It is 8:30, and we just left Houston where we were treated very well by the Brookers, Diane's parents. The Johnson Space Center was great. We got to see Mission Control and some old rockets. We had dinner at Red River Barbecue, a local favorite. It was delicious. We had a wonderful homemade breakfast this morning. Thank you, Mr. And Mrs. Brooker!

We are hoping to make it to Georgia today. We are all ready to get home. We will stop tomorrow and have lunch with our friends, Steve and Krista Milburn, in Greenville, SC, and meet their new baby, Elisabeth.

Descriptions of the pictures in prior post....

Currently, we have just arrived in Houston at NASA. We are meeting Diane Spear's parents here and spending the night with them.

I bet you're wondering what that first picture is about. Our car was broken into last night! Our hotel was in a decent area near downtown San Antonio and near the Cowboys host hotel (Tom and Thomas went to Cowboys training camp!). Our hotel also had 24 -hour security, but somehow someone broke the window and took our GPS and Tom's phone charger -- how random! He/she left cameras, a DVD player, Nintendos, etc.
So Tom spent the morning at Safelite getting a new window.

Other than that we had a good time in San Antonio. We took a ride up the Tower of the Americas (bigger than Seattle's Space Needle). Of course we visited the Alamo, and we watched an IMAX movie about the Alamo. We had a great dinner at the Salt Grass Steakhouse and took a boat ride along the river, which is the centerpiece of downtown San Antonio.

Other pictures:
We spent about a day in California......Hollywood, Pacific Ocean, Angels-Rangers game. Great weather on the coast but very hot (106) in the desert. The beaches are really pretty but extremely crowded. Hayley and Hannah think they want to live there.

Grand Canyon is awesome. You can't imagine how enormous it is. You have to see it. We hiked about 1.5 miles down into the Canyon and had lunch before hiking back up. We took in a beautiful sunset over the Canyon before the rain started. We haven't had a lot of rain on the trip-- just one terrible storm in Wisconsin and a few shorter storms here and there.

In Santa Fe, New Mexico, we toured the cute little downtown. We went to the Loretto Chapel that the Hamptons told us about. The chapel
contains a mysterious and beautiful spiral staircase that has no support system yet remains firmly in place. We went a little outside town to the ancient Indian cliff dwellings. You can see Thomas and Alli climbing up into one of the dwellings. We also went to Los Alamos to learn about the making of the first atomic bomb. Very interesting!

Our last day in Colorado, we went into downtown Denver with Scott, Samantha, and the girls. You can see the picture of the kids sitting on the steps of the Colorado state capital with the "1 mile above sea level" inscription. Denver is the "Mille High City."

On Sunday in Littleton we went to church where Scott gave a great sermon on forgiveness. Then we went on a 30-mile bike ride beside the river -- all the way into Denver! It is the farthest any of us have ever ridden on a bike--except Tom, of course. It was a huge challenge for Alli, and we are so proud of her for finishing well.

We drove to Pike's Peak....a long way up....and enjoyed the incredible views from 14,110 feet above sea level. We drove through Garden of the Gods-- we renamed it Garden of God! Very beautiful!

We also went to WaterWorld.....the largest water park in the USA. The kids had a great time.

Experiencing technical difficulties.....stay tuned

On Wednesday last week we drove into the mountains and went white water rafting. To our dismay we discovered that you must be 15 years old to do class 3 & 4 rapids, so we had to do a "bunny ride." Thank God for our guide, Derek, who made the trip worth taking. He kept us informed and entertained throughout our trip down the river. A really weird thing happened when we first met him -- he asked where we were from, and we said, "North Carolina." He then asked where in NC, and we told him Kinston. You won't believe what he said -- "Well, did you bring me some King's barbecue?" We immediately assumed that he must know Jimbo :-) , but we found out that his grandfather was born and raised in Kinston, so he grew up making trips to Kinston as he traveled around the country as a military kid.

Ok, so we're a little bit behind.....so much fun stuff going on. We had a great week in Colorado with Tom's brother, Scott, his wife, Samantha, and their 2 daughters. We arrived on Monday evening and were excitedly welcomed by Lydia, 5, and Claire, almost 4. They had been sitting on the front porch waiting for us for some time. Thanks, Scott and Samantha, for being such great hosts for the week!

We had decided that the next day would be a rest day for us since we'd been going so hard for so many days. It was my (Gayla's) birthday. Samantha graciously offered to take all the kids to the neighborhood pool, so Tom and I took the train in to Denver to tour the city. We went to the King Tut exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. Tom kept looking for King Tut, but he wasn't there. Apparently, his remains are no longer allowed out of Cairo, but there were lots of items on display from his tomb. After the museum, we met the rest of the family at Casa Bonita, a Mexican restaurant/entertainment experience. Tom and I had been there before and thought that all the kids would enjoy it. The huge restaurant is set up like a Mexican village complete with a Mariachi band, trees, and a "stage" where a diver really dives off cliffs into the pool below. The food is nothing to write home about (no pun intended), but I think the kids had a fun time. The picture above was taken at Casa Bonita.

We made it! We left Bill Cody Ranch early Sunday morning and arrived at Yellowstone National Park about 9am. It is an absolutely beautiful place...and huge! We drove about 190 miles around the park and didn't hit all the roads, much less the trails. We entered on the east side and very quickly saw a bald eagle, a black bear, a buffalo, huge majestic mountains, and stunning Yellowstone Lake.

The highlight of Yellowstone for Tom was seeing this grizzly bear with two cubs eating grass on the side of the road. The second cub is peeking out from behind the mother. I'll try to upload the video that Alli shot when we discovered the bears.

