Road Trip-New Mexico Bound!

So this last weekend I packed up the car and the kids and drove to New Mexico to visit my brother and his family, also Grandma and Papa J were visiting so we got to see the cousins and the grandparents SCORE! Friday Dane and I packed up the car, well Dane put the queen size mattress, box spring, head board and frame that I was taking to the bro on top, and he pulled out the bike rack put it on the back and loaded up the kids bikes. I wish I had taken a picture cause it was quite the site to see! Once the kids were home from school, we said our good byes to daddy(he couldn't get the time off) and off we went!

The kids did awesome we made it to Holbrook Arizona(about 190miles) before stopping for gas,potty breaks, diaper changes, and food! We loaded back up and since it was getting dark I pulled out the glow sticks, put in a movie and soon we were back on the trail again. We made it to the cousins about 11 p.m. cause well my directions weren't right, they got me to Albuquerque fine, but the in town driving to get to Rio Rancho was all sorts of messed up, lucky for me it wasn't to late and my sister in law was able to guide me to were I needed to be. Marryne, Ellie and Maeley were all awake till the last like 15 mins of the trip then they all crashed except Maeley, needless to say they were pretty wired when they saw the cousins and grandparents! I couldn't even get Kaleb to wake up long enough to go in the house, so I hauled his butt in and the guess what!? He was wide awake! We didn't get to sleep till about 3 a.m. and of course the kids were up before 7 a.m.!

Saturday we just let the kids play, and relaxed as much possible. The weather was wonderful not to hot not to cold, the kids played outside the entire visit, and I'll say I didn't mind one bit cause by bed time they were so tired they crashed! Kaleb finally got the courage, (with a little coaxing from his cousin Damion) to ride his bike without training wheels! He could ride a smaller bike without training wheels but was convinced his was too hard!? But Saturday morning Damion got him to try his own and that was that!

Sunday Grandma J took Auntie Adreanne and me to do some girl shopping, it was so stinkin fun!! It was nice just being able to hang out and have fun!


Monday we got the kids dressed up and attempted to take some cousin and grandparent pics, her are a few outtakes (trust me there are TONS more I just got tired of editing);

                                       (Lets just pretend I didn't spell "outtakes" wrong mmmk!)


Here are the ones I picked for the ol' wall;

                                            (These ones of Cam and Ellie may be my favorite)

After our attempt at pictures the kids took a break while I packed the car. This time we went a little lighter with no bed, just the bike rack(which kept coming undone!) The kids made it all the way to Holbrook again (about 240 mi from Rio Rancho) before having to go potty, diaper changes and food and of course gas. We picked up food on the way out of town, and off we went well until the bottom straps of the bike rack came loose then I had to stop and put them back on 3 more times before we reached Payson. The trip seemed a lot faster on the way home. the kids slept for most of it (all but Ryne). This trip was full of "are we there yet"s? and "how many more miles?" there were also a few "are we in Arizona yet?", "what time is it?". We saw 8 trains and LOTS AND LOTS of COWS!

It was a fantastic trip I would/will do it again, minus the bed of course and I want to replace the straps on the bike rack. Even though we didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with family we cherished the time we did get, we had so much fun and can't wait to do it again!