Road Trip

Well, we survived a trip to New Mexico. It was so nice to see family and to participate in the fun activities. Unfortunately, we have no pictures. I think we were too exhausted from the traveling to use the camera. The trip in the car took 16 hours. It was a very long drive. On the way there, we left at 6:00 am, made it to Denver by 2:00 and arrived in New Mexico at 8:45 pm Mountain Daylight time. We had gained an hour so to us it felt like 9:45. It was long, but it wasn't really that bad. Here are some things that we learned:

• Take very seriously the 75 mph speed limit on I-80
• The northern part of Colorado is very flat, ugly and brown (not what you would expect)
• A child that has been playing all day and gets into the car will fall asleep almost immediately, a child that has been in the car all day has a very hard time falling asleep.
• You will always lose some checkers to a travel Connect 4 game, even though the game comes in a zippered pouch and has elastic pockets to store the checkers in.
• It is very difficult to get a child to throw away trash in a car.
• The mountains of Colorado are very scenic, but difficult to drive through. Think hair pin switch backs and those big steep hills to stop run away trucks.
• McDonald's has better toys than Burger King
• It is far easier to leave at 6:00 am and arrive at 10:00 pm than to leave at 8:45 am and arrive home at 2:00 am.
• Kids almost never eat the healthy snacks you pack in the car.

I really wish I had some pictures to put on here. On the way to New Mexico I kept seeing these interesting things but I figured a picture from the window of a moving car wouldn't have turned out. There was a rest stop in Colorado that had tepees over the picnic tables, some water falls, pretty mountains, Welcome to [Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska] signs, Chimney rock in Colorado (there is a different one - the Mormon trail one, in Nebraska). I'm sure there's even stuff I don't remember, but I know I wanted to take a picture of it. Also, one weird thing that happened is I was wondering exactly at what point we would cross over into the other time zone and I looked up and at that moment I saw the sign, saying we were in the new time zone.

Anyway, this is what we did in New Mexico

• Got rained on at the annual dinner.
• Got sacks full of candy at the parade.
• Raced, played, and rode a train at the games at the church.
• Went to a play about a county fair.
• Saw fireworks
• Went swimming at the Kirtland pool. Some of the kids even jumped off a diving board and swam to the edge of the pool.
• Saw cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters and of course, grand parents.

It was nice time, even though the drive is long. I guess the good thing is, it will make driving to Utah seem easy. And don't even talk to me about the measly 6 hour drive from Utah to New Mexico...