Road Trip - Day 4 - Family

So we planned this trip a while back because we thought it would be fun to bring Eric's parents back to their hometown to visit family. And it was pretty awesome to see John with his little sister! They both talk non-stop! <--- unfortunately for me, most of it was in Spanish so I only caught every few words...

Our motel did not have WiFi so we ended up at a donut shop....

...where Isabella ate every last sprinkle off of her donut.... and then left the rest!


Del Rio has the most colorful cemetaries I have ever seen! Bright flowers everywhere! Makes me wish I had brought along a 35mm instead of my crappy point and shoot...

My MILs oldest sister who died of pnemonia.

My MILs grandmother? I think? Eric isn't in the room so I can't ask.... But when she was a little girl in the 1800s there were still Indian attacks on the town! Crazy!

Right next to the cemetary

My Father in law's elem. school

The church where my inlaws got married... 2 days after my MIL turned 18. It was hilarious to be driving around this little town and hearing how they met and seeing all the places in their stories.

The church that the nuns from the Catholic school took the students from my MILs school.

MILs school

The creek where my inlaws used to swim as kids. They call it the Pig Pen :)

Isabella getting ready to jump in... in her new 'swim swim'!

She was SO excited to be able to walk around the water all by herself! Though she did face plant a couple of times..... not that she minded....

Grandma watched Isabella swim from the same spot where her mom used to watch her and her sisters.

All done swimming!

Dinner with John's sister Chata and her husband Raul. With Izzy sitting so ladylike.... Cracked me up! We went to this Mexican resturant and Chata and Raul ordered a plate of chicken nuggets! That's it... just nuggets....

Izzy, John, and Sonja (John's niece?)

Road Trip - Day 3 - Mistakes Will Happen....

Our day started out great! I've never really been a fan of New Mexico but I havve to admit -- the drive from Las Cruces to El Paso was gorgeous! I'm loving the architecture....

And all the dried chilis!

We took the back roads, of course... And found this beauty.... along with tons of cyclists, Thoroughbred and Arabian stables, and even people playing Polo! That's right! Polo... On horses! I've never seen it in person before! New Mexico - I misjudged you...
But like all good things.... they come to an end.... Now I have absolutely nothing against Texas but you have to admit -- it's dry, hot, and rather void of green landscape.... Almost the second we passed the state line and got off the backroad onto the highway the landscape changed from pretty tree-lined country road to... dry emptiness.... But with lots of BBQ! :)

Eric had to have a picture of the Mexico border at Juarez.

TONS of border patrol as soon as we hit Arizona. We even had to go through an inspection point.

Some of us got to sleep through it....

We had to take a picture with the giant roadrunner from our Roadside Attractions coffee table book.

Fort Stockton welcomed us with 102 degree weather. So of course we chose to eat at Sonic where we had to sit outside... And of course Isabella decided it was the perfect conditions to refuse to sit anywhere but on her daddy's lap.
yeah.... this is her mischievious look....

And this is where we SHOULD have ended our day... But no.... at 6:00 we though, "Hey! There isn't a whole lot in Fort Stockton... let's just go on to Del Rio! We'll be there at 8:00 at the latest!" Yeah.... Bad idea.... While driving the completely EMPTY road from Fort Stockton to Del Rio we:

1. Got pulled over for speeding through a "town". And I say it like that because you literally look left and right and the town is over.... But the sherriff did not care for our California plates... at least that's what we figure since he didn't even blink at the other cars speeding through his town in the 20 minutes he had us on the side of the road... in the 102 degree heat... with a toddler and 2 senior citizens...

2. Clothes started flying out of our stupid roof top cargo bag... the bag that bragged of a zipper closure but in reality came with a velcro closure.... We had to try to fix everything on the side of the highway... in 102 degree heat... with thistles stinging our ankles... with a toddler and 2 seniors in the car.... *No clothes were lost! Yay!

3. Stupid Nissan puts a lovely built-in cargo thingy on the top of the Xterra.... unfortunately said built-in cargo thingy sucks and broke while driving.... I just LOVE seeing all of our swim suits (or swim swims as Izzy calls them) flying out in my rear view mirror.... We only found Eric's suit... Isabella and I have to buy new "swim swims".... :(

4. We got to Del Rio! Wahoo! At 9:45.... so much for 8:00!

Road Trip - Day 2... Cowboys!

Forgot a couple pictures from last night....

Can't leave out tacos with Grandpa!

Or cheesing for the camera

After dinosaurs, Izzy was pretty excited about seeing cowboys and horses! So she had a blast in Tombstone, AZ (yeah, yeah... the pictures are sideways... I've been on the road! Give me a break! :) )

Cowboy Isabella!

On to Bisbee

Cheesing again... what a ham....

For some reason, whenever Eric takes a picture with Izzy, he manages to show her belly....

FINALLY!
Oh New Mexico....




Huh?




Okay... so funny story.... Eric and I have always been fans of taking the back roads. So on this back road through the New Mexico desert from Benson, AZ to Las Cruces, NM, we ran across a random desert museum. Seriously, in the middle of NOWHERE! We stopped to see the reptile exhibit. We figured Isabella would like to see the snakes. What we didn't expect was that my 78 year old mother in law would get such a kick out of antagonizing the rattle snakes! I'm not even kidding! She was TRYING to get them to strike!!! While she did not succeed, she did get quite the rattle out of them.... Hilarious!

New Mexico's long, empty landscape.... taken with my crappy camera....

Poor kid SOBBED when I took away her candy!

That's right! We stayed in a hotel with the world's largest chili! You know you're jealous....

Road Trip! Day 1 - And We're Off

So we had the most brilliant idea.... My husband and I decided it would be genius to drive from California to Texas with a toddler and two senior citizens... Not only that! Eric thought it would be an even better idea to make it all the way from San Jose to Benson Arizona in one day!


It actually turned out way better than we could have hoped for. We promised Isabella dinosaurs weeks ago. She was so excited about it that she didn't sleep in the car at ALL! That's right... after getting her up at 3:30am, she stayed up until we got settled in the hotel at 9:45pm (minus about a half an hour)!

She did get to see her dinosaurs! Of course she wanted to ride them....

Sadly, this did not lead to a nap....

We made it! To the 110 degree heat! Can I just say.... I am not a fan of having to fix the stinkin' roof cargo bag in 110 degrees....

Made it to Benson!! Goodnight!