Our Texas Vacation Part 1

Madison turned 4 months old on Sunday. She celebrated by entering her 5th state, Texas. (In order: Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas.)

We left Gillette for Odessa on Saturday morning and traveled to Raton, NM for our first stop of the trip. This was Madi's first hotel stay. Here she is in the hotel's crib...note to self: bring in the pack-n-play from the car next time, the crib mattress was harder than the floor and way too short for the crib. After adding a blanket to the mattress, Madi was a little more comfortable and slept pretty easily.


We did go swimming in the hotel pool, and Madi was much more comfortable in the pool than her first experience in Gillette.

We hit the road again early Sunday morning and made it the rest of the way to Great-Gram Marie's house in Odessa. Madi was so very excited to be out of her car seat! We put her in her jump-a-roo after we unpacked, and she nearly jumped out of it she was so excited. I am glad that we will be here for two weeks before we have to put her back in the car for another two days.

This week we have been packing up Gram's house to move her things to Gillette where she is living with Brandon's parents. We have been busy packing and have already made a big dent in the packing process.

In between packing, Madison has had a few new experiences. She had her hair done in a pigtail for the first time Tuesday. My sister and I always called this hairstyle the "bam-bam". I think it was really Pebble's hair style from the Flintson's cartoons.

We have also added some vegetables to Madison's diet. She had some carrots for the first time yesterday. She had a taste Tuesday afternoon and more for dinner. She seems to like them and did a nice job of eating them. She is getting this eating thing down.

It sure is a lot warmer here than it has been in Gillette. Most days have been over 100 degrees so far. The heat really takes it out of Madi, and she has been taking awesome afternoon naps. The down side is that she wants to be up and visiting with us in the evening when it starts to cool off a little. She has really been an awesome little traveler this week.

To help beat the heat, we decided to all go in on a pool. Brandon worked all day to get the pool set up and we couldn't wait to get wet this evening. Madi was actually smiling this time in the pool and we were able to get some better pool pictures.



I am glad that I am finally able to meet and get to know Brandon's extended family. It is sure nice to put some names with faces. I have met most everyone already, with just a few more cousins left to meet. Here is Madi with her cousin Briley, she is the closest in age to Madi at a year and a half old.

I am sure that Madi is missing her grandparents who are still at home in Gillette. I will try and post pretty frequently while we are in Texas so that her Grammy Tammi, Grampa Bruce and Grandad Rick can feel included. Our internet was connected this afternoon and so I was finally able to write a post.