Roadtrippin

While in Oki, Grant purchased a "little blue truck" to use as his commuter car while he works on his Volvo. Well this car just happened to be in Portland (Scott and Trisha were kind enough to purchase and "store" it for us), so Grant decided that he and Rowan would go through there on the way to San Diego and road trip down. I thought he was a little crazy, but he insisted. He wanted it to be easier for me to have to fly with only 1 kid and thought it would be a good bonding experience. 

So, from Seattle, Boden and I caught a one-way flight to San Diego (he slept the whole way!) while Rowan and Grant rented a car and drove to Portland to pick up the truck.

I forgot to mention that Rowan had diarrhea starting the day before our flight across the world! (perfect timing, right?!) Overall he seemed pretty ok though (except for throwing up at our first layover) so that was nice. Anyways, back to the story. Rowan and Grant spent the rest of the day with Scott and Trisha and the kids and had fun in Portland for a few hours.

Fast forward to that night, Grant woke up puking and feeling so sick around 2 am. It didn't get much better but he couldn't fall back asleep so he decided to just get up and go around 3 am. (He's crazy!) So he had a fever and felt like crap and proceeded to drive from Portland to Davis. Luckily,

his throwing up was over, however, Rowan started throwing up on the car trip down! Somehow, they made it alive to Davis and were both feeling slightly better but definitely not great when they go to my parents' house.

(Rowan saw the top picture weeks later and made a funny face and said "oh, I didn't feel good there.")

 

Here was their sweet set up in the little blue truck. Grant had dreams of having amazing conversations with this cute 3-year-old, but then reality hit that he was driving a car from 1975 with no AC which meant they were driving a super loud car with the windows down...there was very little talking because it was just so loud!  (and Rowan doesn't like to repeat himself, "I already told you!")

He got lots of thumbs up with this cutie riding shotgun.

They enjoyed dinner with my parents and headed to bed early. Grant woke up super early again and headed out at 3am. My parents were driving down the same day, but left a few hours later ;) Well, he head start was a good thing because in the middle of nowhere, their tire blew out! (and he didn't have the right tool to get the spare off, and it was flat anyways). So, my usually car savvy and prepared husband and to find someone to drive out to the middle of nowhere and put a new tire on for them. This is where my parents gained some time on them :) Luckily, one of Rowan's favorite things ever is dirt, and there was an abundance of that for him to play in while they waited for 2 hours.

The rest of the trip was luckily uneventful (except for stopping in Anaheim to buy a van for me!) I found one online the night before that was on his way down so asked him to check it out...and we decided to buy it! It worked out perfect that my parents were driving down so they stopped there and met Grant and my mom drove our new van down (with Rowan) while my dad drove theirs and Grant drove the truck. I then met them at my aunt and uncles for dinner in my rental car..we looked a little crazy arriving in 4 cars :) Even though it had only been 2 days, it was nice to be reunited again. Grant had a horrible old cell phone that barely worked so I had very little communication with him the entire trip. 

We stayed at the Miramar Inn for 10 days following our arrival. When I opened it for the first time I was blown away how nice it was. It was almost brand new and huge, especially compared to our Okinawa hotel room. It was exactly what we needed for our first little while here.