Two years ago we needed to figure out a way to get back out to Portland to visit my family and have my kids experience my hometown. It became pretty difficult to fly once all the airline tickets started adding up plus occupying kids on an airplane is a nightmare plus limiting our luggage to a few suitcases plus pushing strollers and carry ons through the airport plus my mom buying more and more car seats every visit plus needing two cars to pick us up at the airport, etc., etc. We did not want to give up on going so road trip it was!!! We did our first one out 2 years ago with 4 kids and 1 in utero, the Suburban and our 140 lb Great Pyrenees dog Tank in the trunk! It was a lot of work but so rewarding and definitely worth the drive and effort! 2 days drive (13 hrs day 1 and about 8 hrs day 2). Our kids do awesome in the car as that trip affirmed so we decided we couldn't manage it every summer but every other summer we'd commit (I looked up the word for every other year and it is Biennial so that's what we'll call it!). Well, here we are back from our 2nd year! This time we had 6 kids and 0 in utero ; ) the passenger van now named Tank to replace our dog who is no longer with us : ( and it was again a successful trip!
Posts from our first trip: Epic Trip, Terrabonne, Sunriver, Hanging Out, Lincoln City, Newport, Tillamook, Trip Home
Our first stop was Twin Falls, Idaho. We stayed here the first summer and it is so beautiful with all the canyons and waterfalls and we decided to spend an actual day exploring before we finished off to Oregon.
We left at 5 AM. I put together an activity backpack and a lunchbox of snacks for each kiddo as well as a few car TVs and tablets. I can't do anything but stare straight out the window when I'm in the car so I did a lot of the driving while Adam slept, watched a movie and entertained the kiddos
I wanted so bad the whole trip to break into the 15 mpg range but I never made it : ( There was one point I checked and it was 14.9 but that's the highest we got!
Little America for lunch... Happy 4th of July!
75c ice cream cones!
We left on the 4th of July and planned to get there before dark so we could check in, eat dinner, then enjoy the fireworks presentation at the nearby college of Southern Idaho next to our hotel.
How to keep kids occupied while you get ready in a hotel room... PBS ; )
Sharing beds in the hotel...
Amen... Quality Inn
For our day of exploration in Idaho we went to Shoshone Falls to check out the waterfall and they had a man-made lake we swam in
Our best attempt at a family picture without losing anyone to the waterfall and blinding anyone by the sun... it was soooo hot that day!
Thank you to the person who saw us struggling to take a selfie and offered to take a picture for us ; )
We bought a magnet that looked almost exactly like this... because of the sun and the water spray there is almost always a rainbow... isn't this amazing!
How would you like this to be your house?!?!
Lunch break
This boy is just too cute
Swimming at the lake
And diving off the cliffs! Well, daddy, Amelia, Joshua and Lydia diving!
There was this nice shallow area separated from the deeper part, this is where me and the littles stayed
This wagon proved itself so useful to us this trip... great for hauling luggage and as a pack n play for a sleepy baby!
And here's a random sign from a random small town coffee shop we drove through on our day of exploration!
We didn't really get a good picture of looking down that bridge into the canyon but that is the bridge you drive over when you get off the freeway and head into town where the hotel is. Here we are at the bottom of the canyon looking up.
Here's a close up of that waterfall in the background of the above and below pictures
Thanks for the fun day Twin Falls!
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