Well, we began our week plus vacation on June 14th and drove to Indio, Calif. Over half-way to our first destination - Phoenix/Tempe/Mesa, Arizona. This was Nathaniel's first major car trip...he did pretty well. 
Joshua's an old pro at these, though we haven't taken one for a couple of years and now he's in the "Are we there yet?" and "How much farther is it?" stage. Do to LA area traffic and a couple of stops (it takes longer to fill up the car with gas when you also have to fill up a baby's tummy) we reached our first hotel a little past dinner time. We slept (it was hot and the air conditioner vent was over the closet and didn't blow towards the beds - it blew towards the foot of the beds...no help for us!) and then got up and ate breakfast (free continental) .JPG)
.JPG)
and got on the road to Arizona. We only had a few hours to drive, so it wasn't too bad. There sure isn't much out there in the desert. Lots of cactus...Joshua liked that. He was disappointed however to not see any Joshua trees. Lots of dirt and sand...and the mountains and hills were very different from what we see around here or up north when we visit Grandma Lorrayne and Grandpa Bruce. We arrived at our hotel in Tempe, checked in and unloaded the car and then went over to the hotel where Brian's siblings were all staying and went swimming in the very cool (in every sense of the word) pools at the Marriott they were at. Later that evening we got to meet Sue, Brian's dad's fiancee, and all went to dinner. After the dinner we went back to our hotel and put the kids to bed and went to sleep ourselves so we'd be ready for the big day on Saturday...the wedding.
Joshua's an old pro at these, though we haven't taken one for a couple of years and now he's in the "Are we there yet?" and "How much farther is it?" stage. Do to LA area traffic and a couple of stops (it takes longer to fill up the car with gas when you also have to fill up a baby's tummy) we reached our first hotel a little past dinner time. We slept (it was hot and the air conditioner vent was over the closet and didn't blow towards the beds - it blew towards the foot of the beds...no help for us!) and then got up and ate breakfast (free continental) and got on the road to Arizona. We only had a few hours to drive, so it wasn't too bad. There sure isn't much out there in the desert. Lots of cactus...Joshua liked that. He was disappointed however to not see any Joshua trees. Lots of dirt and sand...and the mountains and hills were very different from what we see around here or up north when we visit Grandma Lorrayne and Grandpa Bruce. We arrived at our hotel in Tempe, checked in and unloaded the car and then went over to the hotel where Brian's siblings were all staying and went swimming in the very cool (in every sense of the word) pools at the Marriott they were at. Later that evening we got to meet Sue, Brian's dad's fiancee, and all went to dinner. After the dinner we went back to our hotel and put the kids to bed and went to sleep ourselves so we'd be ready for the big day on Saturday...the wedding. 