An Easter to Remember...

So much to say…where do I begin? This post will have to be (unfortunately) bullet style for the first little while or else it would get just too, too long. Our story begins Thursday night, April 2, 2010.

- 7 -Clayton (Rob’s father) arrives at our house in Roy. (7pm)

- --my mom, dad and Sav arrive at our house. (7:30pm)

we -We are officially pulling out of the driveway. There are seven passengers in a seven passenger van. One passenger is in a car seat. (7:57pm)

- --Sometime around 12:30am MST we arrive at our half-way mark in Boise, ID. We notice what looks like a giant light in the shape of a man floating high above the city; anybody know what that is?

- we arrive at Aaron’s house (Rob’s brother) in Richland, WA. They are very, very kind and have blankets, pillows and mattresses out for us to crash on for a minute. (4am PST)

--( -(all times in Pacific now unless otherwise noted): Since Mason slept most of the trip up he decided he didn’t need to sleep any more. So I, my family, and Brit all get to wake up with him. Brit was more than kind and played with him while we tried to get our stuff together and have breakfast. (6:50am)

all -the cousins are up and playing together. (7:30am)

- --mom, dad, Sav, Mason and I continue our trip to Federal Way, WA (between Tacoma and Seattle). (9am)

- --arrive in Yakima in a severe snow storm. At this point we are about two hours from our destination…only two hours…(10:15am)

- --after consulting 511 (road info) and several people at the local gas station we find out that we are not going to be able to go through Snoqualmie Pass as it is iced over and no one with out chains is allowed through. (10:45am)

we --We are back in the van and headed over Hwy 97 S through Satus Pass to Oregon at which point we will take I-84 over to Portland and then I-5 up to the Seattle area. We are told it will be about a six hour drive. (11am)

---stuck on the top of Satus Pass. (If we had been able to go through the other pass we would just about be in Seattle right now.) (12pm)

2 -- finally get to move and find that a diesel had jack-knifed and that’s why we had not been able to get through. (2pm)

--out of the pass and driving along some of the most BEAUTIFUL country I have ever seen along the OR/WA border. It follows the Columbia River. It is green and the flowers are blooming in the trees and on the roadside and there are mountains everywhere and waterfalls splashing to the ground not 20 feet from the road. I tried to get some good pictures, but it’s hard out of a vehicle going 70mph. There is a picture of the bridge we crossed to get over the river. (3pm)

- 6pm: arrive in Federal Way at our gracious host’s, the Huntsmans, house. Just in case you haven’t been keeping track, it is now 9 hours from the time we left Richland. It was only supposed to have taken 3.5 hours…

- --Lydia comes over thinking that Juli wants a “girls night out”. We surprise her by jumping out from behind the couch. As you can see from the picture we were a little early in yelling surprise and mom was the first one to get to her. Lyd had NO idea we were coming and she actually teared up!! This is significant because the only other documented time of anyone in our family seeing Lyd cry is the day her cat died when she was 8 yrs old. (6:20pm)

--third sister (lyd’s best friend) Diana comes over and we all order pizza and spend the night playing wii Mario. (7pm)

Anyway…this has already gotten way too long so I’ll just sum up the rest. We did get some conference watched Saturday and Sunday morning. Lyd had a baby shower Saturday after the morning session and got so many gorgeous and fun things!!! While this was happening dad was in the other room with Mason playing with cars and the “diesel truck”. Mason absolutely LOVED it! We got to see her beautiful apartment and that night we watched Bolt. The next day we had a very delicious Easter dinner with Nick’s family (after the morning session). About 3pm we headed through Snoqualmie pass back to Richland to pick up Rob and Clayton. Snoqualmie is actually gorgeous…mountain after mountain after mountain. At one point the SB freeway is a good 500 yards from the NB freeway; built on bridges of some kind of engineering miracle. We got to Aaron’s and Brit’s about 7pm. We were greeted with some delicious cake and Easter treats. By 8pm we were on our way again and we arrived back in Roy 7am MST. The snowstorm hit not too long after. Now just like the academy awards there are many thanks which need to go out: first to Juli and Brett for being such great hosts! I felt so comfortable and happy there. Next to Clayton for driving us through the night: twice! Next I must thank Brit for being so happy and helpful when we were at her house and for entertaining Rob and Clayton. Next I would like to thank Nick’s fam for the Easter dinner. Last of all I want to thank my family for braving the trip…especially dad who drove the entire extra nine hours to Seattle with three woman yelling at him the entire time…you are a real trooper and that was a vacation I will NEVER forget. Love you guys!