Dayton’s Corners School House

June 18, 2015 | Stacy

In Nov. 2012, Marie, Stewart, and Nigel got to do a field trip at Dayton’s Corners School House. They went with some friends, and Johanna and Tabitha and I went to the museum. When another opportunity arose for Tabitha to get a turn we jumped on it. Marie was more than happy to go again.

We made authentic lunches again. Muffins, boiled eggs, cheese. We gave them mason jars (albeit with metal, screw on lids) with lemondae, too.

They had a great time. ♥

Road trip redemption at MOA

June 13, 2015 | Stacy

After the Yellowstone ordeal and the Mt. Rushmore disappointment you would think we’d sleep like logs. In fact, we all slept terribly, so it was reported. So imagine our surprise when we overslept THREE HOURS! I’m always up early; usually, by 5 A.M.

This was not how we wanted to start our day. Many of us were bordering on discouragement.

We grabbed the worst breakfast of our trip, and eventually started driving east.

Ah. East. I miss the East.

More prairie. A little more variety to it in western South Dakota, and it started to even look like home when we entered Minnesota.

We made car sandwiches again.
I foresee a sandwich rebellion when we get home.

Originally, the Mall of America in Minneapolis, MN was not on our touring plan. But when we added a night to our drive home, I wanted to reroute us just a tad to see something in Wisconsin. Lo, and behold, it brought us right up near Minneapolis. A search for “Big-family hotels,” courtesy of www.sixsuitcasetravel.com revealed an Embassy Suites large enough and in our price range. Before you knew it we were in MOA neighborhood, and we penciled it in.

I knew there were rides within, but anticipated it would be costly. I vaguely remembered a Peanuts tie-in, and knew there was a roller coaster.

I spent most of the day without internet/cell access, but finally got connected in western MN. This gave me time to look up more about Mall of America. I was happy to read they had a Twilight Pass good for unlimited rides for $22.99. I also learned that Peanuts had not been associated with the park since the early 2000’s and that Nickelodeon provided the backbone. We are not Nickelodeon people, whatsoever. But we are ride people, and it sounded as though they had plenty to do.

We arrived at 5:30 P.M. and as most rides were $6.90 individually, we grabbed 7 Twilight Passes for John and all the kids. I was able to ride all the rides that Katriel needed a chaperone for without a ticket, so that worked out well.

They had a riot. The place was not very busy. Ride loading and unloading was exquisitely slow, but they did many rides multiple times, including their favorites.

My photos are not great. Many were taken with the phone. With the ceiling of the mall made completely out of windows, lighting was an issue again and again.
But – If you look carefully, I think you will see dozens of smiles.

The food court was amazing. Huge. EVERYTHING you can think of. And we found out that Johnny Rockets was safe!

They rode everything they wanted to and then some.

We like amusement parks and frequent them when we can. John and I were both impressed with how many very unique rides they had; things we’d never seen before.
And – here’s the truth.

We. Like. Rides.
Like ‘em a lot.

THIS was a great way to spend an evening. We just about closed the place.
Money and time well spent.

Off to our hotel for yet another late check in. We willingly went without a goodnight swim.

Oh. And here’s a funny.

We were all disgusted with the teeny weeny pillows such a lush property had to offer us. So artistically cool, yet stupidly unfunctional.

We learned in the morning that they were normal pillows, folded oddly to look artistically cool?
I’m too tired for tricks, KWIM?

Mount Rushmore Day

June 12, 2015 | Stacy

A/K/A “The Story of My Life.”

We slept til almost 7 A.M. I woke still feeling wounded from yesterday’s travels. We all did. It was stressful.

As we’d arrived too late for the kids to swim the night before, we decided to let them do so before breakfast. This intentionally late start meant we’d have to sacrifice the Prairie Museum I was excited to see, but it seemed good for our mental health.

They swam. We ate. We left.

The forecast was chilly so most of us wore jeans and hoodies. We decided no movies/tablets until after Mt. Rushmore. It was less than 2 hours to Rushmore and we listened to Adventures in Odyssey.

