Next Stop: Houston TX

What a nice break Houston has been from the cold! We got in at 3:30am Sat. Traveling with a sleeping one year old is so worth the late hours! We've been enjoying time with Mark and Monica and Reagan. It's been in the 60's and with the light humidity it feels like spring! Mike is working on the back yard fence that collapsed from the hurricane last fall. All over the neighborhood you can see new and old fence boards as almost everyone had some damage. Right now M&M and their backyard neighbors have one large combined backyard. The neighbors have a large bird aviary and the kids enjoy watching the parakeets. I had both kids at Home Depot and must have had 5 people ask if they were twins. What fun to have cousin time together. That's something that I really miss in our long distance family.

Wednesday all of us are headed to Corpus Christy for some fun in the sun. Padre Island is only an hour from there so we might have to fit that in. I guess Padre has the Caribbean like beaches. hmm I think that's worth another hour. =) Monica was able to get an apt for Charlize before our insurance ran out so she's working on four shots today. She's pretty fussy but this is a great place to deal with it rather than a traveling day.

Our main accomplishment of the week: Charlize taught Reagan to walk. He definately thrives on the encouragement and is very wobbly but aren't we all with something new. =)

Next Stop: Rapid City, SD

Friday night we made the drive between Gelndive and Rapid City. This was by far the worst weather we have had traveling. It wasn't too bad though. I have learned that when it's freezing out side you need to bring the baby wipes into the truck. They don't work well when they are frozen solid! What barren open country though. Not many stops along the way. We tried to buy dinner and they didn't even take credit cards but she was sweet and took my out of state check.

Rapid City was gorgeous! The black hills are beautiful with all the pine trees and rocky hills around every bend. Sat we took as a vacation day and visited Mt. Rushmore. It was snowing pretty good so we didn't stay out long but there's quite an exibit indoors as well. The presidents faces are 60 feet tall and origionally the plan was to do complete busts but the master sculpter died shortly after the faces were complete. He was the highest paid person on the project at $1.50 per hour!

We knew very quickly that we want to look into this area more closely so we didn't spend a lot of time there now. Our plan is to spend a few days here at my parents in Lincoln, NE and finish removing a wall from their living room. Then we'll leave Charlize here and go to Rapid City just the two of us so we can look into things a little closer.

We're also thinking of fitting a trip to Texas to see Mark and Monica. Friday is Marks last day at Voss and so he'll have a few weeks off before starting a new one. We'd like to go see Corpus Christi with them. I'm so ready for some warmer weather! This job change is Mark's decision and has come with much prayer. We're excited to see what God has in store. Kinda funny that all three of us girl's husbands have changed jobs this year. =)

Thanks to everyone who's been writing...we miss you all a lot!

Next Stop: Glendive Mt

Grrrr....I just typed a ton and the computer erased it all. Ahhhhh! Okay second try. finishing up Idaho Falls.....Sunday we went to church and increased attendance by 30%. There were a total of 10 people there and thus no nursery. They were so gracious about Charlize who made it about half way through. On a side note....anyone who's ever sat in front of Mike in church....the hyms were led by someone with twice the country twang of my husband. It was great!! They were such a kind group of people and was so refreshing to be in Christian fellowship. The whole church took us out to lunch and were so helpful in telling us about the area.

By 1pm we were on the road and drove North and crossed the ENTIRE state of Montana. What a gorgeous state. Mike and I mused that maybe God was practicing for heaven when He made Montana. We saw the sun setting as we gazed across the Big Sky state with amazing mountains, free range cattle and rarely any houses or any kind of developement. 1am we pulled into Glendive, slept in a truck lot and ran into our friend Bryan at breakfast. It was a good thing because our phone doesn't work here and we didn't know where he lived. We've really been enjoying staying at Bryan and Annas for frienship, good food and lots of laughs. The roads are still snow closed in ND so it'll be another day or so until we hit the road.

Next Stop: Idaho Falls, Idaho

With news of a snow storm coming in we hit the road and didn't stop till we got to Idaho. We put in 12 hours on the road yesterday. Traveling while Charlize sleeps is always easier and it was a gorgeous drive. The road between Fort Collins and Laramie is so beautiful. We saw huge slanted rock formations that you could tell used to be flat and had at one point been removed from the surface whether by flood or earth quake. Later than night most of Utah and Idaho we traveled roads with snow covered mountains towering on both sides of the road. Under complete cloud cover the moonlight still shone bright, illuminating the deepest of snow filled crevaces while the rocky surfaces hid in plain sight. We pulled into a truck stop around 11pm. and spent the night. Charlize woke up as we moved her to the trailer. She had already had 5 hours so to her it was morning. Ahhhh. We finally convinced her to go to bed at 1:30. I was so exhausted!

In between Ft Collins and Laramie

Hmmm, I would love to have seen how this happened . . .

Our Little Traveler
Idaho Falls, ID



A little fun at the town museum

Next Stop: Fort Collins, CO

Notice anything wierd about the above pic?

Downtown Fort Collins

Yay! We finally have some fun hair!
Enjoying the 60 degree weather on the biggest play ground I've ever seen!

What a nice break the last two days were. We traveled south only an hour and found 60 weather in Fort Collins. What a beautiful little town. Home of Colorado State University there are lots of familiar venues and yet it has a home town feel, quaint down town and beautiful view of the foothills of the rockies.