Summer Update

Last post was in April. Ugh! I really stink at this. In my defense, I started working in April and it seems like it's been non-stop since then. 

I started working HR for CISD in April, just part time. It's has made the summer fly by! I cannot believe that school starts in two weeks and I start full time in two days! I got a position at Arden, where I have been volunteering and subbing for the past four years. Of course, Braden isn't there anymore! He will start 5th grade at the Greenways Intermediate, where I am PTA President. Trying to stay involved despite working full time. We will see how that goes.

As I said, summer has flown by! Braden and I drove to Houston to pick up the boys the day after school let out in May. It was nice to start the summer with them here, instead of having to wait a week or two like we have in the past. Unfortunatley, Seth got a little homesick after 4 weeks and decided he wanted to go home at the end of June. We were all bummed, but he's 13. I am sure I ditched my dad and step-mom a lot when I was 13 and they only lived across town, not 600 miles away from all my friends.
The week after Seth we home to Houston, we went a on a week long epic vacation! (I know, we tried to convince him to stay at least for vacation but no!) We headed across New Mexico to Four Courners first. The kids got to be in four states at once for all of a minute because there was a line of people waiting to take photos and it was like 110 degrees in the shade!  We snapped a few pics, shopped the Native American booths around the monument, and high-tailed it to the sweet air conditioning of the car.  We headed for Moab, Utah. No particular reason we chose Moab, other than it was the furtherest we could drive on Day 1 and not end up in the middle of nowhere. 
We stopped at Wilson's Arch just before getting into Moab and the kids were in awe! It was very cool to see such an amazing rock formation right off the side of the highway that we could climb without having to hike anywhere or pay anyone. We checked into our hotel in Moab and headed for the brewery so Derik could sample the local brews. The food was great, the whole outdoorsy-adventurous atmosphere was super cool. We were loving this little town! 
The next morning, we got up with the sun and headed to Arches National Park. So amazing! It was picture perfect and the weather was mild in the morning. We took tons of pictures and hiked all the nearby arches, even climbing up a few places that Derik wasn't thrilled with.  Dustin and Braden still say this was the best part of the trip. It was amazing to stand in the middle of a rock arch that had taken a hundred thousand years or longer to form. Amazing isn't a good enough word to describe this beautiful and awe-inspiring place. It was pure evidence of God's creation to us as nothing that terrific could be made without the intent of inspiring wonder and awe.
About noon, we headed northeast across Utah, through Salt Lake. We saw lots of Morman temples and even BYU along the way. In the heart of Mormon country, their temples can be seen from far away. They are gleaming bright white with tall spires pointing to the heavens. It was a long day in the car. We made it in to Idaho close to dinner time. The green rolling hills with mountains in the distance were beautiful. Finally just before dark, we drove over the state line into Wyoming (like 2 miles over the line, the area was referred to locally as Wydaho). We were staying at Grand Targhee Resort which is up a mountain at the end of the road. It is a ski resort and was almost deserted off season, which was great for us. No crowds here.
The next two days were spent exploring Yellowstone National Park. I will spare you the play by play or we will be here for days. We saw stunning waterfalls, including one that required a 600ft hike down switchbacks to view. I made it back up without a heart attack or piggy back ride so I felt accomplished. We walked a 3 mile track to view geyers and geothermal pools, which Braden was a little afraid of at first. He was picturing himself being boiled to death, melting flesh and all, should he trip and fall off the walkway. We saw Elk and Bison, up close and personal. We drove to the original entrance that Teddy Roosevelt had built. Spent sometime in West Yellowston, Montana eating Mad Dogs (a delicious concoction of a brat dog and brisket that I will be duplicating at home) and checking out the bears and wolves in the wildlife refuge center. It was A LOT of driving in two days. The entire week was A LOT of driving!
After two days at Yellowstone, we were ready to move on. We headed west across Wyoming, the most desolate state in the union. Hours and hours of driving with only a couple gas stations along the way. It was beaufiful but lonely. We did pass directly by a strip mining facitility, where saw warning signs about 'orange clouds'. When we got to an area with good signal, I googled it and found out that strip mining produces poisonous orange clouds that are toxic and should be avoided at all costs. Glad we didn't drive through one! We finally made it to the Black Hills of South Dakota by that evening, found a hotel and some good dinner.
The next morning, we headed to Mount Rushmore. Awesome! I would recommend everyone visit once. For me, it didn't inspire any deep patriotic feelings, but the amazing feat of the men who built this without our modern technology were inspiring. It is very cool. We also saw the Crazy Horse Monument, which once finished will be three times the size of Rushmore. (If they ever finish it!) Be warned that everything at Crazy Horse costs you! It was obvious that they are still tryin to raise funds to work on the monument. Braden thought this was the coolest though. The whole area of the Black Hills has so much to offer. The towns are quaint, lots of shopping, and plenty for kids to do too. Had we known how much there was there, we would have waited and done a separate trip there. I can guarantee we will go back to spend more time in this area.
The final day of driving south, back to Amarillo, was LONG and BORING! 12 hours in the car on two lane highways through Nebraska, eastern Colorado, and the Oklahoma & Texas panhandles. I wouldn't suggest that drive to anyone! Ugh! As much as we wanted vacation to last forever, we were all ready to get out of the car when we reached the house. It was a great trip. 3,400 miles in total. We learned that we can all enjoy each other for a week, even in close quarters, but maybe not for much longer than that. We also learned that we would rather spend more time in one place than drive so far and try to fit so much in. Good lessons learned and we look forward to even better vacations in the future!

I'll post some pictures of the trip soon.

Dustin stayed another two weeks after vacation. Braden was sad when he left, but he has done well (better than past summers). Braden did a two week introductory tennis class at AC and thinks he might want to continue lessons once school starts. Dustin's been busy with friends and football since going home and we haven't heard much from him.
I was hoping for one last get-away before I start full time, but it wasn't in the cards. So I am enjoying this weekend, slept in yesterday and got up for a workout and dog walk this morning. Thinking maybe some pool time is in order. I am feeling the need to savor the last bit of summer.

I am going to start a 30 day blog challenge. Hoping I can stick with it and post daily at least through the challenge. We'll see how that goes. I don't have a good track record.