New Me-h-ico

Today, three of us drove over the Arizona and New Mexico state line for the first time and there was a lot of celebratory applause!  We didn't leave on time this morning (only 45 minutes past our goal) but we did enjoy a wonderful continental breakfast at the Best Western Date Tree Hotel.  It was a very nice hotel and very redemptive from our last hotel stay last summer.  The kids watched a movie and we had PB & J sandwiches for dinner, they were yummy!  We did give Maisie a sedative for the night because she was barking and upset at all the noises and voices she was hearing.  So we had a few hours of good sleep on a comfy bed.  

Once again, the kids have been great travelers.  Caeden has so far earned $17.00 total for the license plate game (I am updating my last post with a link to the puzzle) and we also came up with a way to discourage complaining (if it were to be an issue, we nipped it early).  If we hear complaining, he loses a dollar and a state.  He has to flip it back over and try again….so far no losses!  He has been enjoying his iPod with a playlist of The Beatles, Cat Stevens, Jack Johnson and Ziggy Marley.  Maleiah is still busy coloring….making a book that I am sure is going to need staples as soon as we get to Katy.  Does anyone know where I packed that?  Me either.  

It is hot.  Hot, hot, hot.  It was so cold in California and now it's hot with no breeze.  What a change!  And we packed our winter clothes, not the summer ones….yikes!  We found the Arizona landscape to be pretty boring although Maleiah loves to tell us every time she sees a cactus and and we spent some time trying to find shapes in the mountain peaks…(a butterfly, a face, a bat and an eagle.)  When Caeden does ask the "are we there yet" question it usually sounds like this: "Are we in New Me-h-ico yet?"  I don't know why he insists on pronouncing it this way but he can't be swayed.

Along the way Maleiah has been collecting rocks in order to build a rat house.  Her cousin Riley has a pet rat that she fell in love with and so she has her mind set that she can build a rat house in the garage out of rocks.  Ick! 

My dad told me New Mexico is beautiful and I didn't agree until I saw the sky during the sunset.  I tried my best to capture it while driving just so I cold remember the color.  We watched it until the sky was the blackest black.  Again, our hotel in New Mexico has been awesome and Maisie didn't bark at all.  Today we head for San Antonio which is a shorter drive than yesterday, yeah!