Everything's Bigger in Texas

For our first loooong day of travel, our final destination was Albuquerque, NM.  We knew there was no way this crew of ours would appreciate a straight drive from Oklahoma City, so we had a planned Pit Stop about midway through in Amarillo, TX.  Thanks to Pinterest and other Google searching, I had discovered a couple of attractions that I thought would captivate everyone's interest, and (because we HAVE learned some lessons) our first order of business upon arriving in Amarillo was to get ourselves some food.

Hahahahahahaha.  That "cheese" face, though.

The Big Texan Steak Ranch was where it was at.  The best way to describe this establishment is as the "Wall Drug" of the Southwest, if you catch the reference.  If you don't, just picture lots of advertising for it, lots of kitschy accoutrements, and lots of opportunities for the place to make money off of you.  In addition to being a restaurant (with a famous 72 oz steak challenge), it also contained an Old Western arcade of sorts and an extensive gift shop that was probably the biggest draw to the kids.  {Fun fact -- the only way I could get Alex to chillax while eating was to promise him a souvenir from the shop with MY money, since he had already spent all of HIS money from our summer reading challenge (that was supposed to be for souvenirs on the road trip) before we had even left home.  And in case you were wondering, the bulk of that money went to buying Grace's old iPod and 10 whole dollars of it went to a change machine at the bowling alley where he traded it out for quarters to use in the arcade next to our lane.  I had no idea he had brought his money with him.}

 All of the kids meals were served in those cowboy hats.  :)

The ambience of the Steak Ranch was certainly a mood and I'm pretty sure everyone (even Alex -- by the end) enjoyed our experience while we were there, but the BIG hit of our Amarillo adventure was finding the Cadillac Ranch and adding our own touch to the interactive art exhibit.  {If you decide to visit this kooky tourist trap, make sure you bring your own spray paint.  There may be half-used, discarded cans laying on the ground around the cars, but you don't want to take that chance!  Hahaha.  Of course, buying some spray paint was the only thing we forgot to do before leaving on our road trip, but the good news is that you can find a Home Depot in just about every major city in the country.  Amarillo included.  Hahaha.}

 "The Babe" -- aka Isaac.

I don't know how long we ended up staying, but it was long enough to make a lasting impression and fun memories for years to come.  We took lots and lots of pictures, let the kids run around and climb on the cars, and, of course, graffitied with the best of them.  There were plenty other people around doing the same thing, but it never felt over-crowded or overrun.  And aside from time spent with family while on our trip, going to the Cadillac Ranch was easily one of the kids' favorite things that we did.  :)

 "EPIC"

 Unrelated to the picture, but my biggest annoyance of this whole road trip was that no one ever consulted the itinerary that I had printed out for EVERYONE to put in their road trip binders!  Come on, people!!  Stop asking me what we're going to do next -- it's ALL in the binder!

 The Cadillacs weren't the only things getting tagged.

 A close-up of some spray paint -- check out all the layers!

 Grace was here.

The rest of the day was spent driving and after a brief stop to check out the Santa Rosa Blue Hole, we arrived in Albuquerque that evening with enough time and daylight on our hands to drive around and check out the temple and then find a shopping area with enough different dinner options to please everyone.  ;)  Night 2 was far more successful (at least for me because I wasn't with the girls) and the next day brought us a brief look into the Pueblo culture of the area before heading on to our next great adventure: The Grand Canyon.

 The kids were pretty entranced by that shaft of sunlight there.

 It was really, really windy that evening and looked like it was going to storm, so Alex refused to get out of the car.  Meanwhile, Grace was so enthralled with the weather and the surroundings that she immediately started declaring that New Mexico is her favorite place ever and that she wants to live there when she grows up after becoming a pediatric surgeon.  There's never a boring moment when Grace is around.

My date at Jimmy John's that night.  Hahahaha.

One final note -- part of our itinerary for the Amarillo stop was to check out the historic Route 66 segment in town.  Unfortunately, after reading the crowd post-Cadillac-Ranch, we knew it was time to just hit the road rather than make another detour.  What I didn't realize at the time, though, was that we would NEVER make any detours on our drive to see that bit of highway even though we basically travelled along it the whole drive to the west.  The kids didn't particularly care, but I was bummed.  The next time we head out that way, though, I will be making everyone stop.  ;)

Where To Start?

