Headed West!

-->

I made the trip to Little Rock again on Wednesday to fight House Bill 1395 (which pushes for three “care advocates” in a school, and rules out the need for real nurses, with degrees in caring for our kiddos).  I went alone, but I felt it was worth trying.  Again, it didn’t get presented by Senator Elliot-I swear she waited until Friday when there weren’t any of us there to speak against it (I didn’t go again Friday when it would be continued).  If we’d been there on Friday..I feel pretty sure she wouldn’t have presented it.  If I had it to do again, I’d skip signing in, so she wouldn’t know I was there, ha!  The chairperson asks if anyone in the audience wants to speak anyway! : )

So, Friday..it passed the Senate Education Committee.  It now moves on to the Senate.  It’s already passed the House, so it’s a bigger deal!  I’m drafting letters to send to ALL of the Arkansas Senators now.  You can see the first draft here. ; )

The reason I couldn’t go back ..is because we left town Friday to head west for Spring Break.  In search of gold, haha!  Just kidding.  We traveled interstate 40, and we are still moving..day 4.  Friday we stayed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-only about 3.5 hours of driving.  Two nights ago, we stayed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  It was a long day-maybe 8 hours on the road..but including bathroom breaks and meals..it takes us ALL day!

Yesterday we were in desert-y area and going through Gallup, New Mexico, and up to Four Corners (Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico)!  We played around and took pictures, and found lots of unusual rocks on the west side: green, powdery-fall-apart-rocks, lots of quartz and granite, sandstone, the kids had so much fun.  I was worried they’d slide down the hills of crumbly rocks.

This one is called The Mitten.

Right-handed Mitten. ; )

It's soo windy up at the top (the lookout by the gift shop and restaurant!)

Merrick Butte

Elephant : )

Three Sisters (Catholic nun looking to two students on right)

He's gotta learn sometime.

Then we drove to Monument Valley, Utah.  We got there before sunset, so we got amazing light on the monuments! : )  The kids kept wanting to get out as we drove through the red, sandy dirt roads inside the park.  Carter and Ethan wanted to run their hands through the silty, fine sand.  Clay was into the red bedrock.  It is so beautiful there.

As the sun disappeared over the horizon, we went back up to the front and had dinner in the restaurant and checked out the gift shop.  We stayed in a little city south of there, Kayenta, back on the Arizona side.

Today, we are driving through Upper Antelope Canyon, taking a tour down into the canyon, and then west to Zion National Park.  It is back on the Utah side, so we’ll cross back over again.  We keep driving by wild mustangs grazing along the roads.  No fences to contain them.  There are signs warning to watch out for them crossing. ; )  SUCH beautiful country!