Oregon Trail

We hitched up our wagon and headed to Oregon! Luckily for us we aren't pioneers and our "Oregon Trail" took about a day total and we had plenty of good snacks and sat on our butts the whole time and no one died of typhoid fever.  Ha ha. 

Ironic that this trailer is called "Wanderer Wagon".  Here we are "wanderers" looking for where we want to live in Oregon.

Primarily we are staying in Salem, Oregon so Brent can do a 5 week rotation out here but while we're here we will hopefully do some job hunting along the coast for when school is done this summer.  

I'm posting pictures on Instagram of our adventure but I'll do more journaling on here documenting it all and what not.

1/20/17...Today we embarked on phase 2 of our adventure (phase 1 was moving from a small 3 bedroom house in TN into a one bedroom basement apartment in UT). Phase 2 is taking the bare minimum of what we need for the next 5 weeks and fitting it all into this 34 foot trailer which we will live in, in Salem, Oregon. The roads haven't been great and the truck and trailer gave us a few hassles as we  got started but we're making it! Luckily we traded vehicles with my Mom so I'm not in a mini van, I'm in an SUV instead. Also the truck we're borrowing from my uncle got new tires put on it this morning.  We've made it to Meridian, Idaho without having to use chains.

1/21...Still in route to Salem Oregon for Brent's rotation. This morning we had to make a pitstop in Baker City, Oregon. It turned out to be a really cool little town. The Oregon Trail Diner caught our eye and we just had to go there for breakfast. The whole feeling of the place was so friendly and everyone seemed to know each other because it was this town that hasn't changed in the last 30 years. It kind of reminded me of diners you see in movies. And the waitress made our hot cocoa pretty dang awesome. She calls it her "oh my gosh hot chocolate". The whole town is covered in snow and everyone was just driving on top of the snow. Not a single plowed road. It reminded Brent of Sweden. It really cheered us up too. Brent and I didn't get great sleep due to some issues with our heater last night as we slept in a Walmart parking lot in Meridian, Idaho. Freezing cold with only one blanket makes for very little sleep, so we needed this fun diversion that the diner provided.

Crappy phone pictures, but man there were some pretty scenes as we drove across Oregon.

Almost to our final destination. We have made a lot of pitstops along the way. The pooping on the side of the road one was especially fun for Griz. Ha ha. Maybe it's because I'm not in the same car with the boys but they seem to be having a lot of fun together on this trip. We don't have a DVD player with us this time around so they're having to keep themselves entertained the old-fashioned way. I think there has been less fighting, but maybe that's because Sanna and I are in a different car.

Sanna has been doing better today than she did yesterday. She was Miss cranky pants yesterday for sure. Today she's been happy about 90% of the time when I took when I took a picture of her she said now will you take one of you? She sure loves being with her mommy. I don't know why, but she prefers me for some reason which can be really frustrating for Brent. I'm doing my best to try to get her to ask Brent for things or be nicer to him in general. He is the nicer parent anyway so it's kind of funny that she wants me.

We arrived in Salem around 3:30 or 4, and Brent got straight to work (in the rain) getting the trailer hooked up.  I got straight to work getting everything put in it's place so the kids could play Legos.   Their play area is tiny but they had good attitudes about it.

Brent and Griz left for Home Depot to pick up some supplies we didn't have that we needed to hook up the water and sewage or whatever.  Brent continually amazes me with what he is able to figure out and do.  If it were me I'd throw my hands up in the air and say, "welp guess we won't have running water!" but he makes it all work.

We discovered two leaks in the plumbing. Both around the toilet area.  It made for a very stressful couple days as he figured out the problems and how to fix them.

To help relieve some of the stress from setting up the trailer we just knew we had to go to the coast for church on Sunday.  It was a must.  We were a little late because Brent was trying to fix the leaks before church.  But the Lincoln City Ward was really nice to us and then afterwords we drove straight to the ocean. Man were the waves raging! It was awesome! When we first got to the ocean it started raining pretty hard.  We drove around for a bit finding a better ocean access. And boy did we find one! You can drive straight down onto the beach! It was the best!!! And bonus, the rain stopped and a beautiful rainbow appeared.

While we waited for the rain to stop though we were throwing goldfish crackers to the seagulls. It is so funny what the kids find entertaining.

Luckily I had brought their boots and the boys had a change of clothes (their clothes they had worn before their showers before church were still in the car) so Sanna was the only one who didn't have warm clothes. So I stole Griz's sweater and put it on her and tucked her pretty dress into her tights.  It worked!

 These kids love the ocean as much as their daddy!

And enough of my phone pictures... luckily we brought along THE camera!

The seagulls were standing there waiting for more goldfish just staring down Chico in the car.  He was scared to come out, I think he thought they were going to attach him.  He's seen too many movies, ha ha.

This picture of Griz is awesome but makes me shutter too. He is too brave.

Some of those waves were so big, Chico was just SO sure one was going to be a tidal wave. Ha ha.  They were out on the rocks closer to the water and got a surprise larger wave splash up on them. It was funny.  They also found a hermit crab shell which they were way excited about.

When the boys feet and legs were too wet and cold to keep having fun we finally headed home.  We got a little lost (due to us thinking we knew the way, ha ha) so it took longer but the scenery between Salem and the Coast is just too darn beautiful to complain too much about getting lost.  We're just in Heaven being out here again.  We love it so much.