So ready to hear about Part 2 of our vacation over the 4th of July? (See Part 1 first.) Part 2 actually consisted mostly of driving. After celebrating the family reunion in Show Low, we woke up the next day and drove and drove and drove towards our destination of Roswell, New Mexico, where our hotel was. We were all very excited to visit Roswell, the town of legendary UFO fame, because it just so happens that the weekend we were there was same weekend as the international UFO festival. Wow.

Brenn, Shelby, Jennie, and Cole had spent most of the weekend writing “we come in peace” and “aliens welcome” on the side of the van and planning out alien costumes to mingle with the alien fanatics. And we watched Contact the night before to prepare for any alien encounters (we were going to watch Signs, but Paige’s mom doesn’t like scary movies. And it turns out that Contact, which is good but not quite as gripping, put everyone but us to sleep.) But we were really glad we watched Contact, because when we were driving the next day, guess what we just happened to drive by? Yep, the Very Large Array in New Mexico, featured on the movie as a tool to hear extra-terrestrial signals. (Wouldn’t it be cool if everything had a name as fitting as the VLA?)

We got to stop, take pictures, and walk around, and it was pretty cool.

When we did roll into Roswell that night, it turned out most of the alien festivities were over, but we did enjoy seeing tons of alien and UFO paraphernalia throughout the town. All the siblings bought UFO t-shirts the next morning on our way out.

So after another day of travel, we arrived back at Dallas and said goodbye to the Ellsworths. All in all, a way fun (though pretty quirky) family vacation.