Jer and Stef: Cross country drive Feb 1-6?

Woke up in the Bakersfield Doubletree, ready to start our cross country trip. It's so nice to not think about packing, moving or saying any more goodbye's. A chance to clear my mind and enjoy a little vacay before the moving in chaos begins.

Well, not all of us were quite as ready to start the trip.

The first afternoon we stopped for a picnic. This is where Ellia lost her second tooth.

Dinner.

yummy.

Staying in the park at Grand Canyon.....it was freezing! As we drove up there was even snow on the ground. I assumed it would be a warm place, probably just from what I've seen in movies. I had been texting Kellie and told her this and she said, "You have your snowboards!" Ha Ha. Yes, we had to strap our snowboards to the top of the car because even after telling the movers at least three times to pack them, they still left them on the shelf in the garage.

So i know this looks bad, but Ellia almost swallowed her bottom tooth the first day of our trip and wouldn't let me get a picture of her without some force. We sat down to picnic with some chicken nuggets and she started whining, turned to me and said, 'moooommmyyy!' we found the tooth and crises was averted.

The girls had sticks with them almost the whole time, and kept writing letters in the snow.

Well, we stayed overnight in Roswell and didn't see any aliens...but we got to go swimming. Quincy's first time.

We stayed a little out of the way one day and Jeremy GPS'd a shortcut on a 5 mile dirt road, well after about a mile Quincy wasn't appreciating it so we turned back. I wasn't really excited to take another dirt road adventure after some of our past experiences!

Carlsbad Caverns...kindof funny being there with Quincy at three months old because we took Ellia there when she was only two weeks old.

just passing the time on the long ride. Kids did SO good! I would definitely drive again, we had a blast at all our stops. We even ate at Cracker Barrel in New Mexico and the decor we sat under was all about Louisiana Sweet Potatoes.

Ashlyn proved getting the dogs was a good idea. She really enjoyed putting his head out the window.

I think this was at a Taco Bell...we thought of you Laura.

Poor Quincy had to put up with Ashlyn across the whole country.

Driving through Texas one rainy night we were surprised to see that we were almost to......Bakersfield! Bakersfield, Texas that is. The sign was an unexpected and fun thing to see as we headed further into Texas and unknown territory. We also went through Gillespie County and drove on Utah Street.

Ice creams on the river walk in San antonio (rita's it was SO good and inexpensive too. ice cream, gelato, sorbet, sherbet, and frozen yogurt.

On the river walk in San Antonio.

River Walk Ferry boat.

Playing on the luggage rack at our hotel.

Qunicy at the Alamo

Not so smart Ashlyn.

Alamo

View from our hotel room in down town Houston. We stayed at the Hilton connected to the conference center. You can see the Toyota center on the left.

a playground in Houston while waiting to have dinner with friends Brad and Tina and see Ginger and Violet as well.

Kept trying to catch Ellia with one of Quincy's binkies because it embarassed her...finally got it!

Ooh she was too fast this time.

Here's Utah street in Houston.

Right across the Texas - Louisianna Border we saw our car! Every carrier we saw I'd think, "there's our car, " but this time I said it out loud, and guess what....there it was! The kids didn't believe us.

This is pretty close to the picture I have in my mind of what Louisiana would be like.

Our first view of the mighty Mississippi river.

Stopping at our new temple in Baton Rouge Louisiana. A smaller temple that isn't open every day and where we will have to make reservation to attend.

Finally we arrive at our new apartment - home until we find a house. The girls had to open and explore every nook and cranny. That night we stayed in a hotel in Covington, met the driver with our car and planned to get up early to meet the movers at the apartment.