New Mexico & Arizona

Having never been to these two states before we weren’t exactly sure what to expect. (Michelle had been to AZ  previously traveling thru to Mexico for a mission’s trip.) Obviously we knew that these were arid states but I have to be honest  I was not expecting so much brown especially in Arizona – not a blade of grass to be seen anywhere unless there was irrigation present. WOW! SO back to New Mexico which we traveled through first – what beautiful mountain scenery not to mention Palm Trees growing everywhere even alongside the highway. Here is a picture that we took at a rest area – Hannah did not want to be photographed.

Once in Arizona we stayed in Casa Grande & the kids had a great time swimming in the outdoor pool. Thursday morning we dropped off the horses in Buckeye & then headed back to Maricopa for the big pick up of 6 pygmy goats, 4 boer goats, 36+ sheep, one donkey & 3 miniature horses. It took just over an hour to load & boy were we hot. Here are the pics of the animals in the trailer. I was concerned they would not all fit in but in fact ALL of them had plenty of room – it may look a little squashed but you have to remember that I was in there taking the pics so they moved away from me.

Here are the pygmies:

LOL! Pygmy bucks have not evolved over time. Michelle raised them for several years & those boars never give up with the girls – always snorting & curling their lips – hilarious to watch & they sure stink! The boer buck was terrified of me as you can see in this pic – desperately trying to hide:

The sheep were hair sheep meaning that they do not have to be sheared. They shed like a dog. There were a variety of ages in this group:

Here you can see the newest edition standing beside its mama:

Last but not least the three minis & donkey:

Once we had finished loading we were HOT & TIRED! We drove just a few miles before finding a gas station & a much needed bathroom! LOL! This was where we saw this very tall cactus. You can see that it was taller than a house.

Here we picked up some ice cream treats too to cool us all down. Of course Caleb was not going to be left out & so we got him an Ice Cream Cookie – oh boy what a mess! BUT he was happy 🙂 That night we headed to Las Cruces, NM & from there we headed up through Alamogordo & Roswell, NM the next day. We did not get as far as I wanted that day as we took a detour to the New Mexico Space Museum for a couple hours (more on that in the next post) & then the kids wanted to swim so we ended up stopping in Amarillo, TX.

That meant that we had to have a very early start on Saturday morning with 800 miles to do! Yikes! Way too many SO Richard agreed to meet us in Springfield allowing us to go home. We were still were on the road by 7:30am.  We met Richard about 5pm & he continued on to do the delivery. He did not get home until nearly 11pm – SO glad he was able to do it for me. It meant that we could be home together on Sunday & have time to relax 🙂

More coming up next,

Liz