4 states, 3 days of driving, and 1 exhausted family

Sorry I got so behind on updating you all.  We've been too exhausted after our nighttime socializing to write new posts at each stop.  We've made it to Irvine for our much needed weekend without driving.  We are beyond excited to spend the weekend with my brother, sister-in-law, and sweet niece.  Cute pictures and videos of the girls interacting are inevitable.

An attempt to share toys

Here they are on their way to church this morning

The drive through West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Eastern California was all about the same.  Dry.  The sights consisted of rocks, brush, mesas or mountains, wind turbines, rocks sitting next to wind turbines on mesas surrounded by brush, etc.  I think I was imagining a much flatter drive, but the mountains and mesas made the horizon much more interesting.  We also passed a lot of pecan orchards along the way.  I find this weird, because I know that pecan trees require a lot of water to produce pecans, and they were all in the middle of the dessert.  Seems like a waste of water, but who am I to say.

Meanwhile back in La Porte, this was happening...

Our stuff being loaded into the truck

my dad filling up the truck somewhere in West Texas

After stopping in Sonora on night one, we made our way to El Paso where we were greeted by a much nicer hotel and a delicious Mexican dinner with family friends.  Edie got a nice send off gift of Texas t-shirts and a "Republic of Texas" Bear, which was sweet.  El Paso was hot, and our next stop outside of Pheonix was hotter.  There we were met by sweet family and a homemade dinner.  Edie charmed everyone (as usual).  How could you not love this little face?

Our drive to Irvine went well and we could not wait to see Nathan, Katie, Brynn and Atlas.  Tired of driving, we are excited about a couple days without it.  It's also much cooler here than it has been along the way.  You know it's too hot when you find a piece of asphalt melted to your dogs skin (yes, this actually happened).  Edie is really loving playing with all of her cousins toys, and not being in the carseat.

While we made our way to Cali, our things were packed into the moving truck and started to make their way to Seattle.  My sweet parents volunteered to drive the truck and are in Colorado now after 2 days of driving.  Alex's parents also set off on their own adventure to Columbia, Missouri for a bike ride. Road trips all around! 

Tomorrow we hit the road again.  We'll probably be stopping around Sacramento after an early start to miss LA traffic.

We miss you all!