To Colorado via New Mexico

We took the long way to Colorado! Since we spent lots of time in the car on this trip, we were very thankful for the rented mini-van. It even had Wifi! 

We left on Thursday afternoon and were very thankful to arrive at White's City Cavern Inn late at night. Grant woke up really early on Friday morning to go stand in line and get tickets for Carlsbad Cavern's because he heard they were selling out really quickly each day. After Grant drove 9 hours the day before, I was very thankful he was willing to get up and get the tickets! Grant came back to the hotel to get us, and we packed up, had a light breakfast and headed to the caves. It was a wonderful time to visit the caverns because they were letting so few people in, that it felt like we had the place to ourselves! We took our time and enjoyed the walk down and walking through both big loops in the caverns. 

We did drive a few miles out of the way for this picture. He has his own city!

After the caverns, we drove through Roswell. Nothing much was open so it was a bit of a let-down, but we got some fun alien pics.

After we left Roswell, we realized we had just enough time to make it to Santa Fe for dinner. We called Tia and she was up for a last-minute get together! We met at Gabriel's Mexican Food and we got a great spot on the patio. We were worried we might not be able to have dinner together because as we drove into Santa Fe there was a HUGE rainstorm and restaurants are only serving outside. But, the rain stopped right as we drove up to Gabriel's. It was wonderful to see Tia!

After dinner, I wanted to stay in Santa Fe, but Grant wanted to drive a bit more. After about an hour and a half, we starting looking for a hotel and EVERYTHING was booked. It was so crazy. We were worried we weren't going to find a place to stay. We made it almost to Raton, NM and it was about 2am in the morning and Grant started stopping at hotels and I asked if they had any rooms. A nice lady told me that the Motel 6 usually had a few rooms and they DID. I have never been so thankful for a Motel 6 in my life. We were actually about to get two adjoining rooms. They were about the size of a closet, but they worked and we were all so tired. Grant and Ranger slept in one room and Cadie, Colton and I slept in the other. We all slept great after our super full day.

On Sunday, we didn't have set plans so we took our time. We drove over the border to Colorado and got brunch at a cute local place. We checked into the Super 8 and then it started really storming. We went across the street to the Big Red Western Wear and went on a shopping spree! Cadie got boots and an adorable dress to wear on Western night. I got some hiking boots, Ranger got a pearl-snap shirt, and we all had fun! Grant got us a dinner reservation at a small, local Italian food place where the waiters sing. It was a fun, but silly experience and the food was not great. Since we were still hungry, we went back to the brunch diner and got some home-cooking and dessert! 

Colonel Shane C. Haughian Retirement

 We had a wonderful weekend in Little Rock AR celebrating Shane's retirement from the Air Force after 27 years of service. 

We drove in Thursday afternoon and arrived just in time to attend a cookout and pool party at the vrbo that the Haughian's rented. The pool was huge and the kids all jumped right into the group. We hadn't booked a hotel so after we left the party, we went to a Waffle House to get the kids some food (since they had been too busy swimming to eat at the party) and Grant booked us a hotel room.

Friday morning was the changing of the guard ceremony at Little Rock Base, then lunch off base at BJ's. After lunch, we had just enough time to take the kids to the Little Rock High School Museum. It was open and a wonderful, small museum just perfect for having a conversation with the kids about the importance of true equality.

Then back to the base for the Retirement party. It was a wonderful celebration and we felt incredibly honored to be a part of it. I especially enjoyed the slide show that Shane walked through of his significant professional and personal accomplishments.

Friday night included another great BBQ and pool party at the Haughian VRBO house. Ranger ended up spending the night with Luke on Friday and Grant, Cadie, Colton and I slept hard on Saturday! On Saturday, spent a bit more time with the Haughians and their friends and family, and then we decided to drive back to Dallas. We thought about staying longer, but there really wasn't much open and we decided it was easiest to just get back home. The kids were having such a great time that they didn't really want to leave. We got back around 1am on Sunday morning, and just relaxed on Sunday.

Grant flew back to  AR on Monday to drive with Shane and their final load to their new house in Colorado Springs! Grant said they had a good time together and we are looking forward to visiting the Haughians in Colorado Springs after Horn Creek.