Texas Road Trip FINALE Video!

Hope you enjoy the incredible finale video our most handsome and talented driver created of our memories! :) It brings a big smile to my face!

.day.7teen.

It was a fun night and so nice not to have to drive all night to our campsite! The driver was so kind to let us stay and hang out a bit at Ruby's Village. We even got nice hot, non-hurried showers in the morning! :) I met this nice lady in there from Switzerland. Her husband is working in LA for three years so they thought they should see some of the sites in the states while they were here. They had a 9 month old little girl named Leolani (I think I probably butchered that, my apologies, it was the sweetest name!). It was actually a really neat time to be around that area as there seemed to be an incredible amount of international travelers. In our restaurant last night, around our campground, in the pool and in the western town there were people from all over the world speaking in a ton of different languages. It was so cool for the boys to hear and see!

And if there's time to breathe, there's time to clean! Lol :p He really can't help himself and I really am so grateful! ❤️

Before we departed from Ruby's RV Village, we exeruted a little energy to hopefully help the drive! There was a cute little grassy area across from us so we took advantage of it. :)

Boys always require a little wrestling for balanced state of minds! Lol :p

And a little jumping....

Goodbye Ruby's! You were a great hostess! :)

We needed to head back into the park (just up the road) to get our National Parks Passport Book stamped. We inadvertently forgot to do it yesterday and the weather was turning so horrible as we left so we just decided to scoot back up there today before we got on the road.

Our goal for today was to get to Twin Falls, ID. That was going to be a bit of a trek, but it would make the next day not so horrible. It was supposed to be about a 7 hour journey.... that is IF we don't stop for gas, to take a break, unclog a toilet or kick someone out on the side of the road or any of the other number of things we seem to have to stop for regularly! lol

Two of the events that seems to occur in our driving time on a regular basis are the TWO things Reed is proud to point out to us! Now let me tell you, although he is well over 2 1/2 yrs old, don't forget he is the 3rd child and a boy (sorry boys! lol), so his language skills are not necessarily the same as a first born girl - shall we say! lol So within the handful of words he does know, two of those are 'moooooooo' (not technically a word) for cow and 'choo choo' for train {just in case you couldn't figure out what those stood for!}. Grandma did teach Reed the actual word of 'cow' early on in our trip, but he clearly preferred 'moooooooo!'

So as we were driving and he saw out the window one of these two items, he would yell at the top of his lungs and announce to the whole tin can, the presence of what he witnessed so we could all enjoy the spectacular site with him and rejoice in the fact that he could actually verbally identify each in a way we all understood what he was trying to communicate. This is all well and fine and cute at the beginning but let's just say that once we got going a bit on the adventure and you were in a serious train of thought or pre-occupied with anything other than sitting next to him, it caught you a bit off guard when all of a sudden out of the middle of no where is an announcement filled with shock & awe of what he saw out the window! lol Kind of like being in a library and the fire alarm going off! That would normally give you a bit of an alarmist feeling. Ya - that's kind of how it was! lol Never a dull moment.... just NEVER! :D

This is how we do lunch on the road.... big pocket baby bjorn bibs make all the difference. They catch the dropped food since there is no tray by the babies. Today was more like snack lunch... tomatoes, peppers, cheese, a few sweet potato chips and celery. That's how we roll! :)

2pm... babies are fed, changed and down for a nap! Phew.... :p I am hiding in the bathroom... the bathroom of the moving tin can.... shhh don't tell anyone! And don't judge! Lol Well it's not too comfortable in here so I guess I'll go back out.

Along the way we saw some more beautiful mountains in Utah...

And lots of these...

For the first time in the entire trip, it was time to do some switching around and mix things up a bit! YEP! It was time for this girl to drive and the driver to herd the cats in the back! BIG CHANGES are comin' to this road trip! lol :p

I guess you'd just have had to be there to witness the changing of the guard in the back! While the {new and improved - shhhh..... don't tell him I said so} driver sat peacefully in the captains chair listening to some inspiring podcasts! lol




We eventually felt one step closer to home...

A gorgeous sunset made the drive all the better!

And tomorrow we should be able to pull into the driveway of our HOME sweet HOME! ❤️

.day.6TEEN.

Last night we had to drive 3 hours from the Grand Canyon to Kanab, Utah to our campsite. It was another late pull in and set up. And get up to see where we are actually are in the morning! lol This seems to be a regular thing for us. The sprawling metropolis of Kanab, Utah sadly did not include a priority #1. :( Apparently the driver found and reserved this site!!! Lol

We had about an hour and a half drive to Bryce Canyon National Park but even the drive there was just spectacular! 

