Trip to Spokane with Jayden is well overdue

Over the weekend of June 27th the Misses and I loaded up the wee-one and headed east. Much fun was had.

Background:
Before stopping in Oregon, Missy and her family moved out to Spokane from Hopkins (MN) some time during her days in middle school (mid 80's maybe?). Shortly thereafter her grandma, aunt and a cousin moved out to Spokane as well as the the Shervey's began to stake their claim to a piece of the great northwest.

I don't have a digital version of any of the pictures I have seen from this "Shervey Spokane Era". I have hand drawn one for you though:

Shervey Clan - Left to right: Middle-School Missy, No-Grey Jon (or one of the Cosby kids. I'm not certin), Less-Grey Wayne, Merry and Mittens

The Fun:
We took off from Everett on Thursday afternoon. Normally we would leave with Jayden later in the evening so he could sleep most of the way but Everett to Spokane is about 5 hours and we did not want to get in at midnight so we left early and prayed that he would do OK. He ended up doing rather well the whole way. Missy did a great job entertaining him by reading books and shoveling snacks back to him. Also a saving grace was a CD of songs from one of his favorite cartoons - The Backyardigans. He loved this and panicked whenever a song finished and there was a slight pause, thinking it had stopped. It saved much need sanity for mom and dad. (Thank you Jon and Heather!).

Snacks and songs got us to Ellensburg where I had looked up a state park we could stop at, have dinner and let the boy stretch his legs. Since he was a good boy McDonald's fries were on the menu for dinner and he enjoyed them with much happiness. It was a cool park/farm. I guess it is a working farm as well and they do school field trips with hay rides and the whole bit. Neat-O!

Dinner at park.

*Side note* - Washington rest areas and state parks have got to be the nicest I have ever seen (and I've seen my share, not a lot of airline miles racked up on family vacations when I was young). They are always very well kept and the bathrooms are always very clean, no matter where you are. GO WASHINGTON!

Back on the road we went. Jayden did really good the second half of the trip. He gets all loopy and giggly when he gets tired some times. He'll just laugh for no reason or you could turn around and look at him and say something silly like "Waffle House" and he'll just bust up. So funny. Jayden entertained Missy with this for about an hour or so at one point.

I had never been to Spokane so of course I had never driven there either. It was a really pretty drive. The first half in the mountains and trees and the second half in the high desert with windmills and farm land. It was really cool and reminded me of a lot of the trips we took as a kid through California, New Mexico and Arizona.

Sunset on the way to Spokane.

We got into the hotel around 9:30pm or so. Wayne had been in Spokane for a few days doing some roofing over at his mom and sisters place so he had already gotten our rooms. We had two adjoining rooms with the double door thingy in between. That worked out really well because Jayden could run back and forth. It was kind of lucky that we got the two rooms this way. That weekend was also something called "Hoop Fest". There where like 18,000 basketball players in town for 3 vs 3 tourneys so hotels were hard to come by.

Jayden stayed awake the whole way so he was really tired. Dad was too.

The hotel we stayed at had a very nice breakfast in the morning. Waffles, danishes, fruit, breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy, etc. All for free. Jayden likes the Honeynut Cheerio's. Mom swore they had more "honey coating" than normal. Either way they were a hit.

The hotel also had a pool as well. We went out one day and it was nice. Jayden loved swimming around and splashing all of us. Sorry, no pics, we were all in the pool!!

One of the days we went to Coeurdalene, Idaho. Its only like 15 miles from Spokane. It was really cool. Lots of nice waterfront areas with huge parks and playgrounds. We kind of made the mistake of letting Jayden get in the water a little bit. He LOVED it. But we were not really prepared for the water so we could not let him get in very far and could not get in with him, so he was a little upset when we took him out. But he had lots of fun anyway and played a bit more before going back to the hotel for a nap.

Jayden loved the water and was looking very cool.

We went over a couple of times to see Wayne's mom (Jayden's great-grandma) and his sister Wanda and her son Paul. One of the evenings was for a BBQ. It was so nice out. Hot in the sun but really nice in the shade. We hung out in the yard and ate burgers and dogs. Jayden loved playing in the yard. Merry had got him a few other things for his birthday that she brought along to give to him. He loved them all of course.

Lots of fun at great-grandma's and aunt Wanda's

We had a great time visiting with family and friends. It was so great that Jayden got to meet his great-grandma and he really warmed up to her. He just loves grandma's. Hopefully we will make it back out to see them all again soon.

I enjoyed my first trip to Spokane and I'm sure it will not be my last. Jayden did great. We'll have to see if this gives us the courage to try other "road trips" this summer.

Ending Note: On the way home I think this started out as a "No you can have a drink, you can not hold it. No hold. Just take a drink, here take a drink, just............."

Guess who won that one....