Florida part 1

As for the beginning of Florida... We had a blast at the Florida state square dance festival! We were there for part of Saturday and all of Sunday. Ryker got the awesome chance to call there and after that we honestly felt like celebrities... Everyone was coming up and giving us hugs and shaking our hands. Partly because we were the only teens there besides two other girls. That was an amazing weekend! Some fellow dancers kindly offered their home to us for the two nights we stayed in Lakeland for the festival. 

On Monday we woke up and make dutch babies for our hosts then drove to Clearwater Marine Aquarium where Winter is, the dolphin from the movie Dolphin Tale with a prosthetic tail. The three Dolphins we saw there were Winter, Hope, and Nicolaus. We also saw sea turtles, pelicans, and stingrays. I was so excited to go and see this aquarium...

I will be posting in a few days the second half of Florida since we will be here for a little longer. 

Louisiana to Alabama

For this post I will be combining Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama since we spent so little time in each state. 

In Louisiana we stayed at this little bed and breakfast where the hosts took us on this exciting swamp tour. We saw an alligator and accidentally hit a paper wasp nest. We also spotted many white cranes and beautiful birds! That night we all headed out to a Cajun restaurant where we ate alligator, crawfish, and boudin balls, a sort of stuffed thing... There was a live Cajun band playing where we danced a little as well. 

In the morning we ate a wonderful breakfast and then drove to New Orelans where we ate some of the famous donuts there. After ordering them we ran quickly to our car and drove to Alabama where on the way we passed through Mississippi. 

One fun thing we did while driving through Mississippi was count how many seconds it took to drive though. It took a total of 3,771 seconds. 

In Alabama we stayed with our friends we met in Antigua Guatemala last year. They had two yorkies who were so cuteee!

Texas

Texas was very beautiful... and humid! Our first night we stayed in El Paso with some distant cousins of ours. Ryker got to play the accordion with some percussion by their son. This was fun because Ryker hadn't played for quite a while!

The next day, Tuesday was our ten hour drive to San Antonio where we ran out of gas! The sherriff came to save us with eventually though! Basically that whole day was just driving... 

In the morning we went to see the biggest boots in the world and a toilet seat art museum! That was a little crazy! This 94 year old guy had started decorating toilet seat covers fifty years ago! We also stopped by the Alamo and the river walk. Our plans for where we were going to stay ended up falling through. This was kinda crazy so we searched for quite some time for someone to stay with... But we finally found someone to stay with on this app called couch surfing. He was super nice and made us homemade bread and eggs for breakfast the next day!

On our way out of Texas to Louisiana there was an INSANE rainstorm! It poured so hard and we were only going like 30 mph on the freeway! There was lightning all around us but it was an awesome experience! Those were our crazy adventures in Texas! We miss ya'll! :)))

New Mexico

We went flying through New Mexico so this post will be pretty short...

Sunday night we drove into Santa Fe where we stayed with some friends of ours. The next morning, on our way to El Paso Texas, we swung by a life size statue brontosaurus family, the worlds largest pistachio nut, and a scrap metal road runner. Next we went to the White Sands National Monument. It was gorgeous there... With the beautiful white sand dunes!

Colorado

We got to spend part of the time we were in Colorado in a tiny rancher town. We stayed with our friends Dick and Angie on their farm. The night we arrived there we ate at the only cafe in town, Cowgirl Cafe. There happened to be an open mic and guitar so mom took the chance and played the 3 chords she knew while making up a song about Collbran, the town we were in. 

Friday, the next morning, Dick took us all out on his quads through the mountains. It was beautiful! That night they had set up a square dance/teaching at a ranch that Ryker would call. This turned out excellent and everyone had a wonderful time!

Saturday morning we all headed over to Cowgirl Cafe again along with some other friends everyone knew. After eating and stopping back by the house we said goodbye to dad and everyone else and were off. On our way to Durango Colorado we drove through high mountains where it was pouring down snow! We stopped to take some pictures and to walk around in the snow... We ended up falling through because it was two feet deep! That was a really fun drive! Finally we arrived in Durango at Kimberly Zink's house where we stayed that night. I had so much fun with Timber, their 4 year old daughter! 

