Thanksgiving, Christmas Trees, and 38 Weeks Pregnant

Thanksgiving was lots of fun! Nick got to play football with the guys from church. I got to cook Thanksgiving for two: turkey breast, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, biscuits, cherry pie (for me), apple pie (for Nick), and pumpkin pie (just because). Sadly I forgot the sweet potatoes. We are very greatful for the wonderful meal we had and for the time we got to spend together!



The Saturday after Thanksgiving we decided to go Christmas tree hunting at a local nursery and we found these guys looking big and handsome!

We found a Christmas tree too! Nick and I both think it looks as though we could have gone out in the woods and chopped it down...that's why we like it :)

And here I am at 38 weeks! Thank goodness you can't see my ankles, lol!

Oh the Places We'll Go...and end up!

We both woke up this morning with one thought: our LAST day! Whew! On one hand it was a long drive and on the other it went by way too fast! We were excited to get started, so after our continental breakfast, we got on the road. We didn't have far to go before we passed into Idaho, with that came Pacific Time. We are now 4 hours behind the east coast! We were only in Idaho for about an hour and a half, passing through Coeur d'Alene and into Washington!!! We had quite a few hours ahead of us once in Washington. We stopped for lunch at a Burger King and we actually sat inside the restaurant! The dogs had been on our little walk at the Columbia River so we decided they would survive in the car for a few minutes while we ate. We continued on our way and arrived at our destination around 4:30pm. Nicholas was very excited to see us and the dogs!

We woke up to a very foggy morning in Montana. It was into some big mountains after this!

We got to pull over on I90 for our picture!! While we were paying attention to the weather, we didn't think to put our coats on so we are laughing because of how unbelievably cold and WINDY it suddenly was!

We needed to stop for gas and this little town called Wallace was nestled between the mountains and under the highway, literally! I90 ran over the town on stilts!

Here we are!! We decided to just take the picture of the road sign and keep on truckin'. After all, we don't have any more states between us and the Pacific Ocean.



Dad let me take the wheel here in my new home state and this is what I saw...absolutely nothing :) I really got worried after this went on for over an hour!


The Columbia River had this beautiful lookout point. We were surprised by it and didn't know that it would be such a pretty area! We had a good time walking around with the dogs and looking at the river which was way down below us! The picture of us together was quite a feat...I had to run a pretty good distance! After enjoying the view for a minute we picked up some rocks for Mom and got on our way.

We thought we had left the turbines back in Iowa!

So the tunnel is on our side of the highway with trees on top of it and everything...just neat!

Evergreen trees...it smells like Christmas year round!
So we say goodbye to I90...we got on WA18 after about 1,628 miles on I90! We started on I90 back in Minnesota so we got a little attached! Something funny about I90 that I forgot to mention, when we were passing through the mountains there were signs at all of the exits that read: If I90 closed return to ______. (here it would have the last exit or town we had passed). I guess I90 closes and you are out of luck!

Silverdale...where Nicholas and I (and Julius) will be living for the next 3 years.

Here is our Washington picture! It was so nice to be out of the car, even though the hotel beds were much more comfortable than what we had waiting for us here! We found the nearest Wal-mart and Dad bought us a few things to survive on, for example: card table w/ 4 chairs and pots (which he cooked us some spaghetti in, yum!), towels, sheets, etc. Dad stayed for 2 days and found several things that we had to report to housing (that's what Dads are for!) and then he was off for N.C. again...at least this time it would only take about 6 hours!

This was by far the best trip I have ever been on! Dad and I are so greatful that we didn't have any mishaps and I'm especially greatful that Dad was willing to go on this trip with me! Hope you all enjoyed our adventure as much as we did!

Oh the Places We'll Go...day 4

Wow! We have just 3 more states until Washington!! We of course had continental breakfast, but considering the small hotel we stayed in, there wasn't a whole lot to choose from. The doughnut holes put out in tupperware containers weren't too bad...just strangely packaged. We woke up this morning early and set out by 6:30am. It was still dark and foggy! We crossed into Mountain Time near Pierre, SD.

Our first road sign that we actually got to stop on the road and take the picture! We only got to do this because I wasn't fast enough with the camera so we passed the sign...luckily there was an exit just up the road and along with it was a small road that ran alongside the highway all the way back to the sign! So we drove back, put the camera on the hood and snapped the picture...the dogs are getting used to these strange little adventures!

When we found an exit with a Wal-mart we pulled off to get our t-shirts! This statue was at a red light and Sanford did NOT like him! We thought it was pretty cool though! While we were walking the dogs at Wal-mart it started to SNOW!! That's an exciting occurence for a girl from NC :)

Even though it was snowing, it wasn't sticking. I'm sure this snow was from a previous snow fall, but still pretty!

We were impressed with the hills and valleys! Those look like snow clouds Mom! :)

Thanks to I90 being empty, we were able to stop at the actual road sign to take our picture! Sanford is at least getting the hang of looking at the truck :) Dad had to buy a beanie at the Wal-mart and I had to put my coat on!! I suppose if I had been really prepared I would have had some kind of sticker to put on the sign...I wonder what they said...I didn't notice them until I looked at the picture later.

