410 Ways to Fix Potatoes...

Also known as ... Family Vacation 2008 ...

When you have 11 people (and 6 - yes s-i-x, dogs) on a family vacation, the best way to handle meals is to plan ahead. Grandma and I sat down a few weeks before our annual vacation and planned out our menu. Grandma loves to try new recipes and made sure there were plenty of new ones on "the plan". Once the menu was made, the grocery list was divided. It turns out that one of the things I was responsible for was potatoes. We had some form of potato at every meal. After the second night, it became the family joke...thus the new title for the 2008 vacation.

So, here is the beginning of many posts about our family vacation. As usual, we took off to Colorado to spend a week in the mountains. We left a few days later than originally planned due to Nanny's funeral.

The kids did really well with the long drive. Since we left straight from the cemetery, we opted to do all our meals in the car in an effort to get to the condo sooner. We made it in record time - only stopping for potty time and gas! At some point, Rowdy decided that it would be fun to get in the back-back seat and make a fort. Eventually, Petunia climbed back there with him ...

We finally made it to Colorado around 2am Texas time on Tuesday. That wasn't too bad considering we stopped off at the closest WalMart for groceries at 11:45 p.m. Of course, the kids didn't fall asleep until about 12:45 am ...

That seemed to be just enough of a nap for Rowdy. He was so excited once we got to the condo. Dad and I were about to fall on our faces and Rowdy was jumping all around and exploring the new bunkbeds ...

Once we got all the food in (there are BEARS you know!), we all fell into bed ... for a few short hours before Rowdy and Petunia bounced out of bed ready for their first adventure of the 2008 Family Vacation.