Oregon Vacation (traveling with seven kids by myself)

Gideon chewing on his pants

Hiking in Oregon with my five oldest

Austin loves her Caleb

This girl looks good in green

Joseph relaxing on a tree

Gideon stole my straw

This boy loves his toes

Caleb going down the slide in Idaho at the reunion

Malachi going down the slide at the reunion

I love his face, he is so excited to go down the slide

This cute little boy loves to climb

Malachi split his chin open on the corner of the hot tub, and got three stitches

He is still sad about his stitches

Gideon fell asleep in the front carrier

Grandma reading to just a few of her grandkids

Fun on the slip and slide

Betsy building towers with blocks

Grandpa wresting with Joseph, poor Joseph got pinned!

Caleb running to third base at his T-ball game

My dairy free ice cream cake, made by Austin (she is amazing)

Happy 35th birthday to me!

This was my birthday present, all my children sitting down for a picture with me!

So, it took a lot of work to get ready to go on our trip, but we finally got ready and left just in time for Gideon to take his morning nap.  I was so happy I finally got everyone all packed up and into the car.  We drove for about an hour and 45 minutes and then stopped at Chick-Fil-A and let the kids burn off some energy in the playland, and ate lunch and fed Gideon.  Half the drive there, we were behind some crazy driver who couldn't stay in his lane, he kept speeding up and slowing down randomly, making it unsafe to pass him.  At one point he swerved across 3 lanes to hit a deer, and then swerved back to the far left lane.  It was crazy, although it did help keep me awake and alert while driving.  While we were at Chick-fil-A, Caleb informed me he peed his pants, so I went into his suitcase and got him a change of clothes, and put his peed on stuff into a bag and shoved it in his suitcase to wash when we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Joseph was supposed to be doing his school work on the laptop, but he wasn't getting anything done.  We drove another 30 minutes to the airport and found a parking spot in economy parking lot.  It was over 100 degrees outside, and it took us a while to get all of our stuff out and situated and over to one of the shuttle bus stops, then while we were waiting, we kept having to let buses go, because they didn't have enough room for the eight of us, plus luggage.  When we finally got to the airport and unloaded all our stuff it had been one hour since we parked.  We were all completely soaked in sweat (yes, we were gross)  Thankfully the line to check our luggage was not long, and we quickly made it to our turn.  I forgot to mention we were all wearing our Hardy Party neon green shirts, from the family reunion last year.  So we all matched, and is was easier to keep track of everyone.  I'm sure we got a lot of looks from people, but I was so busy just keeping track of everyone I didn't really notice.  The ticketing agent asked me where my birth certificate was for Gideon.  The last time I flew with Gideon (in Feb. to Oregon) the agent said I didn't need the birth certificate, so I didn't bring it this time.  She finally accepted a picture on my phone of Gideon in the hospital on the day of his birth.  She said I would need a picture of the birth certificate for my return trip though.  She started tagging our luggage, and then Joseph or Samuel would take it over to where you had to pass it off to someone else around the corner.  We got that finished, and so far our buddy system was working out.  Each older child was in charge of a younger child, and making sure they stayed with us and were happy.  Poor Austin had the worst job.  She was in charge of Malachi, and he was running around like crazy.  The security people had to catch him several times, to make sure he didn't go in the security zone without us.  We made it to the security line, and started getting everything through the conveyor belt.  They let the kids under 12 keep their shoes on and walk through with me.  It was nice to have Betsy with me to help with the little ones, they can be overwhelming.  I had left our boarding passes in the stroller, and they took the stroller to manually scan it, when they brought it back to me, I checked for our boarding passes, and realized mine was missing.  It took a few frantic minutes, but we found it, gathered all our stuff, got shoes back on, and made it to the gate about 10 minutes before take off.   I took Caleb to the bathroom.  We got everyone boarded to the plane just fine, Samuel was a little anxious about getting on, and wanted to be the first one, and had a little bit of a hard time waiting.  We boarded with family boarding after the A group, and got all of us sitting in two rows, with Joseph in the back of the plane.  I was in a row with Austin and Malachi, and Gideon on my lap.  Malachi was very difficult to keep in his seat, he kept climbing on his seat, and bothering the person behind him.  He was a very nice though, and even played cars with Malachi, and shared his "hot cheetoes" with him.  Malachi thought they were great, until the "heat" hit him a little later, and he cried saying his mouth hurt.  We managed to survive the flight, but it took all of our energies to keep him busy and in his seat.  The stewardess handed me a bag just before landing and told me that my kids in front of me (Caleb, Betsy, and Sam) had made quite a mess, and I could pick it all up and put it in the bag after we landed.   I picked up as much as I could before we deplaned.  I thought that was interesting that she had me do it, I would have preferred she have the kids clean it up, but it all worked out.  We all were excited to see my parents, and right as we were going through security, we saw them.  Hooray!!! We made it!  My parents helped us get all our luggage and carry it to their two cars.  We drove through lovely green Oregon, and made it back to their house.  I don't remember everything we did at their house, as I'm writing this about two months later, but I do remember the kids loved picking all the berries in the backyard.  