"how's my little gypsy?" was the first sentence to come out of my mom's mouth when i answered her phone call a few days ago. she's called me this during quite a few spontaneous road trips i've been a part of...but i really felt like i earned the title this last week. ha, it has been a whirlwind of 3 states (california, arizona, new mexico) in five days. technically 6 states if you count driving through utah, nevada and colorado.

my sister, tessa, and i had vaguely talked about nicolaus and coming down this summer to help them with their move from arizona (where my brother in law, collin, was attending med school) to new mexico (where he's doing his residency). well last wednesday we figured out that last weekend would be the best time to help them move their stuff from california (where collin's family is from and where they've been staying the last few weeks), pick up their stuff in a storage unit in arizona then take it all to new mexico. confused yet? so was i for a few days while we were trying to figure out the most time/cost effective plan.

what ended up happening was last friday night nick and i drove to encinitas and hung out there with family and the beach and the sunshine until monday evening when nick, collin and i took off for arizona. we spent a few hours sleeping at a friend's house in phoenix before waking up bright and early to pack up a trailer and two trucks then head for new mexico. made it there just in time to meet their realtor and go house shopping. before managing to unpack everything into a new storage unit with about five minutes to spare before getting locked into that storage unit. slept another few hours that night at a friend's home (i don't think i've ever been so happy to see a shower/clean bed/home cooked food), before waking up bright and early to drop off the uhaul and make the trek back to provo. then we stopped in provo long enough to shower and change before heading up to salt lake to see camera obscura play...but that story's for another blog post :)

needless to say, it has been quite the adventurous week. loved yard saling/treasure finding in encinitas. loved being with little ones - i swear they doubled in size from last time i was there. loved seeing so much of this beautiful country. loved spending 24/7 with nicolaus. but i am excited to be home and not eat anymore jack in the box or taco bell for a good, long while and pull clothes out of my closet instead of a suitcase. at least until another spontaneous trip pops up :)