Getting Through January

I've been thinking about it.
And I've decided, January is still my least favorite month of the year.
I've believed that for many years now. But I decided to give it a decent chance this year.

And, to be fair, this has been one of my better Januaries, as far as Januaries go. First, our Christmas Break lasted all the way until the SEVENTH!! -- which knocked out one whole week, right there.... nice days of sleeping in, lounging with family and friends, continuing the glorious holiday-style gluttonous eating, and putting off the New Year exercise regime for a few extra days. Not a bad way to introduce January, I suppose.

Yes, I admit the ENTIRE MONTH has been freeze-your-bum-off cold out there. (Sorry for the crude expression, Mom, but it's just too true.) But, I got an electric blanket for Christmas this year (thanks Mom and Dad!), which has been practically life altering for me, in a I-can-tolerate-frigid-January-much-better kind of way. I could write A LOT about the new blanket, I bet... but I won't. ;)

Also, I've been taking my vitamins. Religiously. And I can see a difference. Or, more accurately, I can feel a difference. I actually wanted to write a completely separate post about the glorious transformation of taking my daily vitamins consistently, ... but I might as well include it here with a testimonial that this one little step has really made a difference for me. I have more energy, my hair has stopped falling out, and I'm not feeling so seasonally down, like I have many other Januaries. The Vitamin D and the Fish Oil are my real charmers. Good stuff right there, I tell you! And, I take those yummy gummy vitamins for the other multi-daily pack, since I hate swallowing those horse pills. Highly recommend it, I'm telling you!

Another "bright side" this January is the fact that I haven't really gotten sick with lots of the crud that seems to be going around right now. I usually do. But not this year. Hooray! That's something to be thankful for, eh? Maybe I should chalk that up to the vitamins, too??

Anyway, all that said, here I sit on the 24th of January, thinking, hmmm... it's STILL January??

STILL??

It's always that month that seems to drag on forever, even when I'm sure it should be February already!!? One year, when I lived in Boston, I remember I didn't see the sun AT ALL for 21 days straight in January. I counted.

I'm not counting this year, but I'd say we're running close to that, with the ugly inversion going on out there. To make things seem even less pleasant, Brian's on some killer deals right now, which means we've seen very little of him, and he's seen even less of his bed, poor guy. Plus, the kids are.... restless? sleepless? stir crazy?? (They really do deserve their own post, hopefully coming soon.) ... I'll just say, I guess they have a bit of January fever, too, it seems.

So... I say, sorry to all you people who have special occasions that fall in January -- birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Maybe those events help to "perk up" your long January days?? I personally hope you get to go to Hawaii or to the Southern Hemisphere occasionally to celebrate your special dates. That's what I'd prefer to do, if I had "occasions" in January. Phew.

Instead, I'm still just hunkering down, thanking my lucky stars that it hasn't been that bad this year. But I'll be ready to see it end, for sure. Move along, Bleak January Days. Move along.

Anyone else with me on this one???

Road Trip, Again: Santa Fe to St. George

 Day 10: Santa Fe to Farmington, NM
Monday, Oct. 7

So, we decided to go to Santa Fe, just so we could visit New Mexico's state capitol building. (And you've already heard me tell how unimpressed we were, right?) Well, one sad thing about that -- we found out that if we had chosen Albuquerque instead, we could have lucked into the International Hot Air Balloon Festival, which was going on that whole week! Can you believe?! Our one consolation was that our schedule didn't really match up with any of the big balloon launches. But still... next time, eh? :)

So, Santa Fe...
Brian woke up early and took a bike ride around the town, capturing some of the fun southwestern architecture designs, like this...

 Once we got loaded up, we stopped at the Native American Indian museum, to buy some souvenirs (colored corn necklaces, beaded rings, etc.) These artsy old west guys were in front of the museum...

And then, we opted for the scenic route to Arizona, heading north to hit some Aztec ruins and Four Corners monument. It was a bit desolate, but pretty...

Camel Rock (below)... Do you see it? :)

The Aztec Ruins...
I really, really love these kinds of things, so, I was glad to see my kids were enjoying it, too. We took about 30 pictures of the ruins, but I'll just show you these few...

They recreated a replica of what one of the towers might have looked like inside. Very fascinating! Natalie loved the echo, Samantha and Spencer loved the hidey holes and ladders...

