More Exploring...

Playgroup walk in the Cornell Bird Sanctuary...Nina is finding some great little friends to play with.

Just sitting at home.

Getting ready to walk to Preschool

Riding the bus to go and visit dad at school

Playing on the first day of Preschool

First day of Preschool

My goofy grown up girl!

This was our first experiment with quiet time. Nina had a few nights in a row where she would not go to sleep...and this has NEVER been a problem. So we decided to try quiet time instead of a nap. When I went in to get her out of quiet time...just about every toy was dumped on her floor, and she was all dressed up with nowhere to go...except dream land.

I love that she is wearing her fancy shoes. And notice the thumb in the mouth...this is another blog post all together. We are working on it, but the thumb is still a BIG part of our life. After a few "quiet times" like this, I decided Nina just still needs a little nap, but I only let her sleep for an hour to an hour and a half. It has been great...and I love still having a napper!

Playgroup at Cornell Orchards...this cute lady was telling the kids all about the apple trees.

Hay Maze...it took so long to get Nina out of here...she loved it!

Picking Apples

Eating Apples

Nina lines up her stuffed animals all over the house. This day they were all holding hands. Ha!

Hike to Taughannock Falls with some of our great new friends here in New York.

Beautiful!

Getting the kids packed and ready for the hike.

Over the past month there has been lots of rain here in upstate NY. One day all of the roads were closed in the morning and school was cancelled. Later that day, we decided to drive and see the damage. Here is the river that runs through the big gorge here. Usually the water just spills over the very center of this dam, but this day it went over the whole thing. Amazing. (sorry about the poor picture...we were driving.

Cornell Plantation...it was gorgeous!!

Swimming with more new friends.

Nina's new desk...remember we found this for free on the side of the road. After a little cleanup and paint...it is awesome. Seriously...I can hide all of Nina's coloring projects inside, and she just loves to sit there and work on things. Bill thought for sure he would regret putting that thing in our trunk...but we have proved him wrong!!

The before shot

My two goofballs! This was a day when we were unpacking boxes...and Bill found the Nurf gun. This is why kids need dads!!

That is all for now.

The House...Apartment...Home.

This is Sapsucker Woods. Literally right next to our apartment. There is a great trail that leads to a Bird sanctuary. Very beautiful!
And this is Nina watching Bill get on the Bus on his first day of school.

First Day of School Photo. Probably Bill was less than excited that I took this, but it is history.That's right...Nina went poops on the potty. We got this Tinkerbell seat, and it did the trick. She has had no accidents at all. I think three is the magic number. Nina playing at the Science CenterWe had a stake activity at Watkins Glen. It was breathtaking!

We also went on a Cruise of Cayuga Lake with the other Johnson School Students.Home Sweet home. We live on the top floor on the left side. (Please feel no need to keep reading. This next section of the post has been requested by moms. They need to be able to picture where we are at...it is pretty standard, old school, apartment living.)Nina playing in her "boat." She likes to make boats out of anything she can find. Nina's RoomThe StudyOur BedroomThe BathroomFamily Room, standing at the front door.Family Room, standing at the window.Kitchen from the Front door, although, while the front door is open, you cannot see into the kitchen, only into the main family room. (In other words, it's okay not to do the dishes.)More Kitchen, usually that desk is not there...another post to come on that soon!And that is the grand tour. We also have an attic. It is awesome! We have so much storage...it is amazing. Thanks for touring.

Coolest Road Trip EVER!!

Well, before this whole trip started, Bill celebrated his 27th Birthday. We went with our families to a Salt Lake Bees game and it was a blast!

Now on to our road trip...Bill's packing job for our trunk. He was very proud of how well everything fit, and yes ladies and gentlemen, it was packed just like this every morning of our trip. I am just glad he was excited to do it, cause if it was up to me? Well, it would not have looked like this.Getting ready to pull out of town...does it look like we were just crying? (And by "we" I mean "me.") Well it was an emotional two days saying goodbye to our families. We miss them already, but we are so glad that we are here!Casper, WY...our first stop, and we even got to do some handcart pulling.Nina at our campsite in Casper. She was the cutest thing for miles...and the only thing for miles for that matter. Kind of an armpit up there, but still fun.Bill showing our campsite for night one. We did camp the first two nights of the road trip. It was fun, and it made those Motel 6's the rest of the way feel like five star Hotels...just helped us put things in perspective, ya know?Then we woke up and drove to Rapid City South Dakota. Who knew there was so much to do? South Dakota is awesome! You should go. First thing in the morning we drove to Crazy Horse. So amazing and so huge!! I mean Mount Rushmore could sit on the face of the crazy horse monument! Who knew?! (Oh and I just loved this picture of Nina, of course I have just a regular smiling one, but this? too good to pass up!)Us standing by a statue of what the finished monument will look like, with the current one in the distance.Mount Rushmore!Bear Country USA...so much better than Bear World in ID. Really, this was a real highlight for Nina.

Click here to see what I mean.

Okay...if you have a weak stomach turn away now. This next picture is of the bird we hit on our way from WY to SD. We did not think much of it...until we got to bear country. We were putting along in the bear exhibit, and this bear in the middle of the road just starts walking toward our car. We are like, "Oh cute, look Nina he is coming to say Hi." Right. Well when he gets up close he just puts his head down and starts scratching or gnawing at our bumper...where the bird was stuck to our air intake. We were scared he was going to mess up our car, so we honked, which scared him for a minute and he jumped back, but then stared coming for us again. We hurried and sped away, not taking much more time in the bear exhibit.
Our campsite at Mystery Mountain...eating our breakfast of Costco Muffins.

Reptile Gardens...we are still and SD and still more to see!

This one was too good to pass up...thanks honey. We went to an alligator and crocodile show and it was awesome. This guy was literally wrestling this alligator while there were about 20 others just right by him.

The Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. This was the perfect random stop for a road trip.

Yes, that is all corn.

Nina modeling in our motel 6...we stayed in Sioux Falls this night. This picture also reminds me of just how small those towels were. Glad to be home. Another great stop on the road. The Gothic House in Eldon, Iowa. Nina was napping in the car, so we rolled the windows down and ran up and snapped a shot. I love Bill's pitchfork! Ha!!

Nauvoo, Illinois

About one minute before we pulled up to our motel, Nina peed in her car seat. She was such a trooper, and it was totally my fault. So we headed over to the laundromat. It was so HOT and so HUMID!! The Nauvoo Temple

Overlooking the Mississippi River

We went on this great wagon ride all over the town, and got to see everything.

By 10am it was 93 degrees with 90% humidity and a heat index of 100. In other words, we bought some fudge and hit the road. Here is a picture of Nina that pretty much sums up her whole trip. Just watching her movie in the backseat. She was so awesome!

We stayed in Dayton, Ohio, but did not do much sight seeing (besides the local Cracker Barrel for dinner.) It was one of our longer driving days. Then we woke up and drove to Pittsburgh. Easily the biggest surprise for me on this trip. The city was beautiful. I would love to go back and spend more time there. We did do a little walking around before the Pirates game. It was great.

After staying near Pittsburgh we woke up and drove home. We were so excited to get to our new apartment!! (and sleep in our own bed, in our own bedroom, in our own place...we had been looking forward to that for a few months!)

Here we are arriving in the beautiful state of NY. Our road trip was a blast, and I would not have changed a thing. It was as the subject line says...the coolest road trip ever!!