Thursday

In the morning, we went to the KOA playground. There were lots of kids around, we had fun making new friends. The slide had a ton of static electricity, Kelly's hair stood on end everytime he went down.

After that, it was into the car for a LONG day of driving. Our destination was Nebraska, so that we could end up on Kansas for Jarrett's family reunion on Friday. The beginning of the drive was amazing. Utah was just beautiful.

We stopped to get the Wyoming sign. We missed quite a few on this trip because it was hard to stop with the RV and the Jeep.

We've been through Wyoming before, on a trip back from South Dakota. That time, the wind had been so strong that it ripped the awning off of the RV. I was worried about running into the same type of thing but this time, the trouble was the heat. It was so hot in Wyoming, and just hilly enough, that we overheated every twenty minutes or so. For a large part of the trip, Jarrett could only go about 35 mph.

By the time we got to Cheyenne, we had decided to drop the RV off at home. Going all the way into Castle Rock would only add an hour onto our drive time and we'd easily make it up when we were able to drive the speed limit again. It was a sad end to the trip. We didn't tell the kids where we were going, the were shocked when they got out to see the new campsite and we were home! I tried to get pictures but none of them came out- the kids were so excited, they couldn't stop moving.

Riley was sad that the trip was ending. James was happy to see his stuffed animals and his room. Kelly was scared to sleep alone, he had gotten used to big brother. He was tired enough to finally crash though, they were pretty happy to have their comfortable beds back.

Deja Vu

Almost a year ago, last October, we went to Lake Tahoe and stayed for a couple of days. On our way back, we stopped in Elko, Nevada for a night. In the morning, we woke up to frigid weather, so the kids and I ran to the store and bought warm clothes, then went to McDonalds to wait for Jarrett.

This trip, we got off the highway becuase Jarrett was getting tired. I took the kids into a McDonalds to let off some steam.

Funny, isn't it? James immediatly recognized that we had been there and taken pictures. It's funny to see how much older they look less than a year later.

Wednesday

We decided to stay on in Salt Lake another day so that Jarrett could get some work done. The kids and I took off to the Children's museum. I would have rather taken them to the lake but I had mentioned the museum and they were super-excited, so that's what we did.

They had a blast. They did some construction,

Put on a play,

Climbed a rock wall,

Did some shopping,

Worked on a farm,

Delivered the mail,

Gassed up a car,

And flew a helicopter.

I think I'm going to install one of these in our time out spot at home. It's a life vest that they anchored to the wall. Kelly strapped himself in and was completely stuck!

After the museum, we went back to the RV park to swim and have a movie night. We watched Up, the kids liked it but it scared James a bit. Jarrett and I had planned on everyone being so tired, they would fall asleep right after the movie but things didn't really go as planned. The kids couldn't sleep. They whispered to each other and bounced around until 11:00. Tomorrow is our longest day of driving, 10 hours, and I'm guessing they're going to be tired and grumpy!

Tuesday

We got a late start in the morning, Jarrett was exhausted so I took the kids to the playground for the morning. It's funny, none of the playgrounds on this trip have been very impressive but the kids act like each one is Disneyland!

On the drive to Salt Lake, we saw the Salt Flats, the kids were convinced the salt was snow. We saw the lake out of the window which was nice, we're probably not going to stop there on this trip.

We got to Salt Lake and went to the planetarium. We saw a show in their dome theatre on the night sky. It wasnt very exciting but it was interesting. Luckily Saturn is visible in Utah right now, it's James' favorite planet. They showed images of the planet and Titan, it's largest moon. James was mesmorized.

After the show, the kids played with the 'Newton's Daydream' sculpture. Riley could have stayed all day and just watched.

James learned more about his Saturn. He was excited that some of the ice chunks in the rings are as large as cars.

After the planetarium, it was home for a late bedtime. We're not sure if we're heading out tomorrow or doing another day here.

Monday

James was a little jealous of yesterday's early morning fishing trip, so he and Jarrett woke up early to take a trip of their own. James caught his first fish, too! His was a catfish that was big enough to keep. This time, Jarrett brought the camera, here are the proud fishermen.

We packed up and left for Salt Lake City. The drive was nice, lots of flat land with just a few hills. It was hot though, so we did overheat quite a bit.

We stopped about two hours outside of Salt Lake City. The drive to Salt Lake was nine hours and driving the RV is hard. We had also promised James that we would have his catfish for dinner and didn't want to get in to town too late to do that. So we stopped in West Wendover, NV at a KOA. The KOA had the first decent wireless service this entire trip, hence the flurry of posts! It's much easier to post from the computer than from the phone.

We took a quick dip in the KOA pool and then started a fire. We kept the kids up late to watch the stars.

The fish was wonderful, Jarrrett is a great cook. Since we had corn on the cob, we made corn cob dolls.

