Our Trip Home

Sunday we went to Church with G&G M. Afterward since we were leaving to come home the next day, Aaron wanted to go on a mini tour of Plano to show the kids where he grew up, his old friends' houses, his schools, etc. We were out driving around when in the middle of a busy road the car stalled out. We coasted to the side of the road where we could stop and put it into park and try to restart it. It restarted without a problem, but it was very concerning since we were leaving the next day to make a 24 hour drive home. Since the car is still under warranty so better to be safe than sorry we decided to leave later Monday to come home and took it in Monday morning to get it checked out. They couldn't find anything wrong so we crossed our fingers and left Monday afternoon to come home hoping nothing would go wrong.

Sunday evening we went for one last swim in the pool. I am happy to say all three boys know how to swim. Matthew does a pretty mean doggy paddle, but can get from point A to point B without any assistance. Josh can swim any which way he wants--underwater, above water, etc. At the beginning of the week he was using a life jacket to float around. Out of the blue he came up to Aaron and told him he didn't want to use a life jacket anymore. Aaron worked with him and within a few hours he could swim by himself across the length of the pool. After than Aaron tried working with Matthew. It took a while to pry the floaties off his arms, but he finally learned how to doggie paddle and is really close to learning how to freestyle swim. Daniel then decided he wanted to try too. He learned really fast to swim the length of the pool, however he can swim it on one breath. He can't quite figure out you are supposed to take a breath while you swim. However, by the time we left Texas all of them were able to swim in the pool without any floatation device whatsoever. YAY!! Sarah tried to take her floaties off, but she just sunk like a rock. Maybe next time it will be her turn to learn. One of their favorite things to do was jump off the ledge and swim to the other end of the pool.

Sarah not wanting to be left out had to jump off just like her brothers.

We left Monday afternoon and tried to drive as far as we could before we stopped at a hotel for the night. Of course we had to hit Taco Bueno for lunch to let Aaron get his last Taco Bueno fix before we left Texas. We drove and just off the freeway in Amarillo there is an interesting place called Cadillac Ranch. An eccentric millionaire took a bunch of Cadillacs and buried them in the ground at a 45 degree angle and let anyone and everyone spray paint them with whatever they want. Of course how can you pass up a legal way to do some graffiti? We stopped by a Walmart and picked up T-shirts, latex gloves and spray paint for the kids. While we were there we all had a potty break. Aaron was in taking Matthew while I was taking the rest of the kids out to the car. While in the bathroom Matthew saw the light switch in the men's room and of course couldn't pass it up. He turned it off before Aaron could stop him and the whole bathroom turned pitch black. Unfortunately there were a few men taking care of their business. Aaron hurried and turned the light back on and left with Matthew before anyone could wipe and chase after them. Gotta love Matthew and his obsessions! Anyway we gathered up the paint, t-shirts and gloves and went over and had some fun. It took a little bit for the kids to figure out how to use the paint, but they finally got the hang of it.I had to take a picture of all the paint splatters all over Sarah's face, arms and legs. (We woke her up to get her out of the car to paint so her hair is pretty scary.)We had to leave our mark of course!

We stopped by at a hotel in New Mexico that night. We then got up early the next morning had breakfast and headed out for a long drive the rest of the way home. We entered the Utah state border around Monticello so we stopped by to see the almost new temple. After that it was a straight shot home. I am happy to say we all made it home in one piece and our car did not faulter at all--thank goodness. We had a great visit with everyone. The kids loved sleeping over at G&G M's house and swimming in Aunt Jill and Jeff's pool. We also loved seeing Sydney and how big she is getting. It was all around a good vacation and visit! Thanks for hosting all of us!! Here's the Bubba Baby Noah and his sweet cousin Sydney. They are a month apart and yes, Noah LOVES to eat!!!