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We added to our family today, thanks to Quinn's pal Zack and his family!

Meet Owen.  He's almost 12 weeks old.

Just ignore all that stuff on my counters.  We are still unpacking from our trip.

He explored all afternoon.  He's been happy playing with his new toys, and ping-pong balls. He's pounced all over and has run all around.  I think he will sleep pretty well tonight.

Thanks Zack and family!  We love him!

Homeward Bound

On our drive home today, we stopped in Baker, California.  It is the home of the world's largest thermometer.  You can't tell from the picture, but it was 101 degrees (at 10:30 in the morning).

Baker is the Gateway to Death Valley.

It gets so hot here, you can fry an egg.

Look what we found at the "Alien Jerky" store.  

Those two adults are responsible alien parents.  Their baby and toddler aliens are strapped into their carseats.

Aliens were everywhere.

We are happy to be home.  We had a really great time and saw lots of great places.  Riley loved Chicago, Philadelphia, and Vegas.  Quinn loved Chicago and the Crayola Factory.  Kevin loved Bear Country USA, and I loved Chicago and Philadelphia.  We are already planning our next roadtrip-but not tomorrow!  For now, we are happy to be back in California.  It was 71 degrees when we got home.  AHHH.

Vegas Baby!

We left Green River, Utah early, and headed for Vegas.  We stayed the night at Excalibur.  

Here's the view from our room on the 24th floor.

Paris Casino. 

Oh yeah, it was HOT.  110 degrees.  We went from air conditioning to air conditioning.  The boys loved playing in these misting fans. They would get really wet, and then dry really fast.

New York, New York Casino.  See the roller coaster track?

Bellagio.  We watched a couple of the fountain shows in front of this casino.  The fountains are really amazing.

We left Vegas at 9am this morning, headed for HOME!

Four Corners and Arches National Park

From Albuquerque, we drove to Four Corners, where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet (at the corner).  This was a pretty exciting day, on many levels. 

Here's Riley with body parts in all 4 states.  This was his favorite part.  His least favorite part?  When he fainted while looking at souvenirs.  Not fun.  It was in the high 90's and all of a sudden, he really started complaining.  I had a hold of him, and out he went. We got him to the car (and the air conditioning) and we were on our way.  He was fine.

After the drama of Four Corners, we took in the spectacular views of Arches National Park.  Wow.  It really is something to see.

Balancing Rock

Delicate Arch-this one's really famous.  Many Utah residents have this on their license plates. We were pretty far back, thank goodness for my 12x zoom.  We did not hike out to it (it's over an hour and pretty strenuous), it was really hot.

Wow.  I believe this area is called "Park Avenue."

We headed for Green River, Utah for the night.  It was the 4th of July, and we did see some fireworks in Green River.  We used our sparklers and snakes.

New Mexico

We left Amarillo, Texas around 9 am this morning.  We went in search of the Cadillac Ranch, which was harder to find then you would think.  The directions we had were crazy, but alas, we found it. It was raining, so we didn't go out to the cars.  There are about 8 cadillacs with their noses buried in the ground.  People come along and sign them, so they are very colorful.

Finding these cars, slowed us down a little this morning.  We set out for Roswell, New Mexico. We made it as far as Clovis, NM and then headed for the interstate.  The weather was so horrible, and the roads were not real great (not an interstate, just little country roads).  For a good long time, we were the only ones heading south-scary.  It was a monsoon!  At one point, I went through a giant puddle of standing water.  The boys were impressed with the splash. I was not.  We decided it was not worth it to try and make it to Roswell on these little, unoccupied roads, in these little Texas and New Mexico towns, in the middle of nowhere.  It will have to be visited on another trip.  We went straight to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

My car is dirty.  See the dirt around my happy family?  We decided not to wash it.  We are going to see how much more dirt accumulates. 

Kevin took the boys to the New Mexico History Museum, and I went to Old Town-lots of restaurants, stores, and galleries.  It was HOT.  95 degrees.  I sweated my bottom off!   This was a cool building though, and I got to shop, without children, so it was good.

We stayed at the Hotel  Albuquerque.  It's really nice.  We were on the 10th floor.  It's next to Old Town.  I could have walked there, but I didn't.  It was hot.

Here's the sunset from our room, this evening.  Quinn said, "It's just beautiful."  That about sums it up.

We are heading for Green River, Utah, tomorrow.  We'll stop at 4 corners (Riley is psyched that he can stand in 4 states at once), and we will also visit Arches National Park.  Green River is where we will spend the 4th of July.  Kevin bought sparklers and snakes for tomorrow.  The boys are so excited-we can't have any fireworks in the city we live in.

Did I mention I got to go to Hobby Lobby in Albuquerque.  I did.  Yup.

St. Louis, Missouri

We made it to St. Louis yesterday.  I guess we got there around 5:30 pm.  We drove all day, through West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and into Missouri.  We decided to stop and see the Gateway Arch.

Here's a wacky picture taken inside the pod thing that takes you up the arch.  I believe they call it an "inclinator."  There are 8 of them, and they seat 5.  It's quite tiny.  It takes 4 minutes to get to the top.

The view from the top.  This is the city side of the arch.  I did take pictures of the river side too, but didn't post them.  The Mississippi River is very full.  The road we wanted to drive on to park near the arch, was flooded.  There's a steamboat casino, and the boarding area is under water.

Another city view, but this is the stadium.  See those dots?  Those are people, as the Cardinals were playing last night.

Here's the arch from the outside.  It was a bit sunshiny on the one side, quite blinding.

On the way back to the car, I took this picture of the side of an old building.  I just liked the mural.

We spent the night in St. Louis last night, near the airport.  The fire alarm went off for a good long time, but we didn't evacuate.  Too tired.

Today, we did nothing but drive.  We left St. Louis around 8:15 am, and made it to Amarillo, Texas by 8:30 pm.  Tomorrow, we go to Roswell, New Mexico.

Chocolate!

The day before yesterday (I think), we went to Hershey, PA.  We drove around the town a little, and then went to Chocolate World.  

This is one of the many street lamps that line the little downtown.  Cute huh?

The sign for Chocolate World.  We rode a ride about how chocolate is made, and we visited the gift shop.  It was too late to try and do the trolley, movie, or create our own chocolate bags from the assembly line.  We wanted to get down the road some, so we wouldn't have so much to drive the next day, as the plan was to get to St. Louis.

That's some pretty big chocolate.  Yes, it's real. No, we didn't buy it. Just used it as props.  Quinn is holding what we did purchase.  Two squishy, soft kisses.

Look, my favorite, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  Yum.

We stayed the night in West Virginia.  It rained (or rather, poured) almost the entire way there.