2018 Road Trip
A year ago my sister asked me if I would want to drive to a family reunion together from Texas to Utah and then continue on to California to see more family. My first thought was that it would be a very long drive, but the more I thought about it the more I was wanting to do it. Just my younger sister and I in charge with seven kids. We rented a 12 passenger van which gave us three extra seat belts. On this road trip I just really wanted to go to “The Four Corners”, the Grand Canyon & Alcatraz. I didn’t really care what else we had on our agenda. My sister and I worked really well with each other. We planned most things out in advance and then my sister is good at finding other things to do to fill in time. We also were sure to schedule “down time” as well and to just enjoy our family. Overall, it was a great trip and I would do another road trip with my kids, my sister and her kids. And a bonus to the trip is that we were travelling with a 4th grader and were able to get into all of the National Parks for free by visiting Every Kid in a Park website.
Our road trip plans
Day 1
Everyone is excited to start this road trip. 2 moms and 7 kids in a 12 passenger van
An hour or so after we started driving, we got pulled over for speeding. But, the cop had compassion on us and didn’t give us a ticket.
Day 2
We were able to make it to Four Corners
Day 3
We made it to the Grand Canyon
Horseshoe Bend was free to see and worth the short “hike” to get there
Day 4 & 5
Family Reunion at the Alton Lodge in Southern Utah; where 8 out of the 9 Poulson siblings attended. In total we had about 65 people at this reunion.
Grandkids and great-grandkids that attended the family reunion
Day 6
Bryce Canyon…pictures can’t capture the complete beauty
Day 7
Woke up early to see the Balloon Festival in Provo
Grateful to see this flag wave on the 4th of July
We were able to attend Stadium of Fire where One Republic played and then watched a great firework show
Day 8
I drove up to Logan, Utah to pick up my sister and we stopped at Gossner Diary where we got some delicious long term shelf life milk that all the kids love
About 15 minutes away from Gossner Dairy is the Pepperidge Farm Factory & Thrift Store where we got the “oops” goldfish which are $2 for 2 pounds
Day 9 & 10
I drove up to Heber to see a good friend from Texas and have our kids play together for a day and a half
Day 11
My sisters and I said good-bye to our brother and headed off towards California
Stretching our legs and exploring the Salt Flats on our drive west
Day 12
My sister-in-law and husband invited us to stay the night at their condo in Lake Tahoe and go tubing with their boat. We all had a blast!
Day 13
Movie morning at 8am! The Incredibles and Ant-Man & Wasp were the reason for the early morning since all other times were sold out
Day 14
I went with my mom to take in the recyclables that had been accumulating for a year. We decided to split the profit between ALL the grandkids that were in California. They all got $10 to spend however they wanted (everyone got something at the Dollar Store).
Field Trip to Sutter’s Fort
We drove by the Sacramento capital building
Family night watching the musical play “Newsies” at the Music Circus
Day 15
Another field trip. This time to Alcatraz island
Hanging out at the Botanical Gardens in San Francisco
Stopped near the Golden Gate Bridge to get a photo
Day 16
We had a girls morning of pedicures
For the 5 days that we were at my parent’s place, lunch/dinner time looked like this. Cousins all sitting together.
Day 17
As we were leaving California to head back toward Texas, we decided to drive through Yosemite
We did a small hike in Yosemite to see the Giant Sequoia trees
We made it to our aunt & uncle’s home where our other aunt & uncle also came by to see us and hang out. The kids were happy to see their cousins again.
Day 18 & 19
We made it safely home and logged in 5627 miles in 19 days!
More road trip photos here.
