Great Falls - October 24th, 2011

After our whirlwind trip out West, it was time to spend a Brock Family day together. So, after we all slept in, after a long day of travel, we took the kids to Great Falls, VA to walk around and climb on the rocks.

Bryan Family Visit - October 14th - 23rd, 2011

Since moving to the East Coast 9 years ago, trips back West have been few and far between. Now that Mom has moved out here, we decided it was a good opportunity to make the trip since we could now go out together, from the same place, and take the kids to meet their extended Bryan family in Oregon and California. It was a very special trip for my grandparents to meet my children for the first time. 

The trip began with a flight from DC to Boise. Both kids did great on the flight and at our layover in Denver. Ethan even found a fellow Thomas enthusiast that he kindly shared his trains with. He even shared his trains with his sister... such a good boy!

After we arrived in Boise, we made a 3 hour drive to La Grande, Oregon to my Grandpa's house. The kids both surprised me with the way that they took to the family cat. I never realized before then that neither of them had really seen a cat before and they were both intrigued by sweet Molly. It warmed my heart to see Ethan warm up to my Grandpa as much as he did. He thought it was pretty neat that he had a face on the tree in the backyard. The best part for him, though, was that he got to ride down the street in Grandpa's pickup truck, in the front seat with no carseat like a big boy... It was a great visit with my Grandpa and his wife Marian. Very special memories were made. 

We spent the first night of our trip in La Grande and visited with the family through lunch before we made the 1 hour drive over the pass to Pendleton, Oregon to visit my Grandma and Uncle Mike and Uncle Pete. 

It was fun driving into my hometown, where I was born and spent a few years as a young child. We drove around the town, past my old school where I went to 1st grade, past a few of our houses and then took the kids to the park that I used to play at, which has been totally redone into an amazing castle park. More fun memories were made between my children and their great-grandma and great-uncles. It was special to see Ethan snuggle in my grandma's big, soft, fluffy bed, watching movies, just like I remember doing. And, of course, there was another very sweet cat, Boo, for them to play with. 

We spent the 2nd night in Pendleton after spending a great day with the family. Spent the next full day in Pendleton as well just relaxing, watching some football and grabbing Charburger for dinner (yum!) before heading back to the hotel to get a few hours sleep before getting up at 1:30 in the morning to make the 12 hour drive down to Northern California. Night time is the BEST time to travel long distances with small kids, so they slept while I drove the first 6 hour leg, stopping off in Portland for a few minutes to visit with my cousin, and then back on the road until we made a breakfast stop and I let Mom drive the last 6 hours. We made the obligatory stop in the Redwoods - Ethan identified them as boy and girl trees for some reason, it was pretty cute.... stopped to take pictures with Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox and then we had to stop at the ocean as we were passing it. It was supposed to be just a quick pit stop, put our toes into the cold Pacific ocean and make our way down the road to my Aunt's house, but with two small kids who love the ocean, it quickly turned into a splash fest, getting their pants soaked and then crawling around in the sand. They had a blast! 

So, we made a quick wardrobe change, grabbed some fresh fish sticks in Trinidad and made our way to Arcata. We had another great visit with my family down in Humboldt County, California. We took the kids to the Sequoia Zoo, the Redwood Park and had some great family dinners with everybody. We even met up for frozen yogurt one night with a friend of mine from high school and her two boys and let them all run around The Plaza. One of the best parts was taking the kids to my Aunt Debe and Uncle David's house where they live on an amazing piece of property that I remember running around at as a kid, playing the yard, running through the trees, around the pond, etc. I am just so happy that I was able to share those things with my kids in the same place that I used to be. Ethan got to watch Uncle David press apples into homemade applejuice, had a caterpillar crawl on him, take a ride in the canoe around the pond, climb a tree and drive a tractor. What a special experience it was for him to just be free and get his hands dirty and explore the property. Becca even enjoyed walking around the property and worked her little leg muscles and definitely became much stronger with her walking while we were there.

After our visit in Humboldt, we made the drive down to San Francisco to spend an entire day before flying back to DC on Saturday. We were fortunate enough to be able to meet up with one of Mom's best friends in SF and we took the kids to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch and then walked all around Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, seeing the street performers, sea lions, riding on the carousel before we took a trip on the cable cars from one end of the city to the other. They both LOVED the cable car. For Ethan, it was like a little train, and Becca just kept going "wheeeeee!" as we went up and down all of the hills. 

This was such a wonderful trip to take with my mom and my kids, sharing my family and my memories and making new ones. I will treasure these moments forever and I hope they do as well.