To SLC by car

So Saturday morning we began the very long trek from DFW to SLC. We opted to take the more scenic route, travelling through New Mexico, a bit of Southwestern Colorado and Southern Utah as opposed to the faster route through Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Northern Utah as claimed by Google. From reading my blog, surely you must know that Oliver is not, let me repeat NOT, a car sleeper. We had high hopes that the long drive would be tiring enough that he would drift right off, but it didn't work. Luckily, Oliver was very entertained by the trucks, tractors, cars and transportation vehicle galore. Daddy purchased a new Disney Cars car for Oliver at the first truck stop and Oliver played with it almost the entire ride there. Mommy & Daddy took turns sitting in the back with Oliver and provided entertainment so we didn't really need the portable DVD player; he didn't even watch one entire movie. Surprisingly, he made it the entire trip without one meltdown. Sure, there was a little whining as he became really tired towards the end of both days, but no tears so we couldn't have been more thrilled.

We hoped to travel to Gallup, NM our first night, but only made it to Albuquerque instead. We stayed at a little hotel I used Google to find with good reviews and even though it was old, it was clean and suited us just fine. Another big surprise was that Oliver gave us absolutely no guff about the sleeping situation. He laid down beside me in our queen bed and Daddy in his and went fast asleep. He woke once during the night with a start, but was easily settled down and went back to sleep. At 6:00 am, as soon as the first ray of sun shined through the curtains, a sleeping Daddy and Mommy awoke to the cutest words ever: "the sun is shining, it's morning!" How could we resist that??? So Daddy and Oliver played a little while Mommy got ready and then we were off for our second days drive. We made it to Sandy around 8:45pm on Sunday. Oliver was incredibly excited to see his grandparents and played with them outside while I got his things unpacked and the room he would be staying in settled.

Here are some pictures from our drive:

Oliver was our navigator

We saw lots of dry mountains and bushes

There were lots of cheesy grins

lots of playing with cars

lots of trains

and lots of seat belt wearing, even Oliver's cars had to stay safe! :)

We are very proud of Oliver and how he did on this trip. The drive is LONG, but all in all my verdict is that it is not too bad and we will probably do it again.