California here I(we) come...

Right back where I started from (remember that song?)  We left at 0-dark-30 hours (officially 3:38 am) on Friday morning and arrived in Sacramento at 2:30 pm - with a few stops along the way.  Not too shabby!  We made it from Seattle to Albany, Oregon by 7:30, which is when all of the children started coming to life.  RT and I were driving along I-5 and he said "I think I'm smelling cinnamon rolls", and I said "maple glazed cinnamon rolls?" and the next thing you knew, we were asking Siri where the closest donut shop was :)  Coincidentally, it was the very next exit!  Score!  Perfect way to get the kids out for a stretch as they were waking up, a fresh donut and first bathroom stop:

We continued onward through my favorite part of the drive in Oregon: though Roseburg down to Medford.  We stopped in Ashland, just the next town down from Medford, where they hold their gigantic annual Shakespeare festival - what a darling little town.  Total tourist trap, but quaint.  RT had contemplated a job there a few years back, so we stopped and looked around whilst dabbling in a dose of Starbucks:

(and some old dude totally walked right through our picture, squeezing past me like waaaay too close - and photo bombed a bunch of our pictures!) see his hand in the lower right?  What is with people?!?

Anyway... I digress.  We had to stop and take a picture of the "Welcome to California" sign and a cool shot of rolling hills:

We went rafting down the American River (basically in my old backyard, just about 10 blocks from my parents' house)

We attracted a whole lot of ducks with our goldfish crackers and pieces of strawberry pop tarts :)  And then the kids had a blast in my mom's pool - still the same slide from when I was probably 8 or 9, love that they had such a great time:

The girls trying to throw Nick in the pool :) 

 And here is my new favorite shot of my man: (damn he's hot)

We detoured through Lake Tahoe on the way home, and as RT calls it, we took the long-cut (not the short-cut) home.  We paid an arm and a leg to ride the Heavenly Ski Resort gondola to the top for this gorgeous view - and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.  Despite the slight anxiety that Trinity and I endured on the ride (with our backs to the lake both directions), it was a very cool sight.  We ended up staying in Klamath Falls that night and headed out at 6:00 am the next day for the rest of the drive home.  We managed to get home for Emma to make volleyball practice in the nick of time, which made her happy - she has to have 10 practices in before the first game, and had she missed it she would've only had 9 :)  It was a great trip all in all, and we are singing the praises of the DVD system and Wii ;)