In my life as a mom, I have come to dread any trip with children that requires hours in the car. There is something about cars and the invariable “are we there yet” question that are designed to quickly drive a mother insane. That being said I have to admit that I’ve taken two trips with children this summer that I have thoroughly enjoyed.

The first one was to a reunion for the Gunter family (Rufus Marian and Lora Cole Gunter) in Southern Idaho with Mom, Dad, Lyra, and Dawniella. I stressed for several days before we left about how to entertain Lyra for all those hours in the car, but a computer that played DVD’s, a couple of preschool workbooks, crayons, colored pencils, a notebook, and a lap desk made her trip a lot of fun and left the rest of us able to talk and listen to books on tape. Dawniella decided that her duckies and socks were great entertainment and didn’t fuss unless she was hungry or tired. The motel room was a great hit, but Lyra couldn’t figure out why there wasn’t a kitchen or a utility room. The most important part was the cartoon channel and she watched TV until she fell asleep both nights. Dawniella had a blast exploring the room and it was a constant battle to keep her out of the bathroom even after I closed the door.
At the reunion Lyra made a new best friend, I never did learn her name, and she had a blast running around. She says her favorite part was a visit from Reba and Dolly, who were the horses pulling the wagon for rides, but she wished we could have ridden farther (I don’t necessarily agree with that I kind of like the modern convinces of air conditioning and less dust).
The second trip is one that I would highly recommend for any parent to try and that is a trip with just the girls to the Oregon coast and Grandma and Grandpa Castleton. This trip started out as a way to pick up Adaon from his Scouting High adventure, but turned out to be an experience that neither the girls nor I will soon forget. We left on Thursday at about 9:30 am and took our time getting to Oregon. On the way, we visited the Maryhill Mansion, the replica of Stonehenge built by Sam Hill, and almost every rest stop along the way. In general, we just took our time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves along the way.






On Friday we spent the day with mom and dad at the beach, the pool, and paid a visit to the “kite store”, mostly we just hung out and visited.

Then Saturday morning we headed out for home. After traveling about 20 miles up I-5 to pick up Adaon, we headed back down to Oregon and traveled home along the Historic Columbia Highway. For those of you who don’t know this highway is the old road down the Gorge and has a whole lot of waterfalls along it. It was hot and we had not air conditioning but we visited the majority of them on the way home, and most you had to hike down into so I got a major work out. Adaon was a trooper about all of the girls, who sang at the top of their lungs most of the way home and had seriously interesting conversations, but I think he was glad to finally make it home. It took us 11 hours to get home, but it was the best trip I’ve been on in a long time. The girls and I decided that we’re taking another trip next summer, but we definitely need air conditioning. I hope you like the pictures because we had a lot of fun.