Our Long Trip Goodbye - From San Jose to Portland, Through Petrolia, Part 1

Rogér's trip was about 9 hrs of driving.  Definitely not fun, but at least it was "One and Done!"

I have to admit, I was scared to make this trip. The thought of driving myself and my two tot boys, Rowan and Cid, over 15 hours on my own... ALONE...probably added a few gray hairs to my head. But what scared me much, much more was my unreliable car and crappy T-mobile cell phone service.  This car left me stranded about six months ago, and if it did that to me on this very rugged and wilderness-y trip...ugh, I did not want to think of the headache and hassle this would bring!

We did NOT do the trip in one day.  No way.  We drove to my dad's house, near Petaluma, the first night to visit Grandpa Lane and Barbara.  That was only a couple of hours and a nice layover for all of us.  We even got a surprise visit from my Aunt Lori!

Then the next morning we hit the road towards Petrolia, only about 4 and a half miles from our first stop.  All went really smoothly.  Even got the kids to the bathroom in time along the way *pats myself on the back*.

The kids were awesome.  As we drove into Honeydew, I told the boys, "I'm so proud of you guys.  You have been really good traveling buddies." And Rowan piped back, "Momma, me and Cid was your road dogs." Like I said, they're awesome.

We spent a great week in Petrolia, which started with the boys riding their pony, Shasta. When we pulled up my parents' driveway, the first words out of Cid's mouth were, "Grandpa, where's Shasta?!" Followed by, "I want to ride Shasta".  So we did.

Every day, the boys helped Grandma feed the horses, goats, and bunnies, and then headed off to Grandma's preschool. What's really cool, besides that my kids got to go to my mom's preschool and I got like, a few hours of time to myself, is that kids I grew up with now have kids my kids' age that go to that preschool too!

It is always such a blast to see Rowan and Cid take on the country life.  This time around Rowan really loved the goats. Especially, Patchie, the larger male one.  He just had THE best time running around with them.  Cid took a while to warm up to them.


The boys were constantly busy; tree climbing, making bows and arrows, swinging, and they even got to go to the neighbors house to watch how we get milk from cows. They brought home some super yummy, super fresh raw milk....Mmmmmm.





And of course, we were always super happy to talk to Daddy on the phone.


I got to see a few people I grew up with this time around, which was really great, though it turns out a week goes by really fast and there doesn't seem to ever be enough time for catching up.

~Sarah