I hope they let you back in the country

We have an ongoing joke with my little sister Danielle...When she was younger, and when I say younger I really mean 19 or 20, we had a friend from New Mexico that was pretty much part of our family. She lived in Utah for several years and would come to family weekends or holidays with us cuz her family was far away in New Mexico. One year, our friend got to go home for Christmas. Danielle was saying her farewells and said as seriously as could be, "I hope they let you back in the country!" Yes, it's true, Danielle did not know that New Mexico was part of the USA and not Mexico! haha. 5 years later, Danielle and her family have moved to New Mexico, so we consistently let her know that we hope they let her back in the country! I told her that I brought my passport to come visit her, just in case!

New Mexico has been a fun trip! The fist night here, the small town of Tucamcari, where she lives, had free bowling and pizza at the local bowling alley. I thought for sure that the place would be crowded, but there was maybe 20-30 people. I'm used to small towns since I've lived in Nephi most my life, but this place is tiny!! It reminds me of Radiator Springs from the movie Cars. It's even along route 66!

Dakota was so independent that she would carry the ball up herself, even if it was too heavy for her. She would just chug along while making a little grunting sound. It was so cute!

The second day we went to a neighboring town, smaller than the one Danielle lives in, and went swimming in a lake. This is the coolest lake ever! It is fairly small and has a diving board and slide going into it!

Being as white as I am, I had Danielle spray sunscreen on me. She got it in my eye! ;(

Austin was such a good sport! The water was a bit frigid but he never cried. He loved playing in the mud!

Owen and Dakota loved being around water! They would've stayed longer if we had let them!

After the lake, we came home and showered! We were pretty murky! Danielle made meatloaf and vegetables for dinner, and I made rolls from scratch for the first time! They were surprisingly good!! And then I was asleep in bed by 9 PM. These kids tire me!!

Sunday we went to church at the small branch in town. A lady there said the funniest thing! We were talking about the story in the Bible about the rich man asking the Lord what he needed to do to enter the kingdom of heaven. The Lord told him to sell all he has. The moral of the story is to not put riches above the Lord but this lady behind us said, "There once was a man who was very wealthy and told his wife that when he dies he wants all his money buried with him in his casket. So the wife wrote a check and put it in the casket!" hahaha I thought that was so funny!!

I also watched the kids play with their church toys during sacrament meeting. You know you're intelligent when even the kids' toys confuse you. I was watching Dakota put the wood letters into the carved out spaces for each letter, and I looked at Danielle and asked, "why are there 2 M's?" She looked at me with her "you must be kidding mom look" and said, "1 is a W." hahahaha

After church, we went on a walk and then came back and sat on the porch, ate popsicles, and played with sidewalk chalk!

Owen tried rub all his chalk hands on me!

I have 1 1/2 more days in Tucamcari but am going to start a whole new post to document them! I don't like the way blogspot places the pictures so it's a pain to try to add pictures on chronologically!!! stay tuned!!