I was really happy we were going to see Mt. Rushmore. I remember when the boys were young we got a VeggieTales movie where Larry the Cucumber was talking about South Dakota. I shared how I really wanted to see Mt. Rushmore someday. John chuckled good-naturedly as it wasn’t exactly a destination on it’s own and it really wasn’t on the way TO anything. I agreed, but have very much maintained my interest and have often heard John’s chuckles as he could never understand my interest. When we decided to go to OR, I realized I would ACTUALLY GET TO SEE MT. RUSHMORE. Today was truly a day I was looking forward to.

As our car inched toward this landmark, I sat up straighter and turned to Stewart behind me and giggled how excited I was. He smiled for me and said it’d be cool to see it.

#Roadtripssuck.
#Ihatemountains.
#dreamcometruefail

Big fat net-zero of a day folks.

Skipped lunch. Just ate car snacks. Got to hotel. Didn’t take photos. Imagine one huge room (very nicely appointed) with room for us all, but only one bathroom. I remember I booked this hotel for it’s provision of a room for 8, and for their pool.

We went to a place called Pizza Ranch for dinner. It was like a Ponderosa meets Pizza Hut and perfect for us. It also turned out to be a Christian owned franchise in the midwest. Loved it.

Back to the hotel for John and the kids to swim and for me to lick my wounds and chat via WiFi with Tara.

Katriel loved the froggy slide. She’s so like Marie was at that age. Hanny would have been too scared at 2, more cautious like Stewart had been.

Stick a fork in me. I’m done.

Yellowstone and the Rockies

June 11, 2015 | Stacy

Stink.
Never again.
No. Thank. You.

Friends – if you know and love me and don’t like the idea of hearing me be negative, you may want to stop reading henceforth.

Back at home as I was planning this trip, I’d figured we’d enjoy a drive through Yellowstone on our way to the next hotel in Gillette, WY. I picked the route going near Old Faithful and allocated a 3 hour window in the park. I know many people spend DAYS in Yellowstone as a destination in itself, but that was not how we were visiting.

While at the pool Tuesday evening, we met a man who strongly recommended we take the drive through Yellowstone that included the Lamar Valley. He had been there the day before and had seen bear, bison, wolves, elk, and more. It was hard to find a map showing what I wanted online, but we decided we’d stop at an information booth upon arriving at the park.

We just couldn’t seem to mobilize Wednesday morning. I think being in two rooms slowed us down a bit. We were a good 75-90 minutes behind our goal when we finally got moving on the road. This was partially due to the fact that I stopped at Target for water wings for Johanna for future pools.

We made it to the entrance to Yellowstone around 11. John went into an information building and talked with a woman who gave him a map and highlighted areas for us. She said to him multiple times that the Lamar Valley route was just beautiful. She highly recommended it. We entered the park as yet undecided if we’d take route A (planned at home) or route B (newly suggested).

We were initially excited as we saw our first bison. Little did we realize how many we would see.

We drove around, looking at scenery – saw some of these:

And lots and lots of this:

Now – heading back to our plan.
I’ve come to understand that many of the places within national parks don’t have easy to determine points for GPS to calculate distances. Having plugged in the address of our hotel, we knew what route A would take in time as it was the shortest distance between the two points. But newly suggested route B was still hard to determine. As we came to the cross road of route A and route B in the center of the park at Canyon Village we turned as if heading down route B. Once GPS stopped giving us instructions to turn around (OH WE SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO HER!) she finally recalculated and the new route tacked on 40 minutes. Instead of arriving at our hotel at 6:40 P.M. it would be 7:20 P.M. Well, 40 minutes isn’t that much in the scheme of things, so we decided we’d go for it.

We turned back to Canyon Village to grab some lunch. We knew that somewhere on this trip we’d like to try bison, and John figured we’d get our chance here. He was correct.

Our waitress was nice enough, and the sous chef was helpful, but other than that this is two hours of our lives we will Never Get Back.

First off – it had taken forever to get seated. There were empty tables everywhere and employees standing around talking with each other. But we waited quite a bit. Finally seated, four of us ordered bison burgers and four had kids’ meals (Marie wasn’t very hungry). We waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. People all around us were getting served. In retrospect, I’m pretty sure they ran out of bison and someone went out in the park to get another one.

