A New Configuration and last gasp of Summer vacation

What?!? A New Configuration? Yes-- a new seating configuration. I am of course speaking about long distance car traveling again. We just returned from a trip to NorCal. We had a fun trip, but we did not get to see everyone or do all that we wanted. (If you-- dear reader-- live in the East Bay Area and by reading found out we were in the area and did not visit you-- I am terribly sorry, we just ran out of daylight to do it all. Not to worry-- we will be back to visit again...)

I digress-- a new configuration-- I am speaking of surviving the 750 mile from Provo to Walnut Creek twice in one week. The last blog entry described what we learned from our last trip-- we did learn and this time split up the kids into 4 corners. It worked, Grace in the back with Ben, and Sarah and Emma in the second row. No major fights-- a few skirmishes but nothing serious enough to warrant acting on the threat of "DO YOU WANT ME TO PULL THIS CAR OVER RIGHT NOW!"

We split the trip with an overnight stay in the metropolis of Winnemucca, NV. (By the way-- If you are ever there, the Holiday Inn Express has a killer complementary breakfast, for those who have been to Winnemucca, it is right across from the Mc Donalds play land and the flying J truck stop.)

The stop makes the trip much more manageable, however, I do have to admit an overnight stay does make me feel a bit weak as a former drive straight through kind of guy. I remind myself that I am not a college student anymore-- well I guess that is not quite true. I am a graduate student, I guess I am not as young as I used to be. Dang.

The one tragedy of our trip is we took the camera, but alas we hardly took a picture. What has happened to us? This last trip is comparable to a 4th or 5th child later in life looking at family pictures and noticing the 10 pictures of their first year of life compared to 1,924 pictures taken in the first six months of their oldest siblings life. (All I can say to that real situation is don't worry baby of the family-- you may not have as many pictures of your childhood-- but you will get to go to Disneyland about 100 more times than the oldest kid in the family. I should know-- I am number 4 of 5!)

Anyway-- My message to our little trip to California-- "It is not that we did not love you-- it is just that we haven't been blogging or scrapping as much as we used to and-- well we were just too busy to take out our little camera and record memories...." Just like trying to explain to your 4th or 5th child about their pictures-- it makes perfect sense-- but still sounds kind of crappy when you say it out loud.

Regardless of the dearth of photos, we did have a fun trip. While visiting Phoenix last month we saw Wicked-- we enjoyed it so much we decided to see it again in San Francisco. I took my iPhone and Nancy did snap this photo of me in front of the theater. It was a great show and we had excellent seats. I think we may have been spit on a couple of times-- yes it was that close and yes it was worth it.

We visited with some good friends and they informed us they were getting rid of their "love sack" (a foam filled bean bag for those wondering what a love sack is--) our only problem was transporting it home. The roof was the solution. It worked out fine, but keeping the protective sheets tucked in as we sped through Nevada was a challenge. There may have even been moments when Nancy did not think it was worth the hassle of bringing it home... but it's now in our basement. All the kids have lounged in it as have I, and even Nancy has confessed to curling up and reading a book in the comfortable cocoon of our new love sack. Thank you Eric and Sally and family for sharing the Love!

This was the last gasp of Summer for our family. The kids start school this next week. I begin a week later along with Emma who will also be a BYU student-- at the BYU kindergarten on campus. We are all looking forward to a new school year, but still can not believe that summer passed so quickly. I hope your summer as been as eventful and fun as ours.