And Back

Eventually we had enough fun and decided we would meander our way back to Ohio- ok, the Colonel refused to let us have any more time off! We really felt bad about missing Matt and Jordan's weddings!

We also didn't really meander back. A brief stop for lunch

Once we had to leave we were ready to move out. We made it back in three days.
We spent the next week and a half unloading our storage shed and finding places for all of it in our new house and waiting for our household goods to arrive from the Army. One load got caught in a flash downpour. It was the craziest thing, it came on so suddenly. Of course, that load included our piano. The piano really died then. We called a tuner and he said, "call the coroner." We took the serial number to a piano dealer and they told us it had been made in 1905. Wow, I really wanted to keep it then- it was an antique, but they also said the situation was hopeless. Poor piano. The piano movers hauled it away just the other day and we got ourselves a spiffy new baby grand. Now if only someone would play it! Hmmm.

There

While we were in the west, we went camping in Wyoming, saw Mom's college friends in Utah, renewed relationships with brother's and sisters and cousins, All the girl cousins on the Kress side Great Grandma Keck has a Wii- you go Grandma! She wasn't so happy that Sam beat her at bowling though! Party with the Kress cousins after Debbie Wright had a near fatal accident. That she is alive and walking is a miracle. Meeting Great Grandpa Baird and Grandma and Grandpa Keck in Utah along with Uncle Timmy. Beautiful Aunt Maria The whole gang was up there for once- including the new in-law to be, Jordan's fiance Curtis and Monica's BFF Kyle and the most important (to our pet deprived kids anyway) Eddie the war dog!
visited with Grandma's and Grandpa's in Utah and Grandma's and Grandpa's in Idaho and Grandma's and Grandpa's in the other part of Idaho, went to a wedding, The siblings- Maria, David, Tom, Mark, Joseph, and Robert
missed two weddings (one of which Emma was suppose to be a bridesmaid in- sorry Jordan), saw a Pioneer day celebration, Missionaries in a parade- only in Utah!
went to waterparks, got a whole day to ourselves at a swimming pool,rode tubes in freezing cold rivers, braved the rapids, celebrated birthdays, When asked what cake he wanted for his birthday Joseph said, "of course, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting says eat me Joseph." So we made sure that the cake said exactly that! The second cake had a J on it out of candles.hiked 50 miles in the Sawtooth Mountains (Rob and his brother Mark and his nephew Kade only!), and generally just had lots of fun. It was a full and fabulous month!

The Journey there, but not yet back

After leaving Virginia- with a little help from the missionaries- Thank you, Elders!, we headed to Wyoming via some interesting places. First we stopped in Ohio to drop off the truck and have it babysat, along with some plants at our friend the Gardners. We then headed onto Nauvoo, Illinios. We got there in time for the Independence day fireworks, that we saw outside in the parking lot of our hotel. The next day was spent in Nauvoo, but one day just isn't enough. We went to Carthage and then did one or two things in Nauvoo

before it was all closed down. My relative Patty Sessions (midwife on the Pioneer trek.) They had me sign a book about how I was related.
The next day we headed to Winter Quarters, Nebraska. It was beautiful and that was the first place we noticed the humidity had left! We actually finished a run without coming in sopping wet! The next day we headed to Sturgis, North Dakota. (One check off the bucket list for Rob- too bad he wasn't riding his bike into town, instead of the minivan! HaHaHa!) From there we went to Deadwood, the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore. This is our dancing guide. Rob said he felt like tipping her when it was all done from all the dancing she was doing! A full day, don't you think. Well, Rob didn't think! So off we went at 4pm to drive the last 11 hours to the campsite in Wyoming. It was a good trip- though long. I am so glad we decided to stop and see so many fun sites on the way.

We arrived!

My husband says I absolutely can not post pictures with our hotspot internet. I have to wait for the real thing to come in like another week. Seriously, I am about to die of no-internetitis!

But just to let everyone know, we did make it to Ohio, our house is set up- mostly (Decorating always takes me a lot of time! I am decore challenged.) The kids are signed up for school which starts next week and Emma is currently at her middle school's volleyball camp. Tryouts are on Thursday, so keep your fingers crossed. She is already signed up for soccer if she doesn't make it, though! We have been to our ward twice and it is a little (OK, a lot) overwhelming. We were ten minutes late to church the other day and could not get a seat. Rob started pulling chairs from off other people's rows to make us a little row at the very back of the cultural hall. It is like going to stake conference ever week! Several families came in after us and had to go to the primary room and listen in there. The scuttlebutt is that they are thinking of splitting the ward soon. Ummm, you think?!! The ward leaders are obviously used to this though, because we have already met with the bishopric, the RS Pres has been over, I am on the email list, Emma is on the email list for Young Women's, we have been asked to speak next week and we have started setting up Joseph's baptism. Although we really would have loved to do it with family, it just didn't seem to work out where we could include everyone and we thought it would be a good way to get to know our new ward. So he will be baptized on the first weekend in September.
Got to go get the kids in bed now. We are trying to get up at 6:30am tomorrow. They have to be on the school bus at 6:55 am, so we have to get them used to the schedule before Monday!