"On the Road Again

. . . just can't wait to get on the road again." On second thought, I most definitely can wait!

At our first stop, our little Mickey found a payphone and loved it! He talked and talked on that thing for quite some time before we finally got him pulled away to burn of some of his energy. Then he goes and tries to stick rocks up the water pump - fantastic! Following this, we traveled through Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York (not necessarily in that order). A very special thanks to all those who hosted us along the way - Rob & Whitney, the Coloradudes, the AFchemists, and the Show-Me-Ites (and mom and dad J along with Gpa and Mimi H who hosted us during our homeless period).

 A few stops and a couple days later, we were able to go to a Young's Dairy Farm with our AFchemist family/friends. What an awesome trip! The food was great (best Mickey ate on the whole drive), activities were fantastic for energy burning, and the ice cream was especially lovely. Of course, the company was wonderful too!

Our little one would not let us leave with out giving him a ride on the cow.

ATV-drawn train ride. Mickey didn't want to stay in after he saw some geese he wanted to chase.

Our little squadron. Watching the men get in and out of the barrels was hilarious!

Driving a tractor with his new friend.

Colored milk containers! Trying to get a good picture of them both was tricky.

Both so cute anyway! Even if they won't look at the same time!

Goats! Lots of goats (and many of them very pregnant). Mickey loved running up and down the fence, pausing at each goat to pet a few times before running to the next one. The video is flipped sideways (sigh), so feel free to tilt your head to watch if you wish. If not, the picture below will have to suffice.

 We also got to feed some kids (of the goat variety - not the human ones), and see cows and a pig. What a great place to visit (special thanks to the AFchemists for taking us there).

Unfortunately, we had to leave after a short visit and continue on our trip. The Mr. and I were incredibly surprised at how wonderfully Mickey traveled. He was such a trooper!

Playing with the board (his) Gpa J helped make.

Some light reading from Uncle B-jeep

And trying his hand at fishing!

It was a crazy month or so, and we are so glad to have a home to settle into for the summer now!

Leaving the LR, AR

Wow, so crazy how quickly time flies! We've been home for 2 weeks now and it's crazy to think back and remember all the times in AR. Saying goodbye to the people was the hardest - all the friends we will miss . . . we will see them again . . . sometime.

Oh, we did get a chance to go to Mississippi for a quick trip before we left that side of the country! Got to see a whole bunch of family - including the newest edition, baby Thomas. - Wish I had pictures folks, he's so adorable, but somehow my camera managed to be lost at the time of all the picture taking.

We did get to stop at Waverly Mansion, couldn't take pictures inside, but it was very well restored (except the outside).

Older than most, if not all homes on the West

After one more week in AR, we said goodbye and made the 1600-mile trip back.

Bye-bye!

Funny story with the Tide pen . . . It was a long ride home . . . and I was bored . . . and I am super clumsy now that I am pregnant . . . :) It was a random, simple stain on my shirt I hadn't noticed before and we just bought a 3 pack of the Tide to-go pens . . . In the end, my shirt and skirt were completely covered in the bleach EXCEPT for the one spot I wanted to bleach in the first place. Tide pen = empty. Haha at least we know this type of chemical is safe on colors! Wahoo!

Pit stop at the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma temple. We got to go in and it was beautiful! Kinda reminded me of the Monticello, UT temple :) 

We also got to stop at the Denver, CO temple! This one reminded me of the Jordan River UT Temple - sorta - mostly because of the grounds. Man I have missed clear, blue water like that though!

A huge thanks to the Coloradudes for their hospitality at this last stop! It was so fun to be with family (and to watch Matt play with the children :) :) :) ).

Such a fun adventure! We're looking forward to this next one :)

Didn't See This One Coming

Remember that post about where Matt and I might end up working for the summer? Well, we finally figured out where . . . and it was not any of the previous thought places. Life has a funny way of throwing curves at you like that :)

This is our new home for the summer:

Little Rock, AR

It was a last minute internship offer for Matt that we just could not refuse, within two weeks (after having waited about 2 weeks before that doing job searching and such) God answered our prayers in a magnificent way we had never imagined - the perfect internship for us! With the job offer in hand, we still had one problem though - where to live? Not many places lease out apartments for 3 months, and the house offered through the internship was for singles (no thank you). We prayed even harder that we might find something, crossed our fingers, and made small preparations to leave UT.

Again, God is very gracious! He worked it out so we got in contact with a couple in the Spanish Branch here who were leaving to do an externship in Mexico for the summer and offered to let us housesit for them! Yay! A place to live!

The next two days were filled with packing and cleaning (A HUGE shout out to Amber, Brandi, and Alex who came on short notice to help us pack up and clean - on Brandi's birthday no less!). That Friday we were on our way across country!

Loving the red rocks of Southern Utah (Moab area)

Maverik = my favorite place to stop for gas

(not just a trashy gas station - it has class . . . and yummy frozen yogurt)
Sonic = Matt's treat for the trip, Cherry Limeade :)
New Mexico = yay, getting close to a bed for the night!
Bottom Right = an indian reservation, say that 5 times fast (or even once!)

 In New Mexico we saw an awesome rainbow and low clouds over the mountains - I had never seen it before, but it was really fun to look at! Like cotton candy fluffs hugging the mountain peaks.

What's missing in Texas? . . . oh yeah, the mountains! It was SO flat! Course, they did have their huge white cross at some christian memorial place we passed by.

Oklahoma! Reminded me of about a million country songs! Actually, we did pass Garth Brooks' home in the country outskirts of Oklahoma City - they even named a street after him . . . too bad I couldn't get the camera out fast enough to get a picture. We did see Checotah though (where Carrie Underwood was raised and mentioned in one of her songs). Though Oklahoma was quite flat, it did have a nice mix of red dirt in under the green grass - it was quite pretty actually.

After 3 days of driving, we finally made it to Arkansas . . . just in time for church! :) I rather did enjoy the time with my hubby though :)

We Went to a Zoo!

. . . Well, sorta.

On our way down to Front Sight (see post here), we stopped at a petting zoo to see all the cool animals! Too bad it was closed at the time :( For those of you who are interested, this is free (I think) and is just of the freeway exit by Scipio, UT. Take a right (or Eastern bound) turn off the freeway exit (if heading south). The petting zoo is by Eagles Landing/Dairy Queen/gas station. Can't be too hard to find, it's the only thing on that side of the freeway :)

Open May through September (? or October?)