San Antonio Day One

We enjoyed San Antonio.  We spent some time at the Alamo learning with Cole about the battle to free Texas.  

 We did some of the activities across from the Alamo.  The Tome Rider 3D ride was short and not as neat as it should have been. We did enjoy the haunted house though.  It was well done and the people were personable and creative with our kids.

We had dinner along the Riverwalk and enjoyed watching Jayden.  We has to boogie when there is good music.  Here's a little bit of his boogie...

We walked along the river for a while, but I'm a paranoid mom and was worried about Jayden knocking someone in (mainly Cole, but was fearful for all of the people on the walk).

Carlsbad Caverns

After Albuquerque we traveled down to Texas.  As we approached the border to Texas, we reached Carlsbad Caverns.  We had been told they were neat but we didn't know anything about them.  If you are ever traveling south to Texas this is a stop that must be made.  The entrance to the caverns is gigantic.  As you approach the cave you follow a switchback path that leads you down into the cave.

You continue along the path downward for 1-1/2 miles until you enter a large cavern with an elevator to take you back up to the surface.  Nice and convenient since you are 600 feet under the earth by this time.  The listening devices are wonderful as you are led through the cave features and the history of the cave.  Originally, the cave was accessed by stairs.  Every stair you descended had to be climbed to get back out. 

Both boys participated in the junior ranger program.  I didn't know about this until after our first couple  national parks.  They get a booklet at the beginning of their visit with activities to help them look and learn.  They have to pay attention to signs and their surroundings.  It helps keep them interested in the things they are seeing.

   

New Mexico

 After Mesa Verde we drove to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We had two routes to chose from and decided to go through Durango, Colorado.  The drive to Durango was beautiful.  I found it difficult to see why the Anasazi people would chose to live in the cliffs and farm on top of a plateau when the valley was so green and beautiful.  Anyway, I would chose Durango and we've decided that will be a trip all it's own.  We stopped for lunch there and I wanted to stay.  Unfortunately, I think we had only traveled 40 miles and at that pace, we can't get anywhere!  The views changed dramatically after Durango, almost exactly at the border to New Mexico.  Suddenly, it was dry and flat and dull.  OH, and the WIND!  Thank you New Mexico for reducing my pathetic 10.5 MPG to a gas gauge falling so rapidly you can watch it 7!  OH, the pain!  But good times!

In Albuquerque, we found a restaurant recommended by a dear friend that lived in Albuquerque.  La Placita has an amazing history and the food was incredible.  We all enjoyed our dinner.  There is a tree in the central dining area.  It use to be the inner courtyard for the house.  The courtyard is now covered, but the tree is alive and grows through the middle.  We stayed the night in our first Walmart parking lot...if you chose to do this, do not park by the big trucks.  They run their motors ALL night long, and they pull out early in the morning.  

I had to go back the next morning to take pictures of Old Town.  The buildings were amazing.  I was drawn to this old church.  It is still in use today.

We left Albuquerque that morning and drove through Roswell, New Mexico.  Yes, we went to the alien museum.  I think Trent might have enjoyed the most.  Cole thought the alien statues were neat and watched for them to move.  While I chased down children, Trent spent the time reading all the exhibits and by the time we left, he knew more of the crash than any of us.

Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde National Park

 On the hike back up from Long House the boys were tired and this cute couple moved over so we so sit down also.  Jayden climbed up and laid down before the rest of us could sit.

 The boys got hot...

 Cheese-doggie

Palace House

First week in photos

Photos for the beginning of our trip.  We enjoyed St. George and then went to Pipe Springs National Park and on to Four Corners.

We're working on the swimming skills this Summer.

This is Pipe Springs on the drive between St. George and Kanab.

Feeding the horse at Pipe Springs

Cole and Jayden walking the line

Doing the spread

Yes, mine are the cutest!

Twister Mister

Yep, even got Trent to do it.

I don't know why Trent never centers a pic, and no it's not to be creative.  Most of the time he cuts off some important part of the pic, usually me...

This is Jayden's pic, not too bad.

