Texas Trip 2018
Oh the Texas Trip! Let me start this post off with a disclaimer. Leland and I are not travel people. If I had a lot of money, travel would not be super high on my priority list. I mean maybe if it was without kids and maybe I will change my mind as we do it more. But still travel just stresses me out. I had anxiety for weeks leading up to this trip, especially about staying in a house on the water. But we watched the kids closely and everything turned out fine! Once we were there I was able to relax and have fun and of course the girls had a blast too.
Day 1
We drove to my parents house (5 hours) and stayed the night. Going that route added 2 hours to the total driving time, but we were able to break up the driving into 3 days instead of 2 so it was worth it. Kent rode with us and stayed at my parents house too. The girls had fun playing with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kel and Ruby.
Day 2
We woke up early and drove 10 hours to Santa Rosa, NM. The girls and Israel did surprisingly well in the car. We stopped
every few hours and made it to our hotel around 8:30. It was a really gross place. I was glad we only had to stay one night. Of course the girls were completely unaware of how nasty it was and kept saying how wonderful and great it was. Esther proclaimed "It has everything we need!"
Day 3
We drove 8 hours from Santa Rosa to Waco, TX. The girls were so excited to finally be in Texas. Even though it was late when we got there, Leland took them swimming in the hotel pool because they were too excited to sleep anyways.
Day 4
This was a long but fun day. We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel, then packed up and went to Magnolia Market. It was close to 100° that day but I'm still glad we visited. I loved it there! It was so cute and a great atmosphere. I wanted to buy every single thing in the store but it was all way overpriced so I just got a t-shirt. We also didn't go in the bakery cause there was a huge line. We just got shaved ice from one of the food trucks instead.
After that we left Waco and headed 2 hours to East Texas. There we visited Leland's mom's house, had dinner with one of Leland's high school friends, then Leland played tennis with him while the kids and I went back to the hotel.
Day 5
We let the girls swim at the hotel, and took Israel swimming for his first time. The water was really warm and he seemed to like it. Then we drove 4 hours to the Lake house we would be staying at with Leland's family. There we played and had dinner with some of his family.
Day 6
We played in the water and hung out with 6/7 siblings of Leland's. Adele loved her twin baby cousins Ella and David. Adele loved David and treated him just like Israel. She kept calling him her baby and saying "Come on, little guy" in her high pitched voice. It was adorable. Luckily the twins have two older siblings so they were used to all the affection ha. Esther loved all her cousins but mostly Carly and Anita and Evelyn.
Day 7
We drove another hour to Leland's reunion on his mom's side. It was Leland's grandma's 95th birthday celebration. We had lunch there and saw lots of Leland's cousins and extended family. We weren't able to stay for it all, sadly. We had to start the drive back to Utah. We drove 7 hours that day and stayed the night in Roswell, NM. We were disappointed we didn't see any UFOs haha.
Day 8 &9
We drove 12 hours back to my parents house. We spent the night there then rested a while in the morning before driving the last 5 hours home.
So yes, it was so much driving! But it really wasn't as bad as I dreaded it to be. The girls are pretty good in the car. I brought so many activities for them to do in the car and they didn't really care about them. They were entertained by movies on the tablet (seriously so many movies!), playing games like "Going Out West" and loved the storytelling games we played. We also listed to two audio books, Charlotte's Web and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, plus some CDs of fairytales that they liked. Driving through the Texas portion of the trip was actually pretty interesting since we passed through lots of tiny towns and landmarks.
Leland was amazing and did 90% of the driving. I sat with Israel and he did surprisingly well. I did pump and bottle feed him about once a day so we could drive for a longer stretch. But most of the time we stopped every 2-3 hours for me to feed him.
I wish we could have seen and done more on this trip. There were so many cool things we passed I would have liked to stop and explore. We thought of going to the beach or an amusement park but it didn't work out. It was already a stretch for Leland to take these days off, plus $$$. Anyways, the reason for our trip was to go and spend time with family and we definitely did that and overall had a great time.
