Officially the last post...

These are some of the last pictures we took on our road trip home.
This will be the last post on this blog. You can still visit our family life blog.

10 Best Things about Hotels
10. Someone else cleans up your messes
9. You don't have to wash sheets or make beds
8. You don't have to scrub the toilet
7. You don't have to make breakfast
6. You can take as long a shower as you want - the hot water never runs out
5. Utility people are just a phone call away if something breaks - and you don't pay the bill
4. Fresh clean towels are delivered to your bathroom daily
3. You can swim in the winter
2. You can work out w/o the cost of a gym membership
1. You can leave when you're tired of the scenery!

10 Worst Things about Hotels
10. Bedspreads
9. Moldy coffee makers
8. The carpets
7. Just because it says it's a smoke free room doesn't' always mean the people before you could read the sign.
6. How many people stayed here before you??
5. They mysterious splatter marks around the toilet, sink and tub
4. Showering 2 year olds because you have no idea what is growing in the tub
3. Celebrity TV and the E! channel at 6am for breakfast with your 2 and 4 year old.
2. Mystery hair and stains on sheets that are on a supposedly clean bed.
1. You are stuck until it's time to go!



10 Amazing Travel Memories
1. Visiting the Des Moines, Iowa Zoo and having it all to ourselves.
2. The friends we made in Des Moines.
3. Making Thanksgiving memories in a hotel room
4. Traveling Through Colorado, visiting Focus on the Family
5. The Ozarks in Arkansas
6. Visiting nursing homes with Bryce, and watching Elie get so excited about the friends she made.
7. Being in Oregon for Christmas!!
(and having a few days in Arizona as a couple! - thanks mom and dad!!)
8. Catching up with friends from high school
9. Our play days in the Smoky Mountains
10. The hours of laughter, talking and fun we had as a family and couple.

Home again Home again...

Hello from Michigan!!

We are now all safely home. After an all night drive from the Smokey Mountains we arrived around 11am on Tuesday morning... marking 70 days of us traveling. What a feeling!

We arrived to a sparkling world of snow, a mountain of mail, a small city of packages and boxes, and our own personal welcoming comity - our neighbors:o)! It feels so good to be home!!!

In the middle of the night the kids have woken up not knowing where they were, and not liking that they were not in a bed with each other. When Bryce or I have been woken up in the middle of the night, it's taken us a few minutes to remember why the kids bed isn't right beside our own... a weird sensation!

Bryce went back to work Wednesday... but left us with empty cabinets and refrigerator, and without a car. It was a wake up call that I could no longer simply pile the kids into the stroller and walk a few yards to a restaurant or grocery store. He had gone out and gotten doughnuts and a loaf of bread, so we survived and had supper at Cost Co that night. We now have a fridge full of food and a well stocked pantry... sigh of contentment.

I have also felt surges of relief while I am in the midst of all the chaos of unloading and putting away all our things, when I realize that this is the last unpacking job I'll be doing for a while... the awareness that we are planted here for more than a week is pure joy!

I will soon have a slew of pictures up, and another post... before we completely end this blog...

Hope you are happy and content. There is truly no place like home!

Townsend, Tennessee

We have been enjoying a few very relaxed days in the Smokey Mountains. Before we got here, Bryce had one last day, in Ashville, North Carolina. During that day the kids and I got to explore a small town... near the Biltmore Estate. Wow - it was FUN! Elie found a map and we went on a "treasure hunt," where she directed where we turned and when we stopped (from the back seat of the car). She actually took us to a little shop, the Biltmore Gatehouse Shop, which had tons of old antiques and little souvenir type stuff... but it also had a candy corner... whew!

So the kids each picked a treat as their "treasure."

There's a reason they're called, "Smokey Mountians."

Here, in case you can't tell:o), are wild horses grazing in Cades Cove, in the Smokey Mountains - Much to Elie's delight. We even got to whiteness them gallop in to where they are in the picture.

This is some body's famous log cabin. Apparently it's all original. It was neat to explore, and Elie is convinced that it's the cabin that Ma and Pa Ingles left behind when they went to their little house on the prairie.

Well, we will head home to Michigan in the morning! It's been amazing. Today marks 68 days we've been on the road. By the time we get home it will be a complete 70, and it will be so good to be in our own beds again!

Tonight at supper we told the kids again that we were finally heading home. Jadon asked, "Where Nonnie is?" He was momentarily disappointed when we said no, but got excited when we asked him if he remembered his car bed. He responded with delight, "what car bed, Mommy?!" When we described his room, where his car bed sits under Elie's loft bed, which has a slide, he exclaimed with glee, "Where I can go up and slide? With you?" He has no memory right now of what home is like! I feel about the same.

See some of you soon!

North Carolina

We flew into Charlotte Monday afternoon, and a friend from high school and college picked us up. We ended up staying with her and her family for the night, before heading to Durham, N. Carolina, Tuesday morning.

There, the kids and I checked into our hotel room early and just crashed! I crashed, sleeping on and off for 6 hours, waking in a panic only to find the kids napping as well. A few times they woke up and played quietly or watched Micky Mouse Club House, only to lay themselves down again for another nap. Needless to say, it was a much needed day of rest for the three of us! (Poor Bryce!!) We all also got to bed early. I guess we just really needed the sleep.

