Day 4- Carlsbad Caverns

We were going to spend the morning hiking Sitting Bull Falls, but they were closed due to some flooding last fall.  We decided to spend the whole day at Carlsbad aCaverns instead.  This is near the entrance to the cave, with a time of cacti scattering the entrance.  

We are getting ready to walk down the natural entrance into the cave. It is about a mile and a half hike.

You can see the switchbacks during the entrance into the cave.

While walking in the caves, we loved watching the formations, the stalagmites and the stalactites. We even got to Watch a stalagmite being formed! 

We took a lot of pictures inside the case, although the lighting on our camera does not do the natural beauty any justice  at all.

We entered "the big room", which ended up being another mile and a half hike through this one portion of the cave.  It was enormous!

We did learn on our hike that new chambers of the caves are still continually being discovered.

Day 3- Arriving in Carlsbad

The "campground" that we stayed in last night was questionable at best. There was nobody there when we checked in at the desk and there was nobody there when we left this morning, so we left them but we consider to be an appropriate amount of money and left :-) We drove into New Mexico and this was the view of New Mexico.

We were planning on spending all day Monday, to head over to see the bat flight on Sunday night. Every summer, thousands of Brazilian bats migrate north and make their home in Carlsbad Caverns.  Every night around dusk, in this case 7:45 PM, all of the bat leave the cave and go out and search for food. They started leaving the cave at 8:04 PM and finally finished leaving the cave at 8:34 PM. It was amazing to watch that many bats leave the caves. 

That is correct- 109 Degrees!  Holy Hotness!  Did I mention that this was 6:30 PM?  

If you know anything about my children, you know that if you introduce them to a new word, they can somehow manage to fit it into daily conversation 500 times over the next 24 hours.  That is what happened when we introduced them to cacti.  They pointed out every single one (and there are lots) for the next 24 hours.  

You can see behind the boys, the hole in the cave that the bats fly out of. Unfortunately, you cannot take any pictures of the bats so those will not be included here :-(

Ironically enough, while we were waiting to watch the bat flight , an old friend of David's from the army recognized him and came over. He is stationed at Fort Bliss which is fairly close to here. We talked about calling him, but David was unsure of how free his schedule would be and ironically… We just ran into him and his family at the bat flight. What a small world!

Day 2- Louisiana and Duck Commander

We got off to an early start this morning. David woke up ridiculously early and spent some time talking to the armed security guard at the rest stop where we stayed 30 miles.  Our next stop was the Louisiana state line! We could tell that Louisiana has gotten a ridiculous amount of rain. There was standing water everywhere.  

After that, we decided to surprise Jimmy with a stop and West Monroe, Louisiana – for a little bit of time at the Duck Cimmander warehouse!  We don't let the boys watch much TV, but Jimmy is allowed to watch duck dynasty and he loves it. They were having a tent sale – which icon of course, loved!  Both David and Jimmy got a hat, and then Jimmy got a T-shirt and two posters- all for $20. 

The best surprise for Jimmy, which we knew nothing about, was that Si, from the show was there signing autographs. We waited in line and took turns going in and out of the store and seeing what there was to do for just about an hour! 

Love this picture of Si with his tea glass. For those of you to watch the show… You know this is a classic photo op!

Classic photo op with the Duck commander sign.

Jimmy with Si! 

Inside the store, there were a few photo ops as well. Also, the world's largest duck call was made to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the company. That was cool to see since we had seen it in an episode.

 Shortly after we left of the Louisiana, we arrived at the  Texas line!  

David play kickball with the kids, while I fix lunch they got to get there run on that many miles to Texas would be more bearable!!  While we were driving, we were playing a game called five seconds. The gist of the game is that you have five seconds to answer questions like " name three cartoon characters", quotation name three states that border the Pacific ocean" and other question with that format- you have to be able to think quick on your feet!  One of our biggest laughs of the day was David answering the  Name three cartoon characters question with Piggy!  We laughed until we cried!

We drove to Colorado city, Texas for the night. As we were trying to find a place to say Logan said " Just ask Siri, she will tell you where to go" :-). It may be a sign that we use Siri to frequently.

As we were wrapping up the drive, David and I commented that no one on earth would possibly believe we said how amazing our children were when we travel today.  We had a portable DVD player in case we needed it, but it was never even close and we spent 14 hours in the car today! 

Day 1- Traveling and Near Death Experience

KOur entire morning was spent finishing up packing. You think you're completely packed until the day that it's time to leave! It always seems like there's one more thing to add to the load! We also finished up cleaning so that when we came back… The house was spotless!

David was in training and was scheduled to finish up around 3:00. We were going to meet him in training and some of his officer friends were going to take our car back home.… Hoping we could get out of traffic in metro Atlanta before rush-hour.  Rush-hour in Atlanta is never fun… Rush-hour in Atlanta with a 35 foot pull behind camper – less fun!

We were not able to miss rush-hour traffic!

As you can see, Logan was not off to a great start!

This was the most enthusiastic we've seen Jimmy about this trip since the moment he knew we were taking it two years ago!

We were finally able to see what Logan was so disturbed about… This should help!

Welcome to Alabama!  We do wish we were close enough to home to see friends and family.

At the rest stop, I gave the kids a fairly lengthy place to run to to burn off some energy. We did have to remind Jimmy to let Logan do the running himself… So she could burn the energy! Picking him up wasn't helping anybody :-)

The kids are getting ready to open their first bag! They love that idea.

While we were in Alabama… We had a near death experience! There was a large SUV that wasn't paying attention and nearly came into our lane. David, as the professional driver that he is, honked and then had to swerve a little bit out-of-the-way. Swerving, while attached to a 35 foot trailer… Not a good idea! As David fought to gain control of the fishtailing rear end, the other guy needed to pull onto the shoulder. It was a very scary, brief moment… The quickly ended with a prayer of thanks for God's protection.  

Welcome to Mississippi!

We spent the night in a rest area in Mississippi, about 30 miles east of Jackson. In Mississippi, the rest areas are all protected with armed security guards. When David was talking to the security guard this morning, he said that highway 20 is a major drug running corridor  between Mexico and Atlanta.  Here is the binder that I put together for the trip! It is 2 inches thick and contains information about our hikes, truckstops that are easy to get into for gas, rest stops,… Anything you can imagine it would be beneficial for our trip!

Prepping for the trip

Some people have said we are crazy, embarking on a seven week journey with a good bit of time in the car with three kids and camping in an RV!  We may be… But we are also in for the adventure of a lifetime! In order to make the car ride a little bit smoother, I made bags that have a small treat and a new activity to give the kids for every three hours were in the car…

They are going to have to pay attention to the street signs and my goal is to have Hunter reading a map by the end of the trip :-) it's hard to believe that the trip we have planned for for the last year and a half is only for short days away.

Wrapping up the school year!

On the last day of school, several coworkers and myself enjoyed a great evening on the lake!

First, we met for dinner at Fish Tales, right on the lake!   There are a few people on earth who can make me smile so big or laugh as hard as these girls do!

One of the great things about this restaurant was that they had a giant sandpit for the kids to play in while we were waiting for their food! That made pre-dinner conversation much more enjoyable :-)

After dinner, Randi's husband was generous enough to be our chauffeur for a boat ride on the lake! The kids would scream go faster and he would… The kids would scream go over the bumps (waves) and he would… They all had the best time!  

When the school year started, I was extremely anxious about how the Year would go. There were a lot of new people and a lot of new changes. For those of you that know me well, changes are not something I am a fan of! God definitely knew what he was doing in my life this year! I feel so blessed and so honored to work with such amazing women!