Day 1: Destination San Jose

Less than a week after returning from Darren & Kristen's wedding, we were off again. Really it was three days later. Those three days were spent in near insanity as we recovered from/prepared for another trip. Steph immediately began the shopping, prepping, and baking for the reunion and two weddings she had within days of our scheduled return. This time we were off to the Stewart Family Reunion, in Ventura, and then a Johnson Clan Vacation to Disneyland. We also crammed a visit to my buddy Jason & Cleo's new home in San Diego.

Day 1 included driving part way to So. Cal., stopping for the night at Steve & Beth's. Beth went all out and served a Greek feast that was unreal. We traveled down in Dad's car; we tried to consolidate vehicles and so everyone went down in two cars. Dad's car left at 7:30 in the morning with the intention of stopping for the night to split up the driving. We felt this was necessary both to make sure no one got too stiff, but also because we weren't sure how the girls would do with such a long drive. This would be a lot more driving than they did going to Brookings the previous weekend.

We prepared well for the trip: Steph made food so we wouldn't have to eat fast food. In this case that meant sandwiches, cookies, and homemade pizza. The new flavor of pizza that we brought was pistachio, rosemary, red onion, and parm. It was wonderful. We also brought a whole pizza of Thai pizza, which has a peanut sauce and is also killer.

The actual driving was very uneventful. Again, the girls were angelic. With one quick bathroom stop we made it to Yreka for gas and lunch. Luckily we were traveling with Dad, who was just as happy as us to not eat fast food. We found a city park for a picnic lunch and that gave the girls a chance to play on the playground for a few minutes before heading off again. Dad pushed Sophie on the swings higher than she was ever pushed before. Her shrieks of laughter could be heard throughout the park! Here, we should say that it miraculously ceased raining for exactly the duration of our picnic. Pretty uncanny as we were then hit with steady downpour during the next hour of driving.

Dad spelled me from driving at some point for an hour or two, and it seemed like with everyone napping we made it to San Jose in no time. Really it was about all the girls could take, though. It was fun to arrive at Steve & Beth's house. We hadn't seen Beth and the kids for a week, but it had been since Christmas with Steve. And the girls are always excited to see their "California Cousins". AND Beth made us that dinner.

After dinner Steph and Beth made preparations for a cake they were making for the family reunion, and Dad, Steve, and I ran some last minute errands to the store and finished packing up his clan. It's funny how these tasks can become so fun when you're doing them with family and everyone is just excited to be together and going on vacation.

We commandeered the kid's bedrooms and all 11 of us slept over before leaving in the morning for Ventura. Steve's family made us feel very welcome even though we were taking over most of the house. Despite 10 or 11 hours of driving, I'd say the first day was pretty fun.