Finally a break from driving. We packed a few days worth of waiting in lines into one day at Disneyland. We joined cousin Emma and her parents, plus Grandma Susie. Big thanks to Uncle Scott who used his Disney powers to get us in for free!

Aniya & Grandma both wore Disney birthday buttons which triggered trained “Happy Birthday” responses from a full range of Disney workers.

We rediscovered route 66, this time from the Cars movie.

Finally on the 6th day of our trip, the kids get ice cream–at the Cozy Cone, no less!

The lines were long due to it being Spring break for some. The one ride the boys wanted to go on was a 3-hour wait (which only dropped down to a 2.5 hour wait by 9pm – fast passes were all taken for the day before we even entered the park).

Here’s a few more pics from the day, including Aven’s favorite store in the world (LEGO).

We drove back to Vegas, and this time the city was all lit up. Turns out on Saturday it went partially dark for Earth Hour. We spent the night at the Excalibur for a whopping $25 a night. In the morning we played a few games, gambled & lost $0.45, went to the Bodies Exhibit, then headed to California for a day at Disneyland.

The kids tried to look into the sun for a shot in front of the Castle. You can’t gamble long w/ kids around before an angry waitress kicks you out. So much for teaching Aven odds via gambling.

Four-way competitive Pacman where you can eat each other – fun!

We took advantage of the Luxor hosting the Bodies Exhibit. We’ve been kicking ourselves for a couple years after we missed the exhibit when it was in Seattle. Aven & Katie were in human anatomy heaven. Aniya was kind enough to point out the penises on each display to other patrons in case they didn’t notice them.

Next stop: Disneyland (California Adventure)

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We explored the much-anticipated Upper Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Nation reservation in northern Arizona! The beauty we discovered was completely unmatched. Our minds were officially blown.

It seemed other-worldly as we navigated the narrow slot canyon, created from thousands of years of flash floods. Treading on the fine orange-hued sand below, we peered upward to the cracks of the bright sky- over 200 feet deep and only 2 feet wide in some areas!

We explored the canyon purposely at noon so that we could experience the sun beams poking through, illuminating the colorful textured walls beautifully.

Next we ventured northwest into Utah to explore Zion National Park!

We took in the enormity of the towering peaks and amazing stone monoliths. We sighted many deer as the shadows lengthened, and let the kids hike deer (and dropping, much to their delight) tracks through the hills.

We’re starting to get used to everything seeming larger than life! Perfect end of a perfect day.

Some road trip fun facts:

Percent of days Aniya naps in car – 100%

Level of caffeine necessary for Dustin to drive so far – moderate

Emergency travel potty uses so far – 2 (1 false alarm)

We started off our road trip with our longest day of travel. Apologies for the short writeup, but we literally have been off the grid and only have a few precious minutes with Internet access before heading out again.

First stop was Hoover Dam which we drove over twice.

First inspired by Route 66 from the Cars movie, we couldn’t help but take a little extra time on the slower route to the Grand Canyon.

We saw some fun sites on the Route 66, including Tow Mater, Red, and Herbie!

Then, we finally made it to the Grand Canyon just before sunset:

We kick off our 2nd major road trip by flying to Vegas and renting a car that will grace the Grand Canyon, Disneyland, the California & Oregon coasts, the Redwoods, and possibly the Ape caves near Mt. St. Helens. Here’s a map of the trip.

They almost let Aven and Aniya fly the plane:

We arrived late at night and drove through the Strip, which wasn’t nearly lit up as we remembered – the Luxor didn’t have the famous beam, and few of the hotels were lit up much. We think there might have been a power outage and they were running on generators. We’ll have to confirm this when we pass through Vegas after visiting the Grand Canyon.

“Earth and sky, woods and fields, rivers and seas, mountains and caves are excellent schoolmasters, and teach us more than we can ever learn from books.” ― John Lubbock

Our last day of this journey began with a short stop in downtown Spokane, to the iconic wagon. The kids shrunk again and had a great time sliding down its handle.

