We woke up on our fifteenth day of our trip excited to get home! It had snowed the day before but we were hopeful for dry roads.
The drive is about seven hours without any stops or slowdowns. It obviously took us longer.
Luckily the kids are amazing in the car and didn’t really complain at all.
There were some icy bits that were stressful but we made through just fine.
There was lots of coffee stops.
We had a wonderful adventure but we are so so happy to be home.
This post could have also been titled a somewhat unfortunate day in Albuquerque. Again we would have liked to have gone home early but it was still snowing and we wanted to wait for clear roads. Originally we were excited for a day in Albuquerque because there were places we loved that we wanted to show the kids.
Unfortunately we missed in our planning that everything is closed on New Years Day. We really wanted to take the kids to see Botanic gardens that has a magical children’s garden. The zoo and aquarium are really good too but they were all closed. All the museums and the tram up the mountains were closed as well. We were super bummed, between the fire, snow and everything being closed it was not the way we wanted our trip to end.
We tried to rally but were mostly killing time until we could drive home. It was cold and there was some snow/rain mix but we went to a playground anyway.
I am always impressed by these kids resilience and how they always find the fun.
We also made our way down to Old Town.
My parents gave me some money for Christmas so I could buy something to remember our trip. I really wanted to get a Turquoise ring and had been looking for most of our trip. I finally found the perfect one while in Albuquerque.
We brought back pizza to have in our hotel room and worked a little on packing up to head home the next day.
We now want to return to Albuquerque to visit what we missed and probably go to the Balloon Fiesta.
First off Happy New Year!!
We spent most of the day driving to Albuquerque. We would have driven straight home to be near our friends but there was a lot of snow and icy interstates.
There aren’t many places to camp near Albuquerque and we aren’t huge fans of RV parks so we opted for a hotel instead.
When we arrived to Albuquerque we checked into the hotel and dropped the trailer in the parking lot. We then went to the store to grab some goodies for the evening to celebrate New Years Eve. We got sparkling cider, champagne, treats and a new game to play.
We got take out from one of our favorite restaurants from when we lived in Albuquerque. We watched a movie then a countdown on Netflix and we were all asleep before midnight.
We hope you had a wonderful and safe New Years Eve!!!
I was so looking forward to visiting Saguaro National Park, seeing all of these towering Cacti was amazing.
We loved learning about the environment and the kids participated in the jr ranger program.
We did a short hike around the visitors center before getting back in our car and driving out into the park.
Our first stop was to hike up to an overlook to see some petroglyphs.
Our next stop was for lunch.
They had very nice tables to eat at with an overlook. We had packed a picnic in the morning, our little lunch boxes were well used again on this trip.
We then drove around the rest of the scenic loop. We decided that we wanted one last hike as a storm was rolling in.
This was when messages started rolling in from friends and family. Our neighborhood and my parents’ was in a pre evacuation zone because of a fire in our area. This was the start of the Marshall Fire that devastated neighborhoods near us.
We really wanted to leave and drive home immediately to be there to help friends that were evacuated from their homes and to grab important things from our home. We did feel comfort that we were dafe and everything important was with us (each other). Our dog Humphry was safe at my brothers home far from the fire.
Friends and family were sending us pictures of what they could see from their homes. We really wanted to pack up and head home as that is where our hearts were but (luckily) a snow storm was coming in that night and we didn’t want to pull our trailer into a storm. The snow was good as it put out the fire.
The views were scary but we were lucky and our neighbors didn’t have to evacuate.
We were very worried for our friends that were evacuated and for Cory’s office that was also in an evacuation zone.
I was so so excited to go to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. I visited once years ago while at a conference and loved it. When we planned our trip to Arizona and we planned some time in Tucson I knew we had to go.
The exhibits here are amazing. It’s a mix of botanic garden and zoo and so well done. The cave exhibit is so fun and the views and spectacular.
We loved the cactus gardens.
The kids loved the Sting Ray touch pool.
We had the best time.
We spent the entire day exploring the museum and had to hurry to our campsite before it got dark.
We woke up early ready to hit the road again!
The kids climbed the rocks behind our campsite while I packed up the trailer.
They did help me check under the car and trailer.
We did drive through the Sonoran Desert National Monument, it was fun to see the landscape change as we drove.
We got to our campsite right before sunset.
It was a beautiful evening. We made dinner, a camp fire and roasted marshmallows. Not bad for late December.
Dinner by campfire light.
We had a full day to explore Joshua Tree National so we started with the Visitors Center.
We got maps and found a few short hikes that we wanted to do.
Our first stop was at hidden valley where we did a fun hike and lots of rock scrambling. We took our time, drove the rest of the big loop and went back to our campsite for lunch.
We then went back to explore the area around skull rock, it was very busy so we observed it from a distance.
We did the Discovery Trail, made by kids for kids. It was a fun little hike.
The Joshua Trees here are huge and amazing. It’s something you have to see in person.
It is magic here! We made it back to camp made dinner and enjoyed our last night. We would have loved more time (as we always say) it’s a sight to be seen.
The eighth of our trip was mostly about chores and driving out of LA. We took advantage of the laundry facilities at the hotel we were staying at so we would have clean clothes for the second half of our trip. We packed our things back into our travel trailer and started heading back east. We also stopped at a couple grocery stores to restock our cabinets.
We were so excited when we got to Joshua Tree, our campsite was actually in the national park and it was amazing! We loved our site tucked into the rocks. Cannon said he liked it better than Disneyland so I probably won’t ever be able to talk Cory into going back.
We ALL want to go back and spend more time in Joshua Tree.
We didn’t have time to really explore the park since we drove in late in the day but we have the full day tomorrow.
After a few nights in a hotel in the city it was nice to be back out and camping.
It was raining on Christmas day but as the video shows the kids just danced through it, they were having so much fun.
We had considered just spending both days in Disneyland and that would have been amazing but we decided we wanted to see California Adventure decorated for the holidays as well. Both Parks were not very busy which was very nice.
Cars Land was so cute!
While we definitely prefer Disneyland, DCA is fun too. There wasn’t any parades, or fireworks, snow or light shows so it felt less magical.
We were able to get many of the rides in, mostly because we did buy the Genie+ pass for the day.
The park at night was all lit up and so beautiful.
We left for the nigh worn out and much past our bed times!
It was a very merry Christmas!
This entire trip is a dream, but getting to surprise the kids with a trip to Disneyland on Christmas Eve was a highlight of my life.
Walking from our hotel to the entrance Emmy somewhere guessed but we had the cover of the stroller down because it was raining. It was so so fun to see how excited they were when they realized what we were doing.
It was a little rainy in the morning but it didn’t dampen the fun at all.
The decorations are just magical at Christmas time!
We tried to be as Covid safe as we could, we were only inside for rides. We ate outside and wore our masks whenever it felt crowded.
Because this was our first time visiting Disneyland at Christmas and we only had one day we prioritized holiday events rather than riding every single ride. We loved the Christmas parade and Small World Holiday, each room had a different smell!
We enjoyed the fireworks, while Emmy fell asleep in the stroller. It was so loud but we put the cover down and she slept through all of it.
We had so much fun being together and just taking in the beauty of the park at Christmas time.
This was a dream come true for me.