On the road again…Are we there yet?

Christmas time is over. We are currently on our way back home. We are about to hit Amarillo, TX and plan to stop at a Best Buy to get a charger for my NEW Laptop that Matt got me for Christmas. We are also planning on stopping at Cadillac Ranch to paint on some cars.

On our way to Texas, we drove straight through from Sacramento. We left Friday night at 730 pm and arrived around 2 am Sunday morning. It didn't really seem like it took 28 hours though, but it did.

Our trip there was adventuress. We stopped in Gallup, New Mexico, which I will not be doing again…I walked into a Denny's to go to the bathroom and everyone stopped and stared at me like they had never seen a blonde before. I felt like I was foreign. Everyone there was either Mexican or Native Indians.

Just outside of Gallup, New Mexico there was a mountain lion on the side of the road that had been hit by a car. I was shocked! I've never seen a mountain lion before.

I think our favorite stop of our road trip would be Flagstaff, AZ. It was beautiful. It reminded me of a smaller version of Lake Tahoe. If we didn't over sleep this morning, we can hopefully make it to there tonight and spend the night. It is pretty much the half way point between Texas and California. It's also only a few hours from the Grand Canyon.

Right now I am listening to Matt talk about Cotton. There are lots of Cotton fields out here. Who would have known?? Cotton in Texas?

Once we got to Texas and at our destination, we got a few hours sleep in. Niquie got along well with the other dogs and she even met a gassier boxer, than herself. Callie could clear a room in seconds.
I held a gardener snake that they found on their property. It was dead.

Niquie LOVED being outside…she got plenty of exercise.

The few days before Christmas all the boys could talk about was opening up all of there gifts. They were worse then little kids. I cannot how many minutes/hours of my life that I lost by hearing the reasons we should open all gifts 3 days before Christmas! We finally reached a decision and opened all gifts on Christmas Eve night after dinner while sitting by the fire. It was really nice.

I got a laptop from Matt and lots of other cool stuff from the family, including my new brown converse!

Susan, my mother-in-law, got a purse from Jimmy which she Loved!

Jimmy, My Father-in-law, got a GPS. It was the first time in 25 years of being married that Susan was able to surprise him with a gift. by the look on his face, you can tell he was really speechless. We later named the GPS Stella. She was pretty reliable in getting us to where we needed to be.

Christian and Sam, my Brother-in-laws, got lots of clothes. Overall, it was a very nice Christmas Eve.
The next morning, we woke up early and headed to Oklahoma to have lunch at Matt's aunts' house. Here is a photo of dinner... we ate Elk.They own 80 acres with lots of cows, horses and mules.

On there property, they have a large creek. We took a walk around there and Matt and Sam shot off Matt's gun. If you look closely, you can actually see the shell casing flying out of the gun.
After leaving Sulphur, Oklahoma, we took a trip to Chickasha, Oklahoma to Visit Grandma Linville and see where Matt and his family were raised. Matt's entire family was all born in the same hospital, in the small town of Chickasha.

(This is the first house they owned when Matt was little. It still looks identical to when they owned it...down to the green indoor/outdoor carpet on the porch)

After touring the town, we went to visit Grandma Linville. This was my first time meeting her. She told us stories of back in the day and we looked through lots of old photos. After leaving we headed home!

The next day Susan, Christian and I shopped until I dropped! We were gone for nearly 8 hours and hit what seemed like every store in the Dallas area that had a Christmas sale going on. I like to shop, but Susan can out shop anyone. By the end of the night, I had not bought 1 item at full price and I think I have more than enough to decorate my entire neighborhood house for next Christmas.

Our trips to Texas always seem to fly by so fast. Driving really isn't that bad especially when im sitting here typing and playing computer games and Matt is the one driving cross county. Hopefully he can last another 1278 miles! Since typing this, we have stopped to buy a car charger for the laptop, gotten Starbucks, rolled down the window 3 times for Niquie's stink she let off and stopped at Cadillac Ranch and spray painted some cars. We have finally hit New Mexico and according to our GPS, who goes by the name of Quanearious, we should be home at 7 am tomorrow morning…that's if we don't stop anymore…since we only have 1/4^th of a tank, I think we will be stopping pretty soon.

Right now, Matt is listening to the movie Old School while it plays on the laptop. I don't know why he wants to listen to it. He knows it by heart and is repeating it word for word. I don't even need to watch it, he is doing such a good job narrating, "This is the part when they go streaking…"

Justin, Matt's best man at our wedding, came down to visit. He lives in Oklahoma City. The last time we saw him was at the wedding over 14 months ago. He just had a baby. Congrats Justin!

We played monopoly. I was kicking butt and taking names! I don't know how I did it… I guess I'm just that good. Did I mention I was the banker?? On our last night, we met the Carrillo family, friends of the Linville's, and we line danced and watched Justin play the guitar while some sang along.

I don't know about you, but so far I haven't seen anything enchanting about New Mexico…


It will be nice to be home. Go back to work…back to our every day life. We are having Christmas with my family on Tuesday and that's when I will pick Baxter up! I miss my B Boy!!

Since writing the last part, we have arrived in Flagstaff, AZ for the night. We are staying here until morning. Thats if we survive it. Lets just say it not the best neighborhood, it's snowing and the heater is broken in our room. I guess we can be thankful that we have a room to sleep in since it was the only room left out of the many hotels we stopped at. At least we have Matt's gun.

We will hopefully hear back soon from the medical board on the decision on whether or not they are going to discharge Matt from the military.

As for now… Good bye Texas and Happy New Year 2008. Hope it brings new and exciting things.