Road trip to Florida Day 3

Friday morning we packed up and went exploring in New Orleans. Neither of us really new where to go or what to see, I'd heard about the French Quarter and Kyle had heard of Bourbon street so we figured that's what we would see. The French quarter was really cool and just what you would expect to see in New Orleans, all of the old buildings with ornate balconies covered in hanging ferns, it was really pretty and really exciting. There were a ton of artists, fortune tellers, spiritual advisers, and street performers on the streets. We saw a jazz band that was really good and gave them some money then sat by them for a picture. I actually wish we would've bought their cd because they really were good and I liked listening to them. Lennon danced and clapped and loved it too. After we left the French quarter we headed for Bourbon Street. Barf. It smelled like pee and alcohol, Kyle said just like South America. It was nothing but bars so we turned around and headed back to the cool part of town. We ate lunch right next to the Mississippi River out on the patio of the restaurant so Lennon got to see the riverboats while we ate and he thought that was so neat. We spent the last part of our afternoon watching the trolleys and riverboats (oh and pressing pennies for our collection). 

We left New Orleans and drove three hours to Pensacola. We checked into our hotel and then went straight to the beach. It was a lot colder than we expected but the sun was just setting when we got there. So we played in the sand for a few minutes and then went across the street to a little beach cafe called Shaggy's. By far the best food I've ever eaten in my life, I seriously can't stop thinking about it. Me and Kyle shared fish tacos and a Caesar salad and Lennon had a grilled cheese. I know that sounds like your every day average food but it was amazing. I would make another trip to Pensacola sometime just for that food :)

Road Trip to Florida Day 2

Today we drove into Louisiana we stopped for lunch at Cane River Creole National Historical Park. I've read a couple books about slave live in the south and I recently watched Gone With the Wind so I was REALLY excited to visit this place, it's an old cotton plantation that was built by a family before Louisiana was even a part the U.S. It stayed running strong and producing cotton clear until the 1970's. Even just driving through the town to get out there was awesome, it reminded me of Fried Green Tomatoes, another one of my favorite movies. Lennon and Kyle weren't as impressed but there was plenty of space for Lennon to run around and Kyle chased him while I looked. 

We left there just after lunch time and finished our drive to New Orleans. We got in late so we just went to IHOP then went to bed. The last part of our drive seemed sooo long. Tomorrow should be a nice short day on the road.

Road trip to Florida Day 1

8:37 pm

Here we are again on another cross country road trip, this time headed to Pensacola, Florida. We're going to be driving through a part of the country I've never seen before, I'm pretty excited. We left the house at 7pm and Lennon fell asleep about 20 minutes into the drive. I'm hoping he sleeps through the night. We're planning on driving straight to Dallas, Texas before stopping. If that works out as planned we should be there in the early evening and be able to get checked into a hotel and relax. 

10:47am (Texas time) 

We made it to Amarillo around 7:30 this morning, and of course we listened to Amarillo Sky and Amarillo by Morning on our way in. There's nothing like some good old country music in Texas. We ate breakfast at a truck stop (yummy...) Lennon was really excited to see all the trucks and get out and stretch his legs after 12 hours in the car. I guess we were all excited to stretch our legs even if it was at a truck stop, driving through the night can be rough. After breakfast we went to Cadillac Ranch, it's a bunch of cars that are sticking out of the ground. People spray paint their names and stuff all over them, it was really cool to see. There were a ton of half empty cans of spray paint on the ground so we wrote our name on a car. After that we stopped at the second amendment cowboy, pretty much just a giant cowboy statue with some Cadillacs behind him and a plaque with the second amendment on it. We've been following along Route 66 a lot of the way so there have been a lot of pretty cool old things to see. 

Lindale Texas (an hour past Dallas)

We got to our hotel at 5pm, after 21 hours in the car.  We showered and then went to dinner. It was so nice to be able to get out of the car and freshen up. We ate at a Mexican restaurant right in front of our hotel, it was really good. Lennon got his own bowl of salsa and ate it before either of us ate ours. I can't believe how good and happy has been on the trip so far. He hasn't cried, complained, thrown fits or anything. He plays good in the car, just talks to us, and of course sings to us. Three blind mice turned into "three blind mice ROCKET! Three blind mice ROCKET!" He sang that on repeat for quite a while haha. 

Earlier, we ate lunch at a park with a big pond. Kyle and Lennon were throwing bits of their pizza crust to the ducks and geese, when the crust was all gone the ducks and geese (like 30 of them) started following Lennon around the park, of course I panicked. I ran to the top of the playground and yelled at Kyle to get Lennon out of there but he though it was funny. Luckily no one got hurt.

