Arizona to Vegas!

We woke up Wednesday morning and Mommy and Daddy told me they had a surprise for me. We were going to ride to the top of a mountain in a tram (Albuquerque, NM). I was fascinated by the tram, but still couldn't manage to get over the lollipop I saw in the gift store before we left.

After the tram ride we loaded up and headed for Arizona. We spent the night in Williams and actually slept in for the first time the whole trip! (Mommy and Daddy seemed to be thrilled!) After a quick brunch we got in the car again and headed for the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, we were delayed a bit while Mommy was driving...

Much to Daddy's surprise, we were only pulled over for our window tint and not anything Mom did in regards to trying to get to the Canyon faster.

After some very back-woods roads, we finally arrived at the Grand Canyon West. We passed through Joshua Forest (I was a little confused at why the trees were all 'broken'.)

The really neat thing about Grand Canyon West is the Sky Walk. I wasn't afraid at all and thought the whole thing was pretty interesting. For those of you who haven't heard about it, they built a bridge over part of the Canyon that has a glass floor so you can look straight down 4,000 feet. Very nice...

After a great day, we are finally hear in Vegas. I was very impressed that they were "so ready for Christmas" with all of the lights! Tomorrow should be a great day.

Texas to New Mexico

Despite our very early dip in the pool, the rest of the day still went pretty well. After a little breakfast we jumped back in the car to visit the 2nd largest canyon in the U.S. -- Palo Duro (a little preview to the Grand Canyon). Beautiful views... the kids enjoyed the views as well, albeit between scenes of Baby Einstein and My Little Ponies.

After the tour of the canyon, Mommy found a very interesting piece of "art" for us on I-40. There were 12 Cadillacs buried in the ground (some statement about our reliance on oil). I, however, wanted Daddy to fix them. Unfortunately, Daddy wasn't able to pull them out of the ground for me...

Eventually, after a couple of bathroom breaks and a lot of interstate, we made it to our new "house". Fortunately, this room also had green carpet as I was a big fan of that last night. I've decided that I am really a little girl. Before I went to bed, I wanted to make myself pretty. Thanks to the tube of lipstick I found in Mommy's luggage, I succeeded!

Day 2

Since I stayed up 2 hours past my bedtime, I (as usual) slept until about an hour BEFORE my normal wake up time. I walked into Mommy & Daddy's room this morning to wake them up. I then proceeded to hear a noise (it was the water in the ice maker) and told them "do you hear that? I think it sounds like the pool is waking up!" We ate a little breakfast and waited until I made enough noise to wake up Harrison and then we got to go swimming while watching the sunrise (and Mom & Dad got to sit for a minute in the jacuzzi so they didn't complain!). Now we're showered and dressed and ready to go exploring (and it's only 8:30 in the morning!!!). More to come...

The First Day

Despite the advice from all of you (and our better judgement), we embarked on our 11 state journey this morning. It actually didn't go that badly, although everyone was ready to be at the hotel by the time we reached Amarillo, TX -- or as Mommy likes to call it, Armadillo.

Needless to say, I was pretty hungry by the time we arrived. Mommy found a "must visit" restaurant called "The Big Texan". I was a huge fan! First, we got a ride from the hotel in a limo with horns! I'm going to try and convince Daddy to put some of those on his car.

Even though I wanted to eat chicken at this world famous steakhouse, I had no trouble fitting in. First, I got to drink my milk out of a boot! (Oh, and I'm not actually suffering from cyanide poisining in this picture, I was eating a blue gumball -- or as I like to call it "a meatball".)

The best part, though was when we got our free cowboy/girl hats. I think Harrison liked his as much as me as you can see in this short video:

I was really surprised when the musicians who were going from table to table came over to sing "Happy Birthday" to me. I must really be something special.

Despite the fact that it was already an hour past bedtime, I insisted that I was going to the swimming pool after we returned. Not a bad day after all. Tomorrow, we're going to see a bunch of Cadillac's burried in the ground and then we should be in Albuquerque tomorrow night. I can't wait.

And we're off...

For those of you who don't already know, get ready to tune in to the adventures of the Brown Family Roadtrip. We are embarking on a 29 day, 11 state journey that started as a trip to Santa Barbara for Thanksgiving and has now expanded to include Route 66, the Grand Canyon, Thanksgiving with Nona, the Notre Dame-Stanford game and Sonoma with Uncle Ryan & Brooke, Salt Lake City, Denver, a wedding in South Dakota and finally home sweet home. We haven't decided if we are insane or excited, but we guarantee there will be stories to come. Stay tuned and wish us luck!

Happy Birthday to Reagan

The birthday celebrations have begun! Despite the fact that my birthday is still a week away, we have been celebrating almost everyday since Friday (Daddy says I take after my grandpa Ken and his month-long birthdays!) Since we're going to be out of town on my birthday we celebrated with a birthday party on Friday night at a gymnastics/tumbling place here. It was basically just a huge room full of things to climb on, jump on, swing from, etc. It was a blast and everyone had a great time. (thank you to Gams for my super cute outfit -- it even had the number 3 on the skirt for my 3rd birthday!) I was so exhausted from the whole thing that I went to bed as soon as we got home and left my presents to open in the morning! Thank you to all of my friends that were able to make it and thank you for all the great gifts! (and Alex & Allison...we missed you!). The picture we posted is the best attempt we had at a group photo...

You may also notice that Harrison liked my birthday cookie cake even more than I did! He was covered in chocolate!

Halloween!

Next to Christmas, I think Halloween is going to be one of my favorite holidays! I caught on to the whole concept of trick-or-treating much fast than I'm learning my numbers (at least that is what I'm letting Mom and Dad think). Let's just say I ended the night by saying "This is the best day ever!"

We started off the day with a party at school. Ethan (Super Ethan) and I made quite the duo. Later, my friend Allison came over with her dad. We made quite a combo... a flower and two little 50's Greasers. I ran from house to house trying to get more candy for Dad and I to share -- somehow I forgot about the sharing part as soon as we got home. After we were all done Mom and Dad lit a fire in our pit and we made s'mores... obviously we needed more sugar. I had a blast! Harrison had a little trouble keeping up so we sent him home with Mommy to make sure our house didn't get tricked. However, I do think I could learn a thing or two from Allison. Despite visiting exactly the same number of houses, she had nearly twice as much candy as me at the end of the evening (not that I noticed). I guess being aggressive pays off!