After our adventures in Tennessee, we had about a month and a half spent with our respective families. During that time, we enjoyed a celebration of milestones and a holiday.

We first visited with Frank’s family, just in time for Easter! It was technically Dominic’s second Easter, though he had only just been born the first time around. We all got dressed up, went to a lovely Mass, and came back to Easter baskets and an Easter egg hunt! Following this, my father-in-law made a magnificent dinner that left us all stuffed and satisfied. This was a pretty picture-perfect day!

Springtime Fun

Our time with the family was more than just quality time. It was a celebration of spring! The weather became so pleasant and the backyard is well kept. We spent many evenings out on the patio and playing in the grass. One particularly wonderful evening, the kids got popsicles and played catch/tee ball in the yard. It felt like a blast from the past, as I got a view from the other side of my own childhood. Dominic blew us all away with his perseverance and determination to walk up and down the slope of the yard all by himself. He’d occasionally topple over, but he never gave up!

Major Milestone #1: Celebration of Dominic’s First Birthday!

Frank’s parents graciously hosted a second birthday party in as many months. We invited everyone again, and many came to celebrate with us a second time. Dominic loved his smash cake, we had delicious food again, and Victoria had the pleasure of being his Birthday Buddy! She helped him open a few presents when he struggled or got distracted. As always, it was so wonderful seeing everyone and catching up again, especially since we knew it would probably be a while before we would have the pleasure again.

Major Milestone #2: Abuelita is Retired!

After two relatively short weeks, we headed south to visit my family again. We arrived just in time to celebrate Dominic’s birthday again, only a few days after the fact. He really enjoyed tucking into some fabulous and fancy cupcakes!

Just a few days after that, my mom finally got to have her last day of work! We joined her and some co-workers at a restaurant called Fish Lips in Cape Canaveral to celebrate. It was a nice cozy party, up until the weather became completely wild. A massive thunderstorm with the constant threat of tornadoes ended our participation in the party a little early. Nevertheless, ‘Lita got to show off her grandkids to her colleagues for a bit, which I know she enjoyed.

A New Chapter

Anyone who knows my parents probably knows that retirement did not make them slow down. My dad told me a while ago that he works harder now than he did while he was employed. The same holds true for my mom, as well. I mentioned before that they bought a sailboat, fulfilling the dream I heard about my whole life. “Someday, we are going to retire, sell everything, buy a boat, and sail around the world.” Two out of four of those have happened now! Now that ‘Lita retired, she has been able to join my dad in working on the boat before their next sail this summer. It’s a Beautiful boat, but it has a mile-long list of to-do’s before they shove off. Thus, my parents got grandkid time in the early morning and in the evenings, and worked their tails off during the day over at the boat.

Sea World Adventures

‘Lita didn’t forget how the kids got to have fun with Gramps at Disney after he retired! She wanted some of that same quality time, and she suggested we (the kids, her, and myself) select somewhere fun for ourselves. We eventually settled on Sea World, and proceeded to have a magical day!

Manta

She took the kids to see the manta rays while I Finally got to ride the Manta roller coaster! My last time at Sea World, that coaster was still being built! (Cue me feeling so very old…) It was a thrilling ride and I am so grateful I had the chance. I rode front row with some middle school girls, and for one of them, it was her first major roller coaster ever. She LOVED it. I got to watch the birth of another roller coaster fanatic!

Sea Lion and Otter Show, and So Many Dolphins

After a yummy lunch, we went to sit in the shade at the Sea Lion and Otter Comedy Show. It was charming, nice to relax, and we had some laughs. We followed this up with grabbing a massive funnel cake and attending the Dolphin’s show. Though the dolphins and trainers are immensely talented, it felt really short? Regardless, we had a good time, and it made us want to go see even more! We found the underwater viewing area and hung out there for ages. The kids were able to get some energy out, we had pleasant small talk with another mom, and we saw some baby/younger dolphins too! Dolphins are some of my favorite animals, so I could have just hung out there for hours. Alas, we still had one more destination I longed for, so we were off!

Antarctica

We made our way to Antarctica, a newer exhibit (attraction? Not sure how to categorize this area) that had several different enclosed spaces. The innermost area was kept at a freezing temperature and smelled of fish. That’s right-it was an open-air exhibit for penguins! We watched them swim, splash, waddle around, call to each other, and basically just be the precious and adorable wonders they are! I love penguins, probably just as much as dolphins. We could not linger here, sadly, as this is a popular space. They limit guests to just five minutes with the penguins, and the line is long enough as it is!

By the end of this, the kids were very exhausted. We therefore packed up and went home a little earlier. It was a magical day ❤️.

Rest of our Florida Stop

A bit more of what we’ve shared in the past-quality time with friends and family, great food, and beach days. We had a lovely time and enjoyed all of the little moments that make up a full life!

