Texas Vacation, Part 1: The Fastest--and Longest--Car-Ride!

On June 2, we began our long, long road trip to the Austin area of Texas. This trip had been in the calendars for almost a year, and it was finally time. Due to Tali's wedding, we were the last of the Savilles to leave our homes, and so we had a lot of ground to make up! As I mentioned in the last post, we left Salt Lake around 10:30/11 p.m. We got everyone changed into jammies in the car while we were getting our final supplies at Smiths. The kids quickly fell asleep--it was so late for them to be awake! I culled through the wedding images while Brian drove. We didn't drive very far, just four hours, but when you pull into your motel at 3 a.m., it doesn't really matter how long your drive was, you're done driving! Our goal was to make it to Monticello, right on the border of Utah and Colorado. We pulled up to our room, got everyone in bed, and slept---for about 4 hours. We got up, ate the free breakfast, got dressed, and then headed to Cortez, Colorado. 

We stopped at a meetinghouse for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so that we could take the sacrament before hitting the road again. Even though we had church clothes in the car, we all dressed in comfortable shorts/skirts so that we wouldn't have to waste any time getting back on the road. Everyone has their own views and worships the way they choose. I believe that how I dress for church is a reflection of my devotion. I always want to wear my very best, and I was raised with the notion that flip-flops are much to casual for Sacrament meeting. I know people do it all the time, and that's fine for them. I just always want to show up to church showing the Lord that I gave Him my best effort, so it was a little painful walking into the meeting with everyone wearing flip-flops, and casual clothes. The boys were wearing polos and shirts, Rachel wore a play dress with shorts underneath, and I had my most comfortable skirt on. I wanted to tell everyone that we were in the middle of an epic roadtrip, that we had driven until 3 a.m. that morning, and that we were trying to get to Lubbock by that night. I reminded myself over and over again that I was showing the Lord my devotion for being on that bench that day, and I just had to accept that it was enough, especially when we left right after we partook of the sacrament. We went back to the car and listened to BYU Speeches until I was too tired to listen anymore.

The last time we drove through Texas, Brian and I learned that I have to be the first driver of the day. I do not do well with driving when I'm really tired, especially if it's for a long stretch in the drivers' seat, so I started the journey out of Cortez. We drove through lots of rain in New Mexico, and some rotten construction traffic in Albuquerque when we decided it was time to get dinner and a new driver! We were so tired. We were so tempted to just stop there and figure out how to make it all the way to Austin by 4 p.m. the next day by leaving from Albuquerque, but we soldiered on. Brian got us from Albuquerque to Lubbock.  

The kids were troopers through the whole thing. It helped that we went armed with lots of car activities and movies!

Lubbock was a beautiful stop for our tired family. It was the nicest hotel we stayed at our entire trip, and it even had this extra room that we could put Gabe in. We wished that we had more time to enjoy it, and we arrived there at a fairly decent time of night...only about 10 p.m. We could even see the Lubbock temple from our room! 

The next morning, Texas gave us a warm, delicious welcome:

We had made such good progress the day before that we only had a five hour drive ahead of us that Monday, which felt so nice after the super long day of driving on Sunday.

We were within an hour of the house we were going to stay at in Wimberly when our noses alerted us to a messy situation in the back. Gabe had a major blow-out! We pulled over on the side of the road to take care of the situation. It was bad. We decided that we didn't like those shorts anyway, and they got tossed with the messy diaper.

We finally arrived at the house at Wimberly, so anxious to see everyone...and no one was there. I guess we didn't need to be in such a hurry! The kids explored the grounds, and we scoped out the three houses that we were going to be staying at. And we waited for our family, (who had all arrived in the area days before us) to arrive at the house.  Finally, after hanging out, unable to unpack and lie down, everyone finally arrived! Yay!! They'd been having so much fun at their pre-vacation festivities that they weren't in a hurry to start our official vacation. We were sad to have missed out on all the fun from the weekend and that morning, but it was great finally seeing everyone again and being a part of the party.

After getting our room assignment from our amazing planners, Ben and Jenny, we got everything set up so that our kids could finally go to bed on time. Our plan was to take family pictures that night before we all got sunburned at the waterparks in the following days. I my hair and make-up, giving up on the outfit I intended to wear because it was pretty crushed in the bag, and went to go get things ready for pictures.

As each individual family got ready, I would take their pictures. Rachel got to be my light color tester.

I really love taking pictures, and it was fun trying out the things I've learned this last year with these people I love so much. Here's our official Saville family photo:

 I tried posing everyone by family this year, and I really like how it turned out. It's so hard taking a picture of such a large group while keeping them all happy, but the Savilles did a great job, and as always, look amazing!

Brian told me that while I was out getting ready, there was talk about doing pictures another night since everything had gotten so behind, and everyone was tired and just wanted to rest. I was really glad that everyone rallied and put on their good faces for me. Sometimes, taking pictures for family is really, really hard because they're so comfortable around you that they don't mind sharing how inconvenient the whole thing is, which I suppose that's a good thing in a way. I'm always glad when we do family pictures and everyone is nice and patient with me while I pose everyone and get the timer and tripod all set.

I took pictures of every family group that wanted them. These two make up my favorite family shot for the night:

They have a pretty amazing posterity, and I'm proud that I get to be in their family. 

We got all the pictures done before it was too dark, and I consider it a success. After pictures, I got to eat dinner, and then we got our kiddos to bed--well, Rachel and Gabe anyway. We bravely let Michael sleep with the big kids who stay up really late!