"because everything should taste like BACON."

before i get too ahead of myself with christmas... i just have to write a little bit about our fun roadtrip out! andrew batteen came out with us. that was great. we stayed at his sister's house in dallas the first night. woke up &had a great breakfast &stayed with dan's cousins jason &kristal in joseph city, arizona on night 2. it was soo nice having nice beds to sleep in both nights!

just a few points worth sharing:

• we passed at least ten cracker barrels. &dan would comment on them EVERY single time. we even stopped on our long day. we played that funny game the entire time &i was an EG-NO-RA-MOOZ every time. so sad. & andrew beat it!
• andrew's iTouch basically saved us. we loved the football game, paper toss, &my favorite: the waterslide game [i was giggling &screaming out in glEE... "it's so realistic!"
• driving through flagstaff &climbing so high in elevation. we drove through snow &i MADE us all sing "white christmas" together. it was hilarious.
• my indian friends at hoover dam. i took their pictures for them and thought they were arabic & was speaking to them in arabic. OOPS.
• TEXAS. longest, emptiest state. we LITERALLY had to play frogger with tumbleweeds. in real life. they had SPITS of all kinds there. we had BBQ wings, ranch, dill, classic davids, and BACON. we filled our cups up over &over again! not to mention the store we passed entitled "Cute Texas Crafts"
• joseph city, arizona. SMALLEST town i have ever been in [besides passing though]. right off route 66. so cute &mostly just how life should be. we had so much fun playing with the kids &holding the BABY!! [kristal: "are you pregnant yet?"]

yes. chunky, mississippi.

let the TRIP BEGIN!

were we REALLY that happy??! YES.

my first encounter with cracker barrel rocking chairs.

he wants to be a daddy.

dan & his cousin jason mulder... BOTH: 163 pounds, 5'11, 10.5-11 size shoe... 32-34 pants... NO BIG DEAL.

he got into the fruit smoothie :]

our best soldier friends! we were speeding up &slowing own for 10 minutes so we could talk to each other &relay messages. then stopped at the same rest stop so we could chat.

the peg game. we were so into it.

look at that cute family.

the joys of being a child.

never too old for a bottle.

flagstaff.

hoover dam!

so cute!