The kids love these, especially Riley. She made her doll an apron and she and James pretended they had been turned into kids that live in the time of Little House on the Prairie.

Tomorrow it's off to Salt Lake, we want to make it in time to catch a show at the Planetarium.

Sunday- Fourth of July

Sunday morning, Jarrett and Riley woke up early to fish. They snuck out of the RV armed with fishing poles and ice cream (fisherman need their nourishment) and set up by the pond. They caught one small fish, Riley's first! Unfortunately, they didn't get any pictures. They came back for breakfast and then we left for Lake Tahoe.

On the road, Riley read James the last of the American Girl Molly books. I bought the set before we left and they have loved them. Riley reads them first and then reads them aloud to James. I'm sad that they don't have any more.

Tahoe has an amazing fireworks display, the largest West of the Mississippi. They were amazingly crowded though. Thousands of people were partying on the beach when we got there and it was only 4:00 p.m. We grabbed some ice cream in town and then got back in to head towards Carson City. We stopped once for a gift for grandma, can you guess what it was, mom?

In Carson City, we found out that there was a carnival going on so we went to check it out. It was lots of fun, a total small town carnival.

Kelly loves the Merry-Go-Round. He had a blast on this.

James decided he liked riding with Kelly because he loved seeing Kelly's excited face.

Riley rode all of the real rides with Jarrett, so I didn't get any pictures of her. She's an adrenaline junkie, she loves the crazy rides.

After the rides, we played some games and then sat on the park lawn to watch the fireworks show. It was a great show, we all loved it.

After that, it was home for bed, all three kids fell asleep while I read them their chapter of Little House, they were exhausted.

Saturday

Saturday morning, we packed up and got ready to head out. James said goodbye to his first real camping friend, Dominick. James was pretty said to leave, Dominick actually cried a little. They were inseparable for the few days we were here.

We drove towards Nevada and had a lot of trouble with over-heating. We frequently drove well under the speed limit and had the heater on. We had to stop once to cool down. If you're ever over-heating on Highway 89 in Central California, this is a great place to pull off the road.

It was a more difficult hike than we planed on. We were all wearing flip-flops.

It was still a fun adventure.

We came through the woods towards the sound of rushing water.

At the end, we found an old table nestled between giant rocks and trees. It was covered with cobwebs, no one had been there for a while. I wish we could have had a picnic.

Near the table was the waterfall, it was beautiful. There was a little pool that would have been perfect for wading but the mosquitoes were eating us alive by then so we had to head back.

We kept going and made it to just outside Carson City, where our campground was. Our new campground has a stocked fishing pond, the kids are very excited to try it out. We took a walk to get a look at it and watched the sunset.

Friday

My uncle and his wife live in Eureka, CA so they came down to visit us today. We haven't seen them in a while, so it was nice to catch up. We did a little lake swimming, of course, then cooked out by the fire. James was excited because Uncle Loren is a backpacker, hiker, explorer kind-of guy, so they had to go exploring together.

Here are the explorers after their adventure. Poor Loren ended up with all of the kids and his dogs, I'm guessing it was a fairly busy adventure.

After dinner, we tried to get a picture for mom, since she doesn't see her brother very often either. Have you ever tried to get three kids and two dogs to sit still for a picture?

Eventually, I managed to snap one without too much chaos.

It was a great visit. Jarrett and I are talking about doing another trip to the Pacific NorthWest soon and hopefully we'll be able to see them again in Eureka, It's supposed to be beautiful.

Thursday

In the morning, we woke up and waved goodbye to the Pacific. The kids were pretty sad that we weren't going to be on the ocean for the rest of the trip.

We drove inland towards Clear Lake, we were staying in the little town of Kelseyville on the lake. Unfortunatly, Kelseyville confused our GPS pretty badly, so we ended up stuck, on a one lane road, at a dead end about ten miles away from our campsite. With the Jeep in tow, we shouldn't back up at all, the Jeep's steering doesn't adjust and the wheels end up dragging instead of rolling. So we had to disconnect the Jeep in order to get the RV out of there. The road was narrow enough that the RV ended up getting its first damage, it scraped against the railing and actually pulled the fiberglass away from the front end a bit. Jarrett was able to get everything back in place, it's just scratched. Jarrett says it gives him a good excuse to paint the RV, so if you see a K-State Purple RV driving down the road next year, that'll probably be us!

This is Clear Lake, it's in between San Francisco and Sacremento. It's supposed to be the best bass fishing in the US and it's also popular for archery fishing for carp.

We arrived in the evening and took the kids down to the swim beach to 'wade'. James wasn't entirely sure what 'wading' was, I turned my back and this is what happened.

Eventually he convinced Riley to try it. She loved it! She said it was the thickest water she'd ever swam in, it was pretty muddy.

Kelly was a lot more practical.

The kids were excited about this campsite, there were other kids running around-other than cousins, we haven't seen many kids on this trip.