It's been awhile since I've posted, I know, but here's our few weeks leading up to Christmas by the numbers:

2 determined grown ups
3 small children
1 very large cat
2 cars
4,500+ miles
8 states
9 hotels
2 visits with relatives
1 trip to the ER
2 car sickness incidents
8 national parks
5 cultural/historic attractions
1 morning of playing in the snow
1 afternoon of playing on the beach

And here's all the fun details:

Bug at the top of the Peachtree Plaza Hotel

Atlanta, GA: Our first stop was actually just a pit stop in downtown to take the glass elevator up the side of the Peachtree Plaza Hotel (the tallest hotel in the US) to the observation deck, from which we got to learn about the other buildings of note in the Atlanta skyline. Bug, our budding architect, was bouncing up and down with excitement that she would actually get to visit one of the buildings her skyscraper book!

Nana and Papa Bear's House: For the first leg our grand adventure, we spent a couple of days with Daddy's family to celebrate a very early Christmas on December 8. We were thrilled that the usual crowd was able to gather and participate in all the traditions (except for Aunt A, the girls realized after we left, but then they remembered she would be celebrating Christmas with Jesus himself this year, and they thought that would be pretty exciting for her too). Our first Christmas celebrations completed and goodbyes said, we packed up our stuff plus all the new presents, and headed west.

Hot Springs, AR: We toured a historic bath house and learned about the history of the area and the logistics of hot springs bathing. We tracked down an actual hot spring fountain and collected our own jug of crystal clear, steaming water, and we took a scenic drive up the mountain to admire the view from the top and the ice encased trees on the way up (fortunately, the road itself was no longer icy).

Blue Bell ice cream straight from the source--yum!

Mommy's Extended Family: We made an overnight stop, and the girls got to meet their great-grandparents, great aunt and uncle, and Mommy's cousin. We toured the great-grandparents new retirement home and admired Christmas decorations, visited Great Aunt G's artist shop (Monkey, the budding artist was especially excited about this), and (perhaps the entourage's favorite bit) rocked the house with a jam session on Uncle R's drum set.


Brenham, TX: This was actually just a pit stop on our way to next destination, but we got to tour the Blue Bell Creamery and enjoy a bowl of ice cream before hitting the road again.

San Antonio, TX: Our first stop of the day was the Alamo, where we learned the history of the tragic battle and got a glimpse of life in that time and place by touring the chapel and museum and watching a short film. Next, we walked the Riverwalk, tracked down some Mexican food for lunch, and took a 30 minute cruise on the San Antonio River. We punctuated a rather damp walk back to the hotel with a stop at the USO where we refueled with snacks and the girls got to play in the playroom. That evening we took a stroll through the Marketplace across the street.




Carlsbad Caverns, NM: The entourage is awesome! They cheerfully completed an approximately 2.5 mile walk through the caverns and even managed to keep their voices to a whisper. We also realized while waiting for the elevator ride back to the surface, which noted the changing depths, that we had gone down underground even farther than we had gone up in the air in the skyscraper. We learned all about caves and got to see some really neat formations. We also took a short walk to the top of one of the nearby hills and learned a bit about local plants. They're very excited about all the cacti.


Gila Cliff Dwellings, NM: The drive out to the cliff dwellings was an adventure all in itself--all twisty roads and gorgeous vistas! Once we finally got to the park we had a short hike to the dwellings themselves, which we all found fascinating, despite the

The girls most of the way up the cliffs--you can see one
 of the cliff dwellings in the cave behind them.

fact that archaeologists know extremely little about the functions of any of these spaces. Particularly exciting for the girls was getting to climb down out of the cliff via a wooden ladder just like the original occupants would have.


The Painted Desert & Petrified Forest, AZ: We broke up a really long day of driving by stopping to see the Petrified Forest and taking a hike through the Painted Desert. We learned all about how petrified wood is made and admired the huge, beautiful specimens on a short walk through the park. Then we drove through the Painted Desert noting particular landmarks along the way before stopping at a trailhead for a mile-ish hike through some amazing rock structures. The trail had lots of informational signs along the way, so we could learn about the different structures we were seeing and how they formed. This park also included the remnants of a pueblo village and some really neat ancient rock drawings.