So, after visiting the ruins and eating a bite, we realized if we kept driving toward Arizona, we wouldn't make it to Four Corners before it closed. Believe it or not, I was mildly devastated. I even started to cry a little bit. (Give me some leniency here, please... I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Four Corners, AND, I had been on the road in a minivan with three small children for ten days at this point. AND, I had just sacrificed the majority of Houston, and we all know I would have enjoyed spending a week or so there. So, I vote that the tears were in order! You can vote too, as long as you agree. :)

Brian was the sweet hero who decided not to cross his tearful wife... er, I mean, ... decided we should stay in Farmington for the night, at a nice Marriott with a fun pool. (No pics of the pool, too bad!) Even though we had only driven about four hours that day, and it was only 4:30 in the afternoon. It was a wise choice, and made for a much better Day #11 :)

Day 11: Farmington, NM to Page, AZ
Tuesday, Oct. 8 -- Monument Valley and Grand Canyon Day!

This was our earliest morning of the trip. I think we were on the road by 7:30 a.m.! Gooooo Bishops! (If you know us, you KNOW this was a GREAT accomplishment!) On our way to Four Corners, we passed by a lot of "nothing" and then, this famous, big rock, called Shiprock. It's actually an old volcano -- our kids freaked out when we told them that. ha!

 At Four Corners, we were some of the first visitors of the morning. We each took our turn standing -- or kneeling, I guess? -- in four states at once: New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.

Seriously, though, can you blame me for wanting to go there? I know it's just an imaginary border line, in the middle of the desert. But I love it! I've always thought it would be such a cool place to visit!

Brian's been before, but he humored me, and drove us waaaay out of the way, so we could do it. :) Fun!

Next, well... hey! There's the Mexican Hat rock. See it? Get it? It's a big rock, that looks like a Mexican sombrero hat. See it now?? :)

And then, below... yes, we DID get everyone out of the car to take a picture by the famous Monument Valley, the very moment we first saw it on the horizon...

Then, we managed to take 50 MORE pictures of it from every angle as we passed by it, through it, and around it, for the next two hours...

Hey, isn't this shot from the movie, "Cars?" ha!

FINALLY, the amazing finale of the day... the GRAND CANYON!! We got to the parking lot, and literally had to spend a full five minutes playing on these rocks (below), before we could drag the kids down to the main attraction. ha!

Here it is, and here's my handsome man, too...

Natalie was our little climbing maniac. Seriously, we should all be thankful she is not at the bottom of the Grand Canyon right now. She was relegated to the stroller shortly after this picture was taken...

Samantha loved it...

 Brian took some great sunset shots...

 And yes, we even begged some fellow tourists to take a group shot of us...

(If' you're eager to see the other 150 pics we took of our Grand Canyon adventure, just email me. :)

What else is there to say about it? Yes, it's everything everyone has ever told you... massive, gorgeous, awe-inspiring, etc. We loved it. We want to go back someday and hike it... maybe without children. :)

We stayed so late, oohing and ahhing over the views, that we had a hard time finding food and a place to stay that night. But we lucked into a great 1-bdrm apt. in Page, AZ, after checking tripadvisor.com. (Hint: if you're ever in Page, visit tripadvisor, and get in touch with Jake!! And no, I don't get paid to say those kinds of things.)

Day 12: Page, AZ to St. George, UT

Wednesday, Oct. 9 

We had a nice, leisurely morning in Page, enjoying our lovely apartment and stocking up on some groceries. Then we were off to visit the nearby Glen Canyon Dam, at the Head of Lake Powell... 

Pretty amazing and impressive, even for the kids! We went into the visitors center and they had some great exhibits showcasing how the dam was built. What a project! Another small sidenote: I get a tiny bit squeamish standing at the top of huge dams. But again, I just be brave, and I'm still alive after many ventures on top of big dams.

And bridges, like this one...

Proof that we were in the visitors center...

Next stop, Zion National Park. (Aside: We were actually smart enough to buy an annual National Parks pass at the Aztec Ruins, back in New Mexico, which practically paid for itself by the time we toured the Grand Canyon and Zion. And now we've got the rest of the year to keep banking free trips on it, wahoo!)

Note of significance: we turned over 4000 mile on our trip odometer right as we entered Zion. (And technically, we should add and extra 25 miles or so, since we didn't actually set the trip odometer at the start of our trip until we were a ways into New Jersey.) Anyway, it was exciting enough that I made Brian stop and take a not-so-focused picture...

Even more exciting was the view around us a that moment. Hello, Beautiful Zion...

