The Journey

We've been in Longview now for just under 2 months.  I'm still very anxious to be settled - to be done with boxes, painting, decorating, and fixing things up.  But, overall, we are settled in a lot of ways.  Luke keeps reminding me that it's about the journey and I'm going to need a lot of patience.  The kids' virtue of the week last week was patience with the motto "I wait and wait and wait with a smile," which was just as appropo for me as it was for them.  We also studied Abraham in our all-church series of  "The Story," - also a great example of patience and waiting.  I guess the Lord is trying to teach me something.

I guess if I'm finally downloading pictures from the last 2 months and finding a few minutes to blog about them, I am getting my head above water.  Here are some pics from our journey to TX -

I painted Lucy's toenails for the first time right before we left.  She loved looking at them in the car and would keep pointing, saying "fancy!"

The first stop was in Phoenix for a mini-vacation at a resort hotel.  It was a wonderful stop.  The temps were SO hot and the pools felt great.  We left with melted crayons and chocolate in the car, burnt feet from the water park, and fun memories!

 This was Lucy's first time in water wings.  This pool was only about a foot deep and she loved being independent, walking/swimming around the pool.  Isaiah loved the slides (Noelle wasn't tall enough), and the lazy river was fun for all.

Our next stop was Tucson to see Nanna and Poppa.  We loved spending the evening with them.

The next stop was Artesia after our longest day of driving (and some transmission issues as we stretched our van's abilities by pulling the trailer).  We enjoyed La Fonda w/ the Artesia Marrs clan!

The next day was Carlsbad Caverns.  We were so excited to take the kids here - and they loved it!  It was a lovely escape from the heat and just such a cool place to explore.

I forgot to take a picture at the next stop... We stayed in Abilene and got to spend the evening w/ Cliff and his sweet kiddos.  Then, the next day, we finally made the final trek across to TX to Longview!!  We arrived to these sweet welcome signs and tons of help getting unloaded.