Day 6

Day 6

We woke up this morning to 4-6 inches of fresh snow. It was absolutely beautiful! I took a picture of the sunrise from the hotel room. Unfortunately, I shot it through the screen and the screen is very obvious.

As we were leaving the hotel John put the cell phone in his sweatshirt pocket. You know the front one on the belly of a hooded sweatshirt? We were about 10 minutes away when he reached in to grab the phone and realized IT WAS GONE!!!! Darn! We turned around and headed back to search for it. We pulled into the driveway where he thought he had most likely lost it (he had been bounding through the snow--- yes, my husband bounds! =)) only to find out that it had been freshly plowed. Our hearts sank as we stared at the huge mound/hill/mountain of freshly plowed snow in front of us. My trustly cell phone had fallen victim of the snow and was now MIA. BUMMER!

Leaving the cellphone behind and driving on, we went through Taos, NM and then reached our exciting destination for the day--- The Great Sand Dunes National Park near Alamosa, CO. Oh burr was it cold!!! The wind was ripping! We were ready though. We were armed with winter gear, with sleds in hand, and a relentless determination to sled on those sand dunes--- no matter what! Or so we thought! =)

We drove up as close as we could to the dunes (which wasn't very close). I headed out with the boys as John put more clothing on. The wind was outrageous. Daniel freaked out and headed back to John. Before doing that though he asked me if we were going to get a ticket (two different times mind you). He obviously felt like we were doing something wrong. Ethan and I trudged on. We finally made it onto the first sand dune and there the wind picked up even moreso. We were getting pelted with the sand. We continued on a few more steps, hoping that the wind would subside, or at least slow a little. It didn't and we had to bail out on our conquest. I did get some pictures though. In the pics you can see the sand whipping across the surface of the dunes. The kids did the Junior Ranger program, and we ended our day in Colorado Springs.

Day 5

Day 5--- Ski Sipapu, NM

Nestled up in the mountains 20 miles SE of Taos, NM is Sipapu. Skiing was really cheap-- about $60 for lift tickets, rentals, and a night in a hotel room.

We had a blast. They didn't have many runs open but the ones that were open were a decent distance. The boys did great. Toward the end of the day Daniel (the daredevil) went off with John while Ethan (the cautious one) and I stuck together.

John used my little point-and-shoot digital camera and took some video. The video quality isn't great, but it was easier to handle. John took most of the video while skiing backwards.

Daniel is in the blue coat. Ethan is in grey and orange. I am in yellow. They just happened to meet up with me and Ethan on one of the runs.

Day 4

Day 4 was a day of the unexpected. We got a flat tire. Thankfully this wasn't as bad as it could have been. I was considering getting two new back tires before we left--- thankfully I didn't. We were at a rest area right before crossing into Texas when Ethan noticed that we had a nail in our tire that was spewing out air. We got two new tires in Amarillo.

That was the big adventure of the day. Other than that we were in Oklahoma, Texas, and finished our day in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe is interesting. All of the buildings and houses are fashioned in an adobe style.

I finally feel like I am in the west.

Day 3

Day 3

This was Ethan's dream day (John didn't confess to this as Ethan did, but I am sure that he was psyched). They got to go into two state capitols in one day. Trivia time---- What is the capital of Arkansas? What is the capital of Oklahoma ? Did you get them? If so, and you think you are smart--- what is the capital of New Hampshire? Missouri? South Dakota? I just thought I'd try to stump you. =) Yes, this is what we do in the car quite often. Back to my point though. We went into two capitols (I went in one, they went in two).

(BTW, we looked this up--- "capitol" refers to the building and "capital" refers to the city.)

After Little Rock we went to Hot Springs National Park. The kids did the Junior Ranger program and we touched some of the hot water. If you haven't been there you are not missing anything.

In Oklahoma City Daniel got one of his Christmas gifts. He got to pick out an animal at Build-A-Bear. This gift was under the guise of being for him, but really I enjoyed it as much as he did! =) I tried to talk him into getting one of the reindeer but he was set on his dog that he named Smokey. Smokey has a firefighter's outfit on.

Angie--- I am with you girl--- Okalhoma City is rather dull. The mall was really nice though!

Day 2

Day 2

It was a day of driving, driving, and more driving. I am not a fan of driving. I don't have much to say about this day because my day was full of A LOT of sleep.

The bright part of the day was having lunch in Memphis with my friend Anne. Anne, it was great seeing you. Heidi is so cute! I love her personality. When you come down to Florida give me a call!

As most of you know, Ethan and Daniel are great in the car!!! Seriously!!! I printed them off a bunch of pages about the states that we are passing through. They have coloring pages, maps, state facts, crosswords, and word searches. The biggest highlight is when we pass into a new state. Today we were in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

We ended the day in Little Rock, AR.

The only pic that I have is of Daniel. He LOVES to help out when we are on vacation (Ethan does too-- this is something that developed from our Alaska trip). The picture is of Daniel pulling in a suitcase that rivaled his size. He really wanted to pull it in though. In the picture you can't really tell how big it is.

Day One 12/08/08

We left on the 8th after John's last final and headed out of town with excitement for all that lay ahead. Okay, so the truth is not ALL that lay ahead. Not for me at least. John was thrilled to add blue marks to his map. For those of you who know what I am talking about-- you now know that Ohio doesn't have that many rivers. =) For those of you who don't--- John highlights all of the roads that he drives on in his trusty atlas. This means that he likes to drive on roads that he hasn't been on yet (by the way, this used to be annoying, but now it is oddly cute). So this trip out to Colorado we are going a northerly route whereas last year we took the southern route. Day One wasn't full of excitement but hey we are headed out west-- does it get much better?

For my Tallahassee ladies-- we passed our peanut hay in that one field in GA, and all of the cotton was harvested--- I reminisced about good times.

We stayed in Birmingham, Alabama.

Sorry no pics today.