6 hour trip to Maple Valley

On conference weekend we decided to go up to Michelle and Jason's house for a quick visit. Kate and Ethan were turning 6 years old and Aunt Pam was up to visit. We had a lot of celebrating to do! :)

So we set out on our trip at one in the afternoon and expected to get there by three to join in the festivities that were to start at four. We got about an hour down the road and had to stop because of avalanche control on I-90. Luckily we parked our car on I-90 right next to Ensign Ranch where there were horses for the kids to look at for the 2 hours that we were stopped. When we stopped the estimated time for I-90 was 2:30...so we thought That's not bad, just a half an hour...
Then they kept on pushing it back a half hour at a time. CRAZY. The kids really didn't seem to mind, but Brendan really didn't understand why we had decided to park on the sidewalk and not the road and why we weren't going to Aunt Pam's anymore. (Explanation: He thought we were parked on the sidewalk because as we were walking back to our car from the horses he saw pavement on the shoulder of the interstate, but the actual road was cement. He said, "Uh...mom the van is parked on the sidewalk." And the last time we were at Jason and Michelle, Aunt Pam was there...so now it is Aunt Pam's house.)It was crazy while we were waiting. Everyone was out of their cars. The people in front of us got their pillows out of their car and were lying in the middle of the road. Everyone was going into the woods to pee and everything. There were probably plenty of laws that were broken during those 2 hours including these: Eliza, don't you know that there is a law about how old you have to be before you can start driving...and they just passed a law in Washington that you can no longer drive while talking on your cell phone. Something tells me that she really didn't care! Hopefully one day she will. :)Lincoln was pretty cool about the whole experience...and was excited when we finally started moving again at 4 o'clock. He was probably the only one that was happy when we stopped AGAIN only 20 miles down the road. This time whenever we called about the road conditions or checked them on the internet on our phones, they said that there were "no delays to report at this time." Yeah...then why are we parked on the road again? Lincoln was happy because he had a bubble that needed to work its way out and we were able to take him out of his seat to do this.The other bad thing about the second stop was that Brendan had to pee, but there was snow everywhere now. He lost the urge to go. I asked him if he wanted to go potty in a cup...his reaction was priceless: What?!?!? I think I caught him off gaurd with that one! We played I Spy with my little eye while we waited to start moving again. We missed the party all together, pulling in at about 6:30pm. It was a warm welcome though...always is at the Hurley's!While we were there we tried to convince Brendan that it wasn't Aunt Pam's house. We told him that she lived in California by Grandma and Grandpa Bedke. On Sunday afternoon, he was looking out their back window and could see the other houses in the neighborhood. He came over and said: "Mom, I think Grandma Bedke lives over in that house. We should go see her." So I don't know if we ever got through to him. At least I know that he was thinking and trying to make sense of the whole thing. Scout was a big hit with our kids. I know that one day we will be getting a dog. I am starting to look forward...hmmm...but not yet.We had a lot of fun this weekend, even if it was a very quick trip and one that took a lot longer than we anticipated to arrive at our destination. We are grateful that we were able to travel safely though. Thanks to the Hurley's for having us!
We made it home in about 2 hours...