Lots of news

First of all, it is our anniversary today. 12 years ago today I married Brian. I love him more than ever and more than I thought was possible.

We closed on our house in Cuba Friday and that night made an offer on a house in Amarillo. The offer was accepted and we are in the process of becoming homeowners once again. I am thrilled to know I have an address again and can't wait to see the house in person. Brian did all the work on this one and from the pictures I have seen, it looks great. For any of you with an RV, our new place happens to have an RV pad with hook-ups, so we are ready for you to visit!

We have been visiting with Brian's family the last few days and having a great time. The kids have loved being with their cousins. I will be glad to be in home I can call my own again, but for now I enjoy seeing my kids have such a great time. We are headed to Idaho this week for a few days so the kids can see Nana's new digs--should be fun.

Finally posting some pictures

I am using my sisters internet and could finally post some pictures from our trip. They are in the slideshow to the side. It really was a great trip. I don't want to do it again next week, but we really saw and enjoyed so much.

It has been a while

I am having trouble with our laptop, I wanted to post some more pictures of the rest of our trip. I will do it later, but I will at least say we made it to UT and we are happy to be here. Yellowstone was great--Jake saw his wild bison and was THRILLED! We saw a few elk, but that was it. We were all hoping to see a bear, but they were somewhere else in the park that day.

We had a great visit with Brian's family while we were in Island Park. Kathi's husband, Bob, brought his 4-wheeler and Kash was SO happy about that! Brian "was forced" to take him for several rides while we were there. The cabin was great and accommodated several of us very well. The views were spectacular and the boat rides lots of fun. We got to my mom & dad's Sunday and the kids have been enjoying their cousins every day since. We went to the pool yesterday and had a great time. Jake is going to his first overnight scout camp today with his cousin. We are both excited about that, Jake because he gets to camp with his cousin and Brian, I am excited because he will pass off several requirements for scouts! I am so not a scouter--I am clueless! So I truly appreciate those who know what they are doing and will help me.

We are doing great. I miss Cuba, but it is so nice to be here. I love Cache Valley. For those of you who have never been, I highly recommend it. Utah is a beautiful place.

As soon as I can, I will get some more pictures of our trip on here.

What a beautiful country!

We started today at Mt. Rushmore. Brian compared it to Niagara Falls, it is absolutely incredible, but no need to go back. It really is an amazing sight, but I don't think we were even there an hour. We took off and drove through Black Hills National Forest, Deadwood, and then into Wyoming to only drive through another beautiful forest, the Big Horn National Forest. We saw some amazing landscape and the kids enjoyed seeing the wildlife. Jake and Sally spent a good part of the afternoon counting antelope and I am not kidding when I report they saw over 200! We saw 3 moose, 4 elk, and at least 10 deer. Ben said it was the best day of his life because he saw a moose in the wild. Then he said it was the worst day of his life when his ears wouldn't unplug! We were over 8000 feet above sea level when we crested the mountain and headed back down the other side--it was incredible! We are hoping to see more wildlife tomorrow in Yellowstone.

The Badlands

We drove through the Badlands National Park today. Ben made the comment they should have named it Beautiful Lands, so then we had a discussion as to why they possibly named it the Badlands. We came up with hard to travel through with a wagon or horse, lots of indians, or lots of outlaws. Since we didn't have to worry about any of these things, we thought it was simply beautiful! We were planning to go to Mt. Rushmore for the evening lighting ceremony, but there was quite a bit of rain and some tornado warnings a bit farther south so we are opting to go there tomorrow morning. The kids continue to be great and the suburban is holding out--we will keep praying and keeping our fingers crossed!

Irony

So we are on our way across the country now. It was hard to leave, but we are now all very excited about seeing some new places and especially getting to see our families.

We have our stroller strapped to the top of the suburban--there is absolutely NO room inside! Right as we were leaving Cuba the stroller came unstrapped and fell off. It was scratched up some, but no damage we could see. Brian got it strapped back on, but we both had been nervous that it would fly off in the middle of a busy highway. Well, yesterday we heard something flapping around, so we pulled off to the side of the road to check the bungee cords. All the bungee cords were fine, the hand strap on the stroller was actually flipping around. But ironically, in pulling off to check our bungee cords, we ran over a bungee cord that was on the side of the road and got a flat tire. Fortunately, Brian got to change tires in between rain storms and he was pretty darn quick considering all the stuff he had to take out just to get to the tire and then actually changing it. So this morning we were a little late in starting because we had to get our tire fixed, but all is well.

We had a fun stop today. Our friends who used to live in Minnesota told us to check out the Spam Museum, so we decided to do it. What fun it was--one of those quirky places our kids can now say they have been to. Brian and I couldn't help but get t-shirts. We are all very excited to get to Mt. Rushmore tomorrow--someplace I have always wanted to see.

Ode to Bonnie & Christine

In my last post, I didn't go into a lot of details about what I would miss here in Cuba. That was a mistake. First let me say that Cuba is a bit of Mayberry. I love it here. I love the community, the school, the natural beauty, so many things. I love that Kash is on a first name basis with the city workers and can tell them hello when they are driving the back hoe. I love that when I misplace one of my kids at a school function (oops), people know me and my family well enough they can help my lost child. I love that when I walk to the library, people say hello and wave whether they know me or not. I love that I can walk to the library. I love the fall here, it is more beautiful than I can say. Cuba is a wonderfully self contained community where people really take care of each other--it is the best! So yes, I am going to miss Cuba like crazy, but why dwell on what I can't change? But what I will miss most about Cuba are the friends I have made. Bonnie and Christine have made Cuba some of the most memorable years of my life to date. I have missed walking with Bonnie so much! I will miss walks, lunches, hikes, play dates, being teased by Christine about being a Mormon, the cabin, the lake, and so much more. But what made all those things memorable was the great friends I was with. I love you both and will miss you lots. Much easier to say here than in person!