Thursday, June 28, 2012

Freakishly Enormous Family Goes Cross Country ::grin::

From glowin the dark yellow tennies on Olympic hopefuls to bling, cowboy hats and tiaras on rodeo queens....OR TO ID. Well - not a lot of earth-shattering news when you're driving cross country......


We had breakfast with Mom and Dad T in Springfield before hitting the road. Bre stayed in OR and will fly out later. 



The Gherkinmobile is back in service and has functioned well. We noted we made quite a splash in Pendleton....evidently they either 1. aren't use to large families or 2. aren't use to tourists from Alaska. Several stopped by to talk to us. 

Zander held the door for a lady whose son had blasted through the door and wasn't holding it for her or the grandma. I could NOT believe she walked through, looked at him and said in a loud voice to the other lady, "What an ENORMOUS family - you don't see that often any more," and started RUDELY laughing. I wanted to respond in kind, but smiled instead and then ignored her.  She continued to talk about big families....Zander commented she was very happy to see a large family. ::snort:: 

Stacia was 3 when we moved to Japan. Evidently this is not sufficient time to cement a child's cultural vocabulary. She took her coupon up to the clerk and explained, "I'd like one of those chocolate swirly things on a stick that they have over there, please. Either that or the ice cream between two pieces of cookie." ::snort::  They finally reached a suitable agreement and she said, "Arigato Gozaimasu." He said, "What?" She repeated. He stared. She said, "That means thank you very politely in Japanese where I'm from."  It was darling...and we added dilly bar and ice cream sandwich to her vocabulary. ::snort:: 

We continued through OR and on to ID. Arielle was driven to crunches by boredom somewhere near ID. 
 She did push-ups too, but the photo wasn't nearly as flattering. LOL 

We arrived near 7:30 p.m.  Beth had called ahead and booked us a great hotel, right off the highway with free breakfast AND a pool.....Holiday Inn EXPRESS.....way, way, WAY cheaper than the hotels in Springfield. YES. We got both rooms for less than 1 room last night.  Don, Beth, all their kids and spouse came to the hotel and we had a good time visiting. Fun way to end a long day. 

Tomorrow we press on to WY. We won't be going through MT on this trip. I didn't know you COULD go to CO without going through Hardin, but evidently you can. 

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...