Here Comes a Bunch of Pictures

      We are finally off again!  I am finally blogging again!

                  We finished our cross country trip well. There were close encounters with tornadoes and flash floods in the midwest, biscuits and gravy at an Amish bakery in Ohio, fireflies in Steubenville, an overheated car (ours) in Pennsylvania, and a final arrival at our end destination in Virginia. Between all of that were great visits with friends and family.

                   Sherrey and Kurt, we loved having dinner with you! You made Fort Collins feel like we

                      already had a home there. 

                   Jon and Diane, thank you for the hospitality in Chicago! And the amazing birthday coffee!

                   Justin, I'm sad we missed you!

                   Erick, it was great to meet you! Thank you for the floor to sleep on and the farm to
                     explore!

                   Katie, I loved getting to catch up with you! We could definitely be roommates. 

                

                  Getting to Virginia meant something great other than finishing the trip: spending time with my lovely sister and her family! My siblings are ALL OVER the country: Chicago, D.C., Atlanta, and then there's me - the wanderer. Spending time with them is precious, and I got to spend almost two weeks with my sister. She and her husband Erik could be famous with all their beauty and cool, and their kids are my favorites. 

        We spent two days at Disneyland, which was both EXHAUSTING (and the kids weren't even mine) and FUN. Have you ever seen children beam at Disney princesses? I'm not all that Disney crazy (Scott finds it hard to understand), and don't particularly love the princess THING, but I can't say I didn't tear up a little. It's precious.
         If you haven't had a chance to go to Cars Land I could recommend spending part of your child's college savings to go (Disnleyland is so expensive!!). Having never seen the movie, and again not being THAT into Disney, I was kind of whatever about getting into the park early to go. It turns out, it is really cool! As I told my friend Sarah later, "I was just in the desert, and it was like I was there again!"

Then we hung out on my dad's boat for a day. How beautiful are they, really?

Then Elisa, Erik and the kids left, and Scott and I were free to work on Betty for our next leg. Now we are (finally) leaving Orange County with a new back to the bench seat, and all new storage for our things. Betty looks great, and though I have enjoyed being at my parents more than I expected, I am so ready to get back on some rock, and back in some forest.

See you again in a month.