The drive home.....

So we have been driving and driving and driving to get back home from California to Kansas.  It is a very long way.   Especially when there are three girls in the back seat that are 12, 11 and 9 years old.  They get along like true siblings.   One minute helping each other and being so very friendly...the next minute telling each other to stop it and leave me alone!   Of course, the "Are we there yet?" question has floated around the inside of the pickup like a lead balloon :)    I have said that question is off limits...so they come up with other questions.  "How long until we go eat?"  "How much until the next town?"  "Will we be there in time to go swimming?"  "Have we eaten anything today?"  Of course, that question was less than 30 minutes after breakfast!   How soon they forget.

"Emily" has been very excited to talk about her big sisters and use her "new to her" I-pad to play games.  Of course, it is hard to understand that we do not have Wi-Fi in the car so you can't watch video's on the trip.   Two girls have portable DVD players....which I am sure that Mom asked them a couple of times before we left to make sure they had their chargers for them.  Do you know that there does not seem to be a store....ie; WalMart, Best Buy, or Radio Shack so far between here and California that carries a universal charger for our Sony DVD players :(   So that is one of the first things on two little girls' lists of things to do when we get home.  Find the chargers and then we will put the chargers and DVD players away together so this does not happen again!

"Emily" has also been learning our families rules.   She is very outgoing and wants to visit with everyone and anyone that we meet.  At the gas station, at WalMart, at the restaurant, in the bathroom...ummm.  You get the idea :)    So we are working on trying to not give out too much information about our family to people we meet.

The girls have been having a great time making bracelets and reading while Mom keeps us going on down the road.   Zora has been a great navigator and even though she stumbles over some of the names of the streets we need to turn on, we have gone exactly where we need to be and been on time.  I will let her drive once we get back to the Kansas State line.  

We left Jean, Nevada at 8AM today and arrived in Grand Junction, Colorado about 8PM tonight. Drove through some beautiful land.   It sure was hot though.

I just had to stop and take a photo of the girls in front of the Colorado sign.  It was funny because less than 5 minutes after posing in front of the sign...we are driving along and "Emily" wanted to know if we were still in California!!   LOL!

Tomorrow Kansas....after we dip our toes in the Colorado River somewhere along the way :)   I think we will stay one more night on the road so Mom is not so weary that I can not keep my eyes open on the last stretch.   Gunning for Goodland or Colby maybe tomorrow and home Saturday!  Yay!!  Our own beds!!

Meeting "Emily"

At 10AM "Emily" her Mom and brother came to our hotel.   She was very excited and immediately was giving her sisters and "Mom" big hugs.   We loaded all of her things in the back of our pickup and then I received some last minute instructions on her daily injections.  It was very well packed in ice and it stayed cold all day.

We were on the road toward Kansas by 10:15AM.   Destination is Jean, NV for the evening.   It was 110 degrees in Nevada today.   We had an I-pad all ready for "Emily".   She was disappointed that she could not get on the internet but she was playing alot of games and snapping photos like crazy.  The I-pad would run down quite quickly and then we found that she has very little patience when it comes to waiting for the electronic to recharge.

We stopped at a fruit stand and had some wonderfully fresh fruits.  We also decided to have sandwiches there which were delightful.   We wanted to fill up the back of the truck with fruits but we were worried that it would get too hot.

We arrived at the Gold Strike in Jean, Nevada and after a few failed attempts to check in.  We finally was able to get a key to open our door and managed to get a roll-a-way bed for "Emily" to sleep on. The girls wanted to go swimming but all the miles we have driven the last few days have Mom beat so off to bed early so we can get up and head to the next destination tomorrow.  Grand Junction, Colorado here we come!!

Wyoming, Utah and Nevada

We took a quick photo in the lobby of the hotel this morning before going to breakfast.

So this morning found us freezing in our shorts and T-shirts.  The wind was blowing 35 miles an hour and the temperature was 53 degrees this morning.  Big change from the 95 degree plus weather from yesterday.  The girls had each packed a jacket.  I tried to go to WalMart to find a sweatshirt but of course, they have all their summer clothes out for sale.  Oh well, that is what they make us strong farm girls of...grit and determination.  

