Surprise, Surprise!

Who says you can't be crazy and spontaneous with lots of kids? Last weekend we did something crazy. Some would call it stupid. We packed up our kids, and our car and drove out of state. We spent a total of 30 hours on the road, so that we could spend 36 hours at our destination...

It was TOTALLY worth it.

A few weeks ago, my brother David (yes there are a lot of David's in my life... just go with it), turned in his mission papers. He then informed me that I would not be able to be with him when he opened his mission call, because he was driving home to surprise my parents so he could open it with them. When I protested, and told him he was being stupid, his response was, "You should come too." I (being equally stupid) said, "maybe we will."

After some negotiating with Dave & some Google maps itineraries & a cost analysis (who in my family can truly be spontaneous after all), we decided to make the drive to Oregon. And we decided we would also surprise my parents.

The drive went surprisingly well. Here's K, with the biggest excitement of the day:

She spent about 20 minutes at one rest stop gathering all the pink rocks. And J1 enjoyed sitting in the front seat, briefly. I needed a place to put him that was out of the wind, and he was sick of the carseat, and he doesn't really sit up yet... so we came up with this:

J2 got to sit in the driver's seat... but I forgot to get a picture of that.

After 15.5 hours on the road we pulled into Hillsboro, OR. We knocked on my parents door at 10:30pm and my brother Michael answered with a "What!?!" He then had my mom walk to the door, and she literally screamed when she saw us. It was priceless, and exactly the reaction we were hoping for. We asked if we could spend the night and she replied, "Only if you brought the kids!" (They were all asleep in the car still.)

David had gotten stuck in some nasty weather that we got through before it got nasty, so he was still several hours behind us, so we had to make up some excuse as to why we randomly showed up. Then I snuck David in around 1am, after everyone was in bed. My dad figured out what was going on, and my parents found David in the loft in the morning.

We had a ton of fun with my family (so much that I completely forgot to pull out my camera and take pictures), and it was great to see everyone again. But Dave and I both felt that the worst part of being in Oregon, was knowing that we couldn't stay. Everything from the green trees (and green grass, and green rocks, and green sidewalks, and even green roads), to the wonderful smell, to the beautiful hills, the beautiful city & towns, and even the slight humidity was breathtaking. We loved every minute we were there, and feel even more sure it is where we want to be when Dave finishes school.

We're now back home, safe and sound, exhausted from another long day of driving, and sad to be away from our beloved Oregon. The countdown to Dave's graduation is going much slower than I would like...

J1 asleep in the bouncy airplane @ my parents house, fingers & all.

ps. David is going to the El Salvador San Salvador West/Belize Mission. The mission includes Belize & the western portion of El Salvador. He'll be speaking Spanish and he reports to the Provo MTC on June 16th. Yay!!