Well, I guess the best place to start would be at the beginning, right??  Hahaha.  But where exactly should we define "the beginning" of our road trip?  I don't know if it would necessarily be Day 1 of the trip, because the planning and prepping for it have been going on for a while now, but I doubt that our final phase of prep in the days before we left are all that interesting to anyone.  {To sum it up, we spent a long morning at Walmart, stocking up on accoutrements for everyone's road trip binders (i.e. pens, pencils, dry erase markers, etc.), making sure everyone had headphones/earbuds for their various devices, and amassing MASSIVE amounts of snacks and treats to make our 20+ hour drive more palatable.  As a sidenote, we totally succeeded on that last one.  The sleeper hit of treats?  Tootise Rolls -- the midgees.  Who knew?  Hahaha.  Also on our pre-trip agenda:  Grace selling Alex and Jane her old iPod and iPhone (respectively) in order to accrue enough money with her babysitting loot to buy herself a brand-new phone of her own -- the iPhone XR.}

Roll out!

Friday the 21st of June is when we officially got our road trip party started and we left that afternoon/evening as soon as Scott got home from work.  Granted he came home from work a lot earlier than he would on any normal Friday, but our main objective was to get at least a few hours of driving under our belts before the sun had set, and we made it to Oklahoma City with enough time to take a water taxi tour of "Bricktown" before it closed for the night.

Unfortunately, it probably would have been best if we had eaten dinner before embarking on our ride, but I guess you live and you learn, right??  Haha.  Although, we certainly should have already learned that lesson by now.  For the first little bit of our "taxi ride," however, we had a lovely dusky view of downtown Brickopolis complete with a tour guide who was really working for those tips with his dad jokes and commentary.  By the end of the ride, though, we were all miserably hot and sweaty and bordering on hangry to boot.

 Monuments depicting the great land rush.

As we headed back to our hotel, we attempted to find somewhere along the way to eat, but it was getting too late and our options grew even slimmer as we left the downtown area.  We ended up finding a Sonic -- which was no one's top preference, but it was after 10 o'clock and we didn't see anything else -- and put in a ginormous order for corn dogs along with some tots and drinks for us all.  {Fun fact: When Scott placed the order for 10 corn dogs, the employee did a verbal double take and responded with an incredulous, "HOW many??"  Hahahaha.  It made us all laugh.  But maybe you would've had to have been there.}


We finally made it to the hotel and after sorting out who was sleeping where, we collapsed into our beds for an exhausted night's sleep.  I slept with the 3 girls that first night and vowed never to do it again.  They were so obnoxiously giggly and wouldn't stop talking that I just about lost my mind before they finally went to sleep.  Scott, meanwhile, was dealing with his own issues, as Isaac was wanting me half the night.  The only thing that might have been worse is if we had all been crammed together in one room and had to deal with 6 obnoxious kids at the same time.  Hahaha.  All in all, it was a memorable first night on the road.  ;)

Up next?  Getting our kicks on Route 66...

Summer So Far

I'm not even going to try and turn this into a polished, well-thought out post.  Instead, I'll present you with the smorgasbord of summer happenings prior to this year's epic road trip out west...

• CAMP

A couple of weeks into summer vacation, the girls had the opportunity to go to Girl's Camp -- which our stake, this year, rebranded into a "Young Women's Retreat."  While Grace may have thought this was the weirdest thing ever, I quite like the change of emphasis, personally.   

This was Sophie's first year of eligibility, and I know she was super excited to join in the fun.  With secret sister gifts and guaranteed time to be with friends, there was a lot for the girls to look forward to.  Grace and Gianna deciding to wear pajamas/costumes a good chunk of the time was just a little lagniappe.

 They insisted on a photo shoot before I dropped them off at Camp.

When I picked them up 3 days later, it was plain to see that they had all enjoyed their time.  Sophie had apparently earned the nickname "Pixie Stick" over the course of her stay thanks to the copious amounts of pixie sticks she consumed while there and Grace thrilled me to my core when she proclaimed that the speaker who gave their main devotional was really, really good and she really got something out of it.  {Hank Smith was their speaker -- apparently he's a fairly well-known CES/youth speaker that I had never heard of before now.}  

While the girls were at their retreat, Ethan was participating in his own Stake Priest Encampment trip that is in its 20th year running.  They finished up on the Saturday as well and actually joined the Young Women that last day to participate in Hank Smith's devotional, too.  Ethan echoed Grace and Sophie's sentiments that he was really awesome and worthy of the hype. ;)

Unfortunately, all those pixie sticks (and I imagine late nights and lack of sleep) caught up with the girls when they came home that Saturday morning and the after crash was B.R.U.T.A.L.   Particularly, with the Pixie Stick herself.  Hahaha.  However, after a mid-afternoon crash of a nap, things tamed down a bit and we were able to get on with life.

