Dog Day Afternoon

This afternoon he started off with a little of this...

Then he managed to roll himself over to enjoy some of this...

And I am not sure how he did it but he scraped together some more energy and pulled himself to this position.

It's a "ruff" life.

Beautiful Bisbee

Saturday afternoon we Matt managed to pull himself away from the Masters so we could go explore this little gem of a town we had heard about from several people.  

Welcome to Bisbee, AZ!

The old town is set into the mountainside and the buildings and streets are a maze of stairs, twists and turns.  I am not going to lie, I got a little winded hiking up and down the streets.  

Bisbee is the location of an old mining city and there is this huge quarry there that Matt and I weren't really sure about.  We couldn't figure out if it was still operational or if it was just remnants from industry gone by.  It was obvious from the shops around town that this was a prime mining location for turquoise and copper.

 

Every where you turned there were stair cases like these tucked behind and in between buildings.  Some of them seemed to go to nowhere, and others just kept going up, up, up!

There happened to be a classic car show on Main Street and Matt picked out this beauty.  Doesn't it scream sensible family car for a growing family?  I think so too! 

Then when we saw this it screamed, "Billy Mc".  I knew he would appreciate us taking a picture of his dream El Camino SS.

We will just call this vehicle "The Thing", it was interesting to say the least.

We had a nice lunch at Santiago's, and authentic Mexican Restaurant.  Well, it was more authentic than the Mexican food we were used to in Mississippi.   

It was definitely and interesting town, and had it not been for the 25 mph gusts of wind whipping us all around we might have stayed for the Second Saturday celebration.  We will definitely check that out next month, hopefully in warmer temps.

Bye Bye Bisbee!

We got some new digs!

First let me issue a warning:  This is very picture heavy.  To our mom's who have been dying to see, here you go!  I also apologize for the picture quality, we don't have great lighting in the new place, and even though I have a "fancy" camera, I don't know how to use it properly.  

This is what moving does to a puppy dog.  Isn't he pitiful?

From the Front

The living and dining room are actually one big area, this is the dining side.

And the living room side 

Foyer, I know that the pictures aren't in order...don't judge me. 

Look who snuck into this picture!

Kitchen

You will notice a little nook over there by the windows for a table, but our table was too big to go there. Now it will just serve as empty space, but it will come in handy when we have to have TWO highchairs, oh my Lord. 

Other side of the kitchen

And I managed to sneak in a little photo op of our babies first photo op. Whoop Whoop!

Extra Bedroom/Craft Room

I am fully aware that it is not going to stay the craft room.  This will become the nursery.  And who am I kidding with a craft room, like I will even have time for that in 6 months.

Guest Bath 

The Grandparents/Aunts/Uncles Room 

Master Bedroom 

I love the french doors coming into it, makes me feel fancy!

A view from the other side 

Master Bath 

Love my tub and love that the shower is separate.

And there you have it!

Fill Er Up Captain!

To be honest I got a lot of my visions of traveling across the West from what I saw in old movies.  You know, tumbleweeds blowing across the road, Tee pee motels, and signs that clearly warn you..."LAST GAS FOR 100 MILES".  As it turns out, those signs do not exist, at least where we were driving.  

We left Carlsbad, NM and we both figured that with our tanks half full we had plenty to get us to the next fill up...little did we know that the next fill up wouldn't come for 140 miles.  Matt drives a big truck, and we all know that "truck" is code word for gas hog.  Matt had the GPS with him so he looked up the next gas station it was 80 miles and his gas hog told him he had 115 miles to empty.  No problemo right?

Wrong!

This is a picture of his gas tank when he finally coasted into a gas station on fumes.

And this is how excited he was that he didn't run out of gas 6 miles from a gas station.  About 6 miles out, his gauge went to big fat ZERO.  Sweating it doesn't describe how tense the situation was, we are talking putting the truck in neutral going down hills.

He truck hold 26 gallons, nuff said.

We learned our lesson, when driving in New Mexico, Texas, and AZ...fill up whenever you see a gas station. I am so thankful he didn't run out, even though a small part of me wished I had that ammunition for the rest of my life.

Carlsbad? More like Carls'good' Caverns!

Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico was so cool, and I was so glad that we decided to stop there and explore. 

We got to be park rangers for the day.  Not really, but I would have loved that!

They gave you the open to take the elevator down or take the natural entrance.  We decided to take the natural entrance, which ended up being like 1.2 miles, or approximately 75 stores. 

It looks like a big hole in the ground, because, well...that is what it actually is.  The human instinct is to NOT enter dark holes in the Earth that looks like they will swallow you up.

 But we entered anyway.

Down we went...

and went, and went.

The Caverns were surround by amazing rock formations, and geology isn't my thing normally, but just seeing this type of stuff leaves you in amazement.  It stays a balmy 56 degrees year round.  It is incredibly humid in the caverns, we were dripping with water after our journey to the center of the Earth.

.

It is all just buried beneath the ground.  Matt and I kept talking about what the guy that discovered this must have been thinking.  They had the path lit, but it was still relatively dark.  If they turned all of the lights off it would have been pitch black.

Don't touch Matt!

 The top of the Caverns offered an AMAZING view, I swear you could probably see for  50 miles or more.  I really am not a good judge of distance though.

Duece got to go to the Caverns with us, but he had to stay in the on site kennel.  He didn't really like it, but again, he wasn't in the car, so it wasn't THAT bad.

I wish I could share all of the pictures I took, but it would take up way to much room on the blog.  If you and your family are ever in Southern New Mexico, it is really worth the trip to see this natural wonder.

Carlsbad Caverns Rock! 

(I couldn't help myself with the geology joke)

I'll take Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona for $700 Alex

Let me just say that on our little journey, we saw quite a bit of the country.  Driving through West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona will really put into perspective how extremely large this country is.  While it is really amazing to think about it, take my word that it is REALLY boring. 

Case in point:  Rule, TX

For all intents and purposes, it was ghost town.  Rule did offer us one thing we desperately needed:  a gas station...with a bathroom...that wasn't out of order.  Way to go Rule, TX!  While you have not managed to keep open a single business on Main Street, you have manage to support the local gas station that boasts 24 hour chimichangas.  

The rest of West Texas pretty much looked like this:

Notice all of that going on in the background?  Didn't think so!  There was nothing going on in TX.  I seriously wondered to myself, "Where do these people grocery shop?" and "If they grocery shop, can they buy ice-cream?".  It literally blows. my. mind.  that someone would live here, or within 200 miles of here.  Every mile marker I passed, I was thanking God to high heavens for not putting another 4X4 in the road.  

 Ah...finally!

Was it enchanting?  I don't know if I would call it enchanting.  But it was nice to go from gray skies, to brown, um...fields?  Again, not sure what we were supposed to be enchanted about, but Duece sure was excited to be out of the car for something.

They might not have much to look at but at least they keep a sense of humor.

I see what they did there!

When we started to see this, we knew we were getting close to our destination.

Home Sweet Home!

We are loving Arizona so far and can't wait to explore more of it!