California Trip Day One – Surprise

Today is day one of our twelve day adventure in California. Nate and I have been planning this trip since January, but we decided to keep it a secret from our kids until the last minute. Lots of our friends, family, and neighbors knew about it, so I was a little afraid someone would spill the beans, but we managed to keep them in the dark. Last night we told them that we were going to go to a hotel for a couple of days so they could pick a few things to take. We didn’t tell them where we were going, but they were just sure it was the Abbey Inn (Cedar City). We let them believe that.

We had a bit of a rough start this morning. Abby had fallen asleep on her bedroom floor and had a major diaper leak, so Nate had to bust out the carpet cleaner. Then I flooded the laundry room floor when I was filling up the sink to rinse out her nightgown. Love those last minute catastrophes. We still managed to hit the road by 6 a.m. The kids kept asking how long the drive was to get to the Abbey Inn. They were convinced that they had figured out the secret. I did love it when Ben said, “I wish we could go to California, but that is too much money.” We pointed out the Abbey Inn as we drove through Cedar City. The kids still didn’t believe us that we weren’t stopping. They kept saying “You’re kidding” and were just waiting for Nate to turn the van around. They didn’t really believe we were coming to California until we crossed the state line. They were mostly excited . . . and a little bummed about spending another five hours in the car. All in all, they were remarkably good on the trip down. We made it here in great time with only two potty breaks, one Arby’s stop, and very little complaining. We are thankful for portable DVD players.

We made a goal last year to take our kids to all 48 continental states before Ben is 19. I thought it would be fun to have our picture in front of all the “welcome to our state” signs. That might have been a lousy idea. We stopped at the Arizona and Nevada signs. It was 107 degrees outside. Not so much fun. Then California is apparently too cool to have a welcome sign, so no picture there. I’m rethinking the whole state sign picture plan (especially since I just looked at them and the Nevada pictures are blurry . . . grr).