Better and Oregon trip part 1...

I suppose the nice thing about the stomach flu is that 

it doesn't stick around for very long.

(not exactly true with a big family- but so far so good)

I felt so much better today,

so I got myself up and out of the house by 5:15am.

I drove to the gym to run on the treadmill-

because of the darkness outside and the fact that it was 3 degrees.

8 miles done and I felt great.

I haven't had a really good run in a while, so yay!

 Everyone and their mother had the same plan- the gym was packed.

(I just put together that it is the first week of the new year-

the gym is always packed for the first few weeks of a new year)

So now I will share some pics of our Oregon holiday vacation-

fun for everyone!

It is a 12 hour drive with 7 people in a minivan...

loaded down with all of our everyday necessities AND Christmas stuff.

We do this trip a lot, so we are pretty good at it.

The husband drives the whole way, 

so I fed him his Cafe Rio burrito...

 (he loves this picture)

NatureBox sent me their December box of snacks to try,

so I had that to munch on for the trip.

 (review of this stuff to come later!)

It doesn't really matter how used to the drive we are-

12 hours is still a long, long drive...

but we made it- and with only 3 stops.

It was all worth it to finally see that gray Oregon sky...

  I am in the extreme minority and absolutely love overcast weather.

I would take overcast over bright blue and sunny almost any day.

Ah, Oregon.

 We spent a few days at the beach before Christmas.

It was cold and overcast there, too-

but still beautiful!

  I will stop here, because I want to build up all

of the anticipation for the rest of our Oregon Christmas trip pictures ;).

You know you just can't wait.