Day Fourteen

For the first time in our trip today I really felt today like we had gotten somewhere. It felt like all of the environments we'd been in (city, rural, mountainous, etc.) were not anything new to us, they all were familiar settings in that mountains typically look like mountains, cities are cities, and farms and farms. Entering Arizona was breathtaking and like nothing any of us had ever seen. As Josh will attest to, I am a difficult person to impress. Often he and others will be impressed with things that I really shrug off and pay no attention to. The views coming into Arizona were unlike anything I have ever seen and while I was driving so I couldn't put 100% of my eyes on the sights, what I witnessed was remarkable. (Photos below). Unlike so much of our trip, I can really understand the beauty in living in a place like this, and I was in awe at the scenic views. 

We left Albuquerque and the drive to Flagstaff, Arizona was about 5 hours, which I drove all of. Josh and I tend to go into a drive of this length planning to split the drive, but it seems once one of our starts the drive we usually finish the trip. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch, none of us had ever been there before and it was delicious! The boys probably had their best behavior in a restaurant so far this trip, and it was overall an enjoyable experience. We treated them to candy from the candy shop attached to the restaurant before we got back on the road. Teddy napped briefly after lunch, was woken up by Henry's absurdly loud voice that he has no ability to control while wearing headphones (still) and they were very silly and playful for the remainder of the drive. We checked into the hotel, relaxed a little, swam, had dinner at the pool, and the boys are watching a dinosaur movie that they love before bed. Arizona apparently doesn't participate in daylight savings (this makes me love AZ even more than I did just solely based on how beautiful it is, because wtf is daylight savings purpose anyway?) so we're now 3 hour time change from New England, which explains why it's 6:30pm and the boys can barely keep their eyes open. 

I think days like yesterday, when you feel really challenged and defeated, as exhausting and demoralizing as they are, are really an important part of life and having any experience. When you feel like you're not doing anything right and have nothing left to give, there really is only one way to go, and that's up. Today felt like we went up. It was much better for everyone. Better attitudes from all of us, more energy, and more patience. I'm sure there's a million cliche phrases about this type of changes in feelings and I'm too lazy to give much more thought into this mentality right now, but lows are an important part of living. When you're in the low, of course, it's probably not an idea that's easy to be receptive to, but when you can reflect on the lows it's easier to see their importance and their purpose. 

It's crazy to think that right now we are at an elevation of just under 7000 feet. Mount Washington has the highest elevation in New Hampshire and it's 6200 feet. It's strange to think that we did not do any hiking/climbing, just driving and no seemingly steep roads, and are higher than the highest point in NH. 

For more fun facts, stay tuned! Kidding. I almost forgot- we saw our first road sign for Los Angeles today which was really exciting for us to see! Goodnight!