Drive to Washington

Mt. Shasta with more snow than I have ever seen!

We decided to detour on our way to Washington this year.  I have always wanted to go to Crater Lake, so that was our first stop.  We were very surprised to see all the snow in June!  It wasn't just a little snow, there were several feet and it was cold.  The scenery was amazing...starting with the pull-off where you can see how the flow of material and steam carved out a deep ravine and then the lake.  We watched the video at the visitor center, so we learned a bit about how it was formed and why it is so unique.  Ainsley was complaining much of the time...boring....cold.  I get it, but hopefully, someday they will appreciate it.

We left there a bit later than I thought and it was a long drive to the hotel near Portland.  Ryan was working the next day and I requested a hotel near I-5 since I knew we would be tired from our long day, but he decided to book a hotel near where he was going to work.  It was a bad idea.  We were toast from the car ride, listening to Ainsley push Khalif's buttons and then him yelling at her in irritation.  Then it went from that to Ainsley laughing at him for miles.  It was a very unpleasant few hours and when we finally got to the hotel, 45 minutes west of I-5 they didn't have his reservation.  Or they did, but it was at another hotel a few miles away.  Unfortunately, he was trying to be efficient and unloaded the car since the check-in line was long, so we loaded up the car and headed to the other hotel.  It was almost 9 o'clock by this time, well past Khalif's bed time.  We arrived at the other hotel and Ryan couldn't find his wallet.  He left it at the front desk at the first hotel!  So, we had to go back.  I was laughing a bit at this point because it was such a mess, but Ryan didn't think it was so funny.  It was nearly 10 by the time everyone was in bed and I told the kids if the clock said anything before 8, to close their eyes and go back to sleep.  This has been a real challenge for the boys, so I wasn't optimistic, but I woke up at 8:00 and it was quiet.  Ryan snuck out at 7 am.  Unfortunately, this hotel had a frosted glass barn door for the bathroom, so I couldn't go to the bathroom without waking up everyone, so I laid in bed and waited and waited.  Finally, at 8:45 I had to get up and sure enough the light woke everyone up moments later.  That was o.k. because we had to get down to breakfast before it ended.  So, I now know that they can sleep in!!!  After breakfast, I had a long talk with them about the day before and that life wasn't all about them anymore...mom and dad get to do things that they enjoy and they will tag along with positive attitudes.  And, we will be kind and respect one another and not have anymore of their nonsense.  They apologized and things were definitely better, but that could have been because we left there and went to Great Wolf Lodge and had an amazing time on the water slides.

That was the first time that I've had motion sickness from water slides...Ryan too.  It was a good workout and we were happy to be moving after sitting in the car for so long.  They had a wand game that the kids also enjoyed doing, but it is clear that Reggie is hitting his teen years and not interested in doing as much as he used to.  Just wanted to hang out in the room and play video games or read, so we had yet another talk.  It was important to me to get this figured out before the summer started and we went on our trip overseas.  It made for a very rough start to the summer, but I think Reggie accepted the summer reality after about 4 or 5 days.  Not a whole lot that I expected....Reggie had to work out every other day, they had to brush their teeth everyday and Reggie and Ainsley were planning meals and helping prepare them.  I got so much grief for this, but I think it is about time that they start helping and learning to fend for themselves.  They don't have the time when school starts to do this, so summer seemed to be the perfect time.