Top Decoration

It's good to be home!

We spent 8 days taking a road trip down the west coast in a 25' RV that we rented from Cruise America. Despite the crazy amounts of rain and hail that followed us down the coast and all the way back up...

We had a GREAT time together!

Scout came with us and he was perfect! We were a bit nervous about leaving a 5 month old puppy alone in the RV since we couldn't take him with us into restaurants and shops, but he was a champ. No accidents or surprises for us - just super excited to see us every time we came back...

Most of our days looked like this...

(Grey, but still undeniably gorgeous)

Every once in a while, the rain would stop and we could go out without our rain coats on...

And a few times, we got really lucky and the sun made an appearance...

I'll admit, the small quarters in the RV were a bit cramped for our family of 5 (6 with the puppy), but for the most part we had all the comforts of home.

Including homemade pancakes for breakfast...

We made it down to the Redwood Forest in Northern California.

Will had been when he was a kid, but I had never been before.

It was nothing short of amazing!


We stayed at a couple of RV Parks, but mostly at KOA's. This one here was in Waldport, OR - our favorite KOA that we stayed at...

There was plenty of sleepy time for Ellison cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway.

Sleepy girl...

Vacations are a wonderful escape from everyday life, but it is always, always nice to come home.

This vacation was especially significant for us.

It is the first time that we have ever been able to take a vacation during the kids' Spring Break from school. Normally, Will's flying schedule has him gone for part, if not all of it.

We weren't expecting to be able to do this. We wouldn't be able to with Will still out of work.

It was 100% planned on the spur of the moment.

And only because...unexpectedly, Will got a phone call from the Chief Pilot from Alaska Airlines telling him that he's being recalled.

HE GOT HIS JOB BACK!

It has been just over 6 months since he stopped flying.

A total of 12 pilots got the call and Will was #2 (based on seniority) on the list.

(12 is a pretty measly number considering there are still over 100 pilots and their families from Alaska Airlines that are without their jobs, so we definitely feel lucky that he is in this first group.)

We have been wanting to follow the coast in an RV for years. And once the call came, we realized that this was the time to do it. We made the reservation for the RV, put all of the projects we had been working on on hold, and started packing.

A couple of days later we were rolling down the road!

It was nice to unplug, get away from the projects and responsibilities of home and spend real and uninterrupted quality time with these kids of ours that are growing up entirely too fast.

We made memories that will last a lifetime!

:)

So what are we up to now that we're back?

Right before we left, Will laid the new wood floors in our bathroom.

My "FREE STUFF" door has been transformed and I love the final result.

The new door has resulted in a big makeover for the laundry room. It's coming along nicely, if I do say so myself!

And today...

TODAY

we are ripping out the carpet in the family room!

That's right. The time has finally come.

We found a great deal for pre-finished hardwood flooring on Craigslist and picked it up yesterday.

I will show you photos from each one of these projects soon, but for today I'll be helping out Will as much as I can to get this flooring project moving along.

Wish us luck!

I'm afraid to see what we will find under that nasty carpet.



Ahh...it's good to be back!