A Very Long Road Trip

We just returned from our month long, 8 major stops, 5461 mile, 97.5 hrs in the car, 306 gallons of gas road trip. We are exhausted. Sophia has had a fever for 2 days, Thomas has had several meltdowns that I think are just a release of stress, I can't seem to get enough sleep, and to top it off, Paul is going out of town tomorrow. But, overall, we had a great time, and so I'll share some of the highlights.

First we stopped in Waco for a reunion on Paul's side. We stayed only for a day, but enjoyed meeting many of the Texas relatives and T and S were convinced that one of the cousins was their Grammy. They have the same hair and some similar features, and it was just hilarious. Thomas kept wondering where Grandad was. I finally had to tell him he just couldn't make it. Also, just as we were heading out the door to the reunion dinner we saw that Michael Jackson died!! I was a HUGE MJ fan as a kid, but I was pretty excited that we were headed to L.A. We decided to tell anyone we talked to that we were road tripping to L.A. in mourning of MJ.

From there we headed to Los Angeles making a stop in Phoenix to visit my brother's family where we met my new niece, Gianna, who entered the world June 14. T and S had a great time with their cousin Bella, but it was a short stay and we moved on to L.A. Paul and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary by going to a fabulous Japanese restaurant, Yamashiro, that overlooked Hollywood and had an awesome outdoor bar overlooked by a Pagoda from Japan. Lucky for us, the restaurant had a shuttle that we convinced to take us down to the Hollywood Walk of Fame so we could walk by MJ's star (this was much easier than driving and trying to find a parking spot)!! It was INSANE - full of people, police, newspeople and his star was covered in flowers, notes, posters, etc. We took some pictures, and I'm glad we went. Then we went to little bar near Paul's parents house and had a few drinks and ended up listening to the bar tender tell us all about her out of body experiences and how Jesus saved her from them. Or something like that.

The next day we went to a Dodger game where we had the most awesome seats EVER!! they were the 1st row behind the visitor dugout, and the Rockies 1st baseman threw Thomas a ball!! Very cool! After that we headed to San Francisco for Paul's cousin's wedding. The kids were the flower girl and ring bearer, and they did awesome! They were a total hit and actually walked down the aisle! Thomas carried the actual rings (!!) and Sophia refused to carry the flowers, but they held hands and everyone loved them. They did have a hard time sitting through the ceremony, but I guess you can't have everything! The next night we were able to see the San Fran fireworks display right from our window! It was awesome. We were also able to squeeze in 2 visits with several friends who live in the Bay Area. They all have kids now, so it was cool to have all the kids together.

From San Fran we headed to Stockton, CA to stay with my 94 year old Grandmother on her farm for a week. My parents were there, and Paul left to do a week of field work in the Black Rock desert, so it worked well. T and S were able to play with my cousin Michelle's daughter, Elianna, as well as my other cousin Marc's kids. It was great to see everyone and spend a little time in the country. And, we were lucky enough to catch some of the MJ memorial on a TV in Sacramento while taking Paul to get his rental car. After that we headed to L.A. again for a couple of days. It was pretty low key, but we hung out with Uncle Matt, Grammy and Grandad, as well as Paul's 95 year old Grandmother.

After that we headed to San Diego with my parents (they drove down from Stockton) for a Skaff Family reunion. There were 125 people there!! My brother and his whole family came as well as all my relatives in Omaha, so it was really great to be all together. Plus, SD is just an awesome place to have a reunion! We had a picnic on the ocean and just enjoyed time together.

And, if that wasn't enough, we stopped one last time in Phoenix for a couple of days to hang with my bro and Sis-in-law. Bella, T and S had a really great time playing together. I really wished we all lived closer, but I suppose we have to go where the jobs are. After that we spent a very long time in the car driving through AZ, NM, and Texas to get home. It's so much worse driving home than when starting vacation! Thank goodness for ipods! And, thankfully we had some MJ downloaded on the pod! We picked up my grandmother's old antique Singer sewing machine, some new toys, and our car was literally filled to the brim. There was barely enough room for the kid's feet!!!

Overall, the kids saw and met more relatives and friends on this trip that probably either one of us ever have! We literally saw almost everyone we know and/or are related to in this month long journey. So, as I said earlier, we are tired, exhausted and run down, but very happy to be home. Now I just have to unpack, do laundry, clean, organize, and grocery shop. But, I do have a month's worth ofmail to sort and magazines to read, including all the MJ gossip I can possibly handle!

I need a vacation. :-)