The boys helped Grandpa set mole traps and check for moles in the backyard.  They played on the trampoline and play structure in the backyard, and rode on their scooters in the back porch area.  They had toys to play with inside too!  I just remember being so relieved to have another adult or two to help with the kids.  For my birthday gift, my Mom watched the kids while I got my haircut, and I also got to take the girls shopping with me to pick out some clothes.  That was a lot of fun.  They would pick things out for me to try on, and I would model it for them.  They picked a few interesting things, but overall they did a great job.  We also got some Jamba Juice somoothies.  We even stopped at the outlet mall, and got a chocolate from the chocolate factory.  We went on a hike one day, to some waterfalls, but by the time we got there, both Malachi and Gideon were sleeping, so my Mom stayed in the car with sleeping little ones, while I went with the 5 oldest.  We drove up to the reunion together in Idaho, in two cars.   I drove one car with some of my kids, while my Mom and Dad drove their truck pulling their camper with a few of my kids.  It was about a six hour drive, and each day going there and back was pretty difficult, it was hard on my to drive that long.  My veins in my legs spread pain all up and down my whole body and made me pretty miserable.  At one point Malachi had pooped and was pretty sore, so I ended up stopping and buying him french fries from McDonald's and changing his diaper, he was so sad.  I also ended up putting Caleb in pull ups for the whole trip, since he kept having accidents.  The Idaho reunion was really fun.  The kids absolutely loved playing with all their cousins, and the place we stayed in was amazing.  It had several playhouses and a playground in the backyard, grassy area and outdoor toys, frisbee golf, a hot tub, and amazing outdoor grill and fireplace area, amazing commercial kitchen, juke boxes all over, a theatre room, pool and ping pong, and games and lots of sitting areas.  We went to an amusement park one day that was really fun.  The kids loved riding all the rides, I even got to go off with the girls for about an hour, and ride a few of the roller coaster rides, they were pretty fun, except for one called the corkscrew that whipped my head around too much.  We even went to see a magic show that was pretty cool.  My parents took the older kids to the waterpark one day, and I stayed with Malachi and Gideon to relax a little bit and enjoy some quiet.  Another day we went to the state park and played with kayaks and paddle boards in an inlet area.  Betsy and I got to go on a hike together for a couple of miles that was really fun too.  One evening, I was watching Malachi and some of the other kids in the hot tub and he jumped up and down and his chin hit the corner of the hot tub, and it split his chin open.  This was the second time he had split his chin open, but it is very traumatic for him to be held down.  Both my parents went with me, Gideon, and Malachi to the hospital about 30 minutes away to get his stitches.  It was pretty miserable for Malachi, and Gideon was really upset too, he had a sore bottom.  I'm so glad my parents were there with me to help.  The nurse was really nice.  Poor Malachi had to be held down to do the stitches, and even wrapped in a papoose, it took the Dr., nurse, and me to hold him down to get his stitches, we were all sweating heavily by the end.  Malachi was screaming at me to stop hurting him, it made me so sad.  I kept telling him I was just trying to help hold him still, but it still broke my heart.  By the time he was all cleaned up and with a bandage, and I scooped him up and held him and sang to him, he fell asleep instantly on my shoulder.  I walked out to the waiting room while carrying him, and both my mom, dad, and gideon were all asleep too (it was after 10pm at night by this point)  I'm glad that Malachi had it stitched and not glued though, because he bumped it several times over the next few days, and it would have split again if I hadn't.  I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family.  They were so great to help me with my children, and make my burden a little lighter.  I was able to sleep in a few times, and even got to shower almost every day.  There were always willing hands to help hold the baby, and help all my kids get food so that they could eat, and so could I.  One time, Malachi, Gideon, and I went on a little walk, but before we had gone very far, we were surrounded by mosquitoes, and had to run back to the house.  We had a talent show/karoake night that was a lot of fun too.  The whole vacation Joseph was supposed to be doing his school work on his laptop, but it was very difficult to get him to do anything.  The drive back, was hard and painful, but once again we made it.  Then we had a few more days in Oregon before we flew back home.  The kids and I walked to the elementary school park that I went to when I grew up, and walked to Dairy Queen and got dilly bars and french fries, then walked back to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  The kids enjoyed that and thought it was fun, and then we went to another park with Kellie and her kids and a friend from ft. bliss, texas and her kids.  The kids had fun playing in the bushes and the playground.  The flight home went pretty well, still exhausting, but this time my mom gave us the car seat we had been using for Malachi, and with him strapped to that in the airplane, it went much, much better.  When we finally got home, we realized that some ants and flies had tried to take over our house while we were gone.  So we ended up spending the next few days trying to clean up and unpack.  Overall even though the travelling part was hard, it was a great vacation!!!  I did end up taking Malachi's stitches out all by myself, my first time.  He was a great patient, and held very still and let me get them out.  When I asked the kids what they enjoyed the most, it was all pretty much playing with cousins, being with Grandma and Grandpa, and picking berries (we also picked blueberries the day before we left, and brought some home).