New Mexico and Arizona Pictures

The drive from Florida to Texas didn't include any site-seeing since each day was a long drive and we've seen it so many times when we made the drive when we lived in Texas. We spent the weekend there and on Monday we drove to Carlsbad, New Mexico. There the site-seeing began.

Ocotillo plant.

Our first stop was at the Living Desert State Park where we took a 1.5 mile hike in 102 degree weather to see and learn about this and many other desert plants and animals. Despite the heat, it was a very fun hike and I enjoyed learning about a place that is so different from North Carolina. I thought the ocotillo was pretty cool and we saw it all over New Mexico. 

That night we went to the night bat fight program at Carlsbad Caverns. Here the children patiently wait for it to begin.

The cave where the bats emerge at dusk. When they first come out they fly clockwise around the opening and then finally fly off into the sky. They always came out in groups and the groups would circulate and they fly away. This lasted about 30 minutes.

Before they got messed up Kylie had everyone's pajamas laid out on the bed so that when we got home from seeing the bats we could quickly hop to bed. She was my right arm in helping organize and being efficient on this trip. The two of us had a great time working together because we're so alike in planning, organzing, scheduling, and keeping on schedule.

The kids took pictures of themselves with the Friend at various landmarks to be like "Flat Stanley."

Here Madalyn holds it at Carlsbad where we took the cave tour the next morning.

The caves were a refreshing 55 degrees while it was 109 outside! We've been to some small ones in North Carolina, but these were huge!

Spencer took most of these cave pictures. This one shows an old explorers' ladder. I can't imagine how they explored this huge cavern back then with only lanterns.

After the caves we drove 3 1/2 hours over some pretty mountains where the temperature dropped to 72. We didn't get out to enjoy it, but kept going to White Sands where it was back to 100 degrees.

We played for a short time and as we were getting in the car someone gave us a sled so I had to let them play some more. The kids enjoyed it, but not as much as I did as a kid. Probably because it was too hot.

After White Sands we drove up to Albuquerque. The highlight of this boring drive was spotting dust devils, which Madalyn tried to take a picture of here. The kids counted

The girls sleeping on an air mattress at a friend's house in Albuquerque. The friends were so gracious and generous feeding all these kids, providing blankets and pillows, and even letting me do laundry there. They had a sweet spirit in their home and we didn't want to leave, but there was no time to stay and play. The next morning we left at 7:30 for Arizona.

First stop: Me and my 7 young'uns at the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. We ate our sandwiches, saw the visitor center, and drove around the park. I bought a National Parks pass for $80 otherwise it would have cost us $50 for a van of 8 to drive through the painted desert and petrified forest, which didn't even make it on the kids' fun list.

Second stop: Grand Canyon.

We only spent a short time here, seeing

a geology museum, taking pictures, and of course using the restrooms/filling water bottles. We drew attention by Kaitlyn's fits.

We also drew some gasps with each of our kids wanting a picture like this one. Makenna is so heavy that only Kylie's picture turned out realistic. (The other kids can't hold her out like that.) Don't worry, there wasn't really a cliff right there.