Day 196: Road trip, day 2

Day 2 of the road trip from California to Colorado went as well as day 1.  We got up in the morning at the hotel and Cooper immediately went to the phone again (we always have to unplug he phones so the kids can play with them).

Charlotte was very sleepy and didn’t want to get out of her portable bed.

We were most impressed with how well the kids napped in the car.  Cooper loved having a pillow, while Charlotte just needed her blankie.

While driving all I could look at were all the clouds.  I realized how few clouds we got in California and how much I really missed seeing clouds.  (This is somewhwere in Utah.) 

This cloud in particular was super crazy with the uplift.

This was in Grand Junction.  I love all the plateaus.

Sometimes I feel like there are landscapes I see that just don’t seem possible to exist on Earth.  Seems like they are from a different planet.

 

These are some photo of driving in the ‘real’ mountains.  It never ceases to impress me.

Colorado means ‘color red’, and I love seeing how red the dirt is.

Cooper was completely chill while driving.  I think it helped that we had Nemo or Wall-E running non-stop.

I loved how the clouds were reflecting in the mirror.

This was one of my favorite photos on the trip.  When I was little I was very confused at how clouds could have shadows, and now I love how beautiful the light is in the valley. 
Near the end of the drive the kids seemed to be a little restless.  The toy laptop helped calm Charlotte down, while Cooper just got a little silly. 

Cooper attempting to blow his nose with an empty chip bag. 

And this is how well it worked.

And finally seeing home!  It was so exciting to drive in and see the city!  There was even a rainbow to welcome us.

Day 195, part 2: Road trip day 1

The drive was so smooth, it was unbelievable.  The kids did phenomenal.  After being so tired from moving and rushing around, I barely had energy to document the first day of our drive.  I only took photos of the scenery at the border of California and Arizona, and then in Nevada. 

Day 195: Saying goodbye to our home

We had our walkthrough with our landlord right before we left for the drive to Colorado.  We let the kids see the house completely empty.  Cooper thought it was really cool that he could run around and play to his heart’s content.  Charlotte was very concerned about everything being gone.  Looking back at these photos make me a little sad because I can see the emotion all over her face.  She just didn’t understand that our stuff was going to ‘Caw-waw-wah-woah’ (Colorado).

Realizing he can dance and spin without his bed in his room. 

Realizing her ‘choo-choo’ bed is gone.

Worried about the missing fridge, furniture and toys.

Worried about all of their outdoor toys—the playhouse, tricycles, and scooters.

Still taking photos

I am still taking photos every day (although I did miss a day), but I haven’t had time to edit or post.  I’m hoping to catch up soon!  We are hoping to close on our house in a couple of weeks, but I start work on Monday.  I think the normal routine of work will help me get back in the groove of daily blogging.

Day 194: Legos and new toys

The day before we left I took the kids to the park the entire day while the movers were packing and loading the truck.  I ended up with a terrible sunburn that is still bothering me.  After he park we went to my friend’s house where we planned to stay before we left.  Her husband has a Lego hobby so I took some photos of the kids playing with Cecily’s toys and some fun photos of Legos.

Cooper  filled the handheld basket and then put it in the shopping cart.  I especially like the scientist goggles to do grocery shopping.  (I missed the focus on this because Charlotte was trying to sit on my lap.

Charlotte had to use both as well, but she carried one and pushed the other.

Caren was showing me her roomba and Cooper didn’t think it was cleaning the floors well enough so he chased it around with the toy dirt devil.

We wanted to take a photo of all three kids together and this was the best I got.  Cooper was watching TV and Cecily was going after the dog.

I am astounded by the level of detail Richard puts into his hobby.  He is building a city that has a railroad that goes around it and under the city.  He makes it modular so he can move the different buildings separate from one another.  I should not have shot as wide open as I did, but this house was incredible, as were the cars/buses in front of it.  The inside of the house even appeared to be built up with kitchen counters and furniture.

   

The castle was also super impressive.  You can see how the train goes above and below the city.

And for fun, ‘Lego macro’.  These are the flowers ‘growing’ on the hillside of the castle.

A chest sitting on the fireplace mantle.

Books on the fireplace mantle, also with the ability for a train to go through them.

Toy Story!  There was even dynamite legos for Prospector and I love the little alien lego man.  The kids ran off with Buzz, so I couldn’t include him in the photo.  Again I probably shouldn’t have shot as wide open so that everything was in focus. The photo was a little crooked because I still can’t hold my camera straight, despite the gridlines in the view finder and I have no idea how to straighten the photo in paint.net.

Day 193: Scout is sad

Sunday was a super busy day and I didn’t have time to pull out my camera to take any photos of the kids.  Instead I took one of our little dog Scout, who was feeling the stress of something new around the corner.  She looked so sad to be leaving CA.  (I’m using paint.net and my laptop to edit, so not ideal.  I have no idea if these photos look okay.)

Short Break

I’m still taking a photo a day, but I’m not able to blog all my photos right now because of our big move back to Colorado.  I’m hoping not to fall too behind, so I’ll post when I can!

Day 192: Day trip to see friends

We went to San Diego to say bye to some friends.  The visit was super short, but a really great way to relax before the big move.

Scout met a new friend (getting the color right on the dog fur is a lot like getting the skin tone right for people!) 

Cooper needed latex gloves to play with toys

The kids had fun with boy/girl 9 month old twins, although Cooper didn’t love sharing.

The drive home was silly.  Cooper passed out reading his newspaper.  Scout slept sitting up.  And Charlotte…well she was a little punch-drunk tired.