31 Years

Al had to leave Sunday morning which was 4 days after we moved in.  It was pouring rain the morning he left and it was General Conference so it made for a very long and sad day.  It had finally settled in that we weren't going back to California.  I missed Al, my friends, the weather, and our routine in California. I had to keep reminding myself about why we wanted to move and what a blessing it was that Al had the opportunity presented to him.  On Tuesday it was my birthday and I tried to plan a few things so I wouldn't feel like a complete loser.  Diane was really sweet and met us at the mall and took us to lunch.  

Alex coloring at lunch.

So thankful I had these 2 cute boys to spend my birthday with, love them.

My yummy birthday lunch at Neiman Marcus Cafe

On our way out Diane told me she had something for me in her car. She made me close my eyes and when I opened them I saw this. This was Al's present to me and I was so surprised.  I've been saying I wanted a desktop Mac forever, but never expected him to buy it.  So sweet even though I ended up returning it, haha.

I also had Cole and Alex's picture taken with the Easter Bunny while we were there.  I was bummed when I saw the Easter Bunny was brown.  We were missing our Bunny at Americana siting outside by the fountains.  

That afternoon was low key.  Al sent me flowers and my mom sent me some amazing cupcakes.  I got lots of texts and messages, but very few phone calls. Doesn't anyone pick up the phone anymore?

That night we met my friend Kristin at Whiskey Cake in Plano.  It was really good food and their Whiskey Cake was amazing.  

It's so hard to get them both to look at the camera or just take a picture.  Alex sang Happy Birthday to me all day long.  It was a strange birthday and really hard since I wasn't with Al, but that just means next year has to be really good :)  Here's to our new life in Texas

Hail Storm

Our first morning in Texas was at the Embassy Suites in Frisco and I laughed when Al came over to the table with a Texas shaped waffle.

Coby had been in Dallas all of March training for a new job and Al's Dad was also there for work so we got to meet up for dinner.

That night we stayed at Diane's house.  I had only met Diane a few times before moving out here and she has been so kind and welcoming to us.  Our moving truck arrived the next morning!!

I thought we would be able to hang out in the house while they moved everything in, but that only lasted for a couple hours.  We ended up going back to Diane's for naps and then came back later that night to start unpacking.

Our second night at the house there was a crazy hail storm.  I've honestly never seen anything like it and Al's poor car was outside during all of it.  We were trying to put the kids to bed when it sounded like our house was getting shot at with a gun.  It scared me so bad I looked at Al and was like I don't like this.

We couldn't believe the size of the hail so Al ran outside and grabbed one.  That is golf sized hail right there.

Cole and Alex thought it was fun to touch.

Our poor car....8 hail dents, but very little damage compared to a lot of cars we've seen.  We have had about 10-15 roofing companies stop by our house in the last 6 weeks.  Almost every other house in the neighborhood has a roofing sign in their yard because they got a new roof, so crazy.  

My license expired 5 days after we moved to Texas so we had to work fast to license and register our cars.  Our car kept failing emissions, but we were able to pull it off and got our new licenses just in time.  Here are Cole and Alex at the DMV eating their sushi.  I laugh at Cole every time I look at this picture.  The girl helping was like what is that...lol

We found a yummy taco place on the way home.  There is so much Mexican here I don't know what to do with myself, I love it.

and here we our with our new Texas license plates, hooray!!

Cole and Alex finally have a big area to put all their toys.  For the first few days we had all their toys out and Alex never wanted to leave.  We would say lets go the store or lets go get food and he would say no mama I want to stay home.  

I've been eyeing this teepee for a long time so I was excited to buy it along with that shelve with bins for all their toys.  

Texas Border

Our morning in Roswell was quick because we had a long drive to Dallas.  We went to the Roswell UFO Museum and were laughing so hard.  It was basically a huge room with cubicles set up and random articles and pictures posted everywhere.

We were standing in front of this UFO when the aliens started talking, fog started coming out and the UFO was spinning, so random.

Not sure what all the chairs are for. Maybe they have guests come speak about alien encounters?

This was seriously the museum.  We were done in about 15 minutes.

One of their random creepy displays, but this one was in a movie which I want to see.

Scary stuff, until next time Roswell.

