Picture of road east of Westhope, won't be open for much longer!

What a day!

We were quite busy today with the unloading of the truck that held all our belongings from Oregon into my aunt and uncle's garage. We made it fit and crammed our room in the basement even more full :) It was great to have my mom, Chari, Bev, Katie, and Kim all around to help with the kiddos while Ben and I got out stuff where it needed to be.

We had been planning on leaving for the lake tomorrow sometime to stay for the weekend with Ben's family. As the threat of the last main road being closed and turning the 1.5hr drive into a 3.5+ hr drive we decided to kick it into high gear and get on the road after the babes night feed. We couldn't have gotten packed and ready without the help of family, but we did it! We are about half way there and finally calming down from our chaotic rushed feeling. We have to learn to get use to that feeling as nothing much comes easy for us these days.

We are looking forward to seeing some family and friends that we haven't seen in years this weekend! We also have never stayed at his cabin yet so it will be a special weekend all around. I hope the only water we think about his weekend is the big lake right in front of us that is suppose to be there! We will worry about the long ride home later :)

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Randoms from the road

Warming bottles ;) Feeding the babes was challenging on the road but luckily no one went hungry. I fed them in their seats once, a few times we found a restaurant to take over and the other times we did it right before leaving or the minute we arrived to a hotel. It was chaotic to say the least. It was the 1st time the trips went into a restaurant though, we all ate with our free hand :)

The boys got some swim time in Coeur d'Alene. It was short lived as Brody's sensitive skin (ever since he was sick??) broke out in hives and the trips about overheated lounging poolside due to the humidity.

I must have been too tired to take pics in Bozeman and too scared to take pics in Miles City! We had a nice hotel room in Bozeman that had a big restaurant, casino and lounge downstairs, but no one enjoyed it. We sat, depressed, catching up on facebook of the tragedy unfolding back home. It was a somber night. The next night we got to Miles City and everything was booked except for a Motel 6. Within 20 minutes Mel and I decided that we would keep on driving into the night until we got to Bismarck! It was worth it, we loved waking up at the Oase's Saturday morning and only being 106 miles from Minot.

Getting closer to Minot! It had been so long since Ben and I drove on these roads, it still feels like we are on vacation and will be returning to Oregon any day now. I suppose that feeling will change once Ben starts working and I am faced with the REAL reality of being a trips mom, YIKES!!!

Diaper change line up

Home at the Waind's, Ben had 2 sleeping on his chest while sharing a beer with a good friend who came to visit!

The only "flood" picture I have taken so far. This is right by the storage are we had to pull all of my Mom's stuff out of 2 feet of water. This city is crazy right now, to say the least.

Kara and her mom came to help hold some babies!

We love you Oregon!!

Brody is happy to be "home" with so much family around!

 

Away we go...

We will miss you P-town, City of Roses

Ben is especially going to miss seeing Mt. Hood on sunny days- it always brought a smile to his face

We made it to Hood River, time to relax for the night!

Matt and Melissa- it was beautiful here. We are so grateful for all of their help on our journey home, we couldn't have done it without them for sure! I think we are all ready for an adults only vacation! Heck, I think we would settle for an adults only dinner out ;)

Happy, but sad!

Ahhhh, a nice treat while the babies nap :)

Brody was lovin life!

Drey relaxed with the Mobi-Go game for a bit

He loved looking through Dad's binocular's...which are now MIA...hmmmn...

Me and my babe!

Love this pic

Love this kid!

Final days in Oregon

Payton sandwiched between Brody and Cousin Drey!

These two sure do love each other, and they have so much fun! B and D watched Cars about 3,234,999 times, which was great because we just packed everything up around them! I can't wait for the trips to be older and entertain themselves too, hee hee.

I had to see if I could still get B in the ergo, it worked pretty good! He'll always be my baby ;)

This is just before they got CRAZY washing their cars!

Having too much fun!

My Dad's sisters came down from Seattle (area) to give us some extra hands during our last days- it was great! We love you aunties, thanks for the baby stuff and all your love and support. We can't wait to see the caravan roll into Minot to visit one day :)

The rain let up and the boys spent many hours outside- it was great!

Saying goodbye to Jaxzon was tough :( We miss you and your sweet mama's so much! Watch out Mount Rushmore- we have a road trip planned someday with a bunch of silly boys coming your way!

Don't they look girly with their pretty purple lips! Darn thrush, we are still battling it!

Can't believe this day finally came...

We REALLY miss our king size bed, once you go king, it's hard to go back!

The last night was the hardest, but the movers understood and left one of our TVs unpacked so the boys could watch...Cars, of course!

 
One last pic before we rolled out, kinda reminds me of this one- one of our 1st pics taken with our 1st home in Oregon:

 

Miss you, Denise!

R, E, P with Denise! We miss her soooo much! She may not have been our Doula when the boys were newborns, but she was our Angel when we needed her most! This was one of the only triple pictures where they all stay calmed without crying- she must have the touch!!

It's tough to stay positive!

I know we said we were going to, but dang it's tough to do! Life is chaotic right now to say the least! It was sad today having to help my mom and Steve re-evacuate from the storage area that was unfortunately flooded (I think from ground water). They (and many others) have been worked to the bone and I hate to see their pale desperate faces- breaks my heart. Even though it was horrible I was happy I was there to help for a few hours at least. I am not sure how much more our family can take- do I sound like a broken record or what!?!?

We are fortunate to have the basement at my Aunt and Uncles house, we are so grateful. We are much better off than many people, but I couldn't help but shed a tear as I fell asleep last night. I never thought the 6 of us would be sleeping in one bedroom at the same time and not even because of sick kids crawling into bed with us! We are getting very cozy to say the least.

To top things off Minot now also has a boiled water mandate in place due to a water treatment contaminant as a result of flooding problems. Like we don't have enough to worry about and now we can't use plain tap water for anything and have to boil everything! This brings cleaning bottles for triplets to whole new level! We can't even give them a bath without heating sterile water first, ugh. Please oh please don't let any of boys get any kind of gastroenteritis from this mess- I won't be able to manage that into our mix right now!

I am thankful we are surrounded by family and am praying for peace to come our way sooner than later.

On a positive note, it isn't against the law to talk on your cell phone while driving here! I know blue tooth is the safest, but it feels so good to be able to answer a quick phone call if needed!

Hopefully we can get our computer set up soon so I can do some real posts with pics and all :)

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