Major Milestone #3: Our first Cross-Country Road Trip! (BL ✅)

Our next stop after these visits with family was Arizona! One might argue our drives to and from Florida and Ohio count as cross-country trips. Nevertheless, we had still never gone further west than Texas as a family, and Frank and I had been dying for this for years.

Highlights Along the Way

Jackson, MS

We stayed in Jackson for the night on our journey, and are so thankful we did! Though our hotel wasn’t exactly great, we made our way into the city and ate dinner at a place called Hal and Mal’s. Their blackened catfish, oyster po-boys, and catfish nuggets blew us all away. Yet, even better than the food was the band! Live blues music filled our dining area and our eardrums, and our whole family got extremely into it! (Though we did sit far too close, and Victoria struggles with loud sounds, so, whoops. She was a very good sport though!) Dominic, in particular, was swaying and bobbing to the music and was adored by many of the surrounding patrons. This little man Loves dancing!

We attended Mass the next day at the Cathedral in Jackson, which was beautiful and filled with the loveliest people imaginable!

Dallas, TX

Our next pit stop was an inescapable meal in the Dallas region. I had been dreaming about Terry Black’s ever since our month in Nacogdoches allowed us the pleasure and privilege of visiting Dallas (for that tale, click here). We indulged in the same basic proportions of meats, and the brisket, beef rib, and pork ribs were just as amazing as we remembered. We changed up the sides and went without the desserts because it is just so much food. I, however, still had to have The Terry Black’s Blood Orange house frozen margarita. It pairs incredibly well with the meal.

I will always love you, Terry Black’s. Always ❤️.

Amarillo, TX

We spent the next day traversing the endless terrain that is Texas and finally arrived in Amarillo in the panhandle. As it was early enough, I looked up attractions in the area and was reminded of the roadside attraction that is Cadillac Ranch! (BL ✅) Though Frank was skeptical (and tired, poor guy), we loaded the kids back in the car and went and checked it out.

Cadillac Ranch is really neat! As it had rained recently, there was slight flooding and we didn’t get very close to the cars. We also didn’t add our own spray paint. Nonetheless, just checking them out for a little while was fun, and we enjoyed the spectacle!

We followed up our Cadillac Ranch escapade with another Route 66 roadside attraction-The Big Texan Steak Ranch. This was the most Texas thing we ever found in Texas, to be honest. Just an insane amount of beef was available and consumed here. This place even has one of those crazy challenges of eating a 72 oz steak in 60 minutes or less and it’s free. Those who attempted sat at a table on a raised platform so people could watch them try. The kids were kind of stretched to their limits by this point, and we didn’t know at the time what was ahead of us…

The Road Gets Rough

Victoria caught a stomach bug. It was not pretty. It made our drive through New Mexico quite unpleasant, not least of which for her. The poor thing was so miserable, and we had a rough few nights. That is all I’ll say about it; I only bring it up to shed light on how things aren’t always Instagram-worthy, and sometimes things don’t go according to plan.

BL ✅: U.S. National Park #2 – Petrified Forest National Park

Our final leg of the trip! Not long after we entered Arizona, and Victoria was feeling better, I begged Frank for (what I assumed would be) a quick stop off I-40 into Petrified Forest National Park. I have that bucket list dream of seeing all of America’s National Parks (and many around the world as well). With this park being so close, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to (hopefully) briefly check it out. Yes, spoiler-it was not brief, but it was worth it!

This is a far less flashy national park than the Grand Canyon or Yosemite or Yellowstone. However, the entire park could be traversed by car, so that’s what we did. We pulled off from time to time to enjoy the scenic vista points, and then I asked Frank to take us to Rainbow Forest in the park. 25 miles later, we finally arrived 😅. I asked for a stop along the way to take in and appreciate the beauty of the Painted Desert. I also just learned that the Painted Desert is not a small spot within this national park, but that the national park resides within the 7,500 square miles that is the Painted Desert! Who knew.

Rainbow Forest

This remote section of the park contains a fascinating trail with hundreds of specimens of petrified trees! The kaleidoscope of colors and sizes of stumps and logs were just really cool. Naturally, with Augustine still in the car (which we left running so he would have air, no worries), we could not linger for long. Still, I am very glad that we still got to experience as much as we did!

Arrival in Kingman, AZ

We finally made it! Aaaaaand-Frank caught Victoria’s stomach bug. And then I did. Dominic might have as well, but maybe he’s tougher than all of us. Frank was decimated by this thing and took a few days to recover, even though we were hoping it was just a 24 hour bug. I was somewhat spared compared to Frank. So, for the first time, I unloaded all of the bigger items off our car. It caused me to stop and no longer take for granted the amount of effort and work Frank puts in to get our vehicle ready for this lifestyle. Thank you, Frank ❤️.

Tune in for the next epic tale of the most exhilarating month exploring the northern half of Arizona!