Moving, Part 2- Road Trip!

After all the packing and goodbyes, it was time to hit the road! I'm not going to lie, I was so done with all the moving stuff that I was really looking forward to the simplicity of a good ol' road trip.

Cade and I took my VW, and Dan and Alex took the Xterra which was trailing a UHaul enclosed trailer with our stuff. Cade did an AWESOME job on his first cross country trip!

Day one was traveling from San Antonio to Santa Fe. 

Cade was always intrigued by these long stretches of road that seem to meet up with the sky

The reason we stopped in Santa Fe was to make a second visit (3rd for Dan) to Meow Wolf! This is an immersive, interactive art installation that defies reason. It's so much fun to explore and immerse yourself in the story line and try to let the place reveal more and more information to you. I try not to take too many pictures inside so as not to give away any secrets, but here's a few for you!

All 3 boys smiling?? Yay!!

That evening we spent a little time walking around downtown Santa Fe.

What even is this mode of transportation?!

This was supposedly one of the oldest, if not THE oldest cathedral in the US!

Just outside the cathedral is a beautiful statue of Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American woman to be beatified and canonized- and she is the patron saint of Nature and Beauty.

You can't always just pose next to a statue, pose with it!

Day two was from Santa Fe to Las Vegas! This meant going through AZ.

Dan and Alex made an extra little stop at a Mormon Battalion historical marker :)

Dan messaged me and asked if I was interested in making a detour at the Grand Canyon. My initial though was no way, but after taking a look at the route and how much of a detour it would be we decided to go for it. The last time we were at the Grand Canyon was in 2012, 9 years ago! The boys certainly didn't remember just how impressive it is in person.

Puppy at the grand canyon!

Elk!

Part of our adventure at the grand canyon included the weather. I had dan take a picture of us from this angle, and then the second picture shows what was coming as we arrived there. 

We got pretty wet, but the storm allowed us to visit without lingering too long! After our detour we finished out our drive towards Las Vegas.

Remember Meow Wolf in Sante Fe? Well the reason we were in Vegas was to visit the 2nd Meow Wolf location! It just opened up this year and is a completely different, yet awesome experience.

One of our souvenirs from Meow Wolf was the experience tube. If you line it up just right you can see each other's faces!

We also took the opportunity to visit a good friend of Dan's from the army. Sammy and his family treated us to some delicious Korean fried chicken, good conversation and games! What an awesome family :)

The next morning we made the rest of our trek up to Boise, Idaho. Dan left early to get a headstart while Cade, Alex and I took a detour at Valley of Fire State park. It was a scenic drive into the park and we drove to a trail that had a slot canyon to explore. However, when we got out of the car to hike the trail, it was SO hot. We couldn't leave pup in the car, but the trail was all sand which was very hot for puppy feet. So instead we found some shade for Carson and the boys did what they do best, climb the rocks!

That's Cade way up there!

Panting puppies look like they're smiling, but he's just really hot!

After our detour it sure took awhile to make it up to the Idaho border. Maybe it's because we knew we were nearing the end of all the driving for a bit, but that was a long day! I think it was 11pm before we made it to Brett and Kristina's house!

Dan beat us to Idaho!

So after a little bit of vacation we had arrived in Idaho to stay with Dan's family until we knew more about our future in Washington. I'll write up Part 3 when we have more on that front to share!