This is how I roll....

kinda slowly! (and carefully)

What a week

First of...our St. George trip.  Trent's brother Randy and his family joined us on Thursday.  We swam and enjoyed the sun.  On Friday we found a park Molly had heard about with a crack in the rocks you crawl/side step through. Even barrel-chested Trent and cute little pregnant tummied Molly fit.  Sorry, no pics, didn't want to ruin the camera.  It was so fun.  Cole and his cousin Ike climbed (with great help from Uncle Randy-thank you Randy) up through a hole and of course carved their names in the top.  That evening we attended the Tuacahn's Aladdin.  Only one of the kids made it through.  Jayden took a nap, but we had to wake him up early.  Cole should have taken a nap.  Both zonked during the play.  Even Trent slept a little bit.  The play was pretty good.
We left St. George on Saturday and started towards Kanab.  We passed a National Park called Spring Pipe and decided to stay the night closer to the park in order to check it out on Sunday.  We made it to Fredonia, AZ.  Tiny little town, but big enough to have two wards.  We parked in the church parking lot for the night and attended the ward the next day.  We couldn't get the times worked out and so while the boys attended primary, Trent and I went to Gospel Doctrine and then jumped into the next sacrament meeting.  It was...interesting.  Definitely a rural community.  They talked cattle ranching...
We went back out to Spring Pipe National Park and found it was a former cattle ranch owned and designed by the LDS church.  The fortified ranch house was designed by Pres. Brigham Young and the ranch supplied meat, milk, butter and cheese for the workers of the St. George temple.  It was fortified against Indians, but never needed defending.  It was a hide out for polygamists when the federal government was prosecuting them.  They could see the federal agents buggies from miles away because they used white tops on their buggies and then the extra wives and children would run into the hills and hide.  They were never caught.
We drove on towards Four Corners and got close late Sunday night.  We stayed the night in the parking lot of the local post office.  That was a first.  We slept pretty well even though we were right at a highway junction.  Monday morning we went to Four Corners.  It was funner that I remember.  They have a nice plaza there with the states defined and the flags of each of the states flies above it's area.  There are booths around the perimeter and the local Navajo people can set up their crafts.  We visited with an older woman who was creating tiles with sand art.  She was amazing.  Using glue she would draw a design and then pour the sands on it.  It was so detailed and defined.  The story of the picture was written on the back.  It was so simple, but such a talent.  Her lines were straight and her lettering would have two or three colors in the letters.  She gathers the rocks and grinds them to sand herself.  I chose a bear in a beautiful turquoise.  I paid $15.00 for it.  On the other end, there was a man who makes pottery, colors it and then carves it by hand without a pattern or design ahead of time.  I got an amazing pottery with a bear carved into it.  That one was $300.00.  I love them both!  The boys each chose an arrow and we'll hang them over their bedroom doors at home.
After Four Corners, we headed to Mesa Verde.
In Cortez, NM we stayed at our first KOA.  Loved it.  The staff was so great with our boys.  They had a couple of dogs there and my boys seem to love dogs even more since ours had to go live with Grandma due to allergies.  We went into Mesa Verde on Tuesday and enjoyed exploring.  Cole earned his Jr. Ranger badge and really enjoyed the activities he (we) had to do to earn it.  We enjoyed learning about the Anasazi and Puebloan people.
We left Cortez on Wednesday and drove to Albuquerque.  We chose to take the route through Durango.  The drive from Cortez to Durango is BEAUTIFUL.  It is green and the fields are lovely.  Then the mountains around Durango and the big river are amazing.  I was more than a little disappointed that we couldn't stay, but we really needed to travel more than 46 miles!  We will definitely come back here.  It was so picturesque in Colorado, but almost from the moment we passed into New Mexico it wasn't.  Glad the speed limits were so fast, so we could zip right through.
We ate at an amazing restaurant in Old Town called La Puecita.  It was so cool.  It was one of the first homes built in Albuquerque in 1706.  It now has six different dining areas.  We ate in the interior courtyard.  It is now enclosed but a living tree grows up through the roof.  The kids got a kick out of that.  We spent the night in the Walmart parking lot!  What an experience.
Thursday morning we went back to the Old Town area so the kids could play on an awesome playground and I could wander around to take pictures.  We traveled to Roswell and yes, we went to the UFO Museum and Research Facility.  Yippeee....k, not really. The kids were interested though.
We stopped at Carlsbad KOA for the night and I finally got the laptop!  Trent works will I drive and it's worked well...so far!  We are enjoying ourselves so far and the biggest problem has been getting the satelite working for Trent's NBA final games:)

