Everything is Better Brown: Christmas in Roseburg

Christmas was awesome! It all started when the Rogers Clan decided to meet up in Roseburg for Christmas. Our plan was to spend the long Christmas weekend all together in Roseburg, but when one thing turned to another, Michael and I (and the girls) ended up turning a long weekend into a 3.5 week West Coast road trip with lots and lots and lots of driving. Roseburg is about a 9 hr drive from Spokane, so we decided we might as well go down to California "on our way", since it would only be another 7 hours to get to the Bay Area, where Michael's family lives. So, our trek started by heading to Antioch for a week, and Roseburg was a perfect overnight stop on the way there. And, perfect timing, too, because sweet Baby Cole was only a week old! To make a long story short, we enjoyed a week in California (see California post) before driving back up to Roseburg for Christmas. Then, after the Christmas weekend, many factors led us back down to California for another week, where Michael was able to follow-up on a few job leads/networking connections and visit Grandpa Brownie in Fresno. Then, from California, our next stop was Portland for a Gonzaga "career trek", before traveling back to Spokane. So, naturally, we stayed in Roseburg for another night on the way back up. Lot's of driving, but the girls were champs! Whitley slept a lot and Oaklyn serenaded us with "Let it Go" upwards of one million times.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that as soon as we left Spokane, within a few hours, a pipe burst in the downstairs shower, flooding the basement?!?! And our dog, Blaze, died. And Michael ran out of insulin, which created somewhat of a mild fiasco. And, the mountain pass we needed to take was closed, but that was okay, because although it was longer, we got to take Highway 101 instead, which we always wanted to do. We got to see the Redwoods, the ocean, and dink around in a rad antique thrift store. So yeah, it was a wild adventure of a few weeks. Living the vagabond life, one day at a time. It's a very unique and rare time in our lives that we got to spend so much time together as a family. We are loving every minute of it!