This is the first time I have gone this far north to drive.  Years ago I was in Cheyenne for Frontier Days.  But I do mean YEARS ago.   So heading west out of Cheyenne was all new territory for me to see.   First we started seeing lots of well needed road construction.  Not the most pleasant way to drive, but it's doable.

On a side note here.  Mark I found our house for sale.   Here are the photos!

I had completely forgot that we would actually be going through Utah and most specifically, Salt Lake City, Utah for part of todays journey.   I have been in the airport in SLC once....but that was the extent of my time in their fair city.   We hit it at 5PM rush hour :)   The girls tried to snap some photos for me as we either zoomed along or was crawling along with traffic :)   This reminds me why we don't live in the big city anymore.

About 30 miles west of Salt Lake City 99% of the traffic we were flowing with pulled off.   That is when we got a good look at the Great Salt Basin Lake.   And for the next 2 hours we saw salt, salt and more salt :)   I think that was about the time Zora asked me if I was alive when dinosaurs walked the earth?   Uh?   Seriously Zora?  I am old, but not quite that ancient!!  That was good for one of the laughs of the day :)

We finally arrived in Elko, Nevada about just in time to see the last 15 minutes and see who Jo Jo sent home on the Bachelorette.   Then we grabbed something to eat and off to bed.  Tomorrow Nevada and California!

Kansas to Wyoming

No photos for the day will try to add some later.  

We tried to get out of town before 10AM.  Okay it was more like 11:30AM....but we were on the road again!   Zora is my chief navigator and a very good one I might add.   She put all the info for our day in her phone and gave me directions every step of the way!

We stopped in Hays, KS to fill up with gas and fill our tummies up with food.  Kendalan was complaining of the sun coming in her window too much.   So I helped her take her pillowslip and hang it in the window.   (Note to self:  don't have Kendalan help with this process next time as I just about lost the tip of one finger when she put the window up and caught my finger in it!!!)  I will still be able to use my left hand :)   And the sun was no longer bothering her.

The wind was blowing like crazy and I-70 in Colorado needs some road repair....seriously!  It was also 100 degrees in Limon, CO when we stopped.  

We were driving north toward Cheyenne, Wyoming on a two way high-way when all of a sudden we were on a gravel road!   Zora thought it was hilarious that Mom said looks like we are going off-roading.   She is still laughing about that.  I do not recommend 85 North out of Denver but we did get a nice view of Denver International Airport.

We arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming about 8PM their time.  We were so ready to get out and stretch our legs and get something to eat.   We checked in to the hotel and Kendalan was SO disappointed that their pool was closed for maintenance.  Bummer!   It was a good thing because we ate at the hotel restaurant, which was delicious, and then to our room and we were out before 10:30PM.

Tomorrow we plan on making Elko, Nevada.    Hope to add photos soon!  Been using our phones instead of my camera.

Happy 12th Birthday Tessa!!

     Where do I begin?   I have been away far too long.   There has been so much going on at our house there is no way I can update it all.   At the same time I am sad that I lost a year of our lives.  Maybe I will find the time to go back and try to add the pieces we are missing.   I do like to print this out for the girls to have.   But on with the post of the day.....

     Happy Happy 12th Birthday Tessa Louise JiXing!!   You were only 6 years old when we first met you.  I always tease you that you didn't like your Mama in China :)    I know, I was this old, white woman who was taking you away from everything you had known.   Good thing I had two of your big sisters along or I don't know if you would have left China with me.  I really think you thought I might eat you?  I am not sure.

     That was then.........

     This is now......you are a crack up.  You are usually a pretty good girl...there are times when you are pretty sassy.   Sometimes you sass at the wrong time and it irritates your Mom somewhat.  I know you are trying to work on that.   I am so proud of you in band, you are such a good flute player.   I know you will do great playing volley ball this fall.  