The next morning, we watched our church online then headed over to a Taste of Durango to say goodbye to our friends. On our way to New Mexico we swung by Mesa Verde, the old dwellings of the pueblo people. That was pretty fun!

Utah

Here are our adventures in Utah:

After a quick brunch at our friends the Pullen's, we drove to Zion National Park and hiked the narrows. The Narrows is a river stream thingy in between two sheer cliffs almost straight up. We waded up through the river which was a blast! On the hike we also met Kat, our new best friend! After an exciting day at Zion we drove the rest of the way to our cousins in Spanish Fork and arrived there super late! This is when my dad joined up with us for Utah and part of Colorado. 

The next morning we woke up and went to watch our cousin Jaden's track meet. After watching that we went and toured the new Mormon temple. It wasn't really what I expected but it was interesting and fun to get that chance. That night the whole extended family (it was actually my dads cousins family but they are just like cousins to us as well) got together and had so much fun! 

After a much needed nights rest, we all woke up and headed over to Moab with the Latimer family, our cousins. We had so much fun hiking arches national park! We hiked to delicate arch, the most popular one. We finally arrived back to the cabin super late and ended up eating dinner at 10:00!

So today we started hiking up to double o but we ended up needing to turn back so we headed to a different arch instead, the pine tree arch. Overall, I really enjoyed our time in Utah and was amazed by all the crazy red rock!

Nevada

In Nevada all we did was tour around Las Vegas. I had a blast and loved walking around all the hotels and shops. Every hotel had a beautiful design! We also visited m&m world and the Hershey's shop! M&M world had a huge wall of so many different colors of candy you would never expect! 

Arizona

If you all are wondering... I have decided to just post after every state to make it easier and more organized. Here is what we did in Arizona.

The first night in AZ we visited a square dancing club where Ryker did some guest calling. Our friends, the Stratton's came and watched a little the we went over to their house to spend the night. Their kids are Kayman, Shandee, and Ryker. We had a blast laughing our heads off with the snaps game, the coin game and this is how I bounce my spoon! I really enjoyed staying there!

The next morning we woke up super early and were planning on going up in a small airplane with my mom's friend to breakfast but it ended up not working... We went shopping for a long time at some upscale consignment stores and then ate lunch with Uncle Brent, a guy that is like a brother to my mom and an Uncle to Ryker and I. That night we stayed at Guy Sasso's house who is another close friend to mom's.

Our third day in Arizona we drive to the Grand Canyon and took some pretty cool and fun photos! Time for Las Vegas!

California

Yesterday we drove 10 hours from Redding CA to Lancaster CA! This was the longest drive that I have ever taken! Even though it was pretty long it really didn't feel like it though. We arrived finally at Lancaster where we stayed with a friend of Ryker's and mine. That was so fun and I enjoyed seeing Joanna again! On our drive from Lancaster to LA there was this graveyard right in the middle of town where everything was dry and brown, with a bright purple tree in the middle. It was a really cool sight! Tonight we got together and ate pizza with a bunch of friends from when my mom went to college down here. She really enjoyed seeing everyone. Tomorrow we will be heading for Arizona to stay in for two nights! I think I really liked California besides all the brown grass...😝

Oregon/California

Currently we are on a long 6 hour drive from Salem OR to Redding CA. This morning my mom took my cousin and me to get a pedicure at a nail salon. That was a blast and I am so glad that I got to spend that special time with Noelani! We also stopped at a tiny town to get gas and took some pretty awesome shots over the freeway. During dinner we met this adorable 80 year old couple. He asked me, "Do you have a boyfriend? Cause I'm avalible." It was so cute! I am so thankful to finally be on the road and I look forward to sharing all of the wonderful adventures with everyone!