Home, Sweet Home

That last day dawned beautiful and clear.  We ate an enormous breakfast. Scrambled eggs, chocolate croissants, waffles with chocolate chips, oatmeal with brown sugar, walnuts and raisins.  Three kinds of juice.  Might as well live it up before hit the road, right?

The kids decided that Charlotte should ride in the "girls' car" and Joseph should ride with Joshua in the "boys' car." That seemed fine with everyone.  While we were waiting for Heather and Zach to check us out, we discovered a train station across the street, so Joseph and Arthur took a walk to look at freight trains for a while.  What fun!

Rosalie has dubbed Charlotte and herself, "the golden hair twins." She came up with that on her own.

Waiting for a train!

The boys' car.

Our first stop was Sedona, about an hour away. Dad had painted a scene from Sedona out of a magazine in the late 1970s that hangs in their den. But he'd never been!  We remedied that on this vacation.  

Next stop was Phoenix, but about 1/2 hour outside of it, we had to make a potty stop. So, we just went inside Carl's, Jr. and ate as long as we were there.  Jane has declared that the Hawaiian burger is the best burger in the world.  After they feasted on chicken fingers and french fries and pieces of Hawaiian burger, Auntie treated them to little chocolate bundt cakes for dessert.

We wanted to drive through Phoenix so that we could stop at the St. Francis Catholic Cemetery where my grandpa's father is buried.  Heather and I had found it while on a road trip through Arizona last year.  We wanted mom to be able to visit it, too.  

From Phoenix, it was nearly a straight shot home. A few rest stop visits.  At one point, Charlotte started crying to go back in her car, but by the time we could catch up with each other to make the exchange, Charlotte was sound asleep. So, we kept driving.

We came home to find our house in beautiful order and all the pets well-fed and happy.  Wonderful Sandy from the library is the best housesitter ever.  She even bought the kids a little rainbow pinwheel.  The perfect ending to a perfect trip.

Harriet missed Mom and Dad. But I think Mom and Dad missed her more.

Joseph slept the whole time we put his jammies on.

Bed sweet bed.

Jane and her dogs. Life is back to normal.

The End.

HoJo, We Won't Go.

On our last morning, Char woke up early to prepare a hearty breakfast of pancakes, turkey bacon and scrambled eggs.  We cleaned up our various messes and Joseph took Rosalie on one last wagon ride through the house before putting the moose back in their spot.  Grandma Char Char and Charlotte took a nice long walk and picked wildflowers while Zach and Arthur loaded the cars. And before we knew it, it was time for good-bye hugs.

 

Trying on Jane's mood ring.

There's the Christmas card pic

Good-bye sweet cabin!

We headed down the road to town only to be met by a guy in a pickup truck herding cattle back up the road.  We actually had to pull over and wait for the cattle to pass!  Then it was off to Walmart for driving snacks and water.  Next stop - Mesa Verde!

We made it to Mesa Verde in about an hour.  After touring the Visitor's Center, we enjoyed a picnic lunch of one those crackers/cheese/olives plates.  Plus, dill pickle Pringles (those got mixed reviews).  The kids enjoyed running around and playing "Mother, May I?" until it was time to load back into the car.  Then it was off up the hill to visit the cliff dwellings.

Not sure if this is Google street view van or what, but it had signs saying not to follow too close because it was using lasers!

We had all the kids - and Arthur- trying to make all the display lights light at the same time. They are too easily entertained.

Picnic time!

Wanna grape?

This tunnel was probably Joseph's favorite part of the whole trip.  And we got to in it on the way back down again!

Charlotte was not terribly impressed. Zach spent most of his time pulling her back from the ledge she was trying to jump off.  The dwellings that we had hiked down to on our cross-country trip to Kentucky in 2014 were now closed. Apparently, a year later, a giant piece of rock fell and so it is not structurally sound enough for tourists to explore.  They are working with geologists and engineers from other National Parks to shore it up and hope to reopen it again one day.  We were fine admiring it from a distance.

Racoon puppet - it's in a trash can! Ha!

Faithful Ol' Blue.

Here it is again!

We had to make it to Flagstaff where our hotel was booked, so after Mesa Verde we settled in for a loooong car ride.  Driving days are the worst. Especially when one of the kids is constipated.  Mommy and Rosalie spent a lot of time visiting just about every gas station for nearly 300 miles.  Our favorite was DinoGas - they even had a fiberglass dinosaur standing outside. Dad bought us some of the best beef jerky I've ever had there!  The only bad thing about that stop was that we were immediately met by a friendly stray dog as soon as we opened the door.  Of course, Jane figured we should adopt it. Nope.  Mom had bought the kids glow sticks for the ride home. So, as soon as the sun set, we cracked those puppies open.  

Mmmm - jerky.

Probably our 6th or 7th potty stop.
She really was hoping we'd stop on the side of the road.
Pooping in bush sounded adventurous to her.

When we finally rolled in to Howard Johnson, we were beat.  The second we unlocked our hotel room doors, the smell of cigarette smoke hit us.  The rooms were filthy and smelly.  And there was cat food on our bathroom floor.  Grace immediately had an allergy attack.  I was so embarrassed for booking it.  Heather was furious. She marched down to the front office and demanded the charges be taken off and immediately found us another room at a Marriott Residence Inn. She is amazing.  The kids wanted to move in!  It had a kitchen and a sofa and a computer table.  Jane decided she's going to college in Arizona and living at that hotel.  I tried to explain that that's not how it works. But, she can dream.

The Howard Johnson did have a fun retro aesthetic. Too bad the pillows made our eyes burn.

After we changed hotels, we finally relented and let them have some
iPad time while we brought the suitcases in.

Finally - much much later - everyone sank into bed, enjoying the brand new room. Still had that "new room" smell and everything.