HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Well, we've made it. We did what we set out to do. I am so proud of the kids. They did an awesome job. Yesterday was one of our best days yet-depsite a day of rain. One might think what do you do in an RV all day long with three kids??? Between school, art, reading, writing, showers, laundry and taking breaks when the rain stopped, the day flew by. The kids (and I) listened to Sound of Music and Christmas songs all day long. I was a big fan of the Sound of Music choice, no big surprise there. It was 10pm by the time we all went to bed.

Last night we had the storms of all storms. At 3am thunder and lightening lit up our sky. It felt like it was right overhead. Jack and I were upstairs and woke right up. When rain hits the RV, it sounds like little pebbles are falling on us. The lightening illuminated the entire campground. It was very exciting. I got down to cover up Lilly who had also awakened. She looked at me and said smiling, "when the dog bites, when the bee stings..." I thought that was pretty clever for 3am.

Mike (and the dogs) left San Diego early this morning and are headed our way. We'll have a memorable Thanksgiving in the RV. On Friday (Jana's birthday!), we'll caravan down to Phoenix where Mike, the kids and the dogs will camp for the night. Jackson has scouted out his last Cabela's and will go there tomorrow. I, on the otherhand, will go to the airport and pick up Heidi and Bertie who will spend a girls weekend with me back in Sedona!! I have a massage booked for Saturday. Boy, does my back need that. MIke and kids will get home Saturday, and Bertie and I will drive home in the MDX on Sunday night.

And that's the end. We are ending on Thanksgiving which is pretty fitting. I think it's safe to say that we are all very grateful for not only doing the trip, but also that we had a safe return. I also think we have a deeper appreciation for all that we have in our country, and we have an enormous amount of respect for those who died not only for our freedom but for theirs. We live in a pretty amazing place. It's a big sense of accomplishment, and if anything, I hope we've learned that YES, WE CAN.

Happy Thanksgiving to all-


Sammy
It's not the end for us three kids because my Mom is not doing it anymore, but my Dad and us three are going to still camp. I liked the trip in genereal because of the hooking up part. I think that may be kinda fun, how you hook up the RV. The trip also has made me think like we got to see a lot of sutff compared to other people. And they don't get to see Mt. Rushmore and the Grand Tetons and White Sands. I am happy we did this trip.

Lilly
I can't beleive we made it to the end, and about the trip, I really liked all of it except Hoover Dam. I really like seeing Mt. Rushmore, Grand Tetons and White Sands. I liked having mornings when we just listened to music and I got to lie in bed.
I think, "Wow, we made it."

Jackson
It was really nice to be able to be mellow in the morning, and not rush, and maybe just go out and play in the rain. It was just a really amazing trip. I am very glad we did this.

Winslow-Sedona

Standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona... we left the Wigwam this morning and drove *through* Winslow, AZ. I"m not sure if any of us would want to be stuck on that corner for long. But it was fun to see "the corner." The drive from Flagstaff to Sedona was amazing. Flagstaff is like Truckee, a little mountain feeling town, and it smelled just like Tahoe.

Sedona is fabulous. It's great timing that this really is our last stop before home, not counting Phoenix since we've been there. All of us love it here and it's top on the list of favorite places. I found myself consistently saying on this trip, "Wow, it's pretty here," and then the next stop saying the same thing. But Sedona really is spectacular. Our campground is covered with fall, leaves and the mountains shoot up behind us.

We're supposed to get heavy rain Wednesday and Thursday night, so tonight we're walking from our campground around the corner to some resort. There, they will light over 1 millions Christmas tree lights. Just looked at the time-have to run to the lights!

Back in Arizona

We crossed our last state line (Arizona) before getting home to California. We hit 19 states in all. Tonight we are staying in a wigwam! I thought the kids would get a kick out of staying in a tee-pee. It's pretty classic. Because the walls are slanted, you actually have to look UP into the bathroom mirror. Our "room" is about 15 feet in diameter. Tomorrow is Sedona where we'll be through Thanksgiving, the day Mike meets us. I'm having a hard time believing that this adventure is truly almost over. Anyone else find this hard to believe?