 I seriously LOVE Zion, and my kids and Brian loved it too. Even right on the heels of the Grand Canyon, we were all amazed at the grandeur of the whole place. Amazed, I tell you...

 One-mile tunnel through a red rock mountain. Super cool!

 I even snapped a not-very-good picture out the "window" of the tunnel, halfway through. (They don't let you stop, or you can be sure my pic would have been better!)

Then we rode the bus through the park to all the most noteworthy sites. (Spencer's back there studying the map, to be sure. That kid LOVES maps. Samantha too, actually.) ...

 We let Samantha have the camera while on the bus. So, we got a little of this...

 And some of this...

 And this...

And we took it back when we started getting this (close-ups of the butterflies on her shirt)...

We got off the bus at the end of the line, up near the starting trail for the Narrows, with the Virgin River.

 We let the kids play in the water for a half hour or more. It was seriously one of the highlights of the trip, for all of us. It was coolish, but still comfortable. And the air smelled so fresh and clean. And the kids had so much fun stomping around in that water, playing with each other, building little dams, etc. It's one of my "happy moments," especially looking back.

 Natalie was not about to stay dry, so we removed her clothes and let her splash to her heart's content...

 Spencer was picking up mud off the bottom of the river and building something with it. Very exciting...

 Funny thing about Spencer -- after so much digging in the mud, his shirt was getting quite dirty. So, I told him to maybe not keep wiping his hands on his shirt so it didn't get any dirtier or wetter. He looked down, saw the dirt on his shirt, and immediately laid tummy-down in the water to wash it off! Needless to say, he was drenched, but I don't think he minded too much. :)

Seriously, it was all sooo majestic and beautiful. We stayed a long time and soaked up the awesomeness of it all...

 And we took about 50 more pictures like these...

 Then, on to St. George for the night, to stay with my Aunt and her grandkids at their vacation house. I'm sure you can hardly wait for the grand finale post, where this road trip will finally come to an end. Stay tuned for one more round of good stuff, coming soon...

More Road Trip Details... Louisiana to Santa Fe

Welp, this blog is going nowhere, and it's because I'm not starting where I left off.
See, in my mind, there are all these stories left untold, all these pictures left unposted. And somehow, I've got to start waaaay back in the middle of October and tell what we've done since then, or I think I may never blog again. A small tragedy, for sure.

So, where were we?? You probably don't remember, so let me refresh your memory... We spent our fifth night in New Orleans, in that schwanky hotel on Bourbon Street, remember? And then we saw the mighty Mississip the next morning and started our drive to Houston. Let's just start there, okay?

Day 6: Baton Rouge to Houston
Thursday, October 4
A little geography lesson for us... New Orleans is on the south side of a relatively large lake, called Lake Pontchartrain -- love those Cajun French names, eh? Did you know there is a bridge across the middle of that lake? And it's got this amazing causeway that stretches right across the middle of it. A full 23.8 miles of continuous bridge over water -- longest in the world, in fact. Close your eyes if bridges scare you, because you can bet we had to drive across it, and, of course we had to take a picture or two, while driving across it...

Amazing!! Water, water everywhere! It's even longer than the bridge across the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay that we drove across in 2011. (And a little side note, for those who may wonder: sometimes bridges make me a little squeamish, too. But I just be brave and I'm still alive. surprise!)

By far, the most impressive capitol building we saw on our trip was Louisiana's, in Baton Rouge. Louisiana also gets extra points for having a very nice state visitors' center, right next to the capitol building, with very nice displays and restroom facilities. (We were unable to spend much time looking at their displays, which was very disappointing for their very enthusiastic, young, front desk man. Next time, Mr. Louisiana Man...)

Looking straight up at the capitol -- 34 stories, 450 feet tall. It's the tallest capitol in the U.S. No joke.

From the top, with the Mississippi in the background. And no, Natalie is not trying to leap off the top, even thought it kind of looks that way...

Baton Rouge, from above.

Looks like it'd be a fun city to explore, if we didn't still have a six hour drive ahead of us, at 2 p.m...

At sunset, we crossed the Texas border, not even taking time to stop at the welcome center. I have pictures in my mission scrapbook of Elder Woodland's head, poking out over the top of this Texas sign, yes he climbed to the top!...

I took a little mental trip down memory lane as we drove through Beaumont and Baytown and Houston that evening. That's where I served as a missionary, 15 years ago. We didn't have time to stop at any of my old places, but I sure had time to get that sentimental, weepy, melancholy feeling that sometimes creeps up on me when I am looking down the doorways of my past. It was one of my favorite nights of our trip, just because of the many emotions I had, remembering a time of my life that was truly transforming, for me.

