Mom & Me Roadtrip Part 1

In mid-June my mom and I took a road-trip to Oregon. It was great :) We had a lot of fun and I was even able to read two complete books throughout the whole thing! ( I highly recomment the Hunger Games series...addicting stuff). I was talking to my mom the other day and we both agreed that we are ready to go back again. I know I will always remember this trip with her--it was a great memory I will always treasure.

The day we left was actually pretty crazy. I had to leave the house by 6:30 am to catch my flight to Boise to meet my mom. I ended up having a horrible night's sleep and when morning arrived, I only had about 4 hours of sleep. Not good, especially when you realize that I was supposed to fly into Boise, grab my mom and drive her van all the way to St Helens (typically about 9-10 hours of driving). I also woke up not feeling too well. Really not good. I was pretty concerned. I asked Greg to please give me a blessing that somehow I would be able to make it through the day and that I would be able to drive safely to St Helens, Oregon.

Upon arriving in Boise, I met up with my mom, packed up the rest of the items in her van and took off. We were both excited to finally be on the open road and heading for the coast!

About 1 hour outside of Boise, I suddenly realized that my cell phone was not with me. I am still amazed that I even realized it at this point. We stopped the van and searched everywhere. Nothing. I said a quick prayer to myself that somehow I could remember what I did with it and I instantly could see it in the small bag I carried on to the plane. I had left it at my mom's thinking I did not need anything in it and it would just be extra baggage to tote around. So...that meant that we would have to drive all the way back to Boise and instantly loose 2 hours of driving time. Not good when you considered how much sleep I was surviving on.

You also need to realize that my mom has many health limitations and we were originally concerned about her sitting in the van for such a long period of time because of her hip problems. When we realized that we had to turn back, it was rather heart-breaking. I began to wonder if we would even make it over the Blue Mountains that first day.

After returning to Boise and getting the phone, we were both laughing about the situation. Isn't laughter wonderful? When everything seems awful, sometimes laughing is all you can do. We even joked about mom's neighbor seeing us and what would he think of us returning so soon. We had decided that we were going to tell him that we needed to go to the bathroom! Ha! Fortunately, we did not see him and we were on our way again.

I KNOW that angels were with both of us that day. I did not have ANY feelings of fatigue AT ALL during the entire drive there and my mom only had to stop twice to get out and walk. It was truly a miracle. I actually did not even so much as yawn until I dropped into bed at the hotel around 10:30 pm. How grateful I am for a Father in Heaven who loved us both enough to watch over us and strenghen us so that we could make this trip. It really is humbling when you stop and think about it.

The pictures below were all taken on the day we went to Skamokawa, Washington with my brother, Kirk and his family. It was another great day. Our original intent was to comb the cemetaries searching for ancestors. My mom knew where many were buried, but Kirk and I had no idea and we wanted to know in the event that she was to pass away. We also drove around the valley stopping at various family landmarks and getting an "Ancestral Tour" by my mom. I loved every minute of it. It is great to know where you come from. We spent a lot of time in a cemetary in the middle valley. We even had lunch there! Some people may call it crazy, but we called it a family reunion :)

Funny story: While eating lunch at the cemetary, one of Kirk's kids spilled soda on top of one of the graves. I can't remember who, but one of them said "You just spilled pop all over great-great grandpa!" I told them that he was probably thinking "AHHHH....I have been waiting 75 years for a good drink of pop--thanks!"

While driving around near my great-uncle Clyde's home, I spotted some fox-glove flowers. I remember as a child my grandpa showing me how to "pop" them. I suddenly stopped the van and my mom and I jumped out and picked some to show the kids how to pop them too. Kirk was following behind in his van and I am sure he thought "there goes crazy Aunt Dawna again..." It took a couple of tries for the kids to figure out the method of "popping" them, but they eventually got it. One of the pictures below is of Evan with the fox-glove flowers that we left on Grandpa's grave.

Anther picture is of my niece, Lauren toting around the large family history book my mom brought. She looks so cute! And...my favorite picture of all is of my mom coming out the portable outhouse in the cemetary. I told her that I would use this for her obituary photo someday ;)