Getting There...

July 3rd we set out to go camping with Josh's sister Julie (who doubles as my best friend) and her husband and kids.  The night before our camping trip, Josh and I had gone to the rodeo.  So we awoke tired, but hopeful that Josh could fix the car, load it up and that we could all head out.

Josh looked at the Pilot again in the morning and it was running fine.  Then he ran some errands in it, and it was acting up again.  (No speedometer, trouble shifting...)  Then it was fine again. sigh. Seriously?  So we started loading it up, in hopes that whatever was wrong had been resolved and we could go about our day as planned.

We finally got loaded up, met with Josh's brother Samuel, fiance Tiffanie and her brother Kyle and got about three blocks from our house when the speedometer went out again, and we were back to super hard transitions from one gear to another.

Josh's mom had offered us her car for the whole camping trip if we needed (which was so generous) so we called to let her know we would need to take her up on her offer.  Then we began shifting camping gear and luggage from our car to Samuel's Suburban.  When we got enough out of our car we limped (again) back to Josh's parents house.  Meanwhile, Wyatt wet his pants, so when we got there, we switched cars, changing car seats, moving DVD players and emptying all the nooks and crannies we had jam packed with things we'd need while camping, and I used Wyatt's spare change of clothes from his backpack to freshen him up.  Then we were on our way again.

Almost.

First we stopped at Burger King to get the kids some french fries and nuggets.  It was shortly after that stop that we heard it. It was unmistakable.

We looked back and, sure enough, Wyatt had thrown up all down his front and on his car seat straps.  It was mostly water, but still. We had to stop and change the poor guy!

So we stopped just twenty minutes into our journey and the guys climbed up on Samuel's Suburban to scavenge through our luggage in search of another change of clothes for our little boy.  While we were stopped Samuel decided to check his oil and found it to be three quarts low.

Then, just as we were ready again, Kyle, riding shotgun in the Suburban, noticed that Josh's mom's front tire was low.

The guys stopped and did a little investigating.

Sure enough, there was a screw in the tire.

The guys changed the tire, putting on the spare, and we went to yet another gas station in hopes of finding a patch kit so we could drive the rest of the way to the coast on a real tire.

We got lucky and found a patch kit that Kyle was able to use to repair the tire, and voila! we were on our way again!

We hit the road well after 8pm and got to witness a beautiful Northwest sunset on the way.

It was truly stunning.

Somehow we managed to make it all the way to Astoria without falling asleep, and once there we unloaded everything as our kids snoozed away in Grandma's car.

The biggest blessing for us was that Julie had taken our tent and kitchen cover with her, so they were already set up when we arrived at nearly midnight.  

It had been a long road, but we had made it!

Now the fun could begin!