Looking back over these pics has made me want to road trip this summer.
I don't have time with the other vacations I have planned,
but road trips are so much fun. We had so many adventures.
When we left TX, we drove through NM.
This year was the first time I had AI help plan our stops.
It did a great job!
It suggested a stop at the Very Large Array,
a collection of satellites in the middle of nowhere.
They have a visitors center where you can stop and learn
more about what they do there, but we JUST missed it.
When you're driving in the middle of nowhere,
sometimes there are cows crossing the road.
Another fun stop AI suggested:
New Mexico Tech's Bureau of Geology Museum
in Soccoro, NM.
As I type that out, it sounds totally lame,
but Care Bear and I LOVED it.
We spent over an hour in there looking at all their
beautiful rocks.
The displays were GORGEOUS.
And they also sold a lot of rocks for good prices,
so we bought a few to take home as well.
Yippee for geology!
AI also suggested this beautiful old Catholic mission.
Can you read the dates on there????
The mission was established in 1599
and the parish was founded in 1613!
Unfortunately, the church was closed when
we were there, so we couldn't go in. :(
I guess I need to time things better with the
AI ideas.
More open road!
Drove through Roswell.
We didn't stop this time,
but you see crazy things even while driving.
We spent two nights in Snowflake.
Daneen was out of town.
And Paul had to work a fire,
so we mostly hung out with Colt and Sydney.
Went out for a yummy dinner.
I was impressed with the restaurant,
Streets on Main.
I went out birding for a bit.
Got to see a ruddy duck!
We had an appointment for baptisms at the temple.
Loved worship in the temple with Caroline and her cousins.
The other super exciting thing about Snowflake:
Sister Greenwood, a young woman from NC,
is serving her mission here, so we got to meet her
at the temple! It was SO good to hug her neck
and catch up for a bit.
We drove up to the Petrified Forest National Park
and spent a few hours there.
Oh, how I LOVE the desert landscape.
It feeds my soul.
They were celebrating an anniversary at the park.
As part of the celebration, they had Harvey Girls there.
Harvey girls had something to do with the railroad
coming through town. I think they sold snacks and
cigarettes to passengers??? Anyway, one of the Harvey
Girls that was there was Ms. Stewart--my junior high
volleyball coach and a good family friend! What?!
So fun to see her! And also Peggy Nelson, another
family friend.
Hooray for the desert!
Mark, Taylor, Marcos, Gabriel, and Ami met us there.
I was so happy we got to spend a little time with them.
They call this Newspaper Rock.
Lots of petroglyphs all around it.
Some of the namesake Petrified wood
It stinks only getting to see my brothers once a year.
And I only saw Paul for about an hour.
Miel is the SWEETEST dog!
Gorgeous desert sunset
Some big horn sheep that Caroline spotted from the road.
We also enjoyed eating at Avery's BBQ in Springerville.
We found some yummy sides. Ha!
Arizona!
Drove through Holbrook and got to see the wigwam hotel.
We went to church in Winslow, which I always love.
Two of my high school friends (Roland and Richard)
are in the bishopric. So fun to see them as adults leading the ward.
Caroline asked for a tour of Winslow.
My old high school.
La Posada
The famous corner
Then we took off for St. George
Beautiful landscape around Flagstaff.
I LOVE the drive between Winslow and St. George.
So much desert beauty around every corner.
We stopped for a little peek at the Colorado River
Page, AZ. We were only out of the car for a bit, but
it was HOT!
I spy a little rainbow
Fun sunbeams coming out of the clouds
My parents met us in St. George and we got a CUTE
AirBnb together. Whitney works nights and B works days,
so we never got to all hang out together, but we had
a little time with both of them while we were there.
Thrifting with W
We went to watch Inside Out 2 in the theater.
It was good!
We toured some of the church history sites
around St. George.
This is the Jacob Hamblin home,
one of the early settlers in the area.
Drove through Snow Canyon
Again, it was too hot to be out of the air conditioning for long.
My parents had been at a reunion in Utah, so that's
why we didn't get to see them while we were in TX.
They were given a copy of this pic of my Dad's Grandma.
She made the same types of things that Whit makes now!
Another gorgeous desert sunset.
I got up early one morning to go birding.
Saw this Green Heron in a tree,
they are apparently uncommon in this area at this time.
I think this was a Yellow Warbler...
Or maybe a Yellow-Breasted Chat???
Anna's hummingbird
Black Phoebe
Our Airbnb had a great pool.
Caroline and I spent some time there.
This is a cool area in downtown St. G.
It's right by the art museum.
It's small, but they had some great art!
These felted birds were cute
This is an owl...I think...
Spent some time at Fiesta Fun.
Mostly so I could coin push. Ha!
I think I built the largest tower I've ever
built on Angry Birds. It was kinda
ridiculous and took FOREVER to build.
Treats at the end!
Also toured Brigham Young's Winter Home.
What a perfect place for a winter home! Lucky!
I loved these embroidered pillowcases that said, "Rest."
I was hoping to do baptisms at the St. George Temple,
but there were no appointments available. We just
stopped by to get a pic instead.
111 degrees people.
Summer in St. George is no joke.
B doesn't have any vacation time at his new job,
so we only got to see him for a bit in the evening.
We ate at George's. It was SO GOOD.
Bear loved her yummy drink.
I love seeing him in his business casual!
Proud of him for working hard!
My parents wanted to trying playing Wingspan again.
Yippee!
I never play the physical game anymore, so it was
fun to bring it along and play with them.
They headed home from St. George and Caroline
and I headed out to Zion NP.
Love it!
So beautiful!
But the crowds are ridiculous.
We left early in the morning, but there was already
no place to park. Or you had to pay $50 to park. Ugh.
We gave up and headed out of the park.
But we passed this cute rock shop on the way out and stopped by.
The worker there told us that we could drive through the
park without having to park or take the shuttle.
I think that's only allowed in part of the park???
Anyway, we turned back around and decided to drive through.
We couldn't do any hiking,
but there were a couple spots to pull over and take pics.
Wow, God is an amazing creator and artist!
Look at that!
When we were done driving through,
my cell phone didn't have reception and I wasn't
sure exactly where we were supposed to go....
Hmmmm....
I knew we needed to head north.
So I just turned that way and we started driving.
Pretty soon we saw signs for Bryce Canyon!
What the heck?
Let's stop there, too!
Caroline had never been and I hadn't been in YEARS.
I LOVE IT SO MUCH!
We want to go back when we actually PLAN to go
there and have more time.
Stunning.
Every year that I get to road trip I'm grateful for the
beautiful world that the Savior created and grateful
that I get to see so many beautiful parts of it!
