Merry Monday

And Here Our USA Adventure Continues!

The four days before our big road trip began, we were blessed to have our sweet friend, Lacey, visit us from Oregon.  Hours after she flew home...it was

NORTH DAKOTA OR BUST FOR US!!!

Only in Montana!!!

I honestly don't know if this is Idaho or Montana!  We spent two big days traveling to North Dakota and saw some of the most incredibly beautiful creation.  My husband love had never been out of the state of California, so it was a big adventure for him to see more of my country.  He said in awe at one point, "Honey, your country is beautiful!" I had to agree 100%.  I had never traveled this route before, so I enjoyed it immensely as well.  Even the hours sitting with a numb bum and achy legs.  Baby boy traveled snug as a bug in a rug, of course and Chloe, well she did incredibly well for HOURS upon HOURS sitting in her car seat.

This is how much she enjoyed the scenery!

My family, minus three special ones that stayed in California.  They were not meant to still be in California during our family picture shoot, but as it turned out, that is exactly where they were.  There are times that the will of God is terrifically difficult for me to accept graciously and the fact that my second brother and his wife and little love did not make it to North Dakota to join us is one of the most recent and most painful.  The afternoon they were headed to the airport to fly to N.D. there was a horrific plane crash at that California International Airport and they were unable to fly out.  I was not the only one that wept tears of bitter disappointment, but our personal disappointment and grief was small compared to the families that lost loved ones that afternoon. 

Grandpa and Grandma with two of their three little girl loves.

Oh, how we love her.  Oh, how charming she can be when she wants to be!

Love these little girls.  What a study in different personalities.  SO enjoyed our time with Miss Sydney and her parents!

My brother, Chad, sister-in-law, Maria, niece, Sydney and their little expected one!  I will be auntie again in January 2014.  I am very excited about that!

These girlies spent hours digging in the dirt and rocks.

We had lovely weather the six days we were in N.D.  Enjoyed many delicious meals on the back patio.  My SIL is an amazing cook and we just feasted on her marvelous creations for six days!

Singing around the evening campfire with Grandpa

 A few scenes of North Dakota: Wide Open Spaces

 While our travels took us to North Dakota because two of my three brothers now live there (and we thoroughly enjoyed being with them and getting a taste of their new lives there), I was not prepared for the rich lesson in history we would also receive.  What a rich, gorgeous land of wide, open space.  It was like balm for my poor, urban weary little soul.  No pollution, no crowds, no traffic, no skyscrapers, no loud blaring of thousands of horns, no screeching of bus brakes, no hawking of sidewalk wares.  Just quiet.  Peace. Space.

Because I have become a horrible picture taker lately, we don't have pictures of our fun outings like

M Musical: a fantastic 2 hour musical featuring music, dancing, comedy, history and lots of laughter!

M Historical Town: a quaint, darling little historical place were we enjoyed an impersonation of Theodore Roosevelt, delicious ice cream, a tour of a summer "cottage" of one of the first wealthy settler in the area and a museum.

It was a wonderful, wonderful trip.  We took three days driving home, giving us a grand total of five days in my dad's double cab truck.  Talk about bonding time!!  We were very happy to pull up in my parent's drive way mid-July.  Even the overwhelming heat was welcome!  So incredibly grateful for the opportunity we had to go and a huge thank you to my parents for making the trip possible.

Good night for now.
                                           "May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you                                                                                                     and give you Peace!"