1,700 miles

Here's the first installment of much overdue blogging. Andy and I have been traveling for the last 6 weeks. We left Jackson, Mississippi (where we were for 3 months for Andy's job) at the end of September and headed to Kenosha, Wisconsin to visit Glenn, Heather and the kids. After Kenosha, we added a few hours to our trip back to UT in order include a stop at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Then off to UT to drop off our gear from the summer and pack for another 3 weeks of traveling. After 2 days in UT, we got back in the car and drove to Santa Rosa, CA to visit family. That is as far as I'll go with this post. . .

During our stay in Jackson this summer, we took a week trip over to Texarkana, Texas.

Kenosha visiting Glenn, Heather and the kids. . . .

Bowling with Glenn and Heather

Can't tell they're brothers by the way they make faces right when they see a camera. . .

Andy and I were lucky enough to accompany the Harris family on their annual apple orchard trip. We had so much fun...it took a while for us to fill our bags since we couldn't stop eating the apples!!

Isaac took advantage of Andy being defenseless!

Andy helped Noah put both of his legs in one side of his pants. Noah wouldn't walk, he just stood there and made his funny face. So cute. Of course this happened when Glenn and Heather left us alone with the kids!

Mount Rushmore was incredible. It looked fake. There are so many intricate details...it was hard to believe it was actually carved out of rock!

CALIFORNIA

We went to watch Lexi cheer at her high school football game, but she got injured the day before, so we got to hand out with her instead :-) We ran into one of Andy's old friends at the game. It started to rain a few minutes into the game, but we were tough and stuck around (until half time when it began to pour and you could barely see the field!!).

Andy with Faith and Max

The San Francisco Academy of Science opened the week before we got to CA. It was absolutely amazing!! The picture below shows the huge glass globe that enclosed the rain forest that had butterflies, a waterfall, plants, a huge aquarium, and lots of animal exhibits all the way through. The line to get in was long, but definitely worth it.

The kids looking like the ape behind them.

I was hoping Andy would do a picture like the kids and look like the ape behind him, but he didn't and I did, so I just looked silly. MaryAnn took the picture after I got embarassed.

Tricia and Jo trying to look like they were really in the African tundra

Huge aquarium at the bottom of the glass globe that had an arapaima (the big fish above Andy's head)

The clan on the roof

On the roof

Jo was nice enough to let us stop at the Golden Gate Bridge on our way home from the Academy of Science

We spent a day at the beach. It was a bit cold, but the views were beautiful. On our hike down to the ocean, Andy pointed out all of the poison oak for me to avoid. He's a good little boy scout :-)

2 adult seals and a baby!!

We stopped to have lunch at a point overlooking the crashing waves. Andy found a friend to share his lunch with.