We hit the road heading west of Spokane, enjoying our last hours (for now) of the dry, hot Eastern WA climate. The serene sea of sagebrush against the bare rock walls bring about such a sense of space and peace. It is amazing how far our eyes are drawn into the distance, without the obstructions we usually have in front of us. It can make you just stare out, without specific focus, and turn the mind into itself for reflection. This is the greatest journey. But enough deep philosophy!

Maybe more amazing was the dedication of the graffiti artists to risk their lives to decorate this rock structure with a mile-drop below. How could this talent be channeled into something more useful??

We crossed the Cascade range finally – and saw our old familiar mountain peaks and trees, but with new eyes. Has it always been this green and lush? The sunshine continued all the way to our house back in Lake Stevens, 6 hours from Spokane.

We made it home.

The journey was incredible. The desire to explore our surrounding states did not disappoint. Thankfully no animals were harmed during the making of our journey, but we can’t say the same for the thousands, maybe millions, of bugs who met an abrupt unfortunate end and were baked onto our front bumper.

The first thing the kids wanted to do was flop in the overgrown grass of the front yard. We made it almost 3500 miles. It was so far and yet almost seems like we never left.

We realized early in the trip that something very strange was going on. The kids were getting along amazingly well. All cooped up for hours a day with hardly anything to do but sit, and they weren’t fighting. At. All. We had feared the opposite. This phenomenon continued the entire 10 days, with hardly the slightest hint of disagreement. Could even more time together than we already get actually be beneficial?? Or was it a fluke of distraction and wouldn’t have lasted much longer? Guess we’ll have to take a longer road trip to find out. Just gotta save up more gas money, and we’re off!

Road Trip Stats:

• Total Miles: 3,426 miles
• States traveled through in 10 days: 8 (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana)
• Gallons of water drank: at least 15
• Days until the kids resorted to a burping contest while driving: 6
• Best calculated gas mileage our truck got: 18 mpg
• Estimated gas costs: $650
• Estimated cost to fly our family to the same major destinations: $10,000
• # of Lewis and Clark Undaunted Courage cd’s we made it through: 15

Before heading out, Aven and Aniya showed off their buttes in Butte, MT.

About 40 miles East we found the Lewis and Clark Cavern State Park along the Jefferson River. We found the name interesting even though Lewis and Clark never actually found this cave way up on the hillside, but they did travel through the scorching heat down below.

We started wondering what we were thinking as we took turns carrying Aniya up the steep trail for a mile in the unrelenting hot sun to reach the cave. On the way the cliff-side rock revealed many fossils from an ancient sea floor. It was fun to catch our breath while searching for them!

We welcomed the 55-degree temperature drop as we entered the cave mouth. There were stairs and railings built in the most difficult to navigate areas, as well as many electric lights.

The kids found it easier than we did to move through the sometimes low-clearance and tight openings between the stalagmites and columns.

We wound our way down inside the cavern for about an hour, seeing incredible mineral formations of every kind. We heard and saw bats hanging and flying, and a packrat skeleton along the way. We learned the average growth rate of the formations is a square inch every hundred years!

Is it Indiana or Dustin Jones?

Just after returning from the cavern exploring, our hard-working truck gave us a scare. A loud new noise coming from under the hood can’t be good. Just after completing 2,800 miles, had it had enough? The friendly bearded maintenance guy with a hook for a hand tried to help us figure it out. We eventually made it to the nearest town and the small-town mechanics guessed it was the power steering pump. Yay! We can make it home without servicing! Hope they are right!

Just a few hours behind schedule, we traversed the remainder of Montana, the handle of northern Idaho and made it barely into our home state. Uncle Steve and Aunt Debbie graciously hosted us for the night at their home in Spokane. Nothing against Best Western or Super 8- but after a week, it was a treat to stay in such a comfortable home with family.

Road trip stats:

• Total miles driven: 3,130
• Total days since we last saw our dogs: 10
• Total # of meals we ate out: 2 (Jackson Hole for lunch and Coeur d’Alene, ID for dinner)