Without Further Ado- Our Family Vacation from Hell!

...actually it wasn't bad it is just fun to call it that, since all of us have those memories of growing up and traveling with family and being miserable part or all of the time.

After loading up the motor home with us, a teenager, two babies, a Grandma, everything we thought we would need for a trip of two weeks covering three different climates and most important a case of Rockstars, we headed to our first stop, Oregon, on December 22 at 11pm.

We went about halfway and got to Dolores' sister's house (Aunt Dorothy) about 4am, Jim took her in to visit and we all stayed in the motor home to nap. The kids had slept most of the way there, of course getting used to the loud and bumping of the motor home was fun but it actually was ok. We slept for a few hours until Ean got up at which time we went in to visit for a minute and get on the road. After a couple hours and breakfast we finally got going. We drove straight through to my mom's and got there about 6pm on the 23rd.

It was great to be there and is was really nice to be able to stay for a whole week. The other great thing was none of us were sick or depressed or having any other tragedy which is a first for our trips to Oregon. Jim and I and the babies had a bedroom to ourselves Tom slept upstairs in my mom's room and Grandma got the motor home to herself.

We did lots of visiting and playing and eating. Since there we so many of us we didn't go out to eat at all and there was always food being cooked and baking going on. The day after we got there my little brother, Joey (the one who's wedding was in Idaho) and my Grandmother got there. I hadn't seen my Grandma for many years and it had been 12 years since we spent Christmas with her.

My aunt Faye, Jim's mom and my Grandma did great together, I don't think any of them stopped talking the whole time they were there. Joey is always fun since he is up for anything and has a great sense of humor, he entertained me quit a bit.

My other brother David and my niece Sierra were the last to arrive they flew in on Christmas day, but they still got inon the fun.

Ean loved riding the quads and he would cry to go "ride" if even saw it was outside, the faster the better. He didn't even care that he was soaking wet and freezing if he got to push the "buttons" and rev the motor.

The Grandmas loved watching Ben in his swing and a few times when I went to check on him they had already picked him up. Thank you Grandmas.

The stay at my mom's was great. I love a full house so I was in heaven.

Of course it wouldn't be Oregon without some mis-hap. On the day we celebrated Christmas (the 26th) Jim was out with David showing him a trail we had found and when they got off the quads Jim forgot to put the brake on and when the quad went rolling off the cliff he tried to stop it. He didn't help any and the quad ended up going off and so did he. In the mean time cracking a rib. Determined not to be out done by the younger ones (David-40 and Will-35?)- Jim went paint balling after that, which did not help the situation. He is better now but for the first 5-7 days he couldn't even lift his arm. Oh he also LOST his prescription glasses and we couldn't get new ones until we got home and even then they are still on order.

Of course all that fun had to come to an end and on December 28th at around noon we loaded up (with our 7 days worth of presents) and headed to Idaho. Since we got a late start AND the total trip is 8-10 hours we stayed in LaGrande, OR for the night. We caravaned with Will and Wendy and it was really nice to get that extra time with them by ourselves. The morning of the 29th we headed into Caldwell, ID and got settled in our hotel.

Jordan and Tom immediately found the pool while Jim and Ben took a nap. The rest of us mingled until my mom and Allen arrived by plane. We went to the rehearsal dinner for Joey at a very nice restaurant which was great. We got to meet all of Nicole's family and friends and see Joey's old friends that I grew up with too who have lived in LA for many years.

The next day was the wedding which of course was nice. We had to be at the church early to take pictures and the wedding was at 1pm. We stayed in Caldwell that night and headed out first thing in the morning on New Years Eve. I guess we were THIRD thing because Will and Wendy left by 6am then mom and Allen by 9am and us by 10am. We were able to visit with Mom and Allen over breakfast before we left so that was nice.

From there we headed south into Utah. The plan was to stay in Salt Lake City, I wanted to actually be somewhere when the New Year came and that was a good halfway point. We reached Salt Lake City about 7pm and Jim having just finished a Rockstar wanted to keep going and since we were on route to Las Vegas so did Tom. I however was tired of juggling two babies and wanted to get out of the Motor Home. So... going as far as he could through town Jim finally pulled off and we saw the new year come in in Salt Lake City.

In the morning as everybody else was ready to press on I wanted to get a DAMN PICTURE OF THE DAMN LAKE. Going 60 miles (Jim's fault he drove that far past it thinking I would forget that I wanted to go back in the morning) out of our way, we saw the lake took a couple snapshots and left.

Being our 10th day away from home and our 4th day with eachother we were all getting to our wits end. We pulled into Las Vegas at 4:45pm. By pulled into Las Vegas I mean the town and started to look for our exit. Since Ean loves LIGHTS I thought it would be nice to drive down the strip to our hotel, Harrahs. An hour and a half later and not moving two blocks we decided that wasn't such a grand idea and Jim took a side road.
---side note- we may have been at our wits end but Ean was DONE and we was ready to get down and out and anyone who knows that kid if he wants something he makes it known and if he doesn't get it right away he makes you suffer.

Anyway, Las Vegas is not made for 29foot long 10.5 foot clearance vehicles. So after two additional hours of driving around we finally had to be dropped off at the bus loading zone of Harrahs and Jim had to park the motorhome a couple miles away at Rio.
Jim was stressing and yelling at all of us I was yelling back because I had to deal with him and the two REAL babies at that point and Tom and Grandma were doing their best to stay out of the firing range. Once we got there and got out my mom met us with a bell man and we unloaded all of our stuff, my mom pushed Ean in his stroller I carried Ben in his car seat and Tom pushed Grandma/Dolores in her wheel chair (she hadn't used it until then since the walking was so far).

I shouldn't tell this part of the story but I just have to.

As we are walking up to the hotel (probably 300 yards) Tom kept running over my heels. I asked him nice once to "watch it" and since I had no more patience the second time I more sternly maybe yelled "stay back". Well then in Tom fashion (no offense Tom) he backed off and was 20 feet back when I turned around to look again. I yelled (now because I had to in order for him to hear me) that he didn't need to stay that far back as he might get lost, and right in the middle of my sentence I was told to "SHUT UP"not by Tom (the teenager) but by the sweet old lady that was sitting in the wheel chair. Yes kids your sweet innocent Grandma told me to SHUT UP. In total disbelief I asked her if she was talking to me and she repeated it again and told me that I had been yelling for over an hour and that I should hear myself. HA! I was SHOCKED! Nobody tells me to shut up, I was just mad that it was her and I couldn't deck her, because if it was anyone else at my state of mind right then I probably would have. I didn't speak another word to her until two days later when we left Las Vegas.

Of course in Las Vegas we had a great time. One night Tom stayed with the babies once they were asleep so Jim and I could go out and then one afternoon my mom got ready in our room while the babies napped so we could have lunch and gamble. We stayed there two nights which was perfect then headed home on the 3rd.

All in all it was a great trip, would I do it again same thing same amount of time , NO, but the experience was worth it.