Walking down memory lane

My 87 year old mother Lula has been in Las Vegas with me since December 10, 2010. We are writing her life history on the computer. The days we were scanning pages from her photo albums, I found two pictures she had taken of our family.

The date for these photos is June 1993. We had made the long three day drive from Plano, Texas to the California coastline, north to Salem, Oregon for the Garner family reunion. After the reunion, we drove east across Oregon to my mother's house in Weiser, to spend a few days. Our blue van is in the background, with the car top carrier above our heads.

In case you can't recognize us at this young of age, Staci, age 7, is to the right of Steve, then Dallin, going into his senior year of high school, Clark, second year at Vines HS, myself, and Lana, age 12. Erlynne was not with us on this trip, as she stayed in Plano to work, earning money for her next year of college.

This was taken the Monday we were leaving to drive to Utah and back to Plano. I wish I still had the jacket I am wearing. But I am pretty sure Steve still has that same shirt. I doubt the kids still have those clothes.

I remember so many memories: of Staci tumbling in the sand and surf at Santa Monica pier, getting sand in her ears and hair and couldn't wash it out until we got to our hotel in Sacramento that evening.

Of sleeping in a tent on the Oregon coastline, with barking dogs, loud drunk people who did not stop partying all night and I got NO SLEEP! Which did not, nor still, makes for a happy momma!

Or the first day of driving from Plano, leaving at 5 a.m. with all the kids and Steve sleeping while I drove, and when we stopped for the night at 8:30 p.m., we were still in Texas, spending the night in El Paso.

I do not remember anything about our drive from Weiser back home to Plano. Did we stop in Utah at all the relatives, go to Teton Valley, or straight home, staying in dumpy motels in New Mexico?

What memories do you have about this trip?