Finally they served me my $15.50 lunch.

Oh – and here’s Hanny’s $7 pizza.

I can’t make this up, friends.

$103, folks. And people dare to suggest Disney is a rip off. Disney food is excellent.

We FINALLY got out of there, and some needed to go to the bathroom.
Child A had walked more quickly than I, and then decided to use the family bathroom.
Child B went off to his bathroom.
I went into the ladies room and waited in line thinking child A was in one of the stalls. Except when I finally got into my stall I recognized that the shoes in the only stall that hadn’t opened as I waited did not, in fact, belong to child A.
I finish up and go out to look for her. Couldn’t find her. I headed to the outside door and there she comes back in upset. She states she’d stood by the bathroom waiting for child B who never came out, then feared we’d left her. I got her to the van and saw Child B was not there. First I foolishly went in to look around, but it wasn’t like I could enter the men’s room. John then went in and came back pronouncing the men’s room was empty. Where was child B? John went to look in the bookstore, but my money was on him wandering the parking lot. About 3 minutes later he breathlessly entered the van.

Teachable moment, you say?
It was now TWO O’CLOCK. TWO.

At this point we expected to begin this Beautiful Journey through Lamar Valley. We did see some stuff.

As we rounded one curve the road was log-jammed and people were standing along the road staring up at something. John had me jump out of the car and run up to the crowd as he crept by. We saw bears.

We were absolutely too close. I scurried through cars to meet back up with John. He and the kids had seen them from the window. Ok. Maybe route B WAS the key.

It was at least 3:30 when we finally left the official park.

We saw more bears as we left Yellowstone and entered Beartooth Mountains.

As we left the park, we thought “it” was done and the kids and I settled into some entertainment modes to pass by the drive.
We were through Cooke City.

At this point let me just drop in here that the route we took out of the northeast corner of the park is a road that snakes in and out of Wyoming and Montana. Back and forth.
We didn’t know this – nor had we ever hear of the Beartooth Mountains before. And of course I’d never looked up Beartooth Mountains on Wikipedia.
Ignorance is NOT BLISS.

Wikipedia: “It traces a series of steep zigzags and switchbacks, along the Montana/Wyoming border to the 10,947 ft (3,337 m) high Beartooth Pass. The approximate elevation rise is from 5,200 ft (1,600 m) to 8,000 ft (2,400 m) in 12 mi (19 km) in the most daring landscapes…Because of the high altitudes, snowstorms can occur even in the middle of the summer and the pass is also known for strong winds and severe thunderstorms. Drivers should plan on a driving time of at least two hours for the 69-mile (111 km) long trip from Red Lodge to Cooke City.”

In just a short time John said to me, “Look at all this snow.”
He opened the window to take a photo. It was 5:51. GPS was now telling us we’d get there at 10:34 P.M. 😦

“Awww – see the snow?’’

We had No Idea what we were entering into. Zero.

We spent the next TWO hours navigating the worst road of my life. Switchback after switchback. Speeds of 20 mph posted. And heavy rain and fog. John had white knuckles and I had chest pain. I have videos, but need to upload to YouTube first before I can share them and I am typing off-line as we drive. It was some of the most stressful traveling I’ve ever experienced, tied ONLY with being in a jeep in southern Kenya with just John and our driver and having men with machetes and clubs circle our vehicle demanding information from the previous town.

I hate mountains.

I am tired of traveling. I do not feel clever with my words and I can not do justice to the misery and concern we felt as well maneuvered our family through this highway nightmare. We never would have knowingly took this risk. Never. I couldn’t take adequate pictures of the drop offs because I couldn’t even look out the window much of the time.

Finally, praise the LORD, FINALLY we got out of that mess and stopped to get gas. The GPS route had us going northeast to Billings, MT before heading back southeast to Gillette. My AAA map showed more direct options. John took the map into a service station and asked the cashier who stated each route would likely deliver us to Gillette at the same time, but that the Billings route north first would be more highway and likely more comfortable. Cashier and GPS agreed so who were we to argue.

We found a small town with a Walmart. I bought junk food (Goldfish and some SaraLee snack cakes) and pop to celebrate our survival. We still had HOURS to our destination, which GPS now put at 11:51 P.M.