Zion National Park 2016

For the second year in a row we decided to head to Zion's just before Lennon's birthday. There's nothing better than a little camp out getaway in February to get away from the cold. 

(Friday)

We got to our campsite Thursday night around 6, just before the sun went down. We camped in Virgin, just outside of the park, up Kolob Terrace Road. We used a website that has free campsites to find our spot. It was really nice, just up the road from town, right next to a little river. When we first pulled in Lennon started yelling "Adventure! There's the moon! Adventure! I love it!" He was so cute. 

Friday morning while Kyle cooked breakfast me and Lennon walked around and followed animal tracks that we found in the sand. Then threw about a million rocks in the river, that's really all he wanted to do the whole trip. He could stay at the river for hours. 

We drove into the park and went through the long tunnel and everything, Lennon thought that was really cool. Then we went up to the Mount Sinawava trail and hiked up until it turned into a water hike, then we stopped and had a little picnic by the river. It was warm all day but there was been a little breeze that made it just chilly enough that we had to keep our jackets on. 

(Saturday)

Saturday was a little warmer, the sun was out and there wasn't as much of a breeze. We hiked up a dry canyon bed in Zion's that went through some slot canyons. It's the same hike we did last year when we came down. It was so fun to see how much he's changed since then. Last year he couldn't walk yet so when we stopped he just sat in the sand, played with rocks, smiled and laughed. This year he was so excited the whole time riding in the back pack and then when we let him out to play he ran everywhere, threw rocks, stacked rocks, climbed the big rocks, and kept running up to me saying "This is fun mama!" 

We got back to camp around 4 and packed up to head home, Sunday was Lennon's birthday party at Grandma Pat's and we had a construction vehicle cake to make :) 

Happy Camper



Our little rock climber



Camp site



Beautiful morning view from camp



Critter Tracks



His happy place



Lennon and Dada



Trail runner

Cake mix cookies

My new favorite cookie recipe... Don't mind the snap chat screen shot, it's the only picture I have if these amazing things. 

I used a Betty Crocker recipe I found online. The recipe calls for devil's food cake mix, which is what I used the first time I made these and they were amazing. Since then I've used butter pecan cake mix, white cake mix, and red velvet and they've all been great. The white and red velvet are the ones in the picture. I follow the recipe pretty much exactly other than that. I've found that the dough really needs a full 30 min in the fridge or it's too sticky and hard to scoop. I also use parchment paper on my cookie sheets. 

Ingredients

1

box Betty Crocker™ SuperMoist™ devil's food cake mix

1/3

cup vegetable oil

1

teaspoon vanilla

2

eggs

1/4

cup sugar

Directions 

• 1 Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). In large bowl, mix cake mix, oil, vanilla and eggs with spoon until dough forms.
• 2 Refrigerate dough 15 to 30 minutes or as needed for easier handling. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in sugar. On ungreased cookie sheets, place balls about 2 inches apart.
• 3 Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Store tightly covered.

Snow shoeing!

Today my grandparents watched Lennon so Kyle and I could take the snow shoes out. We went up American Fork Canyon and started on the Pine Hollow trail. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was up there, everything was coated in fresh deep snow and it just looked awesome. We hiked up about two miles, just past the mud springs turn off. We had hoped to go up all the way to mud springs but the trail sort of just ended after the turn off. The snow was seriously so deep, we tried to forge our own trail and keep going but Kyle sunk down to  about his hips so we decided to turn around. Coming down the mountain was the best part, as it usually is. We went quick and even jogged in the snow shoes part of the way. I took way too many pictures but I couldn't help it, it was awesome today! 

Utah is rad!

Such deep snow!

Lunch stop 

Day date!

First time using ski poles

A couple days in Wallsburg

Well we had a fun couple of days up in Wallsburg at the cabin. We drove up early Sunday and stayed until this afternoon (Tuesday). We watched 7 of the 8 Harry Potter movies while we were there and that was pretty awesome. On Monday we spent a good portion of the day in Midway. We stopped at Wasatch Mountain State Park and went into the visitor’s center and then walked around a little bit. There were a ton of ducks and Lennon thought that was pretty cool. We also saw a ton of turkeys everywhere, huge ones. After that we went to the Heber Valley Artisan Cheese store, they had free samples and a big window so we could watch them making the cheese. This morning we went on a little snow walk/hike up the canyon. It was so pretty and such nice weather. Everything in Wallsburg is covered in such deep snow, it makes everything look pretty. Lennon like eating the snow and icicles, it's pretty much all he talked about the whole time we were there, it was so funny. 

Eating Snow

Watching the ducks

"Pretty horsies"