The Grand Canyon, AZ: We actually spent two full days here and stayed in a lodge about a quarter mile from the rim. On our first day we did some walking along the rim (and rode a bus--a first for the girls!), watched a film about the canyon, and explored the visitors center and a number of the historic buildings nearby (many of which were designed by a female architect in the early 1900s--lots of fascinating tidbits for Bug). On day two we woke to find about an inch of snow on the ground! 

on the Bright Angel trail

None of the girls remember experiencing snow before, and they had a blast--snowball fights with Daddy, snow angels, and even a small snowman were all part of the fun. We walked to the rim to get some photos of the canyon itself in the snow, but it had disappeared! A huge dense fog had settled into the canyon and left us just enough visibility to watch our snowballs rolls down a ledge or two into the canyon. Fortunately, it cleared off in the afternoon, and we were able to take the girls on a hike a quarter of a mile down the canyon (because of all the switchbacks that means a total of 3 miles of hiking). We had the added adventure of dealing with an icy trail and figuring out how to hike with crampons on our shoes. The entourage were amazing little hikers! Monkey and Bug made it the whole way, and Goose made it down but had to be carried back out (they didn't make crampons small enough for her, she slipped in mud twice, and we were hiking during naptime--all things considered, she was quite the trooper!). 

L: The entourage posing at the trailhead with Daddy (not the day we actually hiked). R: Proof that even Goose
made it down to the resthouse!

inside the Watchtower

On our way out of Grand Canyon National Park, we stopped at the Watchtower, a historic building designed to resemble ancient pueblo towers and filled with Native American Art. The girls were incredibly excited about this one.

Sunset Crater Volcano & Wupatki Pueblos, AZ: We backtracked a bit on leaving the Grand Canyon in order to visit the Sunset Crater Volcano on the way to our next destination. We learned all about this particular volcano and the volcanic range it's part of. There was still snow on the ground, but most of it had been cleared from a mile-long loop trail that allowed us some great views of the volcano as well as a close-up examination of some of rock structures and lava field it created. 

the entourage with a huge rock in the lava field

At the visitor center we discovered that this national park connected to the Wupatki National Monument, so we stopped to see that too--well worth the additional driving time! While the pueblos we saw before were merely the foundations of village buildings, Wupatki is the remnants of an actual city that includes the ruins of many full-sized rooms and recreations of a gathering space and ball court. Slightly more is known about these structures, so it was a pretty fascinating stop.

inside one of the storage rooms

outside the city (It was really windy!)

Las Vegas & The Hoover Dam, NV: The closest lodging to the Hoover Dam is actually in Las Vegas, so the evening we arrived we took the girls for a drive down the Las Vegas Strip. The spectacle of all the lights, cool buildings, and novelty structures was so interesting that we never even had to get into what purpose all those building served anyway. The next morning we drove to the Hoover Dam where we watched a film about its construction and uses, took a tour of the power plant, strolled through the exhibits about the science and history of the dam, then took a short walk out onto the dam itself. 

Of course, we drove for hours in between all those fascinating places, but those were hardly times of boredom. The girls invented storylines for their figures and toy vehicles to act out, colored (paper &
crayons, magnadoodles, or etch-a-sketch) and completed activity sheets (mazes, hidden picture puzzles, sudoku, word searches), read books to each other, sang along to Christmas CDs, and watched classic Christmas movies and episodes from their new Spanish curriculum. And obviously, we had lots of discussions about the changing scenery as we crossed the country, particularly as we crossed Texas and saw new things like cotton fields, oil derricks, solar farms, and wind mills.

Home--the Beach! We finally arrived at our "next new city" on December 23. We did a lot of exploring of our new town, visited a church for their Christmas Eve service, celebrated Christmas morning in our empty living room (our furniture didn't arrive until the 26th), then in the afternoon we went for a walk on the beach and played at a huge, fun playground nearby. We are all SO glad to be settling in to our new place!

Merry Christmas from the beach about 10 minutes from our new house!