ROAD TRIP PHOTOS - 6 AUGUST - SPOKANE MASTER'S COMMISSION GRADUATION DAY!!!

Krista - captured by a little brother (Nolan) at church


My Baby girl speaking at MC graduation - I honestly was moved beyond words to see her so poised and confident and SPEAKING in front of a crowd.


Bre performing in a human video at graduation



Krista with host parents and fellow MCer


BreAnne with host parents



Of course Zander found the balcony by the end of day...

ROAD TRIP PHOTOS - 5 AUGUST - DAY THREE




Reconnecting with old friends in the BK parking lot....off the hwy in Montana. Cynthia with 3 of her 4 children (on the right) and me with 7 of my 9(to the left).

< ROAD TRIP PHOTOS - 4 AUGUST - DAY TWO

Highlights of this day were:

Battlefield of the Little Big Horn(Custer's Battlefield)...



Checking the progress of plants at Gram's grave...and the rocks the kids took to her are still secure....



Catching up with old friends...




Children of our JR HIGH GIRLS!!!




Seeing old spots...
The first house we bought...


Jared in front of the hospital where he was born


The church where we were on staff


My Gram's house

ROAD TRIP ROUNDUP!

A few misc. thoughts:

Home - what a nice ring the very word has. It really isn't about place so much as family and heart. The girls have only lived here a few short weeks and yet one of them got emotional and said, "I'm finally home" minutes after arriving.

This was a good time for us to reconnect as a family. Mike gets so busy here at the chapel - it was nice to have all the distractions gone....and be in a small area...TOGETHER....thank GOD for a 15 passenger van rather than a well we wouldn't fit in anything else so what does it matter? {G}

Gas is really cheaper here in W TX than anywhere else we traveled.

TX, MT and WY have nice speed limits and good drivers. NM has silly limits and very strange drivers...like 45 mph on a HIGHWAY.

TX IS big, after all it IS the second :::clearing throat and ducking::: biggest state in the union. The vastness does lend a certain majestic beauty to the state. However, all the flat land, sage brush and mesquite really can't compare to say the Rockies, Yellowstone, Tetons, NM...

I made good progress on the study I'm determined to finish....and I'm not sure I'll do antoher one of hers - though that WAS the original plan.

I started a my space due to the merciless haranguing from Bre. Krista even started one last night. {G}

I read a thriller that I'll put on PBS today. I'm not sure what I thought of it. I'm almost done with a Tamar Myers/ Penn Dutch book - which I always enjoy.

LARGE families are not always the noisiest families at a hotel...we endured many haughty looks when checking in and had several very nice compliments as well.

Nice to be home. Mike is still really thinking about Road Whales before our next road trip.

ROAD TRIP PHOTOS - 3 AUGUST - DAY ONE



Not far into the trip; but Stacia has already figured out how to escape from her seat of torture. BTW we took the cover off to wash it and discovered it REALLY IS a seat of torture. I will add padding before putting the cover back on. {sigh}



Stacia finds comfort in her sling even when she must wear it all alone.

WEDNESDAY - 16 AUGUST - DAY FOURTEEN

The last and final day of our 2006 Road Trip!!! WE miscalculated the time it would take to drive from NM to TX....it was more like 8 - 10 hours than 6 hours.

It RAINED in TX....we were excited and hoped it would be raining here at home - it wasn't....

We arrived home and literally expoloded out of the van. Beatrix ran to greet us and sat down on her haunches and slid across the patio. The children were excited that all the pets were still alive. It seems that every time we go on a long trip at least one dies while we are gone. I had no idea this was weighing on anyone or we would have called Adrienne and kids to find out. {G}

We unloaded the van, Mike and some children removed van seats, vacummed, shampooed and reinstalled seats. Bre began cleaning and unpacking. The little ones and I put things away and started on the trip laundry. Mike and Jared moved Stacia's crib to our room. We ended the evening with ice cream for Stacia's birthday. Before the trip I'd ordered Season 4 of Hogan's Heroes the kids ended the night watching an episode or two of that.

We have two more days of Mike's leave (vacation) but thought it would be nice to spend them at home.We are starting to experience deployment fever. This is a syndrom that requires you to make yourself crazy doing all the home repairs and car repairs that you've put off for the past year or so. It also requires that you GO all the places you've been thinking of going and never got around to going.....

TUESDAY - 15 AUGUST - DAY THIRTEEN

Thanks for the tip, Jen (photogenics). We spent our last day in Santa Fe exploring Bandelier Natl Park. Mike was especially happy that this kept us out of Governor's Palace and the Touristy shops. :::snort::: Seriously, THIS was exactly what we were hoping to find when we scheduled a stop in Santa Fe.

Bandelier Natl Park is an excavation site that is way cool. It chronicles the life of the "people of the bean". Yes, we did spend quite a bit of time rehearsing Lord of the Bean during our hike to the top of the cliffs. We bought a little booklet for $1 that told us what to look for at various spots on the hike. We explored caves up in cliffs, petrographs, kivas, flora and fauna.....Pictures to follow....

I think this is the BEST way for our little ones to catch a glimpse of history. It is certainly more real to *me* when climbing, hiking, echoing than looking at pictures and reading signs is in a museum. This was a wonderful way to spend our last day.

We had hoped to venture to Los Alamos and find a museum but we got too late of a start. In fact, we couldn't even find a spot to EAT in Los Alamos and ended up back in Santa Fe.

I developed a headache that turned to a migraine while climbing into some cave in a cliff. By the time we made it back to Santa Fe, I took meds and went to bed. The others had dinner, swam and played Egyptian Rat in the lobby....ok sentence structure is bad there but I think you KNOW what I mean. {G}