2015 Texas Trip HERE
Day 1
We drove to my parents house (5 hours) and stayed the night. Going that route added 2 hours to the total driving time, but we were able to break up the driving into 3 days instead of 2 so it was worth it. Kent rode with us and stayed at my parents house too. The girls had fun playing with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kel and Ruby.
We woke up early and drove 10 hours to Santa Rosa, NM. The girls and Israel did surprisingly well in the car. We stopped
every few hours and made it to our hotel around 8:30. It was a really gross place. I was glad we only had to stay one night. Of course the girls were completely unaware of how nasty it was and kept saying how wonderful and great it was. Esther proclaimed "It has everything we need!"
Day 3
We drove 8 hours from Santa Rosa to Waco, TX. The girls were so excited to finally be in Texas. Even though it was late when we got there, Leland took them swimming in the hotel pool because they were too excited to sleep anyways.
This was a long but fun day. We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel, then packed up and went to Magnolia Market. It was close to 100° that day but I'm still glad we visited. I loved it there! It was so cute and a great atmosphere. I wanted to buy every single thing in the store but it was all way overpriced so I just got a t-shirt. We also didn't go in the bakery cause there was a huge line. We just got shaved ice from one of the food trucks instead.
After that we left Waco and headed 2 hours to East Texas. There we visited Leland's mom's house, had dinner with one of Leland's high school friends, then Leland played tennis with him while the kids and I went back to the hotel.
Day 5
We let the girls swim at the hotel, and took Israel swimming for his first time. The water was really warm and he seemed to like it. Then we drove 4 hours to the Lake house we would be staying at with Leland's family. There we played and had dinner with some of his family.
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| Every hotel we stayed in had a Texas waffle maker! |
Day 6
We played in the water and hung out with 6/7 siblings of Leland's. Adele loved her twin baby cousins Ella and David. Adele loved David and treated him just like Israel. She kept calling him her baby and saying "Come on, little guy" in her high pitched voice. It was adorable. Luckily the twins have two older siblings so they were used to all the affection ha. Esther loved all her cousins but mostly Carly and Anita and Evelyn.
Day 7
We drove another hour to Leland's reunion on his mom's side. It was Leland's grandma's 95th birthday celebration. We had lunch there and saw lots of Leland's cousins and extended family. We weren't able to stay for it all, sadly. We had to start the drive back to Utah. We drove 7 hours that day and stayed the night in Roswell, NM. We were disappointed we didn't see any UFOs haha.
Day 8 &9
We drove 12 hours back to my parents house. We spent the night there then rested a while in the morning before driving the last 5 hours home.
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| We had to keep rearranging seats to keep the fighting between these two to a minimum, but they were so happy when I we let Adele forward face in the back with Esther. |
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| I had to put in a lot of work to get Israel to sleep in the car. Stroking his face, bouncing his car seat, rubbing his face with his sloth and singing, pretty much all of that is what it took to get him to sleep. |
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| They were delighted to find every hotel had "rainbow cereal" aka fruit loops |
So yes, it was so much driving! But it really wasn't as bad as I dreaded it to be. The girls are pretty good in the car. I brought so many activities for them to do in the car and they didn't really care about them. They were entertained by movies on the tablet (seriously so many movies!), playing games like "Going Out West" and loved the storytelling games we played. We also listed to two audio books, Charlotte's Web and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, plus some CDs of fairytales that they liked. Driving through the Texas portion of the trip was actually pretty interesting since we passed through lots of tiny towns and landmarks.
Leland was amazing and did 90% of the driving. I sat with Israel and he did surprisingly well. I did pump and bottle feed him about once a day so we could drive for a longer stretch. But most of the time we stopped every 2-3 hours for me to feed him.
I wish we could have seen and done more on this trip. There were so many cool things we passed I would have liked to stop and explore. We thought of going to the beach or an amusement park but it didn't work out. It was already a stretch for Leland to take these days off, plus $$$. Anyways, the reason for our trip was to go and spend time with family and we definitely did that and overall had a great time.
2015 Texas Trip HERE
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