We had had no cell service all day. Around 10:00 P.M. John’s phone had service and I placed a patchy call to the Arbuckle Lodge in Gillette, WY. They were plenty nice about it and turns out it is a Christian operation. This room had a king bed, one bath, and then had a second room off the king room with two pyramid bunks. We didn’t wait for a pack-n-play to be delivered. We piled into beds as I vowed to never intentionally visit the Rocky Mountains again. I clung to the knowledge that God’s mercies are new each morning and we could start over again the next day. If today was THIS bad, it can only go up.

Right?

RIGHT?

On the Road Again

June 10, 2015 | Stacy

No photos from our goodbye.
Adults up at 5:00 A.M. Kids up 5:40 A.M.
Packing up. Loading up. Piling in.
With some breakfast thrown in.

Everyone knew what was coming next.

Driveway hugs and holding back tears.
Fast goodbyes before it got too hard.
Man – what a hard, hard way to start the day.

Questions that we don’t know the answer to:
How was it our family of 8 merged in effortlessly?
How did we have so much fun without a Major Destination?
Will we ever get the chance to spend this kind of time together again?

James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Thank You, Father, for this Good, Perfect gift of time.

Our ride to OR was supernaturally gentle. While many may attribute the absence of arguments to abundant technology, I believe we were blessed. SO MANY PEOPLE have been praying for our travels. I was not fearful when we piled into the van today. Although we had 723 miles before us, very little sleep behind us, and supercharged emotions amongst us, the ride was wholly pleasant.

The views ranged from beautiful to boring.

Desolate or delightful?
You decide.

Idaho LOOKS like a potato!!!

At least the skies were GLORIOUS!

We made excellent time. Just excellent. Beyond my wildest expectations.
Did I mention we made good time?

Lunch in the car again.
Three exceedingly efficient potty stops.
And just down the road from our hotel:

Oh yeah, baby. We “need” one of these back home!

Check in. Swim. Off to bed and blog.

This is the only hotel on our trip where we had to have two rooms for 4. John’s points covered it, though; and they “upgraded” us to two mini-suites.

Last day of vacation–packed with FUN

June 9, 2015 | Stacy

We’d been blessed Every Day of our trip with outstanding weather. Today was no exception as the forecast was fourth consecutive day in the 90s. Praise the LORD! I was not happy to see the forecasted weather for our Yellowstone day is 58○F and our Badlands day is not much warmer. OUCH.

The girls took the little ones and the dog for a walk. See – Tab doesn’t have a dog – so she thinks walking a dog is fun. Ella doesn’t have little sisters, so she thinks walking little sisters is fun. It works.

The girls made some parfaits for breakfast.

Ella and I ran to Target to buy t-shirts and underwear for some of the kids. After the Really Long Day we drove 916 miles we ~~cried uncle~~ acknowledged that our trip home would likely be less miserable if we only had one killer-drive day, and not the three I had originally planned. Try as I may to repack our things, there just weren’t enough clothes for some of the kids. Target to the rescue!

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew went to mini-golf. Ella and I got there when they were on about the 9th hole. She joined in and I grabbed more photos.

I’m not sure who won. I’m quite certain it didn’t matter. ♥

We went home for lunch and I spent some time confirming hotel information and some activities along the way. (Tune in later in the week for exciting summaries!) We also gave Katriel time for a nap.

Our final fun activity together was visiting Sky High trampoline center. We essentially had the place to ourselves,because there aren’t a lot of people who say, “Let’s go jump around feverishly in a ginormous warehouse without air conditioning.” The kids had a blast and the dads may or may not have injured their backs with their acrobatics. I foolishly wore a skirt and missed out on the action.

We believe Marie broke her toe.

We piled back into a terrifically stifling hot van (oh it felt so GOOD not to be freezing) and headed home for enchiladas and some serious packing up.

A few movies were enjoyed around the house and bedtime came a bit harder tonight as the reality of the morning set in.

A reluctant goodbye and a glorious beach day.

June 8, 2015 | Stacy

The kids woke so early each morning that it was not possible to grab pictures of their sleeping arrangements. The activities of the week FINALLY tired them enough that we got some shots.