We saw hundreds of buffalo throughout the park. This one walked right in front of and beside our car and scared Hannah silly b/c the window was down and Hayley didn't roll it up fast enough....(Hannah's version of the story :-))

The waterfalls were Gayla's favorite part. Here we are on the Brink of the Upper Falls after hiking down a long, steep path. Just to the left, the water fell 100 feet down to the fast-flowing river. We sat down on a huge rock at this site and "had church." Tom gave us a great reminder of where all this gorgeous stuff came from as he read the Creation account in Genesis 1.

In the background you can see the Lower Falls, a 300 ft. drop to the Yellowstone River below.

We also went to the Mammoth Hot Springs, but they were pretty dried up.....just a few wet ones to see. We also witnessed Old Faithful, but it was lightning and raining, so the view wasn't spectacular. Still, it is an amazing sight to see all that water shoot powerfully into the air about 120 ft. Except for the short-lived storm at Old Faithful, we have had perfect weather almost the whole trip. Thank God for that!

After our delightful day in Yellowstone, we drove south through Grand Teton National Park (another beautiful place!) to Jackson (a.k.a. Jackson Hole), Wyoming. This is an adorable little ski town and "gateway community" to Yellowstone. We walked the streets, took in the sights and sounds of this little town, and enjoyed a good night's sleep before heading out for Littleton, Colorado, the next morning.

Currently, we are having a ball with Scott (Tom's brother), Samantha, Lydia (5 1/2), and Claire (almost 4) in and around Littleton, Colorado.

Where do I begin? We've done so much in so little time, it seems.

We left Chicago and drove to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There we visited the Harley Davidson Museum - imagine that! (It was on our way and a good place to use the bathroom.) We also visited Miller Stadium, where the Milwaukee Brewers play baseball. Nice stadium.

From there we moved across Wisconsin quickly and went into Minnesota. We arrived in Bloomington where Mall of America is (right outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul) at rush hour. There was a lot of traffic! We found our hotel and within minutes took the free shuttle to the Mall. Tom and Thomas decided that one evening of shopping was enough for them. Thomas found the Lego store and the Nike store and he was done. The girls, on the other hand, couldn't wait to go back the next day. They had from 10-3 to shop and then Tom picked us up at the Mall to head out to South Dakota.

We have seen the creativity of God in all the different land forms -- mountains, flatlands, rolling hills, etc., and in the weather. We drove through the worst rain I've ever experienced on our way from Milwaukee to Bloomington, MN. On our way to Wyoming we started up a mountain in 81 degree weather. At the top it was 51 degrees, and at the bottom on the other side it was a nice 81 again. In general the weather has been awesome -- no humidity, 80-85, cool nights.

Back to South Dakota --We drove by farm after farm after farm (most flat, but some rolling hills) and finally reached our hotel about 10pm. We stayed at a tiny motel in Kadoka, population 763.

Early the next day we left for the Badlands. Wow! God is so, so creative! Amazing structures.

Coming out of the park, we ended up at Wall Drug, a huge tourist trap where we all bought souvenirs!

From there we entered South Dakota's Black Hills. They are called that b/c they look black. Simple. It's really just lots of trees covering the mountains. It is beautiful territory. In the Black Hills rests Mount Rushmore, and on our way there we stopped at Bear Country USA. We saw lots of animals roaming around our car, but the highlight was the black bears. They were so cute, and they literally walked up to the cars, sniffing and rubbing against some of them. Mount Rushmore was just like you see in all the pictures, but it was very moving to be there.

Besides the incredible sculpture, the scenery around it (up and down the mountain) was fantastic. On our way out we drove through Deadwood, and old western town (with all the modern conveniences). It seems like we drove for days before we reached our accomodations that night (Bill Cody Ranch in Cody, WY). We drove up and down mountains with tight switchbacks -- gorgeous, but slow. At the top of one mountain, the road became a dirt road -- yes, one of the main roads from South Dakota to Yellowstone Park was a dirt road for a mile or two. They were constructing a new road, but we thought we were going out to the middle of nowhere! After a long, tiring trip we finally saw the Bill Cody Ranch sign, and we knew we were staying near the horses when we took our first sniffs of the place. It was worth it, though. We all had a delightful time riding horses the next morning. The views were great and the girls fell in love with their horses. Hayley is still talking about "Barbara." After our ride, we went into town -- Cody, a quaint little town with a super scrapbook store (for Gayla and Hayley), a fireworks store (for Thomas), and the original Irma Hotel and Restaurant that Wild Bill Cody started back in the early 1900's. We had lunch at the restaurant and sat at the original bar where Wild Bill and his buddies used to sit. Because we were all exhausted from the hectic pace of the previous day, we returned to the Ranch to take naps. Tom skipped the nap and walked down along the Shoshone River where there were gorgeous mountains rising on both sides.

The Badlands

At the Ranch that night they had a cookout. We sat at a picnic table by the creek where we ordered from menus and were served as if we were inside a restaurant. The Ranch staff were a talkative bunch and we got to know our waiter and our horseback trail guides a little. The kids had a ping pong tournament in the game room and made s'mores by the fire and then we began packing to leave early for Yellowstone the next morning.

It makes me tired just reliving all this on paper -- uh, computer -- but it is an incredible experience! We highly recommend it! The kids are doing well. Long car rides lend themselves to bickering, but for the most part, the kids are having so much fun with each other and me and Tom. Great family-building experience.

Our horses names, in order, are Barbara, Holiday, Velvet, Thunder, Denim, and Titan.