We're here! And books.

First off, we arrived in Colorado yesterday and although the kids were seriously amazing the entire three days of driving, we were all super happy to be done with that, as I'm sure you can imagine. I have now resided on the East coast twice and both times we drove back this way, I was so happy and relieved to arrive in Missouri, then Kansas, where the sky is huge and you can see for miles. The solid walls of trees in the South make me feel closed in after awhile. I much prefer the openness of the midwest. I don't think I realized how much I missed Colorado until we got back!

This barn was somewhere in Kansas near a rest stop. I thought it was pretty.

Since the kids were so good in the car, I had time to read an entire book (!!) during those three days. It was The Maze Runner and it was GOOD! Seriously, I don't think I've been that riveted since The Hunger Games. I tried to get into Divergent, but quit 3/4 of the way through the second book. Way too much teen angst for me, not nearly enough plot. But, anyway, I wanted to read The Maze Runner because there's a movie coming out and I like to read the books first. I whizzed through it and Casey went to grabbed the other two books in the series for me. If you liked The Hunger Games, you'll love this series. I can't wait for Casey to read them, but he's still wading through Divergent (we agree that Tris is way too much of a girl, ha!)

While he was out looking for those books, he spotted this book and had to get it for me. I am a huuuuge Veronica Mars fan, it's my fave show ever. Not surprising, as Nancy Drew was my first read-all-day experience as a kid and I am just a born mystery lover. You can now watch all three seasons of Veronica Mars on Amazon Prime and you can rent the new movie on iTunes. But now, there's a book! I super hope this becomes a series and does not stop at one book!
I think I need this fan art, found here:

OOOOH, or this mug:

Ha, or these, but as magnets!

Okay, okay, I'll stop. Etsy sucks me in. It's the best place for cult followings ;)

I've been reading a couple things out loud to the kids too. We are really loving The Gospel Story Bible. I cannot recommend it enough. The illustrations are beautiful, the stories are well written and they always point to Christ, showing kids the thread of Jesus being woven through the Old Testament.

Also, I picked up a copy of Wayside School is Falling Down at a thrift store recently. I remember reading it when I was a kid and liking it. It is so funny. We laugh and laugh with every chapter. I'll definitely be ordering the rest of the series, they're so inexpensive. Did you realize they're by Lois Sachar, author of Holes?

I've also been reading Michiner's Hawaii. Its 2000 pages and I'm over halfway. I took a break for the trip--it's pretty hefty reading when you're a weary traveler, haha. But I read Chesapeake before moving to Virginia and he has such a way of bringing the history of a place to life, so I wanted to read Hawaii before moving there since I realized I knew nothing of it's past. It's surprising how little we learned in school about the history of our 50th state! There is a movie made from this book from many years ago. I was told it's not a great movie, but Julie Andrews in these stills sure is beautiful:

I heart Julie Andrews so much!

I'll leave it there for today. Happy Monday! Please share any good book recommendations! I love fiction, but good fiction these days is hard to find. Maybe I'm a little picky, I dunno ;)