Country road...

On the 15th of May the part of my family that could get away got while the getting was good. We went down to West Virginia for a vacation. As I think I mentioned before a great couple in the church lets us use their little getaway house. It's kinda sad to see the bad rep that some of the southern states get. West Virginia is amazingly beautiful and the people are incredibly nice. In alot of ways the friendliness reminds me of Hawaii. I have to admit, though, when we were first going down there I was one of the nay sayers. I had never been there before and all we could think of was hillbilly rednecks and how bad it was going to be. You wouldn't be able to walk around because if we wandered into somebody elses property we would be shot! Isn't that horrible. I know, I'm such a bad person. My parents heard our concerns but made a command decision to go. We once again got a 'later' start (that's very typical for my family) and so it was dark once we got down there. We got off the freeway then we started driving farther and farther back into the country. All we could think was, "Where were our parents taking us?!?" Finally we turned off of the road that we were on that was paved and 2 lanes, onto a small, one lane, windy, kinda paved road. Then it didn't help that it had started to rain. Needless to say we were freaking out. We passed 'that house' you know the one with cars on blocks, various parts and things and I kid you not, a washing machine. All we could think was all our fears were true. So here we are following my parents van in my mini van. We have no idea where we are going or how much longer we had to go. And we couldn't even stop and ask for directions because who knows the reception we would get. Then we got to a part of the road where it started to go back up hill. We started to go up when all of a sudden my dad started to back up! We were going nuts! Here's the scenario, pitch black, rain, and having to back down the hill and around a bend in the road and try not to go over the road into the mud. My sister is my hero! I was glad I wasn't the one driving. After we safely made it down the hill we pulled into a driveway. To get to the house we were staying at we had to cross a little stream that was part of the driveway. Except because it was pouring it was no longer a 'little stream'. We waited to see if my dad could over it first before we attempted it. Aren't we nice? You know we had the best time and like I said it's just amazing down there.

The drive down takes any where from 6 to 8 hours. That especially depends on how many pitstop we take. With a group of 9 that could be quite a few. Actually I don't think we did all that bad this time. Though once we hit West Virginia it started to rain and the van I was driving was having some problems going up the hills with it raining. So it took longer. We got there safely and not much longer then what we planned for.

This time we did something different. I drove one van and my dad drove the other. Which isn't different because we always have to take 2 vehicles but this time in my dad's van we packed all the luggage and the food stuff. And in my van I had all the kids. The fun mobile! Though they pretty much watched the dvd player the whole trip down. I always think about how crazy that is. Mainly because I remember when we first moved to the mainland we drove from L.A. to Ohio. It was a two week trip and all we had was coloring books and toys! How times have changed.

The trip was so great. I was really able to just relax and enjoy my family. I even hit the hammock a couple of times! This time we went to a bunch of parks we haven't gone to yet. This is about the 5th or 6th time we've gone down so we've done quite a bit of scooping out the land. The really great thing is that where we are in the state has alot of state and national parks close by. It was so very nice. I took so many pictures there is no way I could post them all. I'm really glad I talked myself into getting my camera before I went.

To help all of you who don't know my family or the order we all fall in, I have these pictures. For all of you who know my family here's some new pictures of us for you to enjoy.

This is my oldest sister Angeline. She got married last year.

Number 2: my sister Dara. She got married last year. She is due the end of November with the first niece or nephew and grandchild of the family.

I'm 3rd in line

Number 4: Melody

Number 5: Chrissy

Number 6: Rena. She is engaged and planning to get married next spring.

Number 7: Josh

Number 8: Katy

Number 9: Joe

Number 10: Jon