The boys had the living room…

and the girls spread out in Ella’s room.

Another breakfast feast blessed us, including homemade cinnamon rolls. The grown-ups immersed themselves in conversations and the kids squeezed in more games as the clock seemed to speed along whisking away our time with the Steins.

We’d been discussing this trip since February and as we all pushed through weeks and weeks of school looking forward to our gathering, it FINALLY happened. And before we blinked, it seems, the time was over.

Three homeschool moms. You can tell by the skirts?

There were tears and long faces. Tara said later that her youngest daughter wanted to live with the Maxfields. ME TOO, Mary!! I must admit, that even when Tara and I lived in the same county, most of our communicating and friendship-building has occurred over email. For she and I, we both know we can just slip back into the long-distance support system we are both grateful for. It is sadder for our kids. My kids have had limited time with the Stein kids, but they’ve thoroughly enjoyed every opportunity to play and I am sad our families can’t frolic more frequently. We’ve tried hard not to ruminate on this.

We waved as their big van drove away and turned to reenter the house. There was a hint of what we would face ourselves on Tuesday.

It took a bit to mobilize, but we made our way to the beach on the Willamette River. This water was a bit warmer than Siletz Bay, but the sand was more of a fine dirt. I’d forgotten to pack any sand toys, but we politely asked if we could share toys with other families and after a false start, we hit the jackpot. (Seriously – WHO wouldn’t let some little kids share sand toys? Right? We didn’t ask to use their Jet Skis or water bottles!)

A quick thumbs-up to Lauren. When they lived in Victor, it was predominantly Ella who liked to love on my little girls. However, on this trip, I VERY frequently found Lauren showing loving-kindness to Johanna and Katriel. The girls basked in her attention. What a blessing to have this young woman to look up to.

Silliness ensued.

As did some resting.

But the real deal was paddle boarding.

The kids bemoaned how few pictures I took of them paddle boarding. The beach was moderately crowded as was the first few feet of the water. Getting good shots was hard.

The little girls got rides on the boogie board.

After a delicious lunch and more water play we took our filthy selves back home. “Tubbies” and showers kept folks busy as Mrs. Maxfield and I pulled out succulent leftovers. We rounded out this night with ice cream sundaes, followed by popcorn and one of my favorite movies: Maleficent.

Proverbs 27:19-
As in water face reflects face, so that the heart of man reflects the man.

Romans 1:12-
That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

Waterfalls, gorges, and dams, oh my!

June 7, 2015 | Stacy

Saturday morning breakfast was another feast.

We loaded in to our two twelve-pax vans and hit the sightseeing circuit.
First stop was Vista House. The Vista House was built as a rest stop observatory for travelers on the old Columbia River Gorge Highway and as a fitting memorial honoring Oregon’s pioneers. Click here.

The girls made some buttons.

The boys scared their mothers.

Next were some waterfalls. First we LOVED the Lower Latourell.

An amazing picnic lunch!!

Then on to Multnomah Falls. Third highest in the world – highest in US. (Niagara Falls is sixth.)

Then to the Bonneville Dam fish hatchery.

And finally the Bonneville Dam itself.

A fish ladder.

Where we tested the recommended capacity of 20 people. (Some of our people are half-sized…)

And back to the house for more games and yet another gourmet meal.

Sixteen amazing kids.

More badminton challenges and strawberry shortcake rounded out another amazing day.

Psalm 93:4

Mightier than the thunders of many waters,
mightier than the waves of the sea,
<sup class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-15431A" data-link="(A)”>the Lord <sup class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-15431B" data-link="(B)”>on high is mighty!

5 + 8 + 9 = 22

June 6, 2015 | Stacy

The morning included a lot of chilling out…

Books

Hammock time

Games

A nail salon

Backyard games

Coloring

And of course, a trip to WalMart

But by the afternoon there was some, um, some serious relaxing.

Around 3:00 P.M. our friends, the Steins, came down from Washington. This lovely family of 9 relocated from NY to WA two years ago. Just before they moved from home, the three of our families gathered for lunch at my house. On that day we never dreamt the Maxfields would be joining them in the Pacific Northwest just five months later.