SO, the last leg found us staying a night in amarillo, texas (town of the largest steak you can eat in the country. um, yay?) and also the home of {cadillac ranch}. (i wish i got pictures. alas, my camera was dead.) our original plans didn't include this lovely city. we were supposed to stay in el paso for a night, but since white people are being kidnapped and found later without heads at the moment, i thought a single mother with three kids should probably avoid the place at all costs. especially when i realized the hotel we were supposed to stay at had locked down parking for the duration of your stay. yikes.
so back to amarillo. it was a charming city, we had a good time and then we moved on to albuquerque. we weren't as impressed. the hotel was nice but the city just seemed so blah. we fortunately only had to stay there one night before moving on to phoenix, arizona.
ah, arizona. my home state. of course she greeted us with a massive dust storm that stopped traffic on the freeway in it's tracks. welcome home lady, did you miss me? we first stayed with my dad at a hotel in the middle of the desert. which of course brought more dust storms. i did love my kids spending time with their grandpa though. i don't think he knew what he was in for. my kids were climbing the walls and he was on his last nerve by the time we left. while i was with my dad, i went around my old stomping grounds. my schools, my work, my favorite record store. it was very strange to be home.
after we said our grand goodbyes to my dad, we moved on to stay with my adorable sister in law, her rad husband and her cute little belly that carried my sweet nephew. man did my kids ever love her husband. he would throw my kids into the "love sack" over and over and they just couldn't.get.enough. i loved being able to spend time with my husbands side of the family. they are always entertaining. much time was spent swimming, eating and corralling children. my kids were even able to spend one glorious night with my fantastical brother in law and his girl friend. to my kids that was like winning the lottery. seriously. it was hitting the lottery for me because i had a night off to visit old friends and visit with my sister in law.
i wanted my kids to experience as much of my home as possible. not only did i take them to my old stomping grounds, we went to the grand canyon, sedona, flagstaff, cottonwood, the mesa temple and visited my grandma. my grandma deserves a whole post on her own. i'll have to do that another time. the time went so fast but it was totally worth it.
we made our way out absolutely exhausted and we traveled back to new mexico. this time we by-passed albuquerque and stayed in eccentric santa fe. and by eccentric, i mean crazy. i'll leave it at that.
and amazingly this ends our insane travels. from there we headed into our new home. we had to stay in an extended stay hotel. it was nasty. it smelled of curry, i swear we had a prostitute living next door (i was tired of being woken up to a headboard pounding into my wall) and i kept getting hit on by the creepy homeless guy who was living on the corner. luckily, our land lord let us move in three days early.
all in all, i know that i was beyond blessed to not have one thing happen. no massive wrench in our travels. it all worked out perfectly. and while i appreciate that, i don't want to do a trip like this EVER. AGAIN. once in a life time is enough for me.
alrighty, now on to the pics...
(which are shockingly limited)
rocking it out with great grandma
making creations with a superb lady
how on earth could my daughter be ever so obsessed with a dead fox? the whole time we were in sedona, i heard nothing but her begging for me to buy it. so gross.
glass enclosures are so much safer.
the big whole in the ground.
oh, metro center.
so many wasted hours were spent here.
zia's. never before or since has there been a place like this. memories, memories.
kickin' it old school. literally.
my childhood home. it did NOT look like this growing up. i hardly recognized it.
