Reno trip day 5 photos

I've just uploaded the photos from Day 5, our trip home. Again, lots of road photos of nothing inparticular, just stuff I thought was interesting. There are also some cute ones of the kids. Click the photo to go to the beginning of the Day 5 photos. Enjoy!

Reno - Day 5, the trip home

Sorry, photos will be posted sometime tonight. :(

We sure had a lot of fun in Reno, but it's always nice to come home. The day started with a nice buffet breakfast, gassed up the cars, then hit the road a few minutes before Noon. What a beautiful drive home! Only a few clouds and according to our car, the outside temp ranged from 58 to 72. Sunglasses all the way home. This time we knew how far we could drive before needing to fill up, so we only had to stop once for gas, in Grants Pass, which is about 6 hours out of Reno and 4 hours from home. We also drove it in one day instead of two. Made for a very long day, but that worked out better.

Once again the kids were amazingly great! No fussing, no crying, no real problems at all. The only things that came up were the usual ones that come up when they are tired and ready for a nap. They had fun watching dvd's, and Riley again played Playstation for close to two hours. Maddie took about a two hour nap from 1:30 - 3:30pm, and Riley crashed for about an hour and a half right after gassing up and getting some quick dinner in Grants Pass. The whole trip home took us a little over 10 hours getting in at 10:15pm. When we got gas in Grants Pass I did a quick calculation of our gas mileage - we were getting 26.64 miles/gallon! Not bad for a SUV. We really like our Honda Pilot a lot. :)

Coming back on hwy 44 is the Bogard Rest Area. On Saturday night it snowed there - snowed a lot!! I was watching the web cams all the time to see how the roads were and 44 was covered. But just as the weather had predicted, it was all gone by the time we went through. Whew! We did notice that rest stop is at 5600 feet. I'm sure we went even higher and was a little surprised there wasn't any kind of marker for the highest point - I think it was probably close to 6000 feet. There was a tiny bit of snow at the rest stop and I got some pictures of Riley & Maddie playing with it.

One worry about this route is it's only two lanes and it takes about 3.5 - 4 hours to get through - if you don't get stuck behind a truck or some idiot going really slow. We did get stuck behind a truck for awhile, but he was empty and going at least 60 usually 65, so that was ok (he must have been empty). At one point there's a big uphill where we did slow down to about 40 because of the truck, but at soon a he could pull over onto the shoulder he did and let us go by. Nice guy, we waved thanks as we drove by. Only one other time did we get behind someone really slow and they turned off to let us go by. We made it to I-5 in 3 hours 45 minutes.

Once on I-5 we really didn't have any problems. For most of the way in California the speed was 70 so we were doing 75 until we hit the border. And there were lots of places where we had to slow down because the corners were just a tad too sharp for that speed. One fun thing though. We started up a big hill to the Oregon border. It was probably a 6% grade. I had it in cruise control. When we hit that hill the cruise control kicked it up a gear or two and kept the car right at 70 without any problems! That was cool! I'm sure some people are saying, "Huh? What's so cool about that?" Well, I'm old enough to remember the early cruise controls and going up hills like this they couldn't handle and you'd either have to turn it off or press on the gas yourself. And maybe I just impress easily. ;)

When we got home, Marci took sleeping Maddie upstairs to put her to bed, though she did wake up when she took her out of the car, but she got her back to sleep quickly. We had a FANTASTIC guy watching our animals while we were gone. Three times he called us, twice with questions and once on the way home to make sure our plans hadn't changed and to see if we needed him to visit the animals one more time. A really great guy!! We put the birds in their cages and told him he could leave the dogs outside during the day and inside at night, we setup an area for them. When we got home they dogs were inside and VERY happy to see us. Riley was also happy to see them and spent about 30 minutes playing with them. The birds were at the cage door ready to get out - they are usually only in their cages during the work day, so this was a long time for them. I brought everything in, got everything settled, took bags upstairs (unpacking will be done tonight), got the kids to bed, then crashed around midnight, only to get up at 5am for work. Note to self: Next time take the NEXT day off too! haha

All in all, it was a great trip, we had a fantastic time, won lots of stuffed animals, got Riley some other fun things, Marci had a great visit with her Mom, and now we know what it's like so next time we'll be ready and have even more fun! But it is nice to be back home in our own beds. :)

Reno Day 4 - Last day of fun

Our last day here in Reno, and it didn't start off all that well. Around 3am Riley woke up throwing up. We got him cleaned up and everything, he got back to sleep, then did it again at 5am, back to sleep, then again at 8am. Poor guy! After that he was finally done, slept another couple hours and was feeling better. Our best guess is he had a lot of snack-type food to eat last night, a big chocolate milkshake, lots of excitement, was up late, really wired, and it all just caught up with him.

