ROAD TRIP!!

Other than the words “Happy Thanksgiving” and “Merry Christmas!” my two very next favorite words have to be ROAD TRIP.  No doubt about it.

Seriously, where else can you drive all day to see a giant watermelon slice?!!

Totally worth it. We live for this kind of stuff.  Plus, we just have so dang much fun!

This particular trip–we were headed from Utah to Colorado for a Spartan Sprint (more on that later) which several of my kids and their kids were taking part in.

Oooh. Look at that lovely vineyard.

I’m glad I wasn’t driving past when THAT big, old rock fell down. I have nightmares about that kind of stuff.

This river was creepily close to the highway. It might have even gone under it–for all I know. Simply couldn’t tell. Yikes.

I read an article the other day that said that many of the plateaus that we see on the horizon were actually enormous trees a zillion years ago. Don’t know if I believe it or not, but it’s fun to think about.

I told Rhen all the details of this article and started saying, “Like, that one there…it used to be a tree.” All he would say was, “Huh. Interesting,” which is what he always says when he is only half listening.

Well, knowing that he was not totally paying attention, I kept saying it.

“See that over there? It used to be a tree, ” over and over–to all sorts of stuff–mountains, hills, actual trees, billboards, houses…you get the picture. I was amazed at how often he fell for it.

Made me laugh.

Roadside stop at the top of the mountain. Who are these adorable people?!

They just keep popping up…

everywhere we went!

We saw this interesting bridgey looking thing. Cool. Cool.

Then saw a couple of tunnels coming up…

If you know how I feel about tunnels, you’ll understand when I say, completely UNCOOL.

It was a lovely road trip–there and back again. Great company, pretty stuff to look at and great food, which I was too busy eating to take pictures of.

Someone even put up a Welcome Home sign for us on our return to Utah. How sweeeeet!

Oh, and see that thing over there?

It used to be a tree.

HAAAAA!

To Find My Boy

Out of the blue–we got news that our Daney boy and his family would be in Las Vegas for about a week–there was only one thing to do…

ROADTRIP!!!

Awesome too that Lily & Beckham both had soccer games there that week as well. Double duty roadtrip! Wahoooo!

We made a quick stop at the Creamery–you know…

long enough to get and ice cream cone, and get our picture taken with  a cow. Heh, heh.

We drove, and drove and drove until the lights of the city came into view.

Now, honestly, none of us are particularly huge fans of Vegas. The whole place feels kinda creepy to tell the truth. But if my wandering Texas boy and his birdies are here then we’ll forge ahead!!

Ok, nowwww I feel better. Haha. Seriously though, it did make me happy to see the Trump hotel. So dang awesome.

Good old Nate found our hotel in no time and checked us in. Then all we had to do was wallllllllk to our rooms.

This place was so huge that there was an airport type moving walkway just in the nick of time!

Though I whined…I did not, in fact, die–as you can see.

Ahhhhhh….what a lovely room!! And what cute kids!

After a good night’s sleep, we were off to find my Texas boy!

We found them!!! Oh, it was so good to see Dane and Kortney, sweet little Merrick and Skylie and Linky.  I didn’t take the pictures that I should have because I was too busy hugging them all.

This breakfast joint was the meetup place for the rest of the family travelers!

I know that other than Dane’s family–we all live right by each other, but for some reason it was just so nice to sit there and look around at everyone. I kept thinking–“These are allllll mine.”

So, so good to see them again. And SO incredibly good to have all my family in one room– even if it was just for a little while.

And did I mention–the food here was great too! The pancakes were bigger than the plate!

My BLT looked positively dangerous!

It was scrumptious, although I had to dismantle it before I could eat it. Nobody’s mouth opens that big.

After that– some folks went shopping…

site seeing…

did some soccer-y stuff…

and caught the water show at the Bellagio. Believe it or not, I stayed in the car in the parking lot because it was just too much walking for me. Look at these little treasures, would you?

Mine. Mine. Mine.  Heh, heh.

I spent the last night at the soccer condo so that I could teach my class from there, Saturday morning.

The crazy boys stayed up half the night playing games. They laughed so much I thought someone would be sick.

We came home after two lovely days with all my kiddos together. I’m pretty sure that this is what Heaven is like.

My Heaven anyway.