One Day Down

Okay, so our first day didn't go quite as planned.  For one thing I didn't have the trailer home yet.  The furnace wasn't working right so I took it in a week ago and it wasn't done until Tuesday night!!!  Along with the trailer my laundry wasn't done yet.  When you're going for 8-10 weeks you kind of need all your clothing options.  So Wednesday morning I headed out the door and started the last minute things we needed to get and to pick up the trailer.  I didn't get home until almost 1:00 pm, just in time to pick up Cole from school, but of course he wasn't were he was suppose to be and I had to track him down.  Why is it when you are in the biggest rush everything delays you???  We threw things in the back of the trailer and headed out about 5:00.  The trailer still isn't registered, but luckily we should be able to finish that in St. George.
Now anyone who knows Cole has heard about his two frogs going with us.  The new tadpole has completed the change to frog, but he's so small I'm a little worried about putting the two of them together. So I have two containers.  Cole wanted to hold the little one, Taylor, while we drove.  About a half hour into our drive he didn't want to hold him any longer, but I told him he needed to wait for Trent to get off the phone and make a safe spot in our console.  (When Trent talks to his cousin, he's worse that Jan!)  Trent was still on the phone and I am driving in construction by American Fork when....CRASH!  Followed by my WAIL of "THE FROOOOOGGGGG!!!!!" Little Taylor took a tumble, but Cole woke up quickly and all is well.  Trent finally got off the phone and made a little spot and the froggie was unhurt (in my expert frog opinion-although he sits crooked now :-s) Trent told Cole that Taylor was SO small it was like taking a ten story fall, (more like a hundred).  Poor froggie...he might survive this trip.
Shortly before Beaver, Jayden tells me he has spilled his rootbeer...I think it can't be that bad (he spilled it in his own chair) but while Trent fills up with gas liquid comes running from below the truck.  I grab a paper towel and wipe some up.  It's kind of yellow, kind of brown in color.  I can't determine if it's oily or diesel gas...so I smell it.   "Rootbeer?   Trent, does this smell like Rootbeer?"  Yes, apparently, his little spill in his seat wasn't so little and ran through the seat, overflowed his seat protector and was still enough to run through the carpet of the truck and out a drain....at 10:00 pm in cold Beaver.  Trent wanted to clean it right there...REALLY?!?!  Way too cold for me, so this morning it I am off to clean.  See ya later.

