The Painted Hills in Eastern Oregon

Ah summer....

Alright RENAE!!!

 DON'T mess it up this year! You are going to be productive! You are going to make chore charts! You are going to make everyone get dressed  before 10 AM!   {Hmmm, better make it 11:00...}

You are going to take your children to fun, educational places in town!

You will take them to the park for free lunches and the reading program, dangit!

You will hear whining.

You will hear tattling.

You will hear fighting.

You will be embarrassed by your kids' lack of hygiene.

You will be annoyed by the constant need of snacks and meals.

You will be  frustrated by the run-away toddler who hates to be constrained in strollers, car-seats, highchairs, etc.

You will not be swayed by any of this because THIS SUMMER you will be organized and proactive! You will be Awesome MOM!

OK. Let me figure out what we can do first.  Oh ya! Those Painted Hills looked cool and they're not too far. Let's go check 'em out! But first, I'll check them out on Pinterest!!!

1 hour later....

Oh ya, I was supposed to be looking at those painted hills not funny quotes and delicious recipes. What have the kids been doing this whole time? Watching cartoons? Well, it IS summer and we're going to be busy doing educational things so a little TV is just fine.

Reminder: Your husband works weekends.

Ya, I know. Now that school is out we can hang out as a family on his days off.

But I'm not gonna wait until TUESDAY to take this trip. I am being proactive and starting NOW!

Me:"Kids! We're leaving! Let's get in car!"

Kids: "Where are we going?!"

(magical voice) "The Painted Hills. They are so beautiful!"

"Mom, my eye is stuck shut"

"Ohmygosh! Carly, I think you have pink-eye!"

2 hours later... after calling the doctor for a prescription for pink-eye we are ready to drive! (Yep, I had to walk around Safeway for 20 mins with 4 kids while the prescription was being filled but we wont talk about that nightmare)

"Alright! Yay! Are you guys ready for some Painted Hills or what?! "

"But we're hungry! I didn't get breakfast and ___ keeps touching me!!"

"What happened to the cereal I poured you?  ____ ,stop touching her."

"It got soggy so I poured it down the drain."

The usual. Wasted food and wasted money. 

{SIGH} "OK let's go to East Village before we head out."

"Ya! Yum! Can we get a brownie?"

"No."

"OK. Everyone act normal in here. No running around. Tatum, grab the camera so we can put pictures of the delicious food on Bend Mommy for my friend Tiffany."

After ordering Beckam walks over to the garbage can and knocks it completely over. Thanks, Tatum, for capturing the clean-up. 

 Ok, here is a delicious breakfast sandwich.  Oh boy, they are great!!!

Carly looked at me and said, "Bacon is precious to me."

Notice I made her wear sunglasses for the next 2 days.

2 hours later

Wow, that was a beautiful drive. We finally made it.

Well, this is it.  Looks like I'll be off-roading with this stroller.

Pretty place. Too bad half of these kids wont remember coming here.

 One of the few pathways compatible for strollers only goes 1/4 of the way of the trail:

 He refused to stay in stroller and had to "read" every sign along the way.

Didn't like staying on path. Signs everywhere saying" Do NOT go on hills."

 The girls helping me catch him as he climbed out for the umpteenth time.

 "carly, will you grab Beckam? He's running the wrong way."

  Tatum helped.

 This was taken out my car window without the worry of Beckam destroying national monuments. 

 From a distance, the hills look somewhat smooth, but up-close you can see a popcorn-like texture.

The soil isn't conducive to plant growth because of the way the water saturates the soil or something like that.  I didn't retain a lot of info. For some reason I can't retain a lot anymore. At this point, I'm not going places to learn anything. I'm leaving my house to LEAVE MY HOUSE. And also to feel like I'm an AWESOME MOM by introducing my children to new places and experiences. {SOMEONE better learn something from this darnit!}

We spent about 2 hours there.

Then they were ready to go. Probably because they wanted to watch movies in the car. But they were Bible movies so it's educational, right?

After fighting Beckam into his seat we drove home! 

I'm glad we could knock that one off our list for the summer. I think I'm off to a good start.

Bonus points: No one else got pink-eye: winner!