Road Trip Scrapbook - Finished!

It took me quite a while to take some snapshots of our finished scrapbook from our 2013-2014 road trip. I find that making scrapbooks for everyday life is a little boring and I can't motivate myself to keep up. I tend to make scrapbook for things like road trips and vacations, like I did for my 2012 visit to New York (when I unexpectedly got engaged AND married) although I still haven't made a scrapbook for our formal wedding ceremony OR our honeymoon! Talk about inconsistent!

Going through and looking at these scrapbooks brings back so many great memories that just plain photo snapshots couldn't capture.

In fact, I don't know why I even stopped adding to this scrapbook! I still have a ton of Instax film, there are still tons of empty pages in the Smashbook and my scrapbook kit I put together for travel is still in its box. I think I will resume scrapping until I run out of space! Let's make it a promise. Maybe I will do a biweekly update of my progress on the blog as well.

Arizona's Petrified Forest

We made an impulse stop at the Petrified Forest National Park after I saw it on the map. My dad had taken a road trip a few years ago and I remember him showing me pictures of this place. It was pretty neat! All these trees had gotten buried in mud during the Triassic period and silica formed inside the cell walls of the trees, making it into quartz.

It was surprisingly cold today in the southwest. I figured it would be warm since it's so sunny, but once we reached Albuquerque it was below freezing. I guess I can't escape the cold!

By the way, I'm loving my new palazzo pants and Pendelton wool purse! I've been splurging on new clothes, not just because I need maternity clothes, but also because I haven't gone shopping for anything new in a while and I needed a closet refresher. Nothing like moving to a totally new climate to inspire a shopping spree!

Baby Bump - 26 Weeks!

Weight Gain: Not really sure at this point. Hotels never have scales!

Name: Ellie, Ellie-Bear and "Ellie Belly." 

Maternity Clothes: Just bought some "palazzo pants" and hopefully they look trendy and not like lazy-pants.

Feeling: My back starts to hurt after a while of standing up.

Food I'm Missing: Once again, bagels with lox. We went to a bagel shop and I really wanted some smoked salmon lox.

Movement: Joe and I can both see her punching at my belly. It's so weird how strong she is! I was poking back at her to see if she would react. It work (I think.) I will have to try a flashlight!

Dreams: Nothing unusual this week!

Listening to: The Yeah Yeah Yeah's and an audiobook by Craig Clevenger called The Contortionists Handbook. It's a really good book! Not so kid-friendly, but Ellie doesn't know that yet.

Looking Forward to: Decorating the new house. I got all my furniture out of storage and it's being shipped to Louisiana. I haven't seen my stuff in so long! I have some pretty unique things and I'm excited to put everything together. 

I know I'm skipping ahead with my posts right now, but since these are the only photos we took in Phoenix I might as well update. We had a nice breakfast at Lola's Coffee Bar and went skating in Tempe. I got to go shopping at a second hand store and we picked up a bunch of stuff - I was all excited to find some legit southwestern turquoise jewelry. I figured we weren't going to have many cool places to shop in Louisiana so we should probably pick up some stuff now. 

I love the landscape of the desert! I wanted to go through Joshua Tree in California - it's an amazing place - but it was faster to skip it. There will be plenty of desert in New Mexico to see though, and I'm hoping we can get a little visit into Roswell. Yay, aliens!