Finally in CA!

Okay, so we finally made it to California. We left on Sunday morning and drove to Scottsdale, AZ to visit Joe & Debbie. Such a long drive! Let's just say that the U.S. has lots of mountains, and way more desert than I ever realized. TX desert. New Mexico desert. Arizona desert. California desert. aaaggghhh!!! California tries to trick new visitors, by putting palm trees and a little lake, even with a small beach, right at its border. They even have a small green patch of astroturf off to the side. But just when you think you've made it through all the desert, the facade ends, and it's desert once again.
Megan and Matthew were so good in the car. It is fun for me to listen to their conversations, jokes, and even sometimes their arguments. It was funny to me that for a long part of the drive, they wanted to listen to music, instead of watching movies or playing games. (Well Matthew played games while listening to music.) Their favorite CD's are "High School Musical" and a CD that John burned for them of a bunch of popluar songs. Matthew was singing "California Man", and was so cute that I wish I had my video camera. Megan is developing a beautiful singing voice, and knows almost all the words to the "High School Musical" soundtrack. (Which, as I found out, is a Disney movie that just came out on DVD last week. It's evidently all the rage among older elementary/middle school kids.)
The kids were really excited to play with Christopher, even though it was for a short time. We woke up this morning, ate breakfast, then the kids went for a quick swim. We finally left at about 12:30 AZ time. At 8:30 CA time (same time zone), we made it to Andrea, Simon, and Sarah's house. Sarah is an adorable baby. Dark hair, dark eyes, and a beautiful dark compexion. And so sweet! Simon and Andrea are having lots of fun with her. I will be taking lots of pictures, and will upload them and post them when I get home. (Since I've gotten a complaint that there aren't enough pictures on this blog.) (Michael.)
It's 11:30 here, but 1:30 a.m. in my world, so I'm going to stop now and go to sleep. I'll try to log on tomorrow and write about all we've done!