Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Who drives to Texas? Part 7

I was so excited to go to Arizona with my family. I get down there once in a while to see Adrianne and my uncle and aunt, but we never get to have all of our kids and spouses together.

Both Adrianne and Dane and Lorena appreciate a good Sight See, so I knew we'd have perfect hosts.

Our first night we stayed with Adrianne (best friend since high school), and everyone (even Ryan) kept exclaiming over her super-talent at making everything she touches beautiful. Her house was perfect. (bonus: seeing one of Adrianne's younger sisters. Love me some Smart sisters.)

We chatted and I ran (Adrianne wussed out. Something about 6 months pregnant. Whatever.), then we packed up the car for Casa Grande Ruins. Very cool--highly recommended for anyone in the vicinity.




I love this one of kids pouring over their Junior Ranger guide books, that's Adrianne's Gabe in the cowboy hat ("I wouldn't be afraid of snakes because I'm wearing a cowboy hat and cowboys are tough"):





And I actually remembered to take an adult one:




Notice my jacket. Um, Arizona: when I visit in the winter I expect 70 degrees at least. Got it?

We met up with Dane and Lorena (no adult picture. Dang it!)
at the famous Rosa's. I've been there on every Arizona visit.




And then hit the Mesa temple Christmas lights:







We spent that night with D and L (too short) and then hit the road at 5:00. Little did we know that we were embarking on the most ambitious leg of our road trip.

Faith had been running a fever for 3 days as we headed for Utah and, although the plan was to stop in Kaysville, By the time we were in St. George, we were worried about her. We just wanted to get her out of that carseat and in her own bed and near doctors we knew. We'd also noticed that the snow was supposed to start.

We made the crazy decision to drive straight through. Dinner in Pocatello, kids to sleep at 9:00 pm, and 24.5 bleary, snowy hours later, we rolled into Liberty Lake at 4:30 am. It was not fun the last 2 hours but we were so glad we had a whole day to recover from our odyssey. (Faith woke up with no fever, of course, and was greatly improved.)

One post to go: a round up and a few never-before-seen photos. Stay tuned, folks!


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4 comments:

Lauren in GA said...

I did not know that Adrianne is pregnant. Somehow I missed that...that is so wonderful!!!!! It is so neat that, "everything she touches" is beautiful. No doubt that baby will be, too. ☺

Way to let Arizona know in no uncertain terms what you expect in terms of temperatures.

Elizabeth said...

I am loving this travelogue ! I may never get to Texas but I still love seeing it all.

Tammy said...

Wow, I am so impressed. Constantly. I want to hear how this went over the phone!! Looks like fun. What an adventure. Did the big kids love it too?

Jess said...

Look at all that FUN you and your family are having together!!!!! You've heard me once, I say it again....best gift ever to a family: an awesome road trip!!!