Carter Blogs about the trip from Utah to Texas

OK, so as you probably know from the previous post, we just got back from a little trip up to Utah. The primary reason we went is because my car, El Toro Rojo (AKA The Red Bull) was pretty much dead. Basically it had over 187K miles on it, needed a new catalytic converter and breaks. There comes a point in time where it is just cheaper to give up then it is to fix it. So, before we talk about the trip, let's take a moment to remember the car that passed before:


OK, so we went up to Utah because Kari's brother works for Saturn and he always takes good care of us when it comes to buying cars. We bought Kari's car from him almost 2 years ago. We were looking at a Saturn Aura, and he was able to find us a 2008 model that was in excellent condition. We picked up the car on Friday and started for home on Saturday. When we originally planned out our trip we were going to go through Colorado and Oklahoma to get home, but circumstances changed and we decided to go south through New Mexico into the Texas panhandle. The first night we stopped in Moab, UT. Fortunately for us it was bike week. Fun times... (You know, one Harley is cool, but 25 on the same street, especially the street where you are with your 3 year old that thinks they sound like thunder, the same 3 year old that is scared of thunder, that is not cool.) We were able to get a room for the night. The next day we spent some time at Arches national park.

Don't we look great? Notice the cowboy hat on the kid. She loves it.

It is a really fun place to go, the rock formations are just unbelievable.

It was fun to drive/hike around and see the sites. Of course it was HOT, so we did not stick around too long. We got in the car and drove down to the four corners area.

Here we are in four different states at the same time. It was about as much fun as a concrete slab in the middle of the desert in 100 degree heat in summer could be, but at least they had Navajo fry bread. We spent the night in Gallup New Mexico since there were some storms moving in. The next morning we drove down to Albuquerque and saw Kari's cousin Andrea and her husband Daniel and their son Alex.

We stopped in Amarillo and saw Cadillac Ranch. Mackenzie was really tripped out by it all. Imagine 10 cars buried in the middle of a field with nothing around.


That was pretty much the highlights of the trip. Nothing really exciting happened, but it was nice to not have to be somewhere and just take our time getting home. There were a few things that I would like to share:

• If you are planning a road trip with a small child, you can't beat a DVD player in the car. We got a holder to put our little portable DVD player into for Mackenzie, and she loved it. Totally worth it, and it allowed Kari and I to talk more freely since she was using headphones.


• Sometimes when you are driving and you see something like this on the side of the road:

it might not be your imagination.

• Everyone should drive the desert at sunset once in your life, to see this kind of view. (And it is extra cool when you are in a car that totally gets up to 90 without you even realizing it. I mean this car just FLYS!!!)

• The car has XM, which makes driving across large swaths of nothing a lot more manageable. I still had the iPod ready to go, but the XM was nice. Not sure if I am going to keep it, since there is a monthly charge, but I am considering it.


• If you see a pecan store somewhere between Amarillo and Dallas, stop, because the chocolate covered pecans there are darn good.


• Nothing beats a post trip nap after driving 1300 miles.

So in closing, here it the newest member of the family. She is a 2008 Saturn Aura with 13000 miles on her. Ain't she pretty? Any suggestions on what we should call her?

Carter

Kenzi goes to the Utah Farm...

Well we are finally back home from our trip to Utah, or as we affectionately call it, The Utah Farm. It is the only one in the family so it gets deemed the Utah Farm. And really what my brother has is Goats, Chickens, Cats, and a dog. They are thinking about getting a Mule, but I am not sure that makes it any more of a farm than the rest of the stuff. Now a cow or pigs on the other hand... So the pictures running past you as you read this is Kenzi going and running in the sprinklers in which she did once or twice and went and dried off on the trampoline. She loved the trampoline the most. Anytime she could she would jump. She would go out to get eggs from the chickens return to the house to give them to us and then she would be back out to the trampoline. We went this week because my parents went a couple of years back at this time when the County fair was in town. They loved it so much that they wanted to go back for it and thought Kenzi would have fun too so we went along. So there are a couple of pictures of us at the fair. I had never been to a parade that fed you... Almost everything that went by threw out candy and we also got Popsicles from the local store, and individual cereal packets from the Malt-o-meal plant in the neighborhood. We went to see what my niece, Kayla got on her shirt that she made and submitted it to the Fair. That is the girl in the green striped shirt and her shirt is the pink one above her. (So CUTE!) She got a blue ribbon for it! Good job Kayla! After that we hit the rides at the fair, which Kenzi had fun at. She was intimidated by some, but got over it VERY fast. So you don't think I am a completely horrible picture taker, the picture of the empty slide - I was trying to get a picture of Kenzi coming down and missed. Though I was totally able to get one of my nephew, Emmett.The slide pictures are with me in them because when she got to the bottom of the stairs she thought she was going on another ride, dropped her rug and headed straight for me. So I grabbed the carpet and reassured her that we were going on the slide. When we went to get on the rug at the top she started to panic until I distracted her with "Remember when we went down the snow hill in Six Flags, this is the same except there is no snow." While she was trying to figure that out, I had started to go and she started to understand and enjoy herself. I left the Fair early to get Carter from the airport, so I handed off Kenzi to my sister-in-law. We got back Thursday afternoon, just in time to go to the Rodeo. We were able to hit some rides before the Rodeo, as we had left over tickets. So the picture of the boy and the girl sitting close to each other on a ride was my nephew and niece, Emmett and Kami. The ride was making them sit that close, because otherwise that would not have been their preference! OK, I have never been to a Rodeo but I have seen Bull riding on t.v. The only part I didn't like was when the kids would ride the baby bulls. I think a kid actually broke his arm! The rest was pretty interesting and I am not sure that the bull riders or the rodeo clowns get paid enough!

Kenzi's Brag Book

I got an album at one of my Baby Showers. I really like the album but did not know what to do with it. It is an album that holds 4x6 pictures. So since digital scrapbooking is the wave of the future and I had purchased Photoshop Elements years ago and still did not know how to use it. I finally learned from a friend of mine. This is the same friend that has helped me with making my blog look good too!!! Thanks Crystal! So here are some pages that I have gotten done and are in her book. I have a long way to go, but I figure I can take my time since it is a brag book for Kenzi. she will love it whenever I get done with it! So enjoy! I had fun doing it for my first attempts! I think doing the 4x6 is less intimidating! Later! Kari

A penny saved is 10 pennys earned...

OK, So fortunately for me I did not have to go digging for long. I found the coin the first time she pooped. Though this is an experience I would love to not repeat!! But apparently she ate a dime instead of a penny. We have entertained the thought of having her eat Carter's paycheck and see what kind of return we get on that! Later! Kari P.S. And yes that is the coin in question on the bottom right. I cleaned it (though you can't tell, it is pretty tarnished!) and scanned it and it will end up in her scrapbook!