Sleeping in Idaho

We woke up this morning in Utah. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, they had the most wonderful beds. I haven't been sleeping too great but this bed gave me a good nights sleep. In fact we slept in a little and didn't get up until 8 am. We had planned on being out of the hotel by then. After we finally checked out we went to Arches National Park. This was another wonderful place. We hiked in and walked under one of the arches. Then we took a little longer hike in Devils Garden to see a couple more arches. We stayed there longer than I had allotted time for, but like David said we drove all the way here (over 3000 miles as of tonight) and we were going to see the park. Arches is really what got this whole trip started, it was the original destination. The trip just kept getting bigger and bigger. The boys got Junior Ranger badges from here as well. They are getting a nice little collection of them!

We left the Arches about 3:30 and got a very late lunch. We were back on the road and heading for Idaho at 4:30. We finally got to the hotel around 11pm. The boys didn't have time to swim again. But we may let them in the morning before we check out. I thought it was going to take us 6 hours to get to Yellowstone from here but David put it in the Tom Tom and it said 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Day 6

This morning we got up and had breakfast at the canyon and said goodbye to the Norden family. Its nice to see friends but sad when you have to say goodbye.

We left the Grand Canyon around 10 am but we are starting to loose hours now instead of gaining them :/ We drove into Utah and got a nice surprise, our route took us through Monument Valley. The rocks were awesome. I am really enjoying seeing so much of our county, it is amazingly beautiful.

We got to Moab, Utah around 6:30. We needed to do laundry and conveniantly the hotel had a small laundry room and it was right beside our room. But buy the time we got all the dirty clothes brought in someone else had taken both washers. So we went out and found a laundry mat. While doing the laundry I had the boys catch up on some of the school work I brought along. So now we have all clean clothes and are ready to go the see the arches in the morning.

yesterday, seems so far away...

We spent part of yesterday in New Mexico, very beautiful!! Then we stopped by the painted desert and the petrified forest. We stayed way to long and didn't get to the Grand Canyon until after 11 pm. They don't have internet here and our cell phones don't work so I didn't get to post. I am only getting to post today because we met my friend Linda here at the Canyon. Her husband has is internet card from work so I am posting from their computer.

The kids loved the desert and the canyon. We had a good visit with our friends. I am tired so will make this a short post.

Hopefully we will have internet tomorrow and I will write more.

More from day 4 and 5....

As I said before we really loved the painted desert. You get into the park and start driving, as you come around the first bend all of a sudden it is just there and it is beautiful. We had only planned to be there an hour but ended up being there 4 hours!! The boys decided to earn Junior Ranger badges for the park. The ranger who awarded them the badges was so nice. He took a long time with them and made it really special. We had made a couple stops before that at a couple souvenir stands. We stopped in Flagstaff for dinner and when we left the restaurant parking lot we saw a skunk. It lifted its tail but did not spray us. So we ended up being very late getting to the canyon. It was dark and we couldn't see very much and the roads inside the park were confusing. We got a little lost but ended up finding were we needed to be.

The next day we met up with the Norden family and they led us around the canyon showing us all the cool sights. We had a great time and the kids got along great! All the kids got Junior Park ranger badges from the Grand Canyon too. They had to go to a ranger program and do four workbook pages to earn the badges. I think my favorite part of the canyon was the watch tower even though it made me dizzy when I was at the top. I think it was the best place in the park. WE tried to watch the sunset over the canyon but we could not find a parking place and didn't feel like walking after walking all day. We were all exhausted!! The kids slept hard.

All my dreams are coming true.....

This is what Jacob said this morning as we were leaving Texas! First he got to see a cactus, then we saw a prairie dog town. We were on our way to see a meteor crater and when we stopped to get gas we found a stick bug in the car :) This was all Jake's idea of heaven.

The meteor crater is in Odessa Texas, not far from Midland which is the home of President Bush. We didn't get to go into the museum, we were there to early and it wasn't open. But we did get to walk around the crater hole which is huge. It isn't very deep because over the years dirt has been blown into it, but you can still very mush see the impact area.

After the crater we hopped back in the car and drove almost 4 hours to Carlsbad Caverns. OMG we LOVED the cavern!!! We have seen several caves, including Mamouth cave but this one is spectacular!!! It has the biggest open area of any cave in the US. We took pictures but they just don't show anywhere near how beautiful it was. And the mountains were the cavern is are awesome too! We had such a good time, the boys were all taking pictures.

We drove through Roswell but we didn't stop. It was fun to see the gift shop with alien merchandice. They had a UFO museum and a McDonalds playland that was shaped like a UFO. The street lamps had black slanted eyes to make them look like aliens.

We got into Albuquerque around 9:30 and all the boys are in bed. We have another really busy day tomorrow. We will see a few things here in New Mexico before we head to the Grand Canyon.

The stars at night.....

Are big and bright...deep in the heart of Texas. We have been singing this song today. We woke up this morning in Arkansas, got breakfast at Waffle House then drove over to DeGray lake. It was very pretty and nice just to walk around in the wooded area by the water. David and the boys made some mini movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzDADIwTQHA

I took a few pictures then we drove for 9 hours. Texas is very interesting, not exactly what I was expecting. It is very green and I loved the cactus all along the sides of the road. And you know the old cowboy movies with the high signs with the ranch names on them, well a lot of people have them in front of their driveways!

Got to get on the road early tomorrow, so I will say good night now.

We are in Arkansas!!!!

It has been a long day! We started about 8:30 this morning. The boys traveled pretty well, no major problems. Jacob was feeling a little confined but we stopped in Memphis at Mud Island river park to see the Mississippi river. They have a small replica of the Mississippi that the kids got to wade in. On the way to the Mississippi we listened to Tom Sawyer on audio book. Then we stopped in Little Rock for dinner at a great mexican place called Juanita's.

Cool facts about the Mississippi

Its over 2300 feet long.

It is the biggest river in volume but it isn't the longest in the US. The Missouri is the longest.

It ranges from 20 feet wide to 4 miles wide.

It starts in Minnesota and goes all the way to the gulf of Mexico.

On our way......

I can't believe that today is the day!! And I am on the computer blogging instead of rushing to get everything done. Making a list sure does help, and maybe the fact that I have been planning all summer might have something to do with it too :) We packed the car last night. Just have to put a few things in this morning.

Hope to on and blogging again tonight.