Back to Albuquerque

From Lilly:
Today we went to see some petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are indian writings on rocks. It was a long hike. I took a lot of pictures. We also went on the longest tram in the world, 2.7 miles. It was a beautiful view. From the top to the bottom is about 15 minutes. After both activities, Jackson, Sammy and I washed the RV. That was fun because we kind of squirted each other with the hose. We played at the park at our campground. We ate dinner and then we had to drop off my grandparents at the airport. I said good-bye and then we left. Now I am going to leave my journal, good-bye.

Jackson
The elevation from the upper terminal is 10,378 feet. At the top it was 32 degrees, and at the bottom it warmed up to 72 degrees. The average number of people per year is 250,000. The distance btwn tower 2 and the summit is 7,720 ft or just over a mile. The petroglyph hike was about 3 miles. It felt good to run around. We had a lot of conversations on the way. It was hard to leave Nana and Poppy.

Sammy
Today we went to a drug store. We got scrunchies and clips from Nana. We had to use a cardboard box cutter to cut them (the packages) in half. I have for the clips red, yellow and green. My scrunchies colors are blue, purple, pink and green. I liked the tram a lot. I really liked the petroglyphs. I walked with Poppy most of the way. Then that's when we went to the drugstore. The tram was really, really fun. I liked it really good. Then we went to the carwash. My Mom and the kids kinda got sprayed. I sprayed my sister and my brother. The End.

More time in Sante Fe

It was art appreciation day. We toured the Georgia O'Keeffe museum. She was born in 1887 in Wisconsin and died in 1986 in Sante Fe. At the age of 12 she knew she wanted to be an artist. She studied in Chicago and New York but where she felt most at home was in New Mexico. There she painted her passion, nature. It was a great exhibit, and even the kids liked it.

We walked into town and had lunch at our new favorite restaurant. After lunch we took a bus tour around Sante Fe. It was awesome. Sante Fe is the highest state capital in elevation, sells the most art second to New York, and hosts a great number of galleries. In the summer, the temperature gets to 90 degrees, but it's a dry heat. I could handle that. We drove up Canyon Rd. which was basically gallery row. It was so cool.

In the afternoon the kids went in the hot tub, did school and hung out. Mom, Dad and I went back into town to see the luminaries on the plaza lit at night. It was very pretty.

Tomorrow we had back to Albuquerque, and we'll take Nana and Poppy to the airport. It's been so great having them here. We've had so much fun. What a way to round out our trip before being home. Thank you Mom and Dad!

PS-GO BEARS! We beat Stanfurd today in the Big Game!

Taos

Today we drove and hour and a half to Taos. It was a beautiful drive, along canyons and rivers. Our first stop was Taos Pueblo. The Pueblo is considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited community in the US. Native legend and history trace this indian community life back to the beginning of evolution. The native language is Tiwa and is unwritten (and unrecorded) and will remain so. The details of traditional values, life and language are passed down from generation to generation. Traditional houses are made of adobe brick and adobe ovens are still used to bake bread, cakes, pies and cookies. We tried the bread and it was delicious. If you wanted to take pictues of the native people, you must first ask for permission as the belief is taking pictures takes away from that person's soul.

The church was built in 1850 and is a registered historical landmark. Catholism was introduced to this community by the early Spanish missionaries. Today about 3/4 of the population share in some of the Catholic rituals, while the natives still practice 100% in tradtional tribal rituals. Between 50-100 people currently live in the Pueblo.

After walking the Pueblo, we drove into Taos and had lunch. The town was small, but the surrounding mountains and plains were beautiful. We arrived back into Sante Fe in time for a hot tub, homework and left-over turkey dinner.

Sante Fe

I could live here. It's awesome. After breakfast with Mom and Dad, we all took a shuttle into downtown, to the Plaza. We strolled around town, did some shopping and had a great, authentic, southwestern lunch, complete with margaritas for Dad and me. It was cold, so we took the shuttle back and spent the afternoon doing school and cooking an early turkey. I had a nap, a real nap, did laundry and went to the gym. The funny part was that the kids came and found me in the gym and stayed to do all the machines etc. I was laughing, and thankfully no one else was there. We ate our Thanksgiving dinner with Nana and Poppy and watched Planet Earth. If you haven't seen this DVD collection, you should. It's fascinating. Tomorrow we'll drive about an hour north to Taos. I can't wait-it's a ski town, so I'm sure we'll all love it. And it feels like it could snow-tonight's temperature is 29 degrees!