Marci, Maddie and everyone else took off for a Zoo they found and a little amusement park that also had a mini-putt golf course. (Marci's Mom stayed and gambled, and did very well, as usual.) Riley and I stayed here because while he was feeling better, we weren't sure if he'd do well in the car ride and with everything. He probably would have, but we wanted to make sure he was ok for the long trip home tomorrow. Marci said they had a great time and she took a lot of photos with her new camera phone. Now I just have to figure out how to get them off. haha When I do I'll post them.

Riley finally felt up to walking around so we went back to Circus Circus to have some fun, get some more tickets and a few more stuffed animals. Then on the way back we both wanted hot dogs. Got those, something to drink, and came back to the room. He was still a little tired, but ate all of his hot dog (and it was a BIG one!) and kept it down. So we still had fun.

When everyone got back, we all went out to dinner (click the photo above to see the beginning of the Day 4 photos), then back up to our room to get the tickets we had accumulated, to Circus Circus one last time, got some more stuffed animals, more tickets, then traded them in for fun stuff. Back to the room, playing with the new stuff, then a fun bath in the cool tub, and everyone was ready to crash.

Tomorrow we are going to drive straight home, not stopping to spend the night. It'll be 9-11 hours in the car (including stops for meals and rest stops), but based on the trip down the kids won't have a problem - knock on wood. :) Time for me to head to bed too, some packing to do in the morning, breakfast buffet, then on the road. More road photos tomorrow too, though probably not as many. Night!

Trip to Reno Day 3

Today was another fun day - Click on the photo to go to the beginning of the Day 3 photos on Flickr. Marci got in just as Maddie woke up and wanted her. She had fun with her Mom and Wendy, then we were able to sleep in. Got up for a good breakfast (at 11:30am haha), then walked around looking at all the stuff in the casino - well, stuff where the kids could go. Then we went back to Circus Circus so the kids could play, but after about 30 minutes Maddie was ready for a nap, so I took her back and put her to sleep.

Riley came back, was very good and quiet, we put in a DVD on my laptop for him to watch and he fell asleep, about 2 hours after Maddie went to sleep. Sure enough, 15 minutes after he went to sleep she woke up. D'OH! He slept for 2 hours, Marci came back about 1 hour into his nap, helped with Maddie then left to go have dinner with her Mom and Wendy. Riley woke up then all of us and Brandon went for Pizza dinner. Then we played at Circus Circus again winning more stuff. Came back to the room, played some, Marci came back, and now we're all going to bed.

It was a fun day, though not as many photos as I wanted. I'll try to get more tomorrow.

Trip to Reno

On 4/20/07 we took a trip to Reno. Marci's Mom is a high roller (well, medium roller) at the Silver Legacy hotel. She gets her rooms comped, her meals comped, gets treated REALLY well! She invited us to come spend a few days with her pretty close to all expenses paid (just cost us gas and some food and whatever else we wanted to spend our money on). We couldn't wait!

We left on Friday the 20th. It is roughly a 9 hour drive to Reno. We weren't sure how well the kids would do so we stayed the night in Weed, CA then took off again the next morning.

The kids couldn't have been any better!!!! We were shocked! We probably could have driven all the way through, but it was nice to stop. On the way back we'll do it all in one day. We figure with stops it could take us 10-12 hours.

On the way down it was BEAUTIFUL!! Just a few clouds in the sky and around 60 outside. We couldn't have asked for better driving weather. And everything was amazingly green! I've never been past Corvallis this time of year and once we got past Eugene into the farming country, it was just amazing. The photos we took don't do it justice (click the photo above to see all the ones we've taken so far).