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument: Memorial of the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne in one of the Indians last armed efforts to preserve their way of life. Here on June 25, 1876, 263 soldiers and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer, died fighting several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. (http://www.nps.gov/libi/index.htm)
These cliffs made me think of Mom! That's really what all of the mountains, hills, valleys, etc. made me think of...

We watched this plateau growing bigger and bigger as we came closer to it!

Whoa! So, if you return to the day 1 post you will notice quite a difference in size from the Appalachian Mtns. I know Mom, the Appalachians are older :)

This rainbow was just a big chunk coming out of the clouds and reaching down to the ground. These things were what made the trip exciting...weather, mountains, old houses (later on), etc.

See...the abandoned homesteads were really cool! All we could talk about was what happened to them, why they were empty. Of course the new and improved homestead in the distance could explain it. It's still neat to think about the history of these places!

Another very large mountain with SNOW! :)

Mom I posted this for you! The sun was beginning to go down so it was kind of hard to get a clear picture. This is a very large quarry in the side of the mountain...

This is what we assume they did with the reject from the quarry...just filled in the valley on the other side of the mountain! Crazy, huh?!

And one final mountain before it's too dark and the camera will only focus on headlights...

Our lunch today was in Montana, at a gas station :) There was an Arby's inside but the gas station had more to choose from, so Dad had a salad and I got a hot dog. The dogs were of course tied outside for a little bit while we ate in the cold! Something funny that we noticed, casinos everywhere! Inside the gas station!!

Much to Katie's dismay we did not stop in Butte, MT. We drove to Missoula and slept in a nice Broadway Inn and Suites (pet friendly!). We had McDonalds for dinner and were pretty tired after driving for over 800 miles today! I owe a lot to Dad, he did the majority of the driving! He claims it was so I could take pictures...hmm. It was definitely a long day but fun at the same time! Only one state between us and Washington!

Oh the Place We'll Go...day 3

Today we got up early, 7:30 am...still not as early as Dad would like I think. We enjoyed another continental breakfast and got on the road. We knew we would be crossing into Iowa early which also meant we would cross the Mississippi River!! After Iowa came Minnesota and then South Dakota. We had a good traveling day although we were definitely beginning to dread getting back in the car. At this point, we had opted to putting Browni in the crate, which sat behind the driver seat. We had also dug into the bag of Tootsie Roll candy that Aunt Jean got for us, this would prove to be a great solution to the long, boring roads in Iowa and Minnesota! We stopped for lunch at a Wendy's in Minnesota and they had a nice fence that we tied the dogs to and ate outside...now dinner was a different story, I'll write about it later in the post! Enjoy the pics!

Crossing over the Mississippi River into Iowa.

Dad and I on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River. The dogs were very unsure about the water! We found a little area of boat docks that had a stone staircase leading to them, it looked as though they hadn't been used in years! The Mississippi was definitely what I had imagined it, big!

Dad enjoying the view, Browni ready to go! I was testing the camera so I'm not sure Dad knew I was taking his picture :)

Award for the BEST WELCOME CENTER goes to... IOWA! We had to wait about 5 minutes for it to open, but it was well worth the wait. It was basically a gift shop, but it was two stories worth of a gift shop! We decided to purchase our state t-shirts here, so they are probably the best quality t-shirts in our collection too! We didn't take the dogs out for this picture because they were just out at the river...so it counts!
Well, sometimes you just can't be ready for the state sign! The bottom reads "Fields of Opportunities" and we agree that there are definitely plenty of fields in Iowa...opportunity?

So the next five pictures comprise the World's Largest Truckstop: Iowa 80. I measured how big it was by the amount of pictures it took so I'd say 5 makes it a pretty big place!

Dad and I realized later that these funny looking airplane wing things are actually the rutters for a turbine! This is where the truck stop began...
and kept going...

and going...
and going....

and ended :)

This is pretty much the scenery in Iowa...fields and turbines. We really enjoyed seeing the turbines though and every time a new batch came along we would estimate how many there were...always more than the last bunch :) They really are huge!
Award for the BEST STATE SIGN goes to...MINNESOTA! By far the most detailed sign and so it made for a good topic of conversation for a while. Just think about all of the state signs you've seen!

A very cool welcome center and probably the runner-up. There was a staircase that lead down to the "pet area" which was really a nice trail down behind the welcome center. So, as we came back up on the opposite side of the welcome center we realized that we were walking into a cloud of ladybugs! They were everywhere!! We had to wipe them off of each other when we got into the truck...Dad thought he had one go down the back of his shirt and sure enough when he leaned forward there was a little bump on his shoulder blade and we had to rescue the little guy :) Unfortunately the front of the truck suffered from the cloud of ladybugs... :(

We stopped at a Wal-mart to purchase our state t-shirt and found this little lady walking around in the truck...we ended up transplanting it to Washington...every once in a while it would walk across the window and then disappear somewhere in the truck.

South Dakota...Great Faces Great Places.

The South Dakota welcome center...the least welcoming. Why? Well, the bathrooms were open, but the desk had a chain link wall in front of it and the sign on the desk read: "Closed for the season. Will reopen in May." LOL! We could not get over that!

