san fran or bust

a few weeks ago, we geared up for the annual vacation with grammy and grandpa. this year, we ventured west to san francisco- all 24 of us caravanning through the ol' west. grammy rented 5 vans for the trip so we split up and set off!

honestly, i was a little nervous about how vi would do on such a long road trip, but in the end i was pleasantly surprised! she managed the whole event quite well. we had to make more frequent stops to feed- but i am sure the caravan didn't mind. i loved all the stops- vi would cuddle up and rub my face while she would eat. what a sweetie.

my only gripe is that the car seats don't let babies recline more. every time vi fell asleep, she would look like this:

the angle made her snore and i just couldn't imagine that sleeping like that would be any sort of comfortable. i ended up rolling little pillows up to prop her poor head and in the end it worked out.
sleeping aside, she sure did love the pit stops where she could stretch her legs!

she loves to stand lately (while supported of course) and thinks that it is sooo fun to be grown up. i just can't believe how red her hair is in this picture!

with all 24 of us, we knew that a full day of driving to san fran would be near unbearable, so we only drove to reno the first day. we wasted no time in taking over the hotel and making ourselves at home.

i bet they weren't sad to see us go- but we would be back on our return journey in about a week.

to add a little spice to the long journey, my sister and i created little packets of games and activities for all of the vans. We each had a van name, a van cheer and a series of games to play during each leg of the ride. for the tin foil pirate challenge, nic and annie clearly won:

my tin foil parrot was really put to shame....

technology is great- but on this trip we learned that it is a real pain when you rely on it too much. each van was equipped with a gps navigation system. whichever van was in the lead would program the trip and the rest of us would just sit back, relax and make tin pirate outfits. well, we were sure excited when we finally saw signs that said that san fran was just 14 miles away! now all we needed was to find the right exit. trusting our gps, we drove on.... and on... and on... until finally san jose was just 14 miles away- and san fran was now like 40 miles away. the gps was taking us on a route that avoided all toll roads and to get to san fran you are going to have to cross a bridge at some point. so we all turned around and headed back to catch a bridge across.
we finally made it and wasted no time, again, in making ourselves right at home in our next hotel. here is cade with his new friend vish, the front desk clerk.

vi loved the luggage cart rides...

so here we were- right near the beach in good old san francisco! (too bad the weather was freezing so the beach looked like an ice box- but we'll get to that later.)

more to come!