We really only had to gas up once in Grants Pass, but we did again in Susanville just because we've never driven this and didn't know what we had coming up - we had just under half a tank but could have made it into Reno without any problems. Spent the night at a really nice Motel 6. I know, I know, "What? Are you crazy? A Motel 6 is NICE?" Yes, it really was nice and for a place to crash for a night, it was perfect - great price, clean and a very nice shower. No complaints.

Saturday the 21st we got going again. Drove back down I-5 to 89 to 44 to 395 and into Reno. That took us through several National Forests and up as high as 5100 feet, most of the trip was around 4000-4500 feet. NO SNOW!! We saw some on the sides of the road, but the roads were fine. At first it was raining semi-lightly and had some snow/slush mixed in. But soon that stopped and the roads were dry the rest of the way. Only one "official" rest stop between Weed and Susanville, and it was a very nice one (see the photos). But there were plenty of other places you could have made a stop if you had, stores, parks, etc.

Going into Susanville was a very steep downhill. Then from there on out it was pretty flat and lots of nothing to see. From 89/44 to 395 there was very little traffic. We got stuck behind some people now and then, but they were still doing at least 55 so it wasn't bad. And there were plenty of places to pass people. After Susanville it was a 2-lane road with a lot more traffic, but again traffic was moving and we had places to pass if needed. Then about 30 minutes out of Reno the highway divided (lots of land between north & southbound lanes) and we now had two lanes, so passing was easy.

It took about 5 hours to get to Weed, then another 4 to get to Reno. Again, the kids were EXCELLENT!! Fortunately our Honda Pilot has a DVD player in it AND you can hook up our Playstation. They watched a lot of stuff and Riley played some games. That really helped a lot. And it helped us too - we couldn't watch the shows, but we could listen to them. Kinda like listening to a book-on-tape/disc. The car did a great job, and it was a very enjoyable trip.

Now we're here in our hotel room (which is AMAZING and has an incredible bathroom). It's midnight, Marci is having fun with her Mom, the kids are crashed hard, and I'm about to crash myself. Two more fun-filled days here then we leave on Tuesday. I'll try to write more and will definitely be uploading more photos. Gotta love Flickr!!!

Later!

Easter 2007

We certainly had a lot of fun this past Easter weekend. Saturday morning we went to SleighBells in Sherwood for an Easter Egg hunt. It was raining really good so they did it inside. The kids had a lot of fun finding eggs, Riley was REALLY good at it and once Maddie figured out what she was supposed to do, she was finding them like crazy. They were all plastic eggs with candy in them. When they were done, they could sell back their plastic eggs for $.05 each, so both of them got a quarter (the limit for every kid was 5 eggs). Then they could go pick a toy from a table. The Easter Bunny was there, but neither of them wanted anything to do with him. Maddie REALLY wanted to pet the REAL bunnies they had. As we left, there was a turkey outside who was putting on a show for everyone; feathers out, showing off, lots of gobbling, both kids loved it.

Then home to color our eggs. Riley really had fun with that while Maddie was sleeping. One of the boxes came with one of those wax crayons where you write on the egg, color it, and where you wrote isn't colored. Once we showed Riley how that worked, he thought it was pretty cool and went wild with drawing on the eggs. Marci wrote their names on two eggs and as you can see above, Riley enjoyed showing Maddie her egg (be sure to click the photo for a LOT more photos). The hardest part for Riley was waiting for the eggs to boil. About every 5 minutes he'd ask, "Are they done yet?" Or he'd say, "I'm going upstairs to get something out of my room and they'll be done when I get back down, right?"

Sunday morning they both had fun finding the eggs, though once Maddie saw her basket, she wanted to play with the stuff it had, not find eggs. Riley found most, then he took Maddie around asking her, "Do you see any? You're getting warmer... Look over there, Maddie!" It was sooooooo cute!

Sunday afternoon we went to Aunt Joan's (my Mom's sister for those who don't know who she is) for a fantastic dinner and another Easter Egg hunt. It's a really fun family get-together, and the food is always awesome. Even Riley enjoyed it! haha After the meal we went looking for eggs and plastic bags with their names on them. This time Maddie got into it almost as much as Riley, they both found a lot of eggs and had a great time.

It was a fun weekend and a great time!