Last Tuesday we hit the road for a much needed vacation. We drove to Salem, Oregon to visit Ryan's sister Nicole and her family. The boys were so excited to visit their cousins - we hadn't been to see them since before I was pregnant with Mason!
The drive there was... interesting. This was Mason's first real road trip, and he was not a fan of the experience. He slept the first hour, then screamed the rest of the way. In his defense, being in the car for longer than an hour was literally the hardest thing he's ever had to do in his young life. We used disposable diapers for the trip instead of his cloth diapers, and disposables give him zero cushion on his little baby bum, and we now know that his car seat is rock hard... Poor baby!
We stopped pretty much every hour to let him get out and crawl around so we could all get a break. On one of those breaks, we stopped at Tumwater Falls Park. Most of it was blocked off for construction (including the bathrooms and play equipment, which was a real bummer), but it was really nice to just enjoy the water by the trail.
Once we arrived in Salem, we soaked up the sunshine and time with our loved ones. I feel like I didn't talk to Kender the whole time we were there because he was so busy playing with his cousins! Rhett and his cousin Race are just a few months apart, and they are the cutest little buddies. Rhett was so sad when we had to go home!
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| Beautiful Oregon sunrise! Ryan took this picture, because he's nice and gets up early with the baby 😍 |
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| Mason had never experienced such soft carpet before... I think he liked it. |
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| I designed this logo for my brother in law's pest control company! I love getting to see my work on a big beautiful truck! |
We had originally planned to have a beach day while we were there, but we opted to keep it simple and play at the pool and the park instead. The boys loved swimming, and Rhett didn't want to leave the pool. He actually tried to run away from me when I told him it was time to go, but I won that battle with my mommy might (meaning I carried him away kicking and screaming). He recovered once we got some pizza in him though.
Rhett is such a free spirit, and I love him for it. The next day when we went to the park, he was drawn to the splash pad. He didn't care that he was the only kid who wanted to play in it, or that he wasn't wearing swim clothes - he just wanted to take off his shoes and run around in the water. I thought he might try to make me carry him home because he was all wet, but he was actually the happiest camper on that blazing walk because he was the only one who could stay cool!
It was a short visit, but a great one and we are happy we get to see everyone again next month when they come to Washington.
On the drive home, we decided to experiment with putting a little bit of padding under Mason to see if we could make him more comfortable. There was significantly less screaming on the way home, and therefore fewer stops! Yay! I was a little worried that after experiencing the convenience of disposable diapers again we wouldn't want to go back to cloth, but I really missed his big cute fluffy bum. So he's back in cloth, and we've got a few disposables for backups (or babysitters 😉).
Time away from home is fun, but it's always nice to be back. Sadie was SO excited to see us again, and was very happy to take up her place on the van floor ❤
Need some encouragement? Read this: The Trials We Carry with Us by Elisha Ransom
Some of our trials are never going to leave us in this life, and that’s OK because they can make us more like our Savior. By learning to patiently cope with them and have compassion for ourselves and others, we can become our best selves.
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