Vacation Mode

Any time we've come to Texas it's been a big vacation so naturally that's how we all saw it when we first got here. I knew we would have to get back to business and make life as normal as possible but only after we had all had some fun. 

First stop: The Perot Museum

 Racing a T-Rex

 Lunch break

While swimming at a neighborhood pool Preston slipped and hit his head on a cement corner. Poor kid still can't get a break with his face. He had that goose egg for weeks.  

Saturday afternoon at Going Bonkers:

 Sierra making friends in the toddler zone

 When they were done climbing around we hit up the mini rides and arcades

 I like Sierra's method 

 She loves her blanket

 Spending the morning in the backyard

 Preston and Derek having a silly string war

 Grandma's house has the best toys

 That bed head is amazing! it happens every time she sleeps and nothing but getting it wet makes it go away

 Washing all the cars in the driveway

  Aunt Liz had been teaching her kids about growing apples and things you can do with apples so we spent an afternoon making personal apple pies

 Waiting for the pie to bake

 After playing with a bucket of flour in the backyard

 Just a little light reading

 Stock up costco trip for 2 families

 Clara and Sierra loved helping

 Preston lived in this cape

 Oakley, Clara, and Sierra

Clara and Sierra wanted to play with Oakley who hasn't learned to walk yet so they crawled with her

The Move

It was a whirlwind of a move. I felt bad for leaving a load of garbage and a few things to be sold for our friends and neighbors to take care of for us. I wish I could have tied up the loose ends myself but we had to get on the road so Jared could be at work Monday morning August 10th. 

 

 watching a show so I could pack

 Unfortunately, this happened a lot the last few days. At least they were sweet about it

 We rented a few U-boxes for our stuff to be moved and stored until we found a house in texas. We had planned on loading those up on Thursday and driving out on Friday. The week before moving day we got notice that our street would be closed for 24 hours on Thursday for resurfacing. So we had to move our loading day to Wednesday. That made things a little tighter on the packing end of things but it at least forced me to have one more day to focus on cleaning. The morning we loaded the boxes I brought the kids over to play with my siblings. A couple hours later my mom called because Preston was throwing up. He just wanted his mom. I had my mom bring the kids back and just hoped he would be able to sleep most of the day. I spent some time cuddling him then gave him the tablet while I helped load up. Fortunately Sierra was happy to just watch the commotion.

Sierra couldn't let Preston take a nap by himself.

 Saying goodbye to Lyla and the rest of my family

 When you don't have a table or any dishes you do what you can

 The house is empty and our car is PACKED, off we go on an adventure 

There are many things about Texas that we are excited about but this is home and it will be missed

 I told Jared that I did not want to leave Utah without going to Arches National Park. We stopped there the first night and spent a few hours exploring the park the next day. It was kind of nice to be able to unhitch the Accent and drive around the park in a not so packed and stuffy car.

 After having a sucker he was pleased to show off his blue tongue

 the tongue...

 and again the tongue

 Riding in a backpack is hard work

 We made one more stop in Albuquerque. The kids could have had waffle, danishes, bagels, fruit, yogurt, or oatmeal (really is one of their favorites) and all they wanted were fruit loops. I guess you can tell what they don't get at home.

 Getting a little energy out at a rest stop

I'm not sure if any of the oreo made it into her belly but at least she was happy after 2 days of driving