Day 4

Day 4
Santa Fe, NM - Cortez, CO
Miles Driven: Approx 280 Miles

With all that night driving yesterday, we decided to take it easy today and explore Santa Fe.

Amaaaaazing breakfast at Chez Mamou. There are a lot of French places in Santa Fe, what's that about? Also got pastries to go. We totally blew our daily meal budget in one place, but shut up.

Jason and I love toys and games. Our house is full of robots, toys, and photos of toys. We always go into little local toy stores because it's super fun. Being pregnant made it even more fun because we had one more reason to think about toys.
The Moon Rabbit Toys sign lured us in. Toys AND games! We're gonna be in here for a while. The owner of the store was sitting at a table explaining a board game to a guy. We wandered in and browsed. This place was awesome. But things were different. Now there is less reason to think of toys. Less reason to buy them. I kept it together.
They had amazing stuff. Wooden cars, felt food things, the book about the marionette who feeds pigeons.
There was a display of little games invented by the store. We had the lady explain all the rules to us, and we bought every single one. She was so cool. Jason was trying to remember a game he had played a while ago and she gave him her card and said "email me when you remember the name of it, that sounds awesome"
We left feeling happy. Toy stores are still one of our happy places.
And we were excited about our new games.

We shopped around some more in Santa Fe. We love it here! I didn't take too many photos of the town because it was very cloudy.

On our way out of town, it was time to visit the Brontosaurus Family.
It. Was. Time.

So close!

Here they are!!! OmyGawd they are so sweet. These guys are behind the fence of a business and the gate was closed, but I got out of the car and took a million shots.

Mommy, Daddy and baby.

Watch out for the T-Rex coming to get you!

Family.

More night driving. We switch off more. More snow, more slick roads. We didn't get to see any New Mexico countryside because we've only driven through it at night! We talk about planning a future trip to Santa Fe. That was fun.

It stops snowing as soon as we cross into Colorado. Did we beat the snow storm? Stay tuned!

Day 3

Day 3
Oklahoma City, OK - Santa Fe, NM
Miles Driven: Approx 540 Miles
I love every minute of this trip. 

 Yummy local coffee shop for breakfast. Thank you Yelp!

 

We went to the World's Largest Mound. It was on the Roadtrippohs website.

We didn't frame it right, but you can see the difference in height on either side of Jason's head.

I don't know if it's a joke, but we went, gawd dammit! 

POPS soda ranch before heading out of town.

Turns out route 66 is a super old 2 lane highway which comes in and out of I-40 - the way-newer and wider and quicker road. We thought we were going to be cool and take the old Route 66, but that's not happening. And we're cool with that.

Lucille's Famous Route 66 Gas Station.

Followed by Lucille's Roadhouse restaurant! Oooh, similarity.

Crossing into Texas!

Antiquing.

That's us!

Tower Conoco in Shamrock, TX

They have Tesla charging stations right in the back! Past and Future meeting in one shot.

Lots of tooting on this trip. 


We had dinner in Amarillo, TX and decided to power through and sleep in Santa Fe, NM. There was supposed to be a snow blizzard in Texas, and we wanted to avoid it. Of course it caught up to us. What should have been a few hours drive took a million hours. And the roads are not the same as in MN. Much more slick. Jason is an amazing driver and we felt safe, but visibility was nil. At one point we saw a pick-up truck flip into the ditch in the median. We pulled over and Jason went to check in on the passengers while I called 911. There was only the driver in the truck and he seemed fine, but his truck was in bad shape and he couldn't open his door. We waited in our car until the cops and paramedics came. That added time to the trip for sure!
We got to Santa Fe around 1:30 am and fell asleep fast. 

Day 2

Day 2
Kansas City, MO - Oklahoma City, OK
Miles Driven: Approx 350 Miles
Jason drove all day yesterday, and I drove all day today. We need to get better at switching off.

Yay! Cruise control!
Yay! Temps in the 50s!

We drove to Wichita,
Bought toys at the Museum of World Treasures but didn't visit the museum, had lunch at a yummy brewery, walked around in the old town market place,

Had donuts at the Donut Whole, 

Took too many pictures of the rooster on the roof,

 And got mani/pedis!

Now we're in Oklahoma City. Mmmmm, fresh.

More photos at my flickr page.

And, they're off

Day 1
Minneapolis, MN - Kansas City MO
Miles Driven: Approx 450 Miles.


We're outta there. We left town.

 We left the house behind. (Dinosaur foreshadowing in the background)

Our warm cocoon. The home where we became a family.

 We got some coffee,

Set up the Garmin, and hit the road.

We got some magnets,

 Found an Antique Mall in Story City, IA.

That sign says "Welcome to Missouri" I swear.

 We're staying in Kansas City, MO. In an old Italian village?

No! In a casino!

 The Casino bar is called Crazy Olives. What the hell.

First dinosaur sighting.

More photos on my Flickr page.

ROADTRIP

You guys.
Jason and I are going on a road trip. Which apparently is two words.

We have a good idea of where we're going, but we're keeping it loose.
We have 3 weeks and 3 days.
No matter what, there will be many dinosaur parks.
We're going to get in a car and drive and drive and drive and drive.
And be together.

Route subject to change.

See you on the flip side.

Very Late Post

It's very late to post this since I just "turned" 38 weeks pregnant, 

but I still wanted to make this part of the blog. 

We're gonna have a baby!!

A few sticks I peed on.

And here is the profile of the little nugget at 20 weeks!

Lil' bump.

"The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play. 

And Sally was starting to show!"

California in September.

Fanciness at the Ivey's!

The crib is painted!

You can't possibly call yourself "ready for a child" without Sophie.

This is for real y'all!

We only have 2 weeks to go. It could be more (or less!) but no matter what, very soon, we are going to meet our little one. I don't know what to do with myself. Oh I know, I'll just close a show on Sunday, and hopefully not have a baby before then.