Day Four

This morning we left Gallup and headed towards Flagstaff, stopping at the Petrified Forest National Park.

Right off the bat the view was amazing. We came in on the Painted Desert end of the park, so we got to see all of it first.





We made a stop at the Painted Desert Inn. It was a working inn decades ago and is now just a little museum.


Here is one of the rooms. Teensy by our standards (a sink, a tiny fireplace and room for a double bed), but I bet it was the big time back then!


Just a quick pick of the family...


We headed further into the park and saw some petroglyphs that they estimate to be 600 to 800 years old. Reed was pretty impressed with these.


Even further in the park we finally came upon the petrified wood!


The inside of a petrified log...


The petrified wood is so pretty! There are signs posted everywhere asking people not to take pieces. We watched an informational film before we headed out to the park and it said that even though people are repeatedly asked not to take pieces, one TON is taken out of the park every MONTH!!! You could see how people had chipped away pieces of the logs- especially the ones right next to the trails. So sad.
As we were walking along, I happened to see a collared lizard on the edge of a log. He let me get pretty close!





My sweet family...


And me... :)


We drove through Holbrook and into Flagstaff. Dinner, swimming for the boys and off to bed! Big day tomorrow...

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Day Three

Today we got up, had breakfast at the hotel and headed to the White Sands National Monument. Here's the token picture to prove it...

The dunes were so pretty. It was 80 degrees and nicely cloudy, so it was a great time to play. Since it's gypsum and not actually sand, it doesn't absorb heat, so even on a hot day it would be fun to run around it.





We rented sleds at the gift shop to slide down the dunes. Once the boys went down a couple of times, they made a little trough that was easier to slide down the next time.








Even Brian and I got in on the action...





They slid down over and over and then just to play. There was a lot of digging, burying and general fun. When they got done, there was sand EVERYWHERE.


We wiped them off and loaded up for our next leg of the trip. I had planned on us making it to Albuquerque, but we decided to head on to Gallup, NM. I gave the boys one of their "passing the time" presents- pipe cleaners. They LOVED them. They played with them for over an hour- making people, crowns and other various items.





On our way to Gallup, we were headed straight towards a huge storm that made for some neat scenery.


When we came out on the other side, the sky was so pretty!


This next picture reminds me of Cars. Doesn't it look like Ornament Valley where Radiator Springs is? :)



Three days in and we have over 1100 miles under our belt. We're all ready for bed each night, but we are having a blast!

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Day Two

Today was our day to explore the caverns themselves. I woke up first and was slowly followed by Brian, then Hudson. Hudson showered and we played UNO while waiting on Reed to get up.

We ate breakfast at IHOP and headed to the park.


These are the cutest park rangers I've ever seen!!!





Reed and Hudson at the opening to the caverns.


On the walkway down...





It stays about 56 degrees in the caverns, so we packed sweatshirts for the boys. I was in shorts and a long sleeved shirt and that was pretty comfortable.


We walked down the constantly (!) steep walkway and turned to look at the opening in which we came- it was pretty cool!





The "whale's mouth" formation...


The boys listening to the audio tour device. They loved it!


This place was AMAZING. The sheer magnitude of these caverns is more than I could believe. They just kept going! We were down there for 3 hours and walked 3 miles! Pictures just don't do it justice and I have only posted a few.








Reed loved taking pictures with his camera- and we loved watching him. He was so stinking' cute!


After we left, we headed to Alamogordo to spend the night. On the way we passed through the Lincoln National Forest. It was a pretty drive.


Hudson didn't care for it. :)


Checked into the hotel, swam in the pool and ate dinner at Chili's. Another long day and a tired little group- but we are having a blast!

Family Vacation Day One

I started planning this vacation - our first just as a family of four- a couple of months ago. We were super excited that it was finally here! Brian and I decided to do a road trip- we thought the boys were the right age... Big enough to tolerate it well and still small enough to think it was fun. We decided to head west and see some fun parks and landmarks. We left Saturday morning, so here I am, up bright and early, to run last minute errands before we had to leave. This is at the booty crack of dawn people...

I threw some bills in the mail, got donuts for the boys and went by Redbox to pick up some movies for the first leg of our trip.
We loaded up the car and headed out. I did a lot of research online for ideas to help your kids enjoy road trips. I made each little guy a bag with a notebook, markers and stickers and put it in the seat pocket in front of them.




I also bought a few toys (glow necklaces, lego mini figures, mini dry erase boards, etc.) at the dollar store and Wal-mart and wrapped then up. When they started to get bored or we needed a distraction, they got to open a present. Then they each had their own bags I got at the dollar store. This was where they stored their headphones for the TV, their games, etc. I stuck their blankets and pillows at their feet.




So we started the drive... And HOURS later, we made it to another state! :)




Our first stop was Carlsbad Caverns to see the bats fly out that evening. It took us 8 hours (driving & stops included) to get to our hotel. The boys had a quick dip in the pool...




... Then it was on to dinner. We looked on Trip Advisor and picked a restaurant called Yellow Brix because of it's rating. We walked in, in all our t-shirt and flip flop glory, and sat down at a white tablecloth and waiters with ties. I felt really weird, but people started drifting in looking pretty much just like us so it turned out fine. We ate and headed to the Caverns to watch the Bat Flight program. I was so excited to take Reed to this. (No pictures because cameras aren't allowed) We had heard that crazy amounts of bats fly out at night to go feed, so we were pumped to see a show! (First let me set the stage for you- we've been in the car ALL day, it's 100 degrees outside and now we're sitting on benches made of rocks.) Sooooo, we got there at 7:15 as asked. We listened to a park ranger tell not so funny jokes about bats for about 30 minutes. It was a little bit informative, but not enough to make up for the sheer pain of listening to this poor girl try to be funny. I'm not trying to be mean, it was bad. FINALLY, she said it was about time to watch the bats come out. She turned off the microphone and we waited. And waited. A few would trickle out, but nothing like what I had heard about or seen pictures of. So we still waited. After 20 and 30 minutes, people were leaving like crazy, but we had just driven 8 hours to see this! In the end, we waited for almost an hour- it was so dark I could barely see the horizon anymore. We finally decided to leave. It was very disappointing. :(
We headed back to the hotel and got ready for bed. We were one tired group- sleep came swiftly, even to Brian, the night owl. :)