Troy’s mom and stepdad live in South Texas, which was really not at all on our route, but we detoured to visit them anyway. It had been almost a year and a half since we’d seen them, and who knows when we’ll get the chance to get down there again. It added a few hundred miles to our trip, but it was worth it. Visiting Tom and Carol is always a lot of fun, and our two-day visit made for a nice little break in the middle of a long week of driving.

One of Annalie’s two favorite things about visiting Grandma Carol and Grandpa Tom, aside from her grandparents themselves, is getting to drive around the RV park in a golf cart. This time she helped Troy by working the accelerator. She was very proud of herself for that, and Troy managed to avoid running into anything despite the fact that she didn’t always react very quickly when he told her to slow down.

Annalie’s other favorite thing is that we can go swimming every day in the park’s excellent heated pool. This time she was super excited to show Troy that she’d learned to swim without floaties while he was deployed. She doggy-paddled for approximately two seconds, hollered, “See how good I can swim, Daddy!?” then spent the rest of her time in the pool playing with a foam noodle.

Annalie also thought it was pretty cool that she had both her grandmas there at the same time. My mom was born in San Antonio and had family in Texas growing up, but other than a visit to Houston in the 1980s, she hadn’t been to Texas since she was a kid, and she’d never been that far south. She enjoyed getting to see the Rio Grande Valley for herself.

Annalie was on quite a drawing kick while we were there. She crayoned a really excellent snowman and a tall, tall giraffe (both of which I sadly neglected to photograph), as well as this lovely desert scene. On the one hand, I think this is brilliant for a 5-year-old. On the other hand, I find this hilariously similar to those drawings you see on TV that are supposed to have been done by a kid but clearly were done by an adult trying to make it look like a kid did it.

Walking in the RV park to go visit Aunt MaryAnn, I aimed the camera back over my shoulder without looking and somehow managed to get this great shot of Troy and Annalie.

At MaryAnn’s, Annalie was uncharacteristically grouchy and uninterested in the dogs. She curled up on this bench and pouted because we weren’t going swimming yet.

Then on the short walk back to Carol & Tom’s, Annalie actually fell asleep on Troy’s shoulder. A couple of late nights and an antihistamine (she had a sneezing-and-coughing cold) were too much for her tired self to resist. We laid her down in one of the bedrooms and let her take a 45-minute nap. She was much more cheerful when she woke up.

After a nap and devouring two pieces of pizza, Annalie got to do her two favorite things again, a golf-cart ride and swimming.

After we got back from swimming, Carol had Annalie pose for the traditional shed-step photo. She’s taken a picture of Annalie there each time we’ve visited them. The funny story behind this shot is that I told Annalie to show me a peace sign, and she looked confused for a second, then grabbed herself like she needed to find a toilet pronto. I cracked up and explained that I hadn’t said, pee sign but peace sign. She said, “Ohhh! That makes more sense.”

Carol and Annalie took my mom on a tour around the park in the golf cart, and at one point when they were by the pond Annalie got bitten by a fire ant. Here is is wearing her I-just-got-bitten-by-a-fire-ant-but-I’m-being-brave face. Luckily she was fine by the time they came home.

While my kid was being bitten by fire ants I was taking pictures of bluebirds with my 50mm lens and of myself with PhotoBooth.

I had twittered about this shirt (which I purchased here) and a couple of people asked to see it. The Orange Orange is the fake yogurt shop where Sarah Walker works at her cover job (and which hides the CIA secret base beneath it) on Chuck. I like this shirt because it’s a sort of sneaky Chuck reference. You probably wouldn’t get it unless you were a fan, so it’s like a secret handshake. Those are my favorite kinds of geeky references.

Annalie, explaining it all to me.

Oops, I forgot Annalie’s third favorite thing about visiting Carol & Tom: the dog park. MaryAnn takes her dogs there, and we sometimes go hang out with her and all the dogs and their owners. It was rather crazy the day we were there, with several very young dogs running and chasing and jumping and nipping at each other. I was very proud of Annalie, because even though she was a bit nervous of the jumping and nipping, she stuck it out and petted and played with the dogs who weren’t so nuts.

Annalie loved this cute little poodle. She was relatively calm and seemed to like kids. Also, her owner helped Annalie hold her, which put Annalie over the moon. And to top it off, the dog’s name was Sarah, which is Annalie’s favorite name these days.

This little puppy was running around with a loooong leash trailing from his collar, for some reason. He kept running around my legs, getting tangled up, and sitting down in defeat till I untangled him. I kind of wanted to find his owner and point out that the leash was going to cause someone to trip and break a leg sooner or later.

Our last evening there, we went to dinner at a steakhouse where you could grab a bag of peanuts from a big barrel, then eat them at your table and just brush the shells onto the floor. Annalie figured out that the ketchup bottle made a good peanut-shell smasher.

photo taken by Carol

Our time in South Texas was brief but well-spent. We were sad to go so soon, but it was time to head for D.C. so we could find a place to live. After we made a stop in Decatur, Alabama…

Speaking of finding a place to live, in case you’re wondering, the search is going well. I don’t want to talk about specifics until we actually have a place, but we saw a couple of good houses today and have filled out a few forms. Just waiting to hear back from owners, etc. We appreciate all the good wishes, prayers, and crossed fingers on our behalf!

We left San Diego Saturday night, after spending the day cleaning and running errands (thanks a million for the help, B!) and then a late dinner. We drove just across the California-Arizona border and stayed the night in Yuma. Sunday we drove across Arizona, the southern end of New Mexico (Land of Enchantment) and West Texas, so the view was similar to this for most of the day. At one point Annalie exclaimed, I’m so tired of seeing nothing but land…I wanna see BUILDINGS!”

Our intrepid driver. I always offer to drive anytime Troy gets tired or just sick of driving, but he does 98% of the driving on all road trips. He just likes to drive.

My mom and Annalie and a bunch of tchotchkes for sale at a gas station somewhere in Arizona.

Hola, Señor Saguaro!

Annalie’s portrait of Señor Saguaro.

She used her new colored pencils to draw the cactus in her new moleskine, both of which were part of a very cool art kit that Sonja made as a going-away road-trip present. I made Annalie wait till the trip to use the kit, and she was so excited when she finally got to use it.

Mountains in New Mexico.

Sunset reflected in the rearview mirror and on the side of the minivan.

Road trips are often a blur.

After I twittered about losing the coffee-cup sleeve that I purchased from BeachMama a few years ago, Sonja and CC both gave me new cup sleeves. As you can see, they work perfectly. Thanks, amigas! (I turned the one on the right inside-out so it would be less-girly for Troy.)

Texas morning.

Troy got in the backseat for some reason or other at a gas station and said, “I guess Gramaw’s driving now!” Annalie thought that was hilarious.

This photo sums up the whole road trip so far. (No, not really…but it’s funny.)

Troy doesn’t get many chances to be lazy and let his beard grow, so he takes ‘em when he gets ‘em.

My girl. I love this photo.

As Troy drives, my mom reads and Annalie colors or writes in her workbooks, or they watch DVDs together (so far this trip we’ve been alternating between Avatar: The Last Airbender and Dr. Who). I’ve mostly been crocheting. This is only a sample of what I’ve made so far; in total I’ve made two potholders, four headbands, and half an Easter basket.

Katy is often out of her carrier as we drive. Lily tends to just curl up in her carrier and stay there till we stop moving.

We made it to Troy’s mom and stepdad’s house last night. We’ll spend a couple of days here visiting, and then we’ll hit the road again.