Today we landed in Winston-Salem, a historic part of North Carolina. Again, the kids and I checked into our hotel room early while Bryce went off to work. Today, though, we were a bit more productive and got a few things cleaned and organized before napping:o). And while I laid down, only the kids slept today. When Bryce got home we took a walk down through the old town - SO COOL! We are planning a trip to visit all the historic places along the Atlantic coastal states, for sure!!!

I think the sleep is catching up, as the kids have had a hard time falling asleep tonight:o). But they are very heavy eyed. Tomorrow we will head out of town around 6am to get to Ashville, N. Carolina. It will be Bryce's LAST INSTALL!!! Yay for us!!!!!! (Well, last on this trip)

We're planning a long weekend in the Smokey Mountains to unwind as a family before heading home to Michigan. We need some time to decompress, de-stress, and reconnect, as well as prepare for reentering a more normal and sane life:o).

Time on Our Own

Mountains and Cactus... Scottsdale below.

Bryce and I took Saturday to tour my old stomping grounds ( I lived in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1985-1987), as well as climb Camleback Mountain. It was totally fun! We really had to work hard too. My memory did not serve me well whatsoever, as I thought it would be a hike... we ended up fully climbing over rocks and boulders! It rained on us as we neared the top, and then kept on raining, making the rocks very slippery. However we only picked up a few bruises and kept each other (and a few other fellow mountaineers) laughing the whole way down. Bryce is moderately sore today - I am extremely sore! It's hard to walk, sit, bend... it just plane hurts. But it was so worth it!!

Having this time to ourselves has been wonderful. I can't remember the time we had four date nights in a row! It was like a second honeymoon, traveling with only two carry on bags and being able to eat in restaurants not offering a kids menu... ahh the life!

It was actually good for Bryce and I, just in that it reminded us of how much we love our kids and love our time with them. We really missed them, and couldn't wait to have them back with us. Getting back to Tigard, Oregon was great, and the screams of "Mommeee! Daddeee!!" was music to our ears.

Now comes the task of packing, shipping and loading all the things we've acquired over Christmas!

Pheonix, Arizona!

Here is Peonix from the top of a mountain... not sure what it was called. But Bryce worked at a facility just below, and I spent the day walking and sitting and reading up here.

We have been having an amazing time here. Bryce has been pretty slammed with work, but I have LOVED the days to myself and our evenings have been really relaxed and fun. There are a few more pictures I'll upload later. It's funny being here without the kids, as I'm finding a ton of stuff that would totally thrill them! (Horses, trains, Route 66/Cars stuff...)

I miss the kids a ton, but I have really loved this time alone.

What's next

Hi!

We celebrated a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and we were also able to be a part of my youngest sister's engagement!

We head now to Bellingham Wa. to celebrate her's and a cousin's engagements with extended family. We'll pick up some skiing along the way and visit some very close friends. After that Bryce and I head to Arizona for five days.

On the 7th of January, we'll return to Tigard, pick up the kids and head to North Carolina on the 8th. We are more than half way through our trip!! And though we're having a lot of fun with family and tons of adventures, we are getting very ready to be home again:o).

Happy New Year!!

Elie at the Nursing home

So, Elie spent 2 days working in nursing homes with Daddy until we flew out for Porland from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Walking down the hall of a nursing home with an adorable little 5 year old is like walking down the street with Julia Roberts. She is just a little star.

I had brought her a felt coloring picture which she worked on at the first home we visited. About halfway through coloring it she asked me if she could give it to somebody. I asked who she would want to give it to (thinking Nonnie or Jadon, etc...) and she told me she wanted to give it to somebody who lived in the nursing home. She then proceeded to write some letters on the back of the picture and then she asked one of the nurses what name she had written on it. It kind of looked like Betty, so the nurse found Betty, a sweet elderly lady in a wheelchair with severe arthritis and what looked like the physical attributes of a person who has gone through a major stroke or has MS. (I'm definetely not a Dr. when it comes to assessing this kind of stuff :)) Betty was delighted! She worked on saying "Thank You" with a huge smile on her face and proceeded to tell us (with the help of her nurse) about her grand baby. Elie was so pleased that she spent the rest of the afternoon drawing pictures for as many residents as she could. She made such an impression on the nurse I was working with during the day that they needed to have hugs and an emotional goodby at the end of the day. -What an amazing little girl I have.

You could just see Elie working over the experience in her head throughout the day. At lunch we went to McDonalds because they had a play structure she could play on. Since Elie knows that McDonalds does not have very healthy food, she instructed me to try to buy healthy food for myself so that I wouldn't have to live in a nursing home when I get older. She then told me that when I get old I need to live with her. I plan on reminding her of that later in life.

-Bryce

Portland, Oregon

Hello! Jadon and I made it safely from North Carolina to Portland Oregon, after three airplane rides - much to my son's delight. He did fabulous! The best traveling he's done yet:o). We are tired, but so relieved to be with family and relax comfortably for a while.

Elie and Bryce get in tonight around mid-night and we will head to Vancouver, Washington tomorrow morning to be with Bryce's family for the weekend.

Elie and Jadon have really missed each other - something that is just precious to Bryce and I to see in them:o).

Fried Green Tomatoes

We found the BEST place ever to eat - and they served fried green tomatoes! We tried them and discovered that they are actually really good. This place was so good and so much fun that Elie cried when we told her we were leaving the city and we wouldn't be able to eat there again - something she's not done on this trip yet.

The place was called Brown's and Elie cried for "Brown" for a whole hour! I guess it was a very fun experience for her!!! (She also loved the fried green tomatoes - and just about everything else she ate).

Check it out: www.brownscountryrestaurant.com