Day 3

Last night we stopped in Klamath, CA. Upon entering Klamath we crossed over the bridge which has 2 gold painted bears on each side. We had planned this as one of the stops on our trip because we wanted to see Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. We stayed at the Trees Motel which was right across the street and when we opened the door to our room, we were greeted by Paul and Babe, the kids thought this was so cool.

After breakfast at the cafe right next to the motel we planned to spend the morning at the "Trees of Mystery" but first we had to take pictures with two of our favorite tall tale characters.

Then it was on to the Trees of Mystery. We spent about 2 hours total hiking and observing the amazing trees and their strange formations.

Included in our admission price was a trip on the Sky Ride. It was an amazing view of the forest, way too high for my taste, but I did it.

Once at the top we arrived at a beautiful observation deck. One side was perfectly clear but the other side was covered in fog.


Then it was time to travel back down and hike some more. We went through a part of the forest that tell tale tales through pictures carved out of wood by a chainsaw.

Then after a quick stop in the gift store, where Micah bought a post card for his pen pal Jack, it was time to get on the road for the day.

In a few hours we crossed in Oregon and made it to our stop for the night Salem. We are staying in a Travel Lodge and had dinner at Denny's. Now it is time for bed so we can do the last leg of our journey tomorrow!

Day 2

We were not able to connect to the internet last night so that is why we couldn't post. But tonight we are connected again.

We slept so good at the Sytsma's house. After a yummy breakfast of sweet rolls and cereal, we loaded up the van and said good bye.

Day 2 was going to be our biggest driving day so we wanted to get a good start and left by 8 am. Uncle Andy and Darrick figured out a new route the night before that would not take us through morning traffic and bridge closures in San Francisco. So instead we traveled through wine country. It was very beautiful, with more grapes then we had ever seen.

We stopped and had lunch at a KOA. Our picnic lunch was good but it was really hot, almost 100 degrees. After lunch we stopped by a tree that cars could drive through but we couldn't fit because of the pack on top of our car. But we got out and took pictures and the kids loved the big trees.

As we got more into northern California the temperature started dropping all the way down to 60 degrees and there was a lot of fog.

Around dinner time we finally pulled into our motel, had dinner and went to bed!

Pictures from day one

Our trip to Washington-Day 1

We started our journey to our new home in Washington today. We left my parents house bright and early at 5 am. After a quick stop for some donuts we were on the freeway. We drove for 3 hours and then took our first break at a gas station in Lemoore. We were once almost stationed in Lemoore so it was fun to see where we might have lived. We topped off our gas and the hit the road for 4 more hours until we reached West Sacramento.

In West Sac we stopped to visit Darrick's best Navy buddy and his family. His name is Matt Flint and they just welcomed their second child, a daughter, into the world 2 weeks ago. We have not seen them since October when they came to see us in Hawaii. We had a yummy lunch of pizza with them and before we knew it, it was time to leave.

We then backtracked an hour to our destination for the night, Ripon, California. This is where my Uncle Andy, Aunt Karen and cousins Jason and Brian live. They have never met Naomi and the last time the boys were at their house they were 3 and 1.

We have been having a wonderful time visiting and we had a delicious Mexican dinner prepared by my aunt. Naomi is already asleep but the boys don't want to stop playing with Brian. They have video games, a fort in the back yard and a pool table. Who knows when they are going to bed...

A Place to call our own

Everytime we move, we wonder where we are going to live. Our original thought was that we wanted to live off base for a couple of reasons. We could have a fireplace and get more rooms for our money. But then we found out that they were building brand new Navy housing. So we called the housing office and got on the list. We were told we would be getting a new 4 bedroom. But while we were driving to Canada for Sam's wedding, housing called us and said that our house was still being built and it would not be ready until October 30.

So we thought we would search a special military site that has houses to rent. We found a house we loved and called to see if it was available. And it was! So we filled out the application and found out today that we got the house! Here is a picture of it:

It is really more then we could even ask for. It is a 2 story with 5 bedrooms and 3 baths. Our landlords are a retired Navy couple and said we could paint the inside which we will definitly want to do. The previous renters ran an in home daycare so there are some very bright colors. They also left a lot of the daycare toys and furniture behind. The landlords said we can keep in the house whatever we like and they will remove what we don't. Since we are going to be homeschooling it is such a blessing! We will be leaving for Washington on September 9 and hope to be there on the 12th. Here are some more pictures!

"Watch where you kick those things!"

Visiting Grandpa and Grandma Vanderbilt

Yesterday we went to visit my Grandpa and Grandma Vanderbilt. While we were there we needed to go up into their attic where I have some stuff stored. The kids have never been up into an attic before so they thought it was so cool. We have stuff stored like my 2 sets of China, our crib and changing table and baby toys. The boys discovered Darrick's trumpets and enjoyed trying to play them!

It was so hot in the attic and the kids were ready to cool off. They went swimming in the pool that Uncle Marv put up. My Grandma and I sat on the patio and watched them wearing our shades!

After swimming Uncle Marv got out some stilts that my brothers use to walk around on. After watching Uncle Marv for awhile, Micah decided that he wanted to give it a try.

Grandpa was keeping busy puttering from here to there and changing his hats!

On our way home we couldn't get over how beautiful the mountains were. The pictures don't do them justice but they still look nice. My parents still live in the house I grew up in and it is located in the foothills of the mountains.