     We can not imagine our lives without you here with us.   I am sorry I had to work on your birthday.  I hope you enjoyed the cake and the cell phone.   One more year and you are a teen!  Yikes!!

     We love you to the moon and back Tessa!!

October 7, 2007

I will come back to this date and post another day.   It is a very good post :)

I'm BACK!

I thought I better continue with the vacation posts so when I print this off in book form they will be in here.   Since no one leaves me comments, I am obviously talking to myself :(   

Okay we arrived in Hot Springs, South Dakota the third night.  Of course the girls were excited to see the swimming pool and I was excited to see the laundry room.  It was too late to do anything so the girls went swimming while I washed a load of clothes and then we all headed to bed.

We were up pretty early the next day.  The breakfast at this hotel wasn't anything special but we found enough to fill our stomachs for the morning.   Then we hit the road to see Mount Rushmore!

It was amazing how the landscape changed as we got closer and closer to Mount Rushmore.   We kept our eyes open to see any animals in the forest.   No bears anywhere!   When we finally arrived at Mount Rushmore we were more than ready to get out and stretch our legs.   It has changed a lot since I was there when I was 5 years old!   It was a great day to be there.  The sky was so pretty and there was a nice breeze.  Mark decided he would stay down at the beginning and take photos from there while the girls and I trekked up to the closest we could get.   Us plus probably 100's of other people!  We did manage to take a couple of photos with the President's behind us.  One lady offered to take our photo so I could be in the photo, but I declined the offer.   We did take photos for others who wanted to be in the picture and didn't have enough hands!

Then we took the elevator down and watched the movie about the man who came up with the idea to do the president's and carried through with the plan.   Of course, I can't think of his name right now so I will have to add it in here later.   Pretty amazing to watch them blast part of the mountain off in areas so they could finish carving it out.   And OSHA would have had a hay day with the way they were hanging off the cliff in the rope swings!!  Wow!   They were brave men!

After we watched the movie we went back up and the girls could see some people had went down in the stadium and was over on the mountain under the monument walking around.  They really wanted to do that but I talked them out of it.   We headed back down to the front, walking through the towers of flags.   Then Jordis, RaeAnne, Kendalan and I decided to stop for ice cream!  That will teach all the others to slow down!  Zora couldn't wait to get down and tell her Dad that we could get him a wheelchair if he wanted to go to the top.  He was done taking photos and was more than ready to leave.   Unfortunately they had to wait for us to eat our ice cream!  It was yummy!

Then we took off to see Crazy Horse.   On the way you can stop and see a side view of George Washington.  Mark and I got out but the girls were chilling by that time.

We have decided that there will be another trip up this way in our future as we just did not have enough time to see and do everything we wanted too.   Crazy Horse is going to be huge!   You kind of have to use your imagination of how it is going to look.   They actually have put some markings on it so you can see where the horses head will be.   It is sad that the Crazy Horse monument is all being paid for by donations and there is not any Parks and Recreation funds being used.  Somehow that doesn't seem right.  I mean, weren't the Indians here before us?!

They have a very large gift shop and lots of items that have been donated by different tribes and families to show the different items they made from leather, metal, etc.   We really didn't spend much time looking at all of that.  When we got there they told us to hurry out as there was going to be authentic Indian dancing going on.   I went out along with a few of the girls.  It was very hot and muggy, but I enjoyed watching him and listening to him tell about the dances.  

We then decided it was time to eat!  They had a great restaurant right there that we all found something good to eat.   Just about the time we were getting ready to leave it started pouring rain!  We ran over to the gift shop and spent about an hour looking through everything.   Spent a little money in there too!

On the way back to the hotel we finally found a buffalo!  There was a pickup that was pulled over and a girl was sitting on the window sill taking photos.   We slowed down and pulled over to get some photos.   He was not a happy bull.  He took off and charged the pickup and us as we passed the truck!   I can see why they have signs all over to not get out around the buffalo!

Of course, the girls went swimming again when we arrived at the hotel and I did another load of laundry!