tour today...

Mitzi- The 25 minute Safari Tour was quite cool. During the tour I learned that the number of white rhinos had, at one time, depleted down to less than only 10. Equal to the Safari Tour, was the GREAT quad, calf, and gluteal exercise we got walking up and down the steep hills.
Seth- Predators are color blind, so the animals are that are orange to us, are seen as green, to the predators because of the shades of grey.
Claire- REALLY loved watching all the ducks that were, almost, everywhere you turned. She also enjoyed looking at the Flamingos.
Skyzr- Giraffe's have tongues that are blue, which give them protection from the sun.
Emma- Cheetahs are naturally shy animals ("Which is very weird," thinks Emma.)
Jeff- The highlight of his day, was Little A falling fast asleep in his arms, after we got home (because she didn't sleep while we were at the park). He actually did enjoy more than that, but he is busy keeping a baby asleep.
Tucker- He really had a blast at the Safari Jungle by Fisher Price. So I guess you can figure out that it was a play area for the kids. He ran, and ran, and ran, and ran, and ran, and....

So tomorrow is our last day with Aunt Bone and we will spend part of it at the beach. I don't know which beach, but I am sure we will be able to find at least one to go to. Monday will be a day for me to be around the house, getting clothes washed, doing some shopping, and getting us ready to split southern California, because we have to be out of here at 8 am on Tuesday. The boys will head to the USS Midway though and I am ANXIOUS to hear the things that they see and learn.


Okay, I am off for today. Live well and prosper my friends,
Mitz

A Day at the San Diego Zoo!

We were able to spend 7 whole hours at the zoo today and came home with NO major sunburns. That certainly is quite the success for a gaggle of Welch/Scottish/Swedish folks. It was an adventure trying to get "11 Amigos in San Diego... May 2010" (I'll post a pic of what the shirts look like, thanks to Ba.), but after finally understanding the Zoo map, we ventured toward the theatre to watch "In Flight", the live bird extravaganza. Then we sat still and people watched for 6.5 hours. Kinda boring but saved our feet from all the walking. Did you know there are lots of people at the San Diego zoo? They say they have more species of animal than any other zoo-they were really referring to the human animals we experienced (our family included). It seems sad to me they have all of those animals in cages when some of the people are the ones needing them. Lions, tigers, and piercings oh my. However, learning was accomplished as well. For instance, a 15 pound baby weighs A MILLION pounds after all day in your now six foot long arms. We believe this is how monkeys became knuckle draggers. "cuz you know-they didn't have strollers! It turns out, the park is only 100 acres. Still, it has 3 or 4 million miles of walkways (all up hill in the snow). Also, wear a hat in the aviaries.

We spent 1.5 days there and really could spend another whole day to see it all. What a racket. Just give me a couple cages with hairless dogs or kittens with tiger stripes and call it good. Did I mention about the throbbing feet? And really, who needs elephants when we have Walmart shoppers? The boys were most fascinated by the ......poop. We even got to see the explosive rearward action of the hippo while under water! Not to be missed I'll tell you.
Found out that the owls eyes take up so much room that there is not any left for the brain. Like most males I know.


Sorry about the several space delay. I just got lost. Again with the learning. First, there is no night life in this goofy town (good for less traffic when lost). Second, I have a gps. Third, it doesn't matter if you have a gps and you don't remember you have a gps!
The zoo was good. Dinner was great. Aunt bone stepped up and foolishly purchased mexican for the livestock- i.e. I hate shredded beef, I only like ground beef. I hate bean sauce (refried beans). I hate...well, you get the picture. My first ever fish taco was AWSOME. Then the shrimp burrito was over the top. It was even better than taco bell. ; ) The kids are all snug in their rented house beds and I am beyond ready myself. Getting lost can really wear a guy out!

Jeffers