The LONG Drive Home

It's taken a week for me to get around to posting that we arrived safe and sound back in Texas.  We left SD early early on Monday morning and arrived home late afternoon on Tuesday.  We made great time and the kids were the image of perfection during the drive.  This was the absolute best that the kids have ever been on a road trip.  There was not one crying or fussy moment.  Even on a successful road trip with kids you can expect some fussing.  I was blown away with how well everything went... and since I made the drive back by myself it made it so much easier to not have the stress of crazy kids to deal with.  So we are back back, unpacked, and already hating the heat.  It sure didn't take long for us to miss the perfect weather back in SD.  

Four states in one day... now that's one heck of a drive.

Ryder's cars and the outside scenery kept him pretty occupied during the drive.  He drove them up and down his leg and talked on and on about I don't know what.  Kid was cracking me up.

Once we arrived in El Paso we headed to the local Denny's for some food.  These kids were starving.  At some point during the meal Savannah gave Ryder her syrup and he started dipping his chicken nuggets in it.  Oh yum.  He finished every single nugget and most the fries thanks to that syrup.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and did a little swimming.  I was bound and determined to tire these kids out so that we would have no issues going to sleep once we got back to the room.

Little Miss Big Time

Last week Savannah's school held their open house.  She was crazy excited about this... for like three weeks she talked and talked about how her class was working on really cool secret things for the parents at open house.  So much build up, I wasn't quite sure what to expect... plus, it was a little weird to be going to open house as a parent.  Nothing makes you feel aged quite like attending your first parent teacher conference/open house, just sayin'.  Anyhow, the class was decked out with their art and class work from their most recent unit of study, which just so happened to be Texas.  Go figure.  Texas stuff was everywhere... flags, yellow roses, armadillos, longhorns... it was a little much for this Cali girl.  Savannah gave us a very thorough tour of her class... she walked us to every station and showed us everything she does there all day.  It was pretty awesome to see her so excited about school.  Eric was a little embarrassed, I'm sure... between Savannah running around like a kid in a candy store and me taking pictures of everything.  Yup, we were those people.  After her class tour was over, Savannah walked us through the entire school showing us where everything was.  She seemed so grown up as she led the way through her school.  Between losing her first tooth and getting to flaunt that she goes to big kid school, Savannah really has been feeling quite grown up lately.  

This is where Sav sits in her class.  

Eric calls this having pride for your state... I call this brainwashing... what do you think??

Macaroni armadillos.  Not sure which one is hers.

Leading the way through the halls.  She was skipping and smiling so big.  Seriously hope she always loves school this much.