Roadtrip To Texas

We're in Texas! I'm still trying to process all my emotions about it but the roadtrip here was smooth. I was really worried the twins would have a really hard time because just the four hour drive to St. George this summer was rough to say the least but the girls did so well! Seriously they were champs and we couldn't have asked for a better roadtrip. Danny's parents joined us by driving our second car which was wonderful and so helpful. We left before they did but by dinnertime that first night we were all caught up.

Day 1 (July 30): After loading up our van and making errands to the bank we were finally on the road to Texas. We made a lunch stop in Moab and had a nice picnic at a local park there. The kids loved getting out of the van and getting some energy out.

We then drove on through Colorado and into New Mexico and found a hotel to stay at in Farmington. We tried to make a pitstop in Mesa Verde but we didn't have enough time. The guy at the visitor center told us we could maybe make it to lookout point before closing but that we were too late to get down to the actual ruins. This is something that I remember doing on a roadtrip and I really wanted to experience it with Danny and the kids so one day I'll make it happen but unfortunately this wouldn't be done on this roadtrip. That's okay. Dave and Donna then caught up and got a room at the same hotel we were at which was awesome. I'll repeat the kids were amazing.

This bug tried to land on me. I was not okay. Even if it does kind of have a cute face.

Day 2 (July 31): Dave and Donna had asked us what our intentions were during these drives and we told them that we weren't in the biggest rush to get to our new house since none of our stuff would be there for another ten days and that we were just taking it day by day. The only place we really wanted to spend some extra time in was Roswell, an alien themed town. None of us had ever been there and everyone wanted to check that off our bucketlist so we made it a goal to drive there by the end of the evening. We were able to get to Roswell by 7pm and by then we were starving so after checking into our 'alien themed' hotel we found a food place called Farleys where we got some dinner. The food was super good and our kids did great once again. I was feeling blessed with their behavior. We then found the McDonald's in town which is shaped like a spacecraft and the kids thought it was so awesome. We promised that we would get lunch there the next day.

Day 3 (Aug 1): We spent the whole morning exploring Roswell. It turns out that you really don't need much more time than that haha. At least with little kids. If the kids were older I would've loved to actually sit and read through their newspaper articles of the supposed ufo crash but since they're all still so pretty young we did all we could do. The town is pretty cool though. They have green alien footprints painted on the sidewalks and the streetlights are shaped in alien heads. There's a lot of alien themed decorations on the buildings and the kids all seemed to think it was cool. We checked out the Spacewalk and Dave paid for us all which was definitely super hopeful because this move is not cheap at all. The Spacewalk is like a mini haunted house but instead of it being haunted it's alien-ish (I just made that word up). Grant didn't love it and was pretty clingy the whole time. We were all given these lime green bracelets to wear that would prevent us from being abducted and I think the kids took it a little too seriously haha.

We then went into this other building called the Alien Zone where they have all these different displays set up and you can interact and take pictures with the aliens. Dave and Donna also treated us to this which was very nice of them.

By the end of that it was lunch time and we did what was probably the highlight of the whole trip for the kids, we went to McDonald's. I forgot to preface this post by saying that before we even left our old house Danny and I had told the kids that we would not be eating at Wendy's or McDonald's and that instead we would explore what the different places had to offer. We wanted them to try new foods and honestly we were wanting new fast food options for ourselves. So needless to say the kids were super happy that we were going to McDonald's and even more so that we allowed them to play in the playplace area. Usually I avoid that section haha. We figured though that we would make an exception because this is the only space themed McDonald's in the world so that's kind of cool.

We finally made it to Texas. Once we got in Lubbock we stopped to feed some ducks and find a place to feed ourselves. At this point Addie was struggling emotionally a little bit. I think it was getting to her that we were having long car days so she had some whiney moments but once she was able to get past that it was all good again. We ended our third day in San Angelo, Texas and we were all pretty excited to get to our new house the next day.

Day 4 (Aug 2): Danny took our van into a repair shop and good thing he did or our tire would have exploded if he kept driving. The night before he had noticed the drive wasn't as smooth and it was kind of wobbly but we didn't realize how serious it was until the auto mechanic was taking a look at it. It was a miracle that he was able to fix our situation so fast and that we were able to get back on the road. We had to buy a completely new tire but we were all safe and together which is what matters. Because Danny was at the car place I let the kids sleep in a little bit. I was surprised when it was almost 9am and they were still sleeping. After breakfast and baths we were back on the road. We got our first look at our new house at 5:20pm. This is now home sweet home. Right?