Happy 24th Birthday Aunt Jul

"Sweet-ums" (as my sister calls him) wanted to wish Aunt Julianne a VERY HAPPY Birthday!!!!!! We are thinking about you today.....and Jake specifically is sending this SMILE to you! :-) Have a really GREAT Birthday!! We can't wait to see you soon!! We love you!!

Snack (then nap) time!

A little snack....and then the best part (for mommy, aka. entertainer) NAPTIME :-) Actually, Jake has been a lot of fun to play with, too...and really hasn't fussed too much for having a cold (and for just doing this drive a month ago)! We've been having a good time in the backseat. Daddy won't let Mommy drive, so I'm pulling out all of the entertainment stops!

Biggest Cross in Western Hemisphere

So, this is the biggest cross in the Western Hemisphere. I need to google where the biggest cross in the world would be then? Just one of the "random" facts that you find out when you drive across country. We aren't really sure the story behind it (how big it is, why someone built it, etc).....but, by reading the signs on the highway, it is the biggest. It is located somewhere outside of Amarillo, TX. I just wanted to make sure that the readers of this blog learn something every once in a while, too :-) The picture of Chris and Jake....not sure where that was taken, but Jake was loving being out of the car....that's all I know. It gets harder and harder each day to put him back in the car seat when we make stops!!

Cold

Jake has a cold. A lot of you who read this blog know this already. The irony in this cold is, again, not great timing. He was up most of the night on Tuesday night (the night before we left CA) with a fever and all stuffy and feeling gross. So, the guy has been a trooper on this trip across country! His fever only lasted Wednesday and some of Thursday, and he has been fever-free since somewhere between Albuquerque and Oklahoma City. BUT, he does still have a cough and stuffiness. Chris and I have found that Jake can take on both of us, though. He does NOT appreciate the nasal aspirator. I mean, can you blame him?? I've never had to use it on him, and he is making sure we STILL don't use it. Chris and I try to EXPLAIN to him that it is for his own good.....pretty funny us trying to explain it to a 10-month old as he's screaming :-) Anyway, he is getting better everyday, and finally slept from like 11pm - 7am last night, so that is good. I mean, plus we have lost 2 hours....and I'm pretty much just tossing the "schedule" out the window. Did I mention, though, that Jake doesn't like us to USE the nasal aspirator; however, he LOVES to play with it. Kind of gross, but hey....whatever keeps him occupied in the car :-)

Thanksgiving Day

We spent Thanksgiving Day driving from Flagstaff, AZ to Albuquerque, NM. It was a fun, memorable Thanksgiving for us. We stopped for lunch at a Love's Subway! There are Love's gas stations all over I-40. Then, for dinner.....we planned to go to Outback. We just assumed most places would be open. Well, we started driving, and everything was "lights out." EVEN MCDONALDS (which I don't like anyway, but still....). So, the only thing we could find was a Del Taco (yuck), but we FINALLY found a TGI Fridays that was open, so that was awesome.....and we got some take out and brought it back to the hotel. Jake was the ONLY one to have Turkey on Thanksgiving Day, though!! Maybe once we get "settled in" to SC, I can make a Thanksgiving meal....although, it may be NEXT Thanksgiving before we actually get settled - haha :-)

Some Cross Country Sights

Here are some of the cross country sights we have seen so far. It pretty much rained all Wednesday and Thursday while we were on the road. Thankfully the sunshine was out on Friday for most of the day, BUT we did see a rainbow in Arizona and SNOW in Albuquerque as we were leaving yesterday morning. There was snow/ice on the ground for about 60 miles!! Needless to say, it has been very cold on the drive so far.

MOVE OUT

Well, our stuff has officially been packed and picked up by the movers. The first picture is a picture of the storage facility....check out the view :-) Jake wasn't able to help the movers as much as he was the packers! Instead, he wanted to drive the car like he saw the movers driving the truck.....AND he passed out hard core on the way home! BUT - our stuff is in transit to South Carolina, so we won't have to wait 7 weeks for furniture like we did when we got here! So, all we have left to do now is be "on the road again....."