Friday, October 5, 2012

Summer break

Yes! We visited 15 states this summer.  My hubby got a temporary management position for work in Austin Texas.  It was perfect timing for our family to go on a car trip adventure.  We took 3 very full days to drive down, played all summer, spent most of it pruning in the hotel pool.  We feel very lucky for this chance to see this beautiful country and diversity in the various states we visited.  It was nice to have no responsibilities other than spending time with our family.  We stayed at a hotel and ate out....a lot.  We were all excited for home cooked meals when we got home.  The bigg est thing i enjoyed was all our attention was placed on family time- literally no distractions.  it was fabulous.

We saw:
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas,
Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, California



We also had the chance to see several National parks, which you know I love!
Bill Clintons' birth place home in Little Rock AR, LBJ Ranch in Johnson City, Harry S. Truman home in Independence Mo.  George Washington Carver Natl park MO, Petrified forest National AZ, White Sands NM, Grand Canyon South Rim, Redwood Natl park CA, San Antonio Missions TX.  Our Annual Pass more than paid for itself this year.  This is the boys getting their Junior Ranger badges at George Washington Carver National park.





I absolutely love visiting historic sites and so I thought a trip to the Texas State Capitol would be in order.  It was no real surprise in our two months in the state how many times we heard about the massive size of the building.  Yes, everything is bigger in Texas.  All the chandeliers spell Texas with light bulbs.  You have to appreciate their pride in their state.  

The kids thought the elevators were so fancy because they were made of "gold"



We were invited to an LDS pioneer day celebration that would put most town festivals to shame.  They had a petting zoo, face painting, a DJ, dancing, bounce houses, yard games, crafts, food,  and FIREWORKS in the evening.  All I could say is wow.  




San Antonio Missions are Beautiful!  







Natural bridge Caverns





hunting for gems




What? Ice Skating? Marsh was the biggest fan.




Hamilton pool:  Texas style swimming hole.  Translation: water = EWWW but it was a really cool place.






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summer part 2


Part of Ryan's job was managing the office in Kansas City Mo.   This meant we needed to drive up to KC from Austin.  We stopped along the way to visit where he grew up in Tyler Texas, then to Rogers Arkansas.  We found KC to be a wonderful City.  We loved it there.   Our week went by really fast and  we ran out of time to see what we wanted to see on our list.  We did the Kaleidoscope, went to Moon Marble co and watched a demonstration on how they make marbles, saw the WW1 Museum, went to Independence to visit church history sites and toured the home of Harry S Truman.   KC would be a fabulous couples get away spot with loads of art to check out and a fun shopping district on a river bank.  We also enjoyed some good Kansas City BBQ. I would definitely go back.  


We saw some of the best sunsets here.





This is the shopping area with really cool statues and fountains














The brand new Kansas City Temple!

We visited Liberty Jail

The kids really were impressed with how difficult a time this was in the prophet Joseph Smith's life.




We were amazed at what a great traveller our two year old was


Largest McDonalds.  No we didn't eat there, In fact we never ate there on our 2 month long travels.  

 This is Arrowhead state park where Ryans grandparents were park managers.  This is where he would spend most Christmas breaks.  




McAlester OK  Giacomo's Italian restaurant owned by Ryans dads cousins.  Yummy


On our way back from KC we stopped in Dallas to meet with Ryans family.  All the cousins were there we were so glad to see everyone!  We went to Ryans Aunts' friends pool.  We really enjoyed our time with them.





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