Wisconsin!!

In the wee hours of the morning we pulled into the driveway of our home-what a beautiful sight!  What a wonderful feeling!  Surrounded by family!!  That is the best part.  I am so thankful to actually be here.  I have gone through this house and walked through this yard so many times in my head over the last four years, and now I am here.  It feels great!

We left Idaho at 2 in the afternoon, flew to Denver, had a layover there for 3 or 4 hours and then flew to Wisconsin arriving at around 11 p.m. Got our stuff and arrived home around 1 a.m.  The Denver flight was so very horrible.  One of the worst I have ever flown on.  It was so turbulent.  Even on the runways the plane was bouncing all over the place.  There was a young man in from of us that had never flown before just puking away in his barf bag.  Poor guy!  Cale loved the bumps-he didn’t mind it one bit.  I tried to tell the man that it is not usually this bad, but I don’t know if he believed me.

Look at these pictures of the sky the day we left Idaho.  Isn’t that beautiful?  The next picture is of the MAF headquarters in Nampa.  Packing up our bags…the PVC pipe is a handmade bow that a kid made for Wyatt.  There are some pictures from our flight-One of the first things Cale does on EVERY flight, (and I do mean every) is read the emergency procedure pamphlet.  He loves those things, and he watches all of the demonstrations on the dropping oxygen mask and how to do your seat belt.  He quickly made friends with the kids on our flight and entertained them the whole time, much to the pleasure of the moms.  There was a gorgeous sunset while we were flying, and then we landed.  Reunited and it feels SO good!  Isn’t family

fantastical? I am so thankful to be back with mine.  Lovin’ it!

We made it!

The 2011 Official Road Trip for the Erickson clan is finished!  We arrived safe and sound in Idaho this evening!!  It was wonderful and exciting and tiring-short and long all at the same time.  NO one is complaining about it going too fast or too slow.  It was perfect.  What an amazingly, fantastically crazy great time together as a family.  All of it.  Our time in Indo and our road trip out West.  All I can say is “Wow!”

Here are our final stats:

Total miles-4,526 miles

18 days

9 different states-Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming

6 stops at Subway

1 stop at McDonald’s

123 roadkills- one made by Garth

7 hotels

6 family or friends that we stayed with

Almost $700 spent in gas

Other interesting facts:

We were in Mountain time, Pacific time, went past the 45^th parallel, the Continental Divide, saw the Rocky Mountains, the Great Salt Lake, Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, at our highest elevation we were 11.300 feet up, had three close calls driving, got ssshhhh’d in a hotel for having too much fun, and we got to drive through a tree.

How is that for a vacation?

It rocked!!!  Thanks for coming along on our ride!! (from the van to the tub)

Here are the last batch of pictures:

Day 18-Almost Done!

Last day of driving.  Yeah!  What a trip!  It seems like so long ago that we left Indonesia.  It was only June 2^nd.  The kids have had a few nights of tears when they think about missing their friends.  Cale doesn’t get it that we aren’t going back.  He asked us the other day, “When we get back to Indonesia, can I have a spoonful of peanut butter?”  Haha.  Not sure where that came from but it was funny.

We can’t wait to be home, and see family!!!!  Today we will be driving from Wyoming to Utah and on to Idaho.  We will spend one night at the MAF apartments and then get our luggage out of the hangar there and fly out at 2:00 p.m.  It is interesting that we will be flying into Denver and sitting there for a few hours.  We were just there two days ago, and drove about 900 miles to get to Idaho and now we will fly back. After sitting in Denver we will fly to Milwaukee.

It is a good time for the trip to end.  We are all getting tired of being cramped in a small space for so many hours.  We need to get back into a routine, get unpacked and sleep in a bed more than one night at a time.

I love the big blue sky that has been following us on this trip.  You know me and clouds, and there have been some beautiful full, white, puffy clouds around us.  We went past a wind turbine farm that was amazing, and lots of horse farms and ranches.  The girls have loved that.

Days 16 and 17

Look at these brothers-do they look alike or what?  This is Garth’s brother Scott.  The second picture is Scott with his son Jake, and Garth and Wyatt.  Then a picture of Scott’s wife Joyce and their dog Sadie. How fun to hang out with them for a few days!

We walked to a really nice park with a playground and soccer fields.  The sprinklers came on while we were there so the kids were able to cool off.  They went from being so hot, to so cold.  So when we got back to the house some of them went into the hot tub.  The kids all had such a sweet time playing with the dog, Sadie, especially Cale who told me at one point that he had tears in his eyes because it was so special to be with a dog again.  Garth’s brother took all of us to see Cars 2.  That was so fun-we hadn’t seen it yet, and the kids loved it.

This morning we ate breakfast, packed up and got back on the road.  We have about 8 ½ hours to drive today to get to Salt Lake City.  We are about ready for this trip to be at an end.  It has been amazing, but we can’t wait to get home and see family and not be on the move. 

Day 15-Driving

Today was a very long day of driving.  We woke everyone up early to get on the road.  Ate breakfast in the van, and snacks to hold us over.  We found a nice park to stretch at and eat some sandwiches at around 2 or 3 and then started out again.  We had about 11 hours of driving that dragged out late into the night because of gas stops and bathroom breaks.  We arrived at Garth’s brothers’ house in Highlands Park, CO. at 10:30 p.m.  The kids did a really good job.  I was crabbier than they were.  I couldn’t wait to sleep. 

The scenery was spectacular all along the way.  We started out in Tuba City, Arizona where there were red rocks all along the road that changed into brown rock cliffs, then into green mountainsides and snow capped peaks as we made our way through Utah and Colorado.  We saw a car made out of license plates and signs, a bull made out of scrap metal, a cool Collie in a convertible along with some elk, deer, and a donkey that was standing in the median in Mexican Hat.  The Colorado River was beautiful to watch as we drove along, and it even had rafters in it.  There were plenty of tunnels, and snow covered ski slopes to enjoy as well.  But by the end of the day we were so tired of driving.  As my Mom would say we had  “built in bucket seats.”  Thankfully we will be here for two nights and can just relax, do some laundry, and get all of the kinks out of our legs.

Day 14 Grand Canyon

I wish you were all here to see this because my pictures do NOT do the Grand Canyon justice.  It is breathtaking!  The colors of the rock, the different rock formations, the shadows, the way the sun reflects off the canyons…spectacular!  I wish we had more time here and could stay and watch the sun set, but we need to get back on the road and try to get to at least Tuba City.  Do “Oooh”, and “Ahhh” sounds when you look at these pictures:  (The fourth picture from the end, see if you can see the guy that was standing out on the point.)