2015 Road Trip - In Numbers (And A Few Pictures)

11 days, 10 nights
8 states (Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming)
Canoeing in 5 rivers and 1 ocean bay

 

17 miles of bike riding on the Hiawatha Trail (which was, apparently, exhausting for everyone)

 

About 8 miles of hiking (mostly in the Redwoods)

  

3 brothers and 1 sister visited

20 cousins visited

4 nights of camping

3 successful attempts at hitch hiking (by Eric)

And the discovery that one boy cannot get enough of playing in the ocean (no matter how frigid), while the other one cannot get away fast enough.

And since I'm a little bothered by the lack of chronological order of this post, a brief summary of our actual trip:

• From Utah to California to see the Redwoods.
• Along the coast of Oregon to stay in Netarts with Eric's sister and her family for a few days.
• Additional canoeing and camping in Oregon, then off to northern Idaho (via Portland) to visit Eric's brother and family for a few days.
• From Northern Idaho to Missoula, Montana, to visit another of Eric's brothers and his family overnight.
• Down to Jackson Hole for a quick stay with my brother (and Ike got to stay an additional night).
• Home again, home again, jiggity jog.

Anniversary Trip in Hawaii

We got home from Hawaii well over a month ago, but I never blogged about our trip. It was delightful. On top of the fact that we had free airfare, we also stayed with Eric's very generous aunt and uncle, who currently live in Laie. Eric's cousins watched our boys for the first few days, and then Eric's parents took them for the last few days of our trip. We celebrated our tenth anniversary, and it was just a lovely experience all around.

We spent a lot of time on beaches, including catching a sunrise on our first morning since we woke up insanely early. (Which also happens to be basically the best photo taken of me ever, so I'm happy to share it.)

We didn't quite make it around the island in time to catch a sunset the one evening we tried, but this was pretty close.

On our actual anniversary we went kayaking up a river and saw a few sea turtles. It was a great day.

We also went swimming in a waterfall, and that was pretty fun. It was really cold, particularly compared to the ocean water, but once we were in, it was totally worthwhile.

And since we were staying less than a mile away, we of course made it to the Laie Temple.

We had a lot of time to reflect on our ten years together and how much we've grown. I sure love that husband of mine and am glad we got to vacation together for our anniversary.