Pumpkin Party

We were invited to a pumpkin patch party yesterday at a friend's house near the Kaweah Oaks Preserve. It was a beautiful day and area.

The kids loved the bounce house, and the pomegranates. 

 We got to go on a hay ride through the country.

And we got to pick pumpkins. 

Emery picked her first pumpkin.

They were trying to get rid of pumpkins and pomegranates so they kept telling us to take more, which we were happy to do! 

Soccer (And Other Updates)

 Joshua and I have been back in California for just over a week and a half now. It has been great to spend time with our families again; first in Modesto, then Visalia. Things have been busy though; the usual after trip stuff, laundry, organizing, going back to work. I started working in the embroidery department at Midtown on Tuesday and Joshua has been spending the majority of his waking hours working on his thesis. Today we got to go watch the kids play soccer, gotta love the weekend!

Trip Stats

The Grand Canyon and California

We got up early Tuesday morning and drove from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon. 

Our first views of the canyon; it was a beautiful day. 

We climbed the Desert View Watchtower, then headed to Grand Canyon Village. 

We enjoyed walking along the Rim Trail for a short way; lots of great views. 

After a relatively brief stop at the canyon, we got back on I-40 heading west.

Just before 5pm we crossed the border into California! Then we enjoyed a great drive across the Mojave Desert. 

We had planned to break the trip up into two days, since it seemed like a little too much for one day, but then the thought of being done and not having to spend another night on the road or drive the next day motivated us and we pushed through, arriving at Joshua's parents' house about midnight.

The Rest of the Story

Monday morning we returned our van to the hands of the mechanics at Pep Boys in Albuquerque and walked to a nearby Starbucks to pass the time. Mid morning, about the time we thought the van might be done, they called to say the axle also needed to be replaced and they would have to overnight the part from Texas. Not exactly the news we wanted to hear. We walked back to check things out and the axle was in bad shape, but we found out they hadn't looked for the part locally. So we asked them to do that and they found one and were able to get everything finished and put back together by about 4:30pm. We felt like they did a good job and were willing to work with us, but, needless to say, we were very glad to be on the road again and leaving Albuquerque.

So Close, Yet So Far

We reached Albuquerque, NM about noon on our third day of driving and decided we should get our oil changed. We were glad we did because they found a leak by our driver's side rear tire that they thought was gear oil from a broken axle seal. We took the van to Pep Boys and waited to hear what the problem was. I was feeling pretty badly and Joshua felt like he was getting a cold and hadn't been sleeping well and we were ready to be home, so this was a pretty low point in our trip. Finally, they told us it was a broken seal, but that the gear oil had leaked into our brake system and that needed to be replaced too. However, the estimate was much less than we expected, so we were thankful. But they couldn't do anything else that day, so they put our van back together.

We walked down the street and had sushi for dinner, which helped both of us feel better; we hadn't had much for lunch, plus it was nice to be away from the shop and relax a bit. Then we returned to the van to watch a movie and spend the night in the parking lot of Pep Boys in Albuquerque, NM.

On the Interstate

Joshua and I didn't have any plans following the Great Smoky Mountains. After seeing them, we decided we were ready to return to California, having a home that doesn't move was sounding pretty good. So, we got on I-40 and started booking it west.

We drove over the Mississippi river as we crossed from Tennessee into Arkansas.

Kerr Road in Arkansas.

Driving through Texas. 

We made good time and in the first two days we traveled from the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee to Tucumcari, NM.

A Birthday in the Mountains

I made Joshua caramel rolls and eggs for his birthday breakfast Thursday. 

We returned to the Blue Ridge Parkway and continued to enjoy beautiful scenery.  

We made it to the Smoky Mountains in the late afternoon. 

We drove through the park and were planning to go on a hike on the north side. 

By the time we got to the north side of the park, it was starting to get dark and we decided we probably didn't have time to go on the hike after all, but we did go on the short loop drive where the trailhead is and that was great. 

We saw a bear hanging out in the trees. He is in the middle of the picture above, laying on a branch of the central white tree. 

And we saw another bear! This one was much larger and ran across the road. He is somewhere in the picture above, but well hidden by all the bushes. Then we left the park and had ravioli, mushrooms, and apple dessert for Joshua's birthday dinner.