Grass

We stopped at Luke AFB to refuel and to stretch the legs. I thought what better place then a base playground. And this one had GRASS!!!

SERIOUSLY GRASS!!

This is actually the first time Dragonfly has seen grass. He laughed and wiggled and loved it!

Glo Bug still doesn't like it. I think he doesn't like that it tickles his ears when he lays in it. Something I hope our new base, whenever we move, will fix. I'm hoping for grass. Maybe some water too!

Don't you just want to kiss on those cheeks?? Don't worry, I got ya covered!

Trip home

We had a potty break off the side of the road in Arizona. I've seen cacti before but never took a picture

This is Lake Mead. When you live in the desert, you forget what lakes look like. Heck, we get excited over puddles here. So seeing a HUGE lake was soooo fun for the boys, and me! I miss water.

This is my side kick on the way home. So much for keeping me awake!!  He actually got a sunburn from laying like that.

The distance to go through Phoenix AZ or back through ABQ was almost exactly the same...within 15 miles of each other, and no time difference said google maps.

So I decided it would be fun to go a new way home through Phoenix and Tuscon, which I've never been through. It might also keep me awake better if I don't know the road.

It proved true. I made a slight stop to try and find a sign for a friend with no luck just outside of Tuscon. Then drove on home from there. We got in around 2:30am. I enjoyed that ride much better than the road from ABQ to here. There's so much construction and slow speed limits, it just drags on forever. This way was definitely an adventure!!

Vegas Strip

We went to the Strip one day, while in Vegas!

This is Bee in the M&M's store. They have a 3D movie that you can watch for free. I can't watch 3D movies because they make me dizzy and I think Bee inherited that trait. He had his glasses off the whole time and was tracking out the walls instead of the movie.

 All along the strip there was characters from different movies. These guys were one of Bee's favorites until he actually was suppose to talk to them. He didn't like that they were kind of human. But he was fine from a distance.

This is all the C kids. P in purple, L and T. T was just as freaked of the guys moving as Bee was. So we didn't stay long.

Trip to Vegas

We saw this part of the road and Bee screamed, CARS!!!!!!

The Cars movie is actually based off of a town in New Mexico, Radium Springs. And other places along the Route 66. This happens to be a hour or so outside of ABQ.

We stopped at a truck stop to have a potty break and this guy pulls up next to us. I love that he's towing this car. He said it worked great and I assumed it did since he was filling it with gas. What you can't see from the picture is a car is towing it. I'm not sure what kind but it was really funny to see.

Vegas

The boys and I went to Vegas this past weekend. My best friend, Lindsy, lives there. It was her birthday!
Her hubby is not home and they are moving to Guam in May, so I figured this was the best time to go visit her!! So saved my Christmas money and off we went!

I brought a huge coloring book that Bee got for Christmas from Ompa and Grrma. CARS!!! It was a total hit!

It was NASCAR weekend in Vegas! (Who knew there was such a thing?) There were trailers and cars everywhere. What 4.5 year old boys wouldn't love that?! This one happened to be outside the chocolate factory we went to so we stopped and played. This is T and Bee.

Inside this chocolate factory, they had a self guided tour. This guy was standing there, unwrapping sticks of butter! Seriously he had even more then you can see in the picture. They were making peanut brittle that day.

At the end of this tour, you get one piece of chocolate! It was really good chocolate. Then you file into the gift shop. Upon which Bee promptly knocks over a box of chocolates off a stand. I go to pick it up and notice the price tag... $45!!!!!! It had MAYBE 20 pieces of chocolate in it. I was soooooo grateful I didn't have to buy it.

Then I walk around the corner and there's a whole counter full of chocolates. I'm thinking, hey I could get some for the birthday girl.

No.

Even the individual pieces of chocolate were $2.50 a piece. For a piece of chocolate no more than an inch squared!!

So after that, we carefully walked out of the gift store and walked around the desert garden they had in front of the factory. We saw a couple bunnies and even a tank of what we believed was water. (it was covered with a fancy trap and wires)

So after that, we went home to get the girls from school. It was an adventure for sure!!

Miles per gallon

I took this picture at a gas station in ABQ. My truck STINKS at gas mileage. Seriously stinks. Around town we get 12 MPG usually. On the highways, maybe up to 15 on the way to ABQ. The only time I have EVER seen the truck higher than 16 was on our trip down here from Alaska, on the Alacan. There is a HUGE pass that is downhill for miles. We had the trailer pushing us and we put it in neutral. I think we got it up to 19 or 20.

I reset my MPG button on the start of the trip and I actually got it up to 22.4 MPG on my trip to Vegas. Yes I did around 55MPH. (It was crazy windy and honestly 55 felt a little fast at times.) It wasn't great in time to get to Vegas but with gas prices at $3.89 per gallon, I was willing to go slow. Bonus to going slow, no speeding tickets to pay!!!