I was driving, the kids were quiet, Brian was busy. So, I was alone with my thoughts, remembering so many places and faces, memories and moments from a chapter of my life that was closed so long ago... The door in our apartment that got stuck shut with the humidity; the long, spindly banana spiders -- harmless but disgusting and huge; the taste of the sulfur water at the chapel in Beaumont; catching crabs in infested waters in Baytown; helping Laura N. pick out the perfect set of scriptures; watching General Conference reruns with H.C. on his massive tv; planning our own crawfish boil; visiting the Water Wall; watching Yvette water her flowers, even though it rained twice a day; ... on and on. So fun!

We stayed that night with my dear friend, Gay Rushing, who was a Stake missionary when I was in Houston. We've kept in touch through the years, and loved catching up. Sadly, no pictures of her, or her lovely home. But we enjoyed our visit, though it felt too short, for sure!

Day 7: Houston to Austin
Friday, October 5 -- Happy Birthday, Natalie!!

We woke up to a beautiful day in Houston. Small world that it is, we discovered Brian's cousin and family live just around the corner from my friend, where we spent the night. So, we got to have lunch with them -- delicious Mexican food, yum! Again, no pictures, too bad.

We were also right around the corner from the Houston Temple, so we drove the kids over to see it, lovely place...

There was an injured bat on the front steps of the temple. I don't know why I feel it is important to include this detail and picture. But I do...

It was weird, and memorable, and my kids were a little creeped out by it. We told the front desk people about it, and it was gone by the time Spence finished using the bathroom. 

But they soon recovered for some fabulous posing by the water fountain... 

And more posing, by the flowers. Cute girl...

And with that, we said goodbye to Houston and headed off to our next stop: Austin.
Biggest billboard sign we saw on our trip... True, too true...

Even their capitol building was bigger, as in, it didn't fit in any pictures in its entirety, from any angle. But here's the best I got...

We went inside, just so we can say, "we've been inside the Texas capitol building." Natalie, looking up...

 And everybody, looking down...

 The dome...

After visiting the capitol, we drove a few miles north to the booming metropolis of Round Rock, Texas. Yes, there really is a round rock, after which the town is named...

And... we got to stay with these lovely LaPierres! yay!!

Our kids became fast friends... Bridgette and Natalie, born only a few days apart.

Spencer and Travis, just a few months apart...

And Samantha and Sophie, also just a few months apart...

(We didn't get a picture of their darling newborn, Brooke, too bad!)

Since it was Natalie's birthday, Lisa baked her a cake, complete with chocolate frosting and pink candles. Happy Birthday Natalie. (You can tell she was thrilled, right? :)

And check out those curls! I tell you, Texas was doing good things for her hair! :)

Day 8 - 9: Round Rock to Oklahoma City to Santa Fe
October 5 and 6 (General Conf. weekend)

We left the LaPierres and started our longest days of driving. 8 hours on Saturday, and 9 1/2 on Sunday, I think? It looked like this, in our car...

 And sometimes like this...

 And other times, like this...

And out the window, it looked like this....

Turns out, Oklahoma is very boring. Even singing the musical and listening to General Conference talks didn't do much to make our views more interesting. Oh well.

We stopped in Fort Worth, on our way to Oklahoma City, and bought Natalie some belated birthday gifts at Walmart... Hello Kitty pez dispensers, Minnie jammies, Dora coloring book, and Kitty slippers. She was thrilled, and agreed to share the Pez, thank goodness!

In Oklahoma City, we drove by the memorial for the bombing of 1995. Pretty sobering, and hard to explain to the children...

There were all kinds of mementos and personal items hung on the fence around the outside of the complex. Heartbreaking, even now...

We also drove by the capitol building, but it was closed. Looks like a capitol, doesn't it? ;)

Lots more of this...

And we finally made it to this...

We stayed in Santa Fe that night, so we could visit their capitol building, as well. Very underwhelming, I must say! We could hardly even FIND it! They need to take some capitol lessons from Louisiana!!

Well, I know you're probably starting to feel the lengthy weight of this here road trip. But... um.... we still have days 10 thru 14 left to cover. Are ya with me for the long haul?? I'm already working on the next round. Stay tuned, and if you care to give me any encouragement to FINISH this blasted road trip business so I can rejoin the blogging world, I'd appreciate it. ;)