Albuquerque, New Mexico , Petroglyph National Monument

We spent some time in the old part of town which is very touristy. Lots of the same types of gift stores with a few unique stores. 

Then we spent time at the Petroglyph National Monument walking the different trials. The monument is in the middle of a very busy area. It was very odd but I am thankful that they decided to finally protect this outdoor museum. 

The pueblo people were very artistic. These all are about 400-700 years old. 

My junior ranger! 

Lizard with lolly pop? 

 She loves riding on dada's shoulders

We have two more flat tires on the stroller and we even went to walmart today!!! Aahhh!! We spent so much time today in traffic and at traffic lights. We are not city people. 

Santa Rosa Lake State Park, New Mexico

We really enjoy visiting New Mexico. This park was quiet, spacious and dark at night. The only thing is that the wind usually blows really hard here. We went on a nice 2 mile hike around the lake shoreline after Ella played at the playground. It was nice to stretch our legs. 

I made meatloaf pizza last night and it tasted awesome. 

The night before we stayed at Camelot Campground which was across the street from Costco!! Now we are stocked up with yummy food. 

This cute girl will be 1 in three weeks!!! She is showing off her 7 teeth. Last night she crawled into the bathroom, grabbed her toothbrush and began brushing along side of me. She is so smart and such a quick learning. She doesn't miss anything. 

I love watching her play by herself. She now grabs and hugs her dolls. Looks them in the eyes and whispers to them. It's so cute to watch her mirror our behaviors. 

She can be one messy kid too! Watch out because she mimics everything. This is especially funny when we are around strangers. She likes to mimic noises people make. :) 

Tres Rios, Glen Rose TX.

We drove to Glen Rose to stay at the Tres Rios resort because Jason thought that he had won a free three night stay. Turns out that when we arrived the place was not much of a resort and in turn for our free nights we needed to attend a 90 minute tour. In the fine print of the email it does describe that the tour is mandatory and that two forms of id are required including a credit card. I guess this is a good reminder to all that you should read the fine print and find out what type of swept stakes you are enter before filling out that little white piece of paper. 

We stayed for two nights and we left before the tour began. I'm sure they have emailed Jason wondering why we left but thankfully we never gave them any personal information. It reminded me of those pyramid scams that used to happen all the time. 

We did enjoy the area. Glen rose is a nice small town known for dinosaur tracks. We had fabulous pies in town after we shopped the antique and clothing stores. The weather our second day was fabulous. I think it reached 80 degrees! We were able to sleep with the windows open at night. We don't have an air conditioner so I am thankful our airstream has plenty of windows. 

Today while on the road Ella has gotten sick twice and required a complete change both times. She is feeling better but the strong coughs are too much for her increasing appetite. Now I sit with Ella in the trailer while Jason runs into town for another wheel barring. Thankfully, a gentlemen caught our attention to tell us something was wrong with our trailer. It was still pulling fine and at the initial look around Jason did not see anything wrong. When we were able to pull over at a safer location we both jumped out and literally saw the smoking problem. The weather is great so we are just chilling until dad returns. 

She feels special with her new chair 

Looking at gordo

Dinosaur track found near nuclear plant

What will I have for lunch today? 

Magnolia Arkansas and Caddo Lake State Park Tuesday March 25

We went for a nice canoe ride in the bayou. I've always wanted to float around the bald cypress trees. 

Family 

She wasn't too sure about what we were doing! 

Looking at the trees and turtles. 

Enjoying the sunshine 

On our way to Caddo we stopped in the little town of Magnolia Arkansas to walk around the old town and check out its stores. They had a fantastic collection of clothes, gifts and toys. We bought local honey and it's delish! 

We drove along the "boom or bust" and a "civil war" highway. There are oil pumps every where  now that we are in Texas. 

Lake Chicot State Park, AR.

Here we enjoyed walking in the park and watching the sun set over the lake. It's a rather long lake that used to be a part of the Mississippi River before it changed coarse cutting off what is now an oxbow shaped lake. 

The drive to the park was an adventure thanks to google maps. We ended up on an old dirt road full of pot holes and cattle guard crossings. Not the type of road you want to be on when pulling a large trailer. 

The park was full of families on spring break which reminded me of camping in New Zealand. 

Ella fussed all day and she still does not feel well. The only thing she enjoyed yesterday was riding in her stroller watching the kids play and watching the migrating birds fly around the lake. Traveling is tiring but it's exhausting when you have a sick baby. 

Lake Lowndes State Park, Mississippi

We made it through Alabama to spend the night in Mississippi. I always like camping in MS. because the campsites are clean and cheap. You cannot beat $20 for a lakefront full hookup campsite. 

It turns out that Ella is very cautious around geese. She latched on to dad when they came close to us trying to claim the campsite as their own and she did not take her eyes off them the rest of the evening. Thankfully, the geese did not like gordo. 

I enjoyed reading in the back and watching the sunset over the lake. 

Ella had another tooth popping out on the bottom! For a total of 7 teeth. 

We just had too...

Mississippi 

Hanging out on the bed while dada cleaned the trailer

Plenty of sunshine on our bed

Road trip home 2014

We are on the road back home to Alaska.

Any guesses on how many miles we will drive this leg of the trip?  

We camped at Chattahoochee Bend State Park for two nights. 

It's a new park and very nicely arranged. 

Zumba Instructor Certified 

Saturday I spent the day at the University of West Georgia dancing and learning Zumba. I am now certified to teach Zumba! I will be leading classes this summer in Talkeetna. 

Ella is still sick, but thankfully she no longer has the stomach bug. I can handle her having a cold a little easier but I am ready for her to be normal again. We've been battleing sicknesses since she received her last round of vaccines. She is also about to cut two more teeth next to her lower incisors. She currently has 6 teeth and she weighs 24lbs 4.5 oz. and is 31 inches long

Highlights of the past 3 months. 

-spending about two months at the beach

-Regina's wedding and seeing friends 

-spending the night at the Whitley Home

and having some good quality time with them

-being able to see Ella grow and learn. Her personality is really beginning to show. She loves calling gordo and feeding him. 

Words- mama, dada, gordo, nite nite, tata (my moms name) and no 

- Ella's first 1st birthday party with family and nearby friends. She received some amazing toys and it was so nice to see everyone and celebrate our dear child before we left Atlanta. 

-making memories :) 

We are now driving through Alabama!