One week ago today we arrived in Oregon and I still haven't told you about our trip. So here is post with LOTS of pictures as I catch you up on our 4 day trek from Texas to Oregon.
We left Texas Wednesday around 11am after Layla's 15 month check up. We drove to Hesston, KS (where I spent 9 years of my life) and spent the night with a good high school friend and her family. Sanaa was VERY excited about seeing Ian and Bethany again. I let her stay up way past her bedtime (close to 10pm) so that she could play with them.
Sanaa and Ian playing on the top bunk bed.
We left Hesston early Thursday morning and drove to Cheyenne, WY where we spent Thursday night. However, we had one minor hiccup during our drive Thursday which I'll tell you about in a moment. But first, check out this McDonald's play area in Hays, KS. It is awesome!!! The girls had a blast playing as we stopped for a mid-morning snack.
The girls also worked hard on their drawing and coloring. Throughout the trip Sanaa would attempt to draw the different things she saw. She drew clouds (circles), mountains, (scribbles), and trees (more scribbles). But at least she's trying!
The hiccup in our trip on Thursday occurred just outside Oakley, KS. My mom was driving the van at the time with the girls and I in it when we heard a pop and the van began to swerve. She maintained control and we were fairly positive we had just had a flat. My dad and Nate were following behind in the moving truck and got to watch everything happen. My mom pulled over and since I was on the passenger side I jumped out to check the passenger tires. The front tire was fine, but the back tire was not as lucky. It wasn't flat, but all the tread on the tire had ripped off.
My dad and Nate took the bad tire off and put the spare tire on while I attempted to entertain the girls inside a hot car with the windows down. Both girls wanted out bad, but we were on the highway and there was no way we were getting out of the van. The weeds along the shoulder were quite tall and had small little prickly ball things in it.
Once the spare tire was on we drove to Oakley, KS where we inquired about a tire shop so that we could get a new tire for the van. The girls, my mom, and I had a small picnic in the waiting area while my dad and Nate stayed with the van. My dad apparently helped the tire store employee put the new tire on. This whole ordeal only took about 1 1/2 hours, which was much shorter than I expected. We got back on the road and drove until we arrived in Cheyenne, WY.
Friday morning we woke up early again and were on the road by 7am. We had a free continental breakfast at the hotel (which was really good!). While in Wyoming we made a stop at Little America for some lunch and $0.50 ice cream cones! Both girls loved the ice cream.
Friday evening we ate dinner in Snowville, UT which I kept accidentally calling Smallville. Oops, but it was small! We ate at a little mom and pop diner and at first were the only customers in there. By this point you can tell Layla and Sanaa were getting tired of sitting. Neither of them would stay seated during dinner. Layla preferred to stand in her high chair and plop down on top of her tray. Sanaa just liked to stand in the booth.
We spent Friday night in Burley, ID. Saturday morning we had another nice continental breakfast at the hotel and hit the road again around 7am. The girls were such troopers the entire trip! We had our moments where it was hard to keep Layla happy and that was definitely draining. However, we stopped about every 2 hours for a break and leg stretch which really helped the girls. Throughout our 4 day drive we stopped at various rest areas to let the girls run around.
During our trip we repeatedly asked Sanaa if she would like to ride in the big truck. She always said no. Layla rode in the truck with Nate and my dad and enjoyed it, but Sanaa really didn't want to. Saturday was our last day of driving. We stopped in Pendleton, OR for some gas and an early dinner. I told Sanaa I really wanted to ride in the big truck and asked if she'd ride with me. She said okay, so we jumped on the chance. We got her in the truck and as I buckled her into her car seat she started crying. But we drove off any way. She cried for a good 20 minutes, but then as she watched the scenery she started to enjoy it. We ended up seeing lots of fun of stuff and she had a great time pointing out different things to my dad.
We arrived at my parents house Saturday evening around 8pm. On Monday we unloaded all our belongings from the truck into a storage unit. I completely forgot to get a picture of how the truck looked with everything packed inside, but here are a pictures couple from when we unloaded it.
It's good to be here in Oregon, but still doesn't feel like we're living here. We are currently living with my parents so it honestly feels like we're just here visiting for a time. The girls are having a great time playing outside and really like to be back with our cats. However, we somehow managed to bring the hot Texas weather with us. This week has been the hottest week Oregon has had all year! It's not nearly as hot as Texas was over the summer but it has been in the mid to upper 90's most of the week and my parents don't have central a/c..... But at least the evenings/nights cool down into the 50's.
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On a different note: the home inspection went fairly well. There are definitely some big things we would like to have fixed (heater not working, plumbing leaks, and chimney issues). We've submitted our requests and are now waiting to hear back. It's a foreclosure and we're dealing with Fanny Mae, so things are taking awhile. They definitely don't respond very quickly. Our realtor said that if we don't hear back from them by Monday or Tuesday we'll just start looking for a different house.
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