Vacation Destination

Bear with me as I try to catch up with what has been going on in our lives.  First catch up area is our vacation.  Destination:  Oregon Coast

With the addition of Peter in our family we have grown to fill the van.  Our last family trip was made before his birth and we were stuffed then.  What were we going to do now that we don't have his seat to fill with our stuff?  Car top carrier!  Doug found a used carrier on craigslist for $50 and we snatched it up.  Thank goodness too.  It made the inside of the car much more bearable to be in with all our stuff on top of the car instead of on top of us.  However, it didn't come without problems.  The staps to attatch it to the car were broke so we had to make some new ones and decided to just us straps to hold it down.  Good idea?  Yes and no.  Imagine if you will traveling down the road at 70 mph with an amplified humming sound almost deafening at times.  I wore headphones to try to drown it out but it didn't work.  How Doug and Peter managed to sleep is beyond me.  After hours on the road we found the problem: the straps were twisting with the air pressure and vibrating.  That sound traveled through the carrier and into the car being amplified as it went.  A handkerchief stuffed between the strap and the carrier took care of that problem.  Ahhh the blissful quiet.  Now to keep the kids happy.

Whoever invented the portable dvd player was awesome.  They are the best thing since sliced bread.  Our next car will definately have these little puppies in place.  Really, how did we survive without them?  Ok, maybe I go a little too far, but I really do love our players.  The kids wore headphones and watched movies a good portion of the drive down.  No "He's touching me" or "I'm bored" or "He's in my space."  Loved it.

Here we are traveling in the car.

It took us a little longer to arrive at our destination than the others, but we finally made it.  The duplex we rented had an upstairs and downstairs to it.  So made me want to build my own house.  It was very nice to be able to tell the kids to go downstairs to play and have some quiet upstairs.  It's something that is kinda hard to accomplish with a single story home. 

Ben and Chris chillin' downstairs

Peter chillin' downstairs

We ordered pizza for dinner because who wants to cook after driving all day.

Peter had to skip the pizza and take a bottle instead, but I ate his portion so it wouldn't go to waste.