• RETREAT

I believe I mentioned a couple of posts back that I had scheduled a 3-day solitary retreat for MYSELF at the beginning of the summer.  Well, prior to the kids leaving for camp, I skedaddled about an hour away for what promised to be a lovely and needed break from responsibility and stress.  My mom was so kind to come up and stay with the kids while I was away so that Scott wouldn't have to take anymore time off (with his 2-week road trip vacation coming up on the horizon) and the kids were more than happy to have Granny here in place of mom.  Hahaha.  :)

The irony was that almost the whole time I was away, I was trying to figure out a way for everyone to come up and join me because it was so lovely where I was staying and it would have been so much fun.  Haha.  In the end, I came home a little earlier than planned on the last day, because I was just ready to be with people again.  My main take aways from this little adventure were that: * I don't actually LKE being alone all that much; * I do like being able to sleep in; * I love having a beautiful view of nature (the house I was staying in had a view of the lake in the distance); * I don't like navigating by myself in unfamiliar territory; and * I really don't like eating by myself.  And there you have it!  Life lessons learned.  ;)

While I may not like eating all by myself, I really loved keeping this creme brûlée all to myself.  :)

• FRIENDS

Summer has been flying by so far, but we've managed to make time for fun with friends in the flight.  ;)  A trip to the bowling alley on its discount day was the perfect venue to meet up with several other families for a nice, cool, indoor activity on a hot summer day.  I'm pretty sure the arcade right by our lanes were a bigger draw than the bowling for most of my little ones, but being with friends was really all that mattered.  Bowling was just a nice excuse.  Hahaha.

 That's a lot of kids.  Hahaha.

And that pretty much sums up the month of June!  Get ready for lots and lots of road trip coverage...

The Happiest Day of Our Lives

I know I have SOOOOOOOOOOOO much catching up to do -- what with our road trip and all the OTHER summer stuff that's been happening -- but tonight's post is a tribute to a new {and glorious} phase of life.  Ethan is officially a licensed driver!!!

Getting his license taken care of was Ethan's top priority upon returning from our trip on Sunday morning.  So yesterday afternoon we trucked over to the DMV (where I decided I should ALSO get my driver's license for our current state) and after waiting a mere hour and a half, he got his official card.  To say he was excited would be an understatement.  After adding him onto our insurance today, he was chomping at the bit to go for a joy ride, so I put him to good use and sent him to the store to buy some freezie pops that Grace was begging me to get.  I think he also got gas while he was out and he was even so kind to take Jane along with him for the ride. Hahahaha.

 Pulling out of the garage for his very first drive without a parent.

And THEN, when Grace asked this afternoon if her friend Emma (who lives on the other side of town) could come over, I happily told her to ask Ethan if he was willing to go with her to pick her up.  As you can imagine, he didn't need much convincing.  Hahahaha.  All in all, I think I'm almost as excited as Ethan is that he can now drive on his own.  ;)

We bought an old beater about a week before we left for our trip.  It looks a lot nicer on the outside than the inside.

Thankfully, Ethan is a really responsible and good driver and he's not one to be risky or reckless.  I really couldn't ask for a better first kid driver in the family.  Hahaha.  My only real worry is that he will soon grow tired of running my errands for me and then I'll have to go back to doing them myself.  ;)  Hahahahaha.

 The inside panels on all the doors were a bit decrepit, but Ethan and Grace spent an entire day of contentment searching Pinterest for some DIY options and then implementing them in the car.  Which they've named Stanley. 

 Essentially, they duck taped it off and then mod podged some fabric on top of it. 

 I think they used a putty knife to stuff everything nice and tight into the seams and then used an exacto knife to get rid of the excess fabric.

 They were quite pleased with the results.  :)

(And I'm entertained by the fact that none of the doors have matching fabric.)

Stay tuned for summer catch up and then an epic series of posts documenting our road trip out west!