The McDonalds was pretty cool and the play place looked awesome.  Too bad we only had time to go through the drive thru for drinks and then hear Alex say mama I want some Diet Coke.

Many hours later we made it to the border of Texas.  Kind of a bittersweet moment, but exciting for all the new things we have to look forward to.

I'm pretty sure their brains turned to mush by sitting in the car for 3 days.  

That night we stayed at an amazing Embassy Suites in Frisco.  We fulfilled Alex's request of swimming in Texas and had the entire pool to ourselves.  We snacked on some seaweed, relaxed, and all had a great nights sleep thanks to the 2 separate rooms. 

New Mexico

I wish I would have wrote this sooner because I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of the details. We stayed in Flagstaff Arizona and took the kids swimming and sat in the hot tub with crazy strong chemicals. I'm almost positive they had way too much in there or did something wrong.  We had a long drive the next morning from Flagstaff to Albuquerque.  I think the boys were getting used to watching tv all day long, eating snacks, and basically living in the car.  We had lunch in Albuquerque at Subway and then drove past Santa Fe to some cliff dwellings I was excited to see.  We got to the gas station/place to buy tickets  at 3:15 and they told me they closed at 3pm.  I was like wait we just drove 2 hours out of the way to see these, can we at least go look?  No I'm sorry.  Well are you aware your website says they are open until 6pm?  You must have been looking at our summer hours.  Suck!!!  I was so bummed we couldn't see them and Al was irritated we weren't making good time, such a bummer.   Instead we drove to Santa Fe to the Loretto Chapel to see the famous staircase.

The further we drove the colder it got, a sad moment.

The miraculous staircase was pretty amazing.  

Cole was on the go after we left.  I love this picture.  It explains my life everyday.

I wish we could have seen more of Santa Fe, but we were in search for a park for the kids to play at. 

We had a 3 hour drive to Roswell, NM.  The further we got the flatter it got, no more mountains.  The best part of the road trip was whenever Alex said "momma I have to pee pee."  I remember this time specifically because it was sooo windy when we got out of the car and the wind for some reason made him not want to go anymore.  So I pulled up his pants and buckled him back in the car seat.  In the meantime my hat blew off down the freeway and then Al got out of the car and found it, crazy.  

We made it to Roswell and it was the nicest hotel we had stayed in the entire time.  I was laughing so hard about the aliens everywhere.  This one was named Carlos and was in our hotel lobby.  Alex thought he was cool, but Cole was scared of him.

Road Trip

Our first night we stayed in Victorville which was only about 1 hour from our first stop, Calico Ghost Town.  Al was already annoyed about this stop so you can imagine how much he loved all the others :)  

Calico was a tourist trap, but that was obvious before we even got there.  They charge you per person before you even park your car. 

This building is made out of glass bottles and looks even more amazing on the inside.

The main thing I wanted to do was take the boys on a train ride.  It was closed for maintenance issues when we first got there, so we walked around for a bit and luckily it opened right before we left. 

Calico Ghost Town was a quick visit but fun to see.   There is also a Calico Ghost Town at Knotsberry Farm which just happens to be made after this because Mr Knott bought and restored the town in the 1950s.  Something else we will have to see someday.

Thank goodness our car has climate control for the driver and passenger.  Al is always hot and I always want to be warm with my seat warmer on!!

It was only the first day, so much excitement to contain.  I was mostly worried for our kids and our sanity.

I did whatever it took to help Cole be entertained and quiet.  This is him ripping my magazine to shreds.  

and this is when we got out at the Grand Canyon.  That paper blew everywhere in the parking lot so to prevent getting a ticket for littering in a State Park I chased that paper as it was blowing in different directions.

On our way we saw a bunch of signs for helicopter tours.  We tried to schedule one and thought that would be cooler than staring at it on foot, but they were already booked.  We put it on our to do list for next time we are in Vegas.  Cole wanted to walk the entire time and Alex didn't want to take a picture.  At least you can see our true feelings in this picture.

The views were breathtaking and I'm so glad Al stopped for us even though it was out of the way. 

The best part of the Grand Canyon were these Asian tourists taking pictures of Alex and Cole.  They asked Al if they could so I started taking pictures of them taking pictures, so funny.  They love that blond hair!!