Day 4. We woke up in Holbrook, AZ on day 4 and Jordan went for a sunrise shot at Petrified Forest NP by himself. The kids were still asleep when he left so I was hopeful for a couple of more hours myself! About 10 minutes after he left, I felt an eerie presence behind me followed by a “hi momma!”. Jackson was awake and that meant Emmy was awake too. Hotel rooms are not baby proof but they are small enough and simple enough that there aren’t a ton of things they could get in to. Even so, keeping a one year old and two year old in the hotel room for a few hours at a time can make everyone a little crazy.
After the full day of driving yesterday, the kids were really over being in their carseats. We only had 3.5 hours to drive and we broke it up with a stop for lunch. We also ended up having to eat out because this awesome little fridge we’ve borrowed from my parents (who bought this thing 15+ years ago) can, apparently, also serve as a food warmer. I’m talking super warm. We woke up to melted cheese and ruined lunch meat. While it was disappointing that all the cold groceries we had just stocked up on were now ruined, it was neat to find out that simple turn of the plug and it can be a fridge or a warmer. It works great as both 🙂 So, if you have the opportunity, look for a mini fridge to take with you. I prefer the fridge over the ice chest because everything gets wet in an ice chest. The mistake happened when we brought the fridge into the hotel for the night. We have to bring it in because we found out the hard way on night 1 that it will kill the car battery if left plugged in all night. So we carry it into the hotel and plug it in there (it has both a 110 and a 12v) and we were plugging it in in the dark because the kids were already down. We lined up the red marks instead of the blue marks and we discovered the next morning that that made it warmer. So, after lunch, we made another quick grocery run! All about flexibility… 🙂
It rained all day so we really were in the car most of the day again, but not as early and not as late. We drove through Petrified Forest NP and then on to Monument Valley. It was so cloudy and rainy that by the time we got to Monument Valley, we couldn’t see any of the landscape except for what was right next to our hotel.
It was Valentine’s Day and the restaurant at the hotel had a Valentine’s Day special. We sacrificed a high chair for a seat by the window with a “view” but the view was covered by clouds. If you know Emmy, you know that meal was a struggle with no high chair for little miss squirmy worm. We ended up being able to use a booster in the booth and Jordan used his belt to try to strap her in. She was definitely strapped TO the booster seat but there was nothing keeping the booster seat and Emmy down on the bench. We ate supper there and then got into the room for an early night.
The kids are really getting used to falling asleep with everyone in the same room and we aren’t having to have things as dark or as quiet as we did at the beginning of the trip. We always try to fit the pack n play either in the bathroom or in the closet area. Most rooms don’t have a large enough bathroom or an actual closet, though. But there is usually at least a small wall that separates her from the rest of the room which helps with distractions while she’s trying to go to sleep.
Live Moore Fully 