We took a road trip to Oregon in the fall of last year. It was one of those trips I wanted to take for years, and one I often think about since.
Sometimes we even dream of buying a little cottage along a river nestled in those pines and wild blackberry bushes, minutes from the coast, even for just a year or two. It’s a happy thought I dream of from time to time.
Someday we’ll be back, if for nothing else than to feel the thrill of our heart’s content.
This was a last minute trip (as most of our trips are). We had hardly a plan except to explore and enjoy, which landed us on top of a volcano, through the cityscape, and to the sands of the pacific just on day two. We struggled to find a place to stay each night (it was Labor Day weekend) but ended up with just what we needed.
In four days we totaled 31 hours of driving in the car, but we mixed it up with park stops, beach play, and lots and lots of snacks. And the drive was half the fun with all the beauty we got to see together!
It was an incredible trip, one of my very, very favorites.
A few months ago we decided to take a weekend away exploring some more of these northern parts of the US. So, we packed up and explored Minnesota and the north shore of Lake Superior! It was such a great trip. Unfortunately my morning sickness kicked in during the tail end of the trip so anytime I even thought about it (the whole trip) I would get a nauseous feeling and my mind would go back to those fig newtons and oat bars in the back seat. You know how sometimes you associate nausea to something you ate while sick? Well I did that for the WHOLE trip! And I didn’t like feeling that way, so I made a little video of our time there together and all the fun we had and now that nausea is completely replaced by good feelings.
In just four days we packed in so much and had a really great time together exploring so many new places– Mall of America, Duluth and Lake Superior, a mansion tour, an iron mine, hikes and waterfalls, and so many fall colors. I think it’s a pretty popular place to go and see fall colors in this area of the North. And, you know what people are called who go somewhere to see fall colors? LEAF PEEPERS. Ha! I just learned that the other day and thought it was kind of funny. So just think, you are a leaf peeper if you go up into those pretty canyons to see colors each fall. How great.
Anyway, I wrote down a few notes in my notes app on my phone while we traveled. This is what I do when I really want to remember something but don’t have time to write out mama notes or a journal entry–of course, intending to make these notes into something like that soon after.
Well, I never got around to writing those entries, so I’ll just share these raw little notes I wrote along the way. My memory probably wouldn’t be able to piece them together very well anyway (it’s why I write these things down! :)) It’s funny how reading over these I was reminded of things I had forgotten already!
On our way to Fargo. Over-researched hotels. Hyrum frustrated with Legos. Ava whining of boredom. “I just want to be there.” Drove past combines harvesting grain at night. Lights on, dust.
Mall of America–Hyrum’s excitement. Ava just wanted cotton candy. Braved the roller coasters. Finally had Mexican food. Yum! Flying over America. Dried breadsticks and pizza. Byu football in the hotel. Kept curtains closed with a pen and cap. We all slept until the morning. So well.
Duluth–Glensheen mansion tour. Hyrum wanting to go everywhere and touch everything but can’t. Skipping rocks on Lake Superior. Jake liked the boat dock. He said, “Someday we’ll get something like that. And a big boat.” Ha! Kids excited about hard hats at the Soudan Iron Ore Mine–considered the Cadillac of iron mines. 6’8 tour guide–very knowledgeable. Hyrum: “Eeeya!” Getting rust all over us as they run around everywhere and we struggle to keep them by us. Very cool tours though.
General Conference on the radio while driving through tunnels of fall colors. Talk on Joseph Smith. Felt the Spirit witness truth. Lost service while driving through the woods, the colorful trees. Listening to conference on the way home–through the north woods, the area with many lakes, leaves kicking up behind
One thing I do remember particularly–On our trip we listened to a lot of the LDS General Conference that was streaming live that weekend. It was pretty neat listening to all these inspiring, uplifting talks and songs while we drove through such beautiful places. However, we lost service quite a lot. While we were driving up the north shore of Lake Superior, we lost service right before the Prophet spoke. I remember feeling so sad about that–I wanted so much to hear what he had to say. By the time we got service again, conference was over and we were about to stop to get something to eat anyway.
The next day when we headed home, we played a lot of the talks that we missed during the previous days, including the Prophet’s talk. I just remember feeling so grateful that we have a Prophet, and we can hear or read –through His chosen leaders–what God wants us to know for our day anytime we want! It’s such a blessing.
When we moved to North Dakota, we were thrilled that we would be so close to such a large lake. We both grew up boating with our families at Lake Powell, and we have always loved playing out on the water. This place couldn’t be more fitting for us with the third largest man-made lake in the U.S., after Lake Powell and Lake Mead. It covers 480 sq. miles!
We arrived in ND late in the season, but we still took as many opportunities as we could to get out and play–even into November. And when winter came, we visited this lake again–this time with a ball and boots for the frozen shores.
I put this video together with clips from some of our trips to the lake this year. Editing our family videos together is one of my very favorite things to do. If someone gave me a few hours without kids to do whatever I wanted, this would probably be it. That may seem totally weird, but I have always loved home movies. When I was a kid I would spend hours sitting on my parents’ bed watching them, inviting any family members that I could to join me. What happened to home movies??
Anyway, I am hoping I can squeeze in some more time this year to make them (and catch up on past ones.) The four of us love to watch them over and over.
And in terms of other goals I have for this year…
With my little wedges of free time, I am excited to pick up where others have left off in gathering records and memorabilia of my ancestors. My hope is to share their stories and their strength with my own family and make my temple experiences more meaningful. I have started doing this over the past few weeks, and I am loving it so much. It feels like a mystery game sometimes trying to piece names and dates and family lines together, but there is so much purpose to it. I’m finally doing what I have felt like I should do for so long and that always feels good.
I also plan on continuing this blog that I started. It’s another one of those things I felt inspired to pursue all that time ago, and I am really enjoying it. It’s been a nice place for my thoughts and little snapshots of our life.
And fourth, I’m going to try to get to know my sewing machine a little better so that those piles of clothes that need to be repaired don’t go forever unattended.
So those are my plans for 2016, my goals you could say. I like making goals as I go, January is sometimes too formal or intimidating to me. I am sure I will come across plenty more ways I want to improve my life as the year goes on. These are just a few on my mind lately. 🙂
We stayed in a brand new house for part of the time we were in Utah, so Jake thought it would be nice to bring our own Christmas tree from home. I laughed when he first suggested packing up our seven foot tree, hauling it one thousand miles to Utah, and setting it all up again. But he did it! And we all thoroughly enjoyed it. It reminded me of the time he wanted to bring our ice cream drumsticks to the beach. We paid more in dry ice than we did for the ice cream, but it was definitely a treat we’ll remember!
He’s mostly practical, but he’ll go the extra mile to make things special. I really like that.
Also, I haven’t been able to edit many of our family videos lately, (which are some of Jake and Ava’s favorite things to watch) so I edited together a little video of our Christmas together in Houston last year as a little surprise for Jake. It was our first Christmas without our families, and even though we missed being with them, we really loved the quiet simplicity of having Christmas with just the three of us (Hyrum was born 5 days later.) I’m sure it will be a Christmas that we always remember.
