Milestones, Memories, and Mayhem: Road Trippin'

We made the most out of our cross country move, taking over three weeks and making countless core memories along the way

Jan did the drive to Atlanta with us, and has now been a part of every cross country move the Crew has made. We didn't snap a picture, but we braved torrential downpours the entire drive after leaving late in the day. We made it safe and began our adventures early the next day!

Our first stop, naturally, was Atlanta. We spent nearly two weeks soaking up cousin time and catching up with my college roomies

My boys love their Daisy girl so much

Gammie made sure she got her water aerobics in no matter where we were!

We had a great time at Jessica's pool while Jan was house sitting.

Thank you, Jessica, for letting us crash!

In the fall of 1983, my mom and both her siblings all had babies. Now these babies have babies, and these cousins are quite the group!

My sweet Thenor

Roomie hang number one. Love my Weston!

Weston, Shorna, and my babies!

Daisy put Niko down for a story and a nap. She was just the slightest bit stern, telling him only teachers touch the book! 😍

Roomie hang number 2! Petty and I had the best time catching up just the two of us. It always feels like absolutely no time has passed when we get together.

While I went out with Petty, Craig and Heidi did fondue and homemade ice cream with the boys

Craig burned energy and taught the boys who's boss!

Joy

Love this little lady so much

Roomie hang number 3

Rachel's schedule is impossible to keep up with. I am so grateful she always makes time for us to catch up!

Heidi helped the three of us get glammed up before we continued on our way

From Atlanta, we headed to Huntsville

Niko aspires to be a space engineer and Alexander has a love of math and science, so this was a great stop on our trip. I was amazed with how much time the boys took actually reading and learning at each part of the museum.

We found Barney Fife at the Space Center!

Look out, universe, future astronauts coming your way!

From Huntsville, we headed to Tulsa to visit Ryan and Mary. Along the way, we stopped in Little Rock and explored the Ozark National Forest

We may not have found the exact trail we were seeking, but we found a path and started exploring

The trail through the forest was beautiful!

Niko found a small path that led us to a beautiful waterfall

Alexander taking on the weight of the world

We made it to Tulsa!

Papa joined us in Tulsa where we made the most of four days all together

We ahd a blast at the children's museum. Here, they're crafting a BMX course, careful to make sure it can be ridden successfully

Outside of our VRBO, we witnessed a crazy car fire.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, but it got pretty heated.

We said goodbye and hit the road, taking Papa with us

We took a bit of a detour to visit the Bandera Volcano and Ice Cave in Arizona

It was hot on the path, and cold in the cave

We saw lava tubes, and evidence of the Pueblo settling the area

It was a great energy burn for our longest driving day

The cave stays at freezing temperatures year round, with an ice floor that measures over 20 feet deep

You can see nearly 30 volcanoes from the trail. We counted nearly twenty. It got really hot, and started thundering. This made Zoey and Niko a bit nervous, so we cut our hike a little short. This was such a cool adventure that I'm so glad we found! It was so isolated, I thought we might be the only guests they saw all month, and yet when we got there, there were lots of people joining us, even a young couple from Switzerland!

The landscape started to change as we made our way West

We made the obligatory stop in Amarillo at the Big Texan

No one took on the 72oz steak challenge, but Alexander did eat his entire sirloin and half of mine! He might be ready for the challenge in a few years.