Road Trip!!

Warning: This is a long one!

Alexis, Sammi, Mommy and Auntie Michelle headed out on a Road Trip a couple weeks ago. We made many stops along the way, but our goal was to make it as far south as Santa Clara, CA to see Mommy's college friends and meet Baby Jesse.

Day 1: We decided to cut over to the Oregon Coast to go to our favorite place- Cannon Beach. We got out and played on the beach for a while (after Mommy ran over/got stuck on a curb in town and wasted a bunch of time). It was windy, but overall a beautiful day at the beach. Next stop, the Tillamook Cheese factory. We watched them make cheese for a while and then had some delicious ice cream. After each bite, Alexis told us how delicious her ice cream was. After Tillamook, we cut back over to I-5. Some of our detours added many hours onto our drive time (we are convinced our GPS was determined to take us on some of the most windy roads it could find) but the extra hours were worth all of the cool stuff we got to see. We stopped for dinner in Eugene and saw some of Michelle's friends who go to college there and finally stopped for the night in Medford, OR.

A quick story...on the morning we left, Alexis had her first dentist appointment. She was so scared. She kicked, screamed, had to be pinned down, sent the basket of toys flying when the hygienist offered her a reward at the end...basically was a nightmare. The dentist did get a good look at her teeth after we got her pinned down and thankfully we don't have to go back for 6 months. Hopefully next time will be better!

Day 2: When we got on the road in the morning, we were surprised how close we were to the California border. When it was time for lunch, we found a nice spot on the shore of Lake Shasta, made some sandwiches and had a picnic. We arrived in Lincoln, CA (on the outskirts of Sacramento) in the late afternoon. We stayed at Mommy's friend Elise's house that night. We went on a long walk to a park when we got there- that really helped to stretch our legs!

Day 3: We got up and headed south to Santa Clara. Elise joined us for this leg of the trip. We met up with Mommy's friends at yummy Mondo Burrito and then walked around the SCU campus.
Mommy and Sammi by the roses-

Mommy's friend Janet lives really close to campus so we hung out at her house for a while and then went to In N Out for dinner. Alexis was really excited to give Baby Jesse a pair of Pooh socks that were in our sock drawer at home. She took him a couple of our baby toys too- she was so excited to share with him!

Sammi enjoying her burger-

Baby Jesse and Mary gave the girls Chinese ("princess" according to Lex) outfits. They LOVE them!!

After our long day in Santa Clara, we went back North to Elise's house to spend the night again.

Day 4: We took our time getting ready in the morning and Elise took us to another park near her house. We had a picnic and ran around a bit to get out some energy before hitting the road. In the afternoon, we started making our way to the Northern coast of California and spent the night in Arcata. We had to drive over 100 miles on a super windy road!

Day 5: We woke up on our last day of our trip just south of the Redwood Forest. We took a scenic drive through the huge trees and got out to explore a little.

After the huge trees we cut back to I-5 and headed home. It was such a great trip! We were able to see so many different things and spend time with so many of our friends. The girls were great in the car. Sammi had a hard time from about Salem, OR home which seemed like a really long time but really wasn't when considering how many hours we spent in the car. Next time, all the way to Disneyland!

Mommy wanted to get home sometime on Monday (we left on Thursday) so that Alexis could have all day Tuesday to get back into her normal routine before going to school on Wednesday. When we got to school, Alexis hung up her coat on a coat hook and tried to squeeze between the coat rack and another mom. The mom accidentally bumped Alexis into the corner of the coat rack. She instantly had a bump and her head started bruising. Her teacher had to go find the lady in charge of the preschool classes and we had to fill out an accident report. We struggled to get Alexis to put some ice on her head. After the accident, Alexis did not want to stay at school. So, Alexis didn't even end up going to school and we could have stayed one more day in California. Oh well, who could have known!