We were very curious about the dead trees on the hillsides in South Dakota...and still are! We enjoyed this scenery more than the flat fields!

Well, as it became time to stop for the night we realized that there weren't very many cities to choose. We stopped for gas in Presho and the attendant told us there were places in the next town called Murdo. We pulled into Murdo and found several hotels, however we also found out that it was the opening weekend of pheasant season!!! ALL of the hotels were occupied!!! Who knew!!! We decided to stop and eat at a local diner and here is what followed...

Waitress: "Hi, the special tonight is the Roast Beef and Vegetables, it's a dollar off the menu price. What can I get you guys to drink?"

Dad: "Diet"

Me: "Lemonade"

Waitress: Bringing us our drinks. (apparently lemonade translates to Mt. Dew in SD) "Have you decided?"

Dad: "I'll take the special."

Waitress: "Umm actually the cook just told me not to serve the beef, it's no good...so actually that means we can't serve...(going through a list of things on the menu that use the beef)..."

Dad: Holding back a laugh! "Ok...I'll take.........

So our dinner at the local diner was very entertaining...or maybe Dad and I were really tired from the road, but we found this to be SOOO funny! We had to keep our laughing down cause they had no music playing and there were lots of people in the diner besides us.

Anyways, we got on the road and headed to the next town, Kadoka. We found 1 hotel and it was pet friendly. I think we would have been fine leaving the dogs in the truck at this point. We very happily laid down and went to bed that night!!

Stay tuned for day 4!

Oh the Places We'll Go...day 2

Our second day we woke up to a cold (38 degrees F) West Virginia! We enjoyed some Continental Breakfast and got on the road around 8:30am. We decided that we would try to get up earlier on day 3, which we found to be pretty easy considering the time change! We continued through West Virginia, into Kentucky, then Indiana, and finally Illinois.

We dug into our stash of food today; I had packed lots of unsalty snacks in order to avoid swollen ankles. The fresh apples and peaches were especially delicious, thanks Mom and Dad for preparing those! Also, I forgot to mention that Mom made some cinnamon covered pecans and peanuts which were gone in I think the first day and a half, right Dad? And Emily made chocolate chip cookies that didn't survive the first day :) You guys were too good to us!

We passed into Kentucky about an hour into our day, so that meant we stopped after just an hour of driving. You all know how Dad would normally feel about that...but we were beginning to have fun looking for Wal-marts at this point (where we got our state t), so I think we were both ok with stopping. It also broke up some of the time for the dogs and we didn't have to make too many stops for them.

Sorry this is so far away, just imagine the pregnant woman running to get into the picture! I nearly had to fly over the bushes to get there in time and then with it being so far away we couldn't see the light flash on the camera anyway! So now imagine Dad and I talking about whether it had been long enough :)

We passed into Indiana around 12:30pm, and also into Central Time, so now we are 1 hour behind J-ville. We stopped at a Wal-mart of course and bought lunch at the deli. We then tied the dogs to a tree in the parking lot and ate in the truck with the windows down! :)

The weather was gradually getting warmer, thus we shed our winter coats. Not sure why Indiana has a Southern welcome center...surely it's not that big of a state. Also not sure why it's lemon yellow, unless it's supposed to make it easier to find, in which case it was not. I was driving and Dad was on the phone with Johnny, so I didn't see the beyond bright welcome center and ended up turning the wrong way and going back into downtown Louisville, KY. I think I'd like to visit there one day, the one block we drove around was very nice. I stacked the camera on two boxes of candy on the hood...what do you think happened to the candy? You guessed it! We lost one box of Reese's Pieces but were able to save the Junior Mints :)

We got to see this cool, giant clock thanks to my mix up. This was our second time passing into Indiana :)

For those of you who don't know, Nick is an Indianapolis Colts fan so Dad and I decided to drive into Indianapolis to try and find him some Colts memorabilia. On the way we passed the Speedway, Nick was pretty jealous of this! I did find him some Colts stuff too! We also got authentic (because they are from Indiana!) Hoosiers t-shirts!! We didn't actually make it into Indianapolis because the neighborhood began to get questionable.

Into Illinois we went around 6:00pm. There was a good place to set the camera, so no leaning your head to the right :)
I have a bit of a tree fetish, so when I see pretty trees I take pics! This tree was in the nice pet area at the welcome center...the dogs enjoyed a little exercise!
We decided Illinois, and later Iowa, are pretty much just fields and wind turbines! They were really cool to see, at least the first few hundred, right Dad?!
I thought the sunset in Illinois was really pretty, however the camera thought the dead bugs on the windshield were more interesting! So, if you can see past the fact that we had driven all day without cleaning the windshield, the sunset was very nice!

We had so much fun today but were so ready to stop that night. We found a pet friendly Holiday Inn Express, we had some Taco Bell for dinner and decided we would find an Illinois t-shirt in the morning. The time change didn't help because it meant we were tired at 8:00pm CT because it was 9:00pm ET. By the way, my ankles were doing really well and I was still pretty comfortable in the car. We went to bed early so we did have an earlier start on day 3!