Driving to Utah

Last night, we stayed in Gallup, NM for the night.  We got up this morning and drove to Utah for our family reunion.  We quickly stopped at the Navajo Bridge that crosses the Colorado River in Arizona.  It is quite impressive.  

We made it to Zion National Park in time to celebrate a birthday dinner and cake with Corban, my brother's son.  He turned 6 today.  We bought him a shirt in the visitor center so that he could remember this trip.

El Paso Zoo

We went to the El Paso Zoo today with April's girls and her mother.  It was really hot.  They have a water splash pad, which is where we spent most of our time.  

Country Life

April had to work today, so we went cowboy boot shopping by ourselves this morning.  My kids wore their old ones quite often, so I knew it would be a good investment.  I also know they are fairly cheap in El Paso.  We found great ones.  Then, we met April for lunch and headed to her house by ourselves for the afternoon.  I setup my laptop and worked while the kids explored and played with her animals.  I think this might be Lexi's favorite part of our whole trip.  She LOVES animals.

Pony ride

Fabens with Friends

Eighteen years ago, I became friends with a girl named April.  My family had met her family in Qatar.  I had just graduated from BYU and was traveling across the US with my family.  We stopped in Fabens to spend a little time with her family.  I got to know her & we hit it off immediately.  A few weeks later, I moved to Qatar to live with my family.  Almost a year later, she came to Qatar to spend a few months with her dad and siblings.  We ended up spending lots of time together and became good friends.  When she left, I didn't think I would ever see her again.  Thanks to Facebook, we were able to reconnect a few years ago.  While planning our big summer road trip, I thought it would be nice to see her again.  Fabens (near El Paso) just happened to be on our route.  I sent her a message and the plan took shape.

Eighteen year later, I am staying with her mom in Fabens again.  This time I have my kids with me of course.  Her mom's house is bigger so she arranged for us all to stay here.  Her daughters, Abeni (5 years old) and Mia (3 years old) have quickly become friends with my kids.  Today, we walked over to the railroad tracks to smash pennies.  My kids had never experienced that before.

April's cat

Indian Cliffs Ranch 

Me with April

Jordan, Mia, Lexi and Abeni

White Sands National Monument

We made it to El Paso today.  We're going to be here with friends for several days.  They invited us to go to White Sands National Monument tonight. The park stayed open late because of the full moon.  With the orbit of the moon bringing the moon closer than usual, it was quite a bright night.  The kids loved playing in the powered white sand with their new friends.  It looked a lot like snow.  There was a stage with a mariachi band.  We had a good time.  

Road Trip

We started our road trip today.  It is going to be one LONG vacation. We are going to El Paso first.  We'll be staying with friends there for a few days.  Then, we'll head to Gallup, NM for one night.  Our next stop is Zions National Park, where we have a family reunion for my mom's side of the family.  We'll then head up to Spanish Fork, Utah.  We'll stay with my friend, Annette, for a week.  We are looking forward to spending the 24th of July there.  It is a state holiday called Pioneer Day.  It is always fun.  Once that week is over, we'll go to Montana to stay with my mom & Malcolm.  We'll be seeing my brothers and their families there too.  We will be gone about a month and it should be fantastic.  

Our first stop was Buc-ee's.  Only people in Texas get excited about stopping at a gas station, but it is really popular here.  They even sell t-shirts that everyone buys.  The kids each got one.  They also have amazing bathrooms that are always clean.  Plus, they have great food.  We went to the one in Luling.  The picture above is of Lexi and Jordan with Buc-ee the Beaver.  

We stopped for lunch at Dairy Queen somewhere near Kerville.  It wasn't great, but there isn't much out there to choose from.     

4th of July

We had a fun 4th of July.  I pulled out the kids' patriotic clothes.  We decided it would be fun to kick it up a notch, so we headed to Sally's to get red hair spray.  They looked awesome.  We started off the day at a park in our community where they had a little festival.  It was a bit too hot, so we didn't stay that long.

In the evening, we went to celebrate with some of our close friends.  We had a bbq and played with sparklers.  It was an extra great experience since Uncle Stephen had just got out of the hospital.  He had been in for a whole month and was diagnosed with a rare form of Lupus.  He has really been suffering and will continue to battle this, but for today he was there having a good time.  He helped light the sparklers.  The kids LOVE being with him, but had to stay back a bit.  His immune system is very weak.

Babysitting Experience

I have a friend from church that has 5 kids.  She had free tickets to a water park and asked if we'd watch her toddler so they could go.  I said sure and then told Lexi this would be a good opportunity for her to practice babysitting for the future.  She did a great job watching Daniel and keeping him entertained.  Of course, I was here the whole time.  I just held back and let her take the lead.