Hugs, kisses and waving 'bye-'bye.

"I miss my daddy."

"Just come and ask me."

Zapper the Napper & Busy Lizzie

Molly and Zap snoozing on the couch a few days ago.

Zap was really needing a lot of special attention after we got back from our trip.  He usually stays upstairs to avoid being around Lizzie.  They get along, but she can invade his space and she gets to licking his face and ears to the point where I think he'd like to smack her....which he should do to keep her from hassling him so much.  He is a very patient kitty to put up with her.  He lost his best friend and brother Zip and now he has to put up with a crazy dog.  Poor sweet boy.

Zappers...soaking up the love.

Here is Zap, Molly and Lizzie surrounding Dan on the couch.  Looks like there is very little room left.

Super Hero Day

It was Super Hero Day at school.  Thanks to cousins Riley and Jolie, we had an ample supply of magical, dancy, glittery, supergirl stuff in her costume box.

She called herself Flower Power Girl.  They made masks at craft time.  There were lots of kids dressed as Superman, Spiderman, Batman and the girls were Princesses with capes or Ballerinas with capes....it's really ALL about the cape.

Here's a video clip of a typical morning as we are leaving for school.  If Daddy is home, Molly makes a big deal out of waving, blowing kisses and hugs out the window and shouting goodbyes as if we are leaving for a month instead of 6 hours.  The other day, I asked Dan to video it for us since I knew that these mornings would soon be over as she'll be riding the bus in the fall and I'll be going to work without her.

Back on the road.

After eating an Egg McMuffin, the kid tuckered out in the backseat.  This was about halfway between Albuquerque and the Texas border.

We were lucky enough to see about 7 hot air balloons in Albuquerque as we were leaving...Molly was in awe.  I would just LOVE to take her to the Balloon Fiesta sometime.  She would never believe that spectacular sight.

We finished up listening to our CDs of "Unbroken" and we talked about that for a long while.  We started that book in Knoxville and finished it in New Mexico, on our way back.  I highly recommend that book.  It is an amazing story of survival and endurance.

Later on, we started up another CD set of a book called "A Good Dog."  I think that by the time we got to Amarillo, we were both trying not to cry while listening to an emotional part of that story where the dog dies.  (That is not exactly a spoiler...you kind of know from the start.)  I will forever associate the smiling Big Texan cowboy with me wiping endless tears from my face wondering if Dan thought I was being silly.  Turns out while I was remembering my dog Maggie dying, he was remembering Zip.  Don't we all have a dying pet story?  Sadly, yes.

Anyway, back to the trip.  

Funny side note:  Molly said at one point in our long drive..."We've been tripping for such a long time!"

I thought that was funny.

Another moody sky in eastern New Mexico.  Whatever storm this was, luckily, it stayed to the south.

As you can see, it cleared up.

I-40 has much nicer state border signs than the smaller highway...here we are leaving the Land of Enchantment.

Of course the welcome to Texas sign was plenty big enough to see.

In all of my decades of passing by The Cadillac Ranch, I've yet to stop by and see it.

An Oklahoma sign at a rest area....I missed the border sign.

A pretty US flag near Elk City, OK.

I loved watching the landscape slowly change from browns and tans to yellows and greens as we travelled eastward.

Massive windmills were all over Texas and Oklahoma.

I've seen these funny country and city dogs signs before...always liked them.

One more state, Arkansas the Natural State.  Go Hogs!

I wanted so badly to stop by Fayetteville, but it's way off our long path and we had no time left.  We spent the night in Van Buren.

The land is so pretty.

Soft rolling green hills.  After looking at this photo, I noticed the prayerfully posed metal artwork to the lower left.

Crossing the Mississippi River again and back into Tennessee.

We couldn't have enjoyed our trip so much without our wonderful rental car.  It's a 2013 Toyota Camry LE.  It was so easy to drive, got good gas mileage...about 35mpg most of the time.  We had plenty of room for all our bags, ice chest, snacks, movies, a big keyboard, boxes of family slides, framed artwork, jars upon jars of green chile sauces and brisket marinade, two turtledoves and a partridge in a pair tree.  Most importantly, we needed room for our new queen sized baby clothes quilt our friend Andra made for us.  I will have to show you that in a later post.  It is work of art, absolutely beautiful and crammed packed full of precious memories of Molly's babyhood.

This car was stuffed to the gills and still comfy for the 3 of us.  I hated to give her back to the Avis guy who didn't seem to care one bit that we put over 3,200 miles on her.

If you click on No Comments just below....a dialog box will pop up so you can leave a comment.  We would love to hear from you.  It makes it more fun for us.  Sometimes, this feels like dropping a message in a bottle into the ocean.  Comment, please.....please.

July 4th in Albuquerque

July 2013.

Marvin, Lesann, Anita, Walt, Whitney, Dan

Chelsea, Karlynn, Olivia, Samantha, Janet

Molly

November 2011.

Marvin, Lesann, Anita, Walt, Whitney, Dan

Megan, Chelsea, Karlynn, Olivia, Samantha, Janet

Molly 

Cousins on the spiral staircase...

Karlynn, Molly, Olivia, Chelsea and Samantha.

Dan took this photo of all of us on the back patio, July 4th.

Visiting on the patio...

The beautiful view of the Sandias.

Playing hide and seek.  Can you find her?

Piggy-back ride with Samantha.

Playing Go Fish with Samantha and Olivia.

Getting some volleyball tips from a pro.

Eating watermelon on the grass.

Marvin laughing at the girls.

Dan eating watermelon.

Grandpa blowing bubbles.

Watermelon "must-nash."

All aglow in her nighttime jewelry.

Dan, making a pie.

I'm amazed this photo came out at all.  It was black on camera, then at home, I found it after running some filters on it.  I never delete photos until I can see if they're savable.

Molly with a s'more.

Ready to watch the fireworks.

At the hotel pool.

Learning how to float.

Posing with the freshly painted ducks.

Playing on the iPad with the girls.

Wearing her new Peyton Manning jersey and playing with Samantha and Nutmeg.

Lei-ing around with Samantha.

Nutmeg is such a sweet girl...so patient with Molly.

Puppy kisses.

Molly with Aunt Janet.

Samantha and Molly one last time.

Samantha and Uncle Dan

Janet and Dan

Molly fell in love with this dog.

Our trip was nearly over, we hit the road very early the next morning to drive back to Tennessee.

We wish that we had time to visit our friends, but this trip was very quick and was all about family.  We hope that the next time we come to New Mexico, we'll have more time to see all the people there we love and miss so much.