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.

This is when the whole moving-across-the-country thing gets easier, once the movers are here and have packed up most of our belongings. We’ve already organized and sorted and done laundry and figured out what we need to take with us on our road trip and set that all aside. Once the movers take everything else with them, it’s not our responsibility any more. Now we just have to drive, find pet-friendly hotels with pools to stay at, visit some family and friends along the way, and find a place to live once we get there, preferably before Troy has to start his new job. Piece of cake. (Ha.)

The house is full of boxes, stacks and stacks of them. The movers left our beds up so we could stay here tonight. Tomorrow we’ll do a last load of laundry to wash the sheets and towels we’re using, and then those will all get packed and loaded onto the truck with everything else.

Our dear friends the Jays are moving to Japan next week. What with one thing and another, we hadn’t seen them in months. We barely managed to see them at all before we all left California. From the time Troy got home till now, we were pretty much busy every day they were free and vice-versa. But they managed to carve out a couple of hours between meetings and appointments and entertaining out-of-town visitors to come have lunch with us today, and we’re so very glad they did. Seeing them is always wonderful, even when months or years have gone by in between times, which makes perfect sense because they’re framily.

Framily is D’s fabulous word for friends who are such great friends that they’re like family. Except framily is better, because there’s no baggage, no drama or getting mad if you can’t make it to Thanksgiving dinner. There’s just, “Too bad, hope you can make it next time!” Everyone should have framily like the Jays.

We had a great crew of guys packing us out today. They were all efficient, professional, friendly, and courteous. We always bribe our movers to handle our stuff with care show our appreciation to our movers by supplying them with drinks and food throughout the day. Usually we have coffee, bottled water, and soda on hand as well as offering to buy them pizza or some other takeout for lunch. This morning I was going to make a Starbucks run, and went around the house asking each of the guys if I could bring them back a coffee. One guy asked for black coffee, another said decaf with cream would be great. And the biggest, burliest, tattooed-est guy asked if I could get him a grande iced caramel macchiato. That totally made my day.

Tomorrow they’ll load up the truck. Our car will get picked up so it can get shipped across the country. We’ll clean and take care of some odds and ends, maybe go see a movie if we have time, eat dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants. Saturday the carpet will be cleaned, we’ll meet with our landlords, and then we’ll head east. Good thing we’re planning to visit family in Texas for a couple of days along the way; that’ll give the snow more time to melt before we get to D.C.