These tall red rock cliffs were so incredibly majestic and just filled you with awe at their sheer size and domination! Some of them even had house-sized boulders looking like they would tip over at any moment! It's as if God has a million fingers holding them all up and steady in their place at the same time!

And these ones that were dusted with snow still, showed off the brilliance of the red/orange color so brightly!

Look! We got Grandma to back up for a picture again! Way to go Grandma!!! :)

Our budding photographer..... :)

They really truely are such buddies! There is no kidding about it! <3

Those beautiful blue eyes making smiling into the sun so difficult dad! Lol

Poor Essie was here with us in spirit while she was napping in the motor home with Grandma! Lol So for then it was us and our three boys! :)

As you've probably figured out, this is how Essie toured with us most of the time. She did so good and was so patient while we hiked along trails, took pictures and gazed at landscapes - all unbeknownst to her! lol :) What a trooper she was!

As you can see in the progression of the pictures, the weather was actually pretty decent for us, a little windy, but still not bad. When we were about done for the day however it turned pretty nasty and we were happy to be in the shelter of the tin can!

We headed out of the park to go find our 2nd treasure hunt, it was located just down the road a bit at a cute little village. After that, the original plan was to start heading towards home. It would still take us a couple days but the driver wanted to get as far in that direction as we could.

So our 2nd treasure hunt was on! We again had some pretty good clues but it was still a fun hunt! And of course, I only gave the boys the bare minimum of clues so they had to work for it. And wouldn't you know it, the secret treasure was STILL there from when they had left it! It just shocks me that no one would've been snooping around or cleaning up and located either of the treasures. I'm pretty sure it was a solid two weeks prior that the Wytsmas left the hidden treasures for us, so that's a good amount of time for them to still be there, if you ask me!

You can't tell in the pictures, but it's a little box of Mentos gum.

We found our treasure and then the driver informed us that we could go see if the RV park that was part of this cute little village/area, had any vacancies. Yaaaa!!!! We were all thrilled with the prospect of not having to drive into the dark of the evening!

After dinner we headed across the street to this cute little line of shops that were all designed in a faux western street. There was a sign for ice cream that we were really heading towards but either that was 'faux' as well or they closed before we got there. But the boys made up for it in these photo op's we just couldn't pass up.

Before you look at this next picture, let me just preface it by saying... the boys saw these from the back and just knew they were supposed to stick their faces in them for a picture. They did NOT look at the fronts before I snapped the picture. lol Let's just say, once Tate came around to the front he did NOT go back for a re-take! LOL Oh heavens, I just can't stop laughing at these!

Then Grandma kindly filled in and Tate got to move to the six-shooter cowboy instead! He MUCH preferred this 'outfit' instead. lol

Part of staying in Ruby's Village RV Park, is that we had access to the Best Western hotel's indoor pool just down the way from us. We were all excited about the potential of A) all of us being able to swim together and B) the water being warm enough in an indoor pool to accomplish point A! :) So we headed back to the tin can to change into our suits and head back to the pool. Grandma decided to take another 10 minute break and stay in the motor home. It was a bit of a jaunt to the pool so we bundled everyone up and put the littles in the stroller. 

The pool was delightfully warm and we all had a blast!

The best part of the evening was when we headed back to the tin can. When we left, it was light out but when we returned it was dark as could be. And obviously in a campground, there are not many lights to guide the way. We did pretty good finding our way back altogether until we reached a slight 'Y' in the gravel road. We could see our motor home but we were not sure which leg of the 'Y' led to it so we just picked one and figured we'd get there somehow. Well as it turns out, we had to do a bit of 4-wheeling with the stroller up a big grass hill. When we crested the top of the hill, we saw our motor home. 

So G & T bolted for it and had a plan to scare Grandma. As Kevin and I approached our motor home, it was evident that it was NOT ours! 

But instead of warning the older boys, we just let them go on ahead. It's not as bad as it seems, we could see in the windows of the motor home and all their lights were on and they looked like nice enough people! lol 

It's not as if we were letting our boys run into a vicious evil-laden lair. Well I guess we didn't know that for sure, but it was an educated conjecture. :p Kevin and I just kept walking in the direction of the real our motor home, which happen to be right past this one. 

We could see through their windows, through their motor home to where the door opened on the other side. We kept waiting to see it open and our boys' heads on the other side of the door. All the while, we were dying laughing at the prospect of our boys opening the wrong motor home door.

Alas, no such luck! Just as they were going to open the door, so quietly to scare Grandma, they realized that the outside had a few little differences from ours and just in time, they realized it was NOT our tin can and came running towards us!

We all laughed together at the potential, yet unintentional prank and headed back to inform Grandma of the almost prank! lol

Ah..... what good times! :D