The move to Texas wasn't nearly as difficult of a drive as I had anticipated.  We rented a 16 foot Penske truck, loaded it, and hit the road.  We left Bakersfield with a tear in our eyes (some of us more than one tear) on Tuesday afternoon.  Our destination for the first day was Flagstaff, AZ.  I took Patrick in the truck with me and Elena went with Alison in the packed car.  Equipped with iPads and activity books the kids were occupied pretty much the entire first day.  We arrived in Flagstaff in the evening, had some dinner, and checked in to our hotel.  We felt the frigid air that night and quickly unloaded the kids and suitcases to get some rest.  The next morning, what seemed to be cold the night before was nothing compared to the 3 degree weather we felt.  After showering and getting ready mentally to take on 12 hours of driving we opened our hotel room door and watched as a cloud formed from our doorway as the heat released from our room.  Alison went out and quickly came back in only to find that her glasses all but froze over, limiting her visibility.  We bundled up, loaded the car, had some breakfast and hit the very bright, very white road East.

Patrick started right off asking how long we had until we were in Texas and I tried to explain to him it would be all day that day driving and most of the day the following day.  He continued to ask me why we couldn't just drive to Grandpa Suess' house that night, thinking it was just easier to drive through the night.  I tried to explain to him that it was dangerous for me to drive 17 hours straight, he said he could take a nap and I could do it.  Needless to say we drove all day through the frozen freeway of the I-40 until we reached our second and last hotel in Amarillo, TX.  Though it was a little cold, it was nothing compared to what we had felt that morning in Flagstaff.

The next morning we woke up, prepared, packed and headed downstairs for our continental breakfast.  There wasn't much of a selection but the fresh made waffles in the shape of Texas put a smile on our faces.  Elena had a bit of a cold so we stopped at Wal-Mart for some medicine and while we were there we decided to buy the kids snow boots.  The small gesture of the snow boots kept the kids happy as we traveled across the state and finally made it to my parent's house.  We know it's a big change for our families and we will miss our friends, but we honestly believe this will be the best for us.