Tryout

We needed to travel to California to buy our trailer and decided spring break would be a great time.  We needed to get to the dealership by 11:00am on Saturday to be able to complete paperwork and do our walk through.  If we couldn't get there in time, we wouldn't be able to get the trailer until Monday morning.  Of course, things couldn't be easy.  We left late, throwing everything together quickly. We needed to stop in Murray for an oil-change, which took an hour and where we discovered our oldest wasn't wearing any shoes!  HE'S NINE!  How do you miss shoes??? He also didn't pack any extra pants for our week long trip...
After a quick stop at Shopko it was five o'clock and I was thinking very seriously about waiting and leaving on Sunday.  My husband had suggested this during the oil change, but now he says to me, "We are already this far, we might as well go." (We were twenty minutes from home and twelve hours from the dealership...but okay.)
When we stopped for dinner the boys were eating so slowly that I left and filled the truck up with gas.  Later that night I said to my husband, "I know what I forgot." (Because you ALWAYS forget something) "Underwear..."  He didn't think that was a problem...  A while after that, an image of the bed of the truck flashed into mind.  While I was filling it with gas there were only two suitcases in it, not the three that we had packed.  Trent always packs the largest bag down to the car/truck for me when we go anywhere, but not this time!  We'd left home my clothes and the two boys clothes.  All we had was one extra change of clothes and pj's in the overnight bag!!! Yikes!
On top of that, Trent was worried about getting there and thought we should drive through the night.  UGH... By the time we made it to Reno I have talked him into stopping.  After all, the kids were sleeping and we might as well sleep while they did because they weren't going to let us sleep after we got there.  We stopped at 2:30 in the morning and then while everyone else slept, I couldn't because of a car alarm going off right in front of our room!  We got up early and managed to get to the dealership at 11:04.
We got to see the trailer finally and since we didn't have any plans for a place to stay they let us stay right there on the lot for the night.  We were able to leave through the back gate to get food and to visit the local Target.  We enjoyed lunch at a little Ma and Pa diner and then visited a boutique across the street that was owned by the wife of our salesman.  I could have spend hours there, except for the worry that my kids would break something.  We followed up lunch with a nap for everyone, how considerate of the boys!
The next morning we decided that it was just too cold in Los Banos and headed south.  We ended up in Anaheim and spent the next day in Disneyland.  Even when we don't plan on Disney we seem to end up there.  We enjoyed Anaheim and then went to Las Vegas to see Trent's cousin play in a baseball tournament.  Cole was really interested in it.  He says it's because he's finally old enough to understand the game.  He spent most of the time in the dugout with Trent's cousin and uncles.  Jayden charmed the fans and everyone knew his name after those two days.
We finally made it home after a week, and guess what???  We didn't kill each other!  This thing might work!

It all started with one little, silly thought...

I really need to think things through a little bit more.  My husband spend a week during December of 2011 in Florida looking at an apartment complex that he had under contact to buy.  He and his business partners decided to buy it, and I think I'm happy they did.  Around Christmas time Trent was walking past me in the house and a thought popped into my head that I then said out loud. "Hey!  Wouldn't it be great if there was an available unit this Summer?  We could fly out to Florida and stay in one for a month or so!"  Trent didn't even stop walking, he just said, "Hopefully we don't have any vacancies."

I wasn't really thinking seriously when I made the comment.  Really, what was I going to do with a family of four and an empty apartment.  As in, NO FURNITURE!  Let alone all the things you might like to have to entertain two boys for an entire month (two boys of very different ages).  I'd have to get airbeds and linens and pots and knives and a card table and beanbags and.....so when Trent blew it off, I didn't mind.

Then...a couple days later Trent says in passing, "You know, that's would kind of be fun.  I'll have to think about it."  

After a couple more days he says, "Instead of flying, we could drive and see the country.  There is so much of it we haven't seen."  

 Then a few days later, "Why don't we drive the truck; we'll take the trailer and camp along the way."  

This was quickly becoming a summer long trip instead of a month.  By this time I was starting to have a hard time sleeping.  Our trailer is 19 feet long and although it has a bed, it's a glorified twin.  Then the dinette has to be changed morning and night so the boys have a place to sleep.  There isn't any counter top space in the kitchen.  And I could go on and on and on.  I was staying awake thinking of all the problems with living in 19 feet for a whole summer. I started to wonder what I'd gotten into!

I finally told Trent I wasn't too keen on the idea of the trailer and why.  He then told me he had been looking for a new trailer.  (We'd bought a truck three years ago in preparation for a larger trailer-a toy hauler.)  This helped relieve my anxiety and we started to look together for a trailer.  We have a large extra garage and Trent was not going to buy something unless it could fit in the garage.  One bay is deeper than the rest, but had the shortest door on it.  We'd have to raise the door as far as we could, but even with the new height we were having a hard time finding a toy hauler that would fit.  We tried to find something in the 2009-2010 range but they were all taller than we could do.  We finally found a new 2011 at a dealer in California that would fit and made arrangements to pick it up during Spring Break, but that's another story...