So, we left Indiana on the last day of school for Max. We checked out of our house, picked him up at the bus stop and headed off into the sunset on our way to Utah. We wanted it to be memorable. We drove a short 6 hours that day and stopped just outside of Iowa City in Coralville for the night. The next day we drove 10.5 hours and made it to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Our friends from Purdue were also headed to Utah the same time and we met up in Rock Springs, WY for lunch and got to play with them in the parking lot of the Taco Time. It was kind of bitter sweet for us since we knew it was the last time we would get to see them in a LONG time. They are moving to Connecticut.
We have a tradition to open a treat/activity bag every 100 miles during a road trip. The kids really look forward to these bags and it makes a 100 miles go by quick. Often times the contents of the bag don't keep them occupied for 100 miles and they are constantly asking "how many miles we have left until the next bag?"
For the first few days we were in Utah we stayed with my sister Holly in Spanish Fork. We got to see lots of family and play with the cousins. One of our activities was to ride the FrontRunner train from Provo to Salt Lake City. It was a two-story train and the kids had a great time. We were able to meet up with my bro Jeff in SLC for lunch and go to the Children's Museum and the Gateway. We all had a great time. We also had a BBQ at a park in Spanish Fork for Memorial Day and got to see my dad.
Ava, Mallory and Shelby standing in front of a greenscreen at the museum. They were playing like they were weather women.
Playing store at the Children's museum
We went and visited the Provo cemetery to see where Matt's grandparents are buried.
Near my moms home there is a hike you can take where someone has hollowed out a log and placed a few Keebler Elves and a geo-cache where you can sign your name. We had a great time.
The last few days we spent with my mom and Lynn in Ephraim, Utah. It was very relaxing and the kids loved to help Grandma in her backyard with the watering. We took a small hike to a geo-cache site up Ephraim Canyon where someone had hollowed out a log and placed two Keebler Elves for them to live their lives. We signed the log book, left some treats for the next visitors and took a few treats as our reward. What a fun activity.
After staying in Utah for a week we headed to Texas to start the next chapter of our lives. Our first stop was in Albuquerque, NM. We didn't do any sight seeing on the road trip but I did insist we stop at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, TX on the old Route 66. I drove passed it last year when we drove to Texas but we didn't stop since everyone in the car was asleep. It is right off the road on I-40 and it only added one hour to the drive since we would have taken a short cut if I didn't want to stop there. Cadillac Ranch is where there are Cadillac's sticking out the ground all at the same angle in a cow pasture. They are spray painted all sorts of colors and it was actually cool to see them close up. It made for a great photo-op. This isn't something you visit year after year so I don't think we will stop every time we drove to and from Utah but it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Maybe we will stop when the younger kids are older and they have forgotten that they saw the sculpture.
The next night we stopped in Sweetwater, TX and then made it safely to Houston, Texas, our new home. We were able to stay with the Grandparents while waiting for our stuff to arrive.
I feel it has taken us two months to get settled and we are really liking our house and the area that we chose to live. Matt gets to commute into downtown and we get to live near the Grandparents and cousins. We are close to TONS of shopping (unlike living in West Lafayette) and lots of fun things for the kiddos. We love living close to the LDS temple and look forward to attending it more often. We have already made great friends and love our new ward.
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