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.

Pics: The kids on the shore of Lake Erie with Cedar Point in the background, our reflection in "The Bean,"
Thomas, Uncle Jim, and Tom at Soldier Field, us at Cedar Point, us with Aunt Diane, Aunt Barbara, and Uncle Jim.

Wow! The time is flying. It's hard to believe we've been gone 5 days, yet we've done so much in those 5 days! Since the last post, we have been to Cedar Point -- where Alli rode her first BIG rollercoaster and Tom and the big girls rode the Dragster that gets up to 120 mph in 4 seconds and then shoots straight up for 240 feet and then straight down again. They looked like a fighter jet taking off and returning quickly to earth! For some reason, I can't get the pictures to upload to the blog, so hopefully we'll have some pictures tomorrow night.

We spent Sunday night in Indiana and then drove into Illinois the next day. We stayed with Tom's Aunt Barbara and Uncle Jim and hung out with Aunt Diane, too. They treated us so well! Thomas got to go to a Lego Discovery Land near their house and then we cooked out with them. On Tuesday we drove into Chigaco, about an hour from their house, with Uncle Jim as our guide. He was a wonderful tour guide! On the way into town, we saw the original McDonald's, complete with 1950s cars parked out front. Once in the city, we toured Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears, and rode an elevator up 94 stories in 40 seconds to the John Hancock Building Observatory. The views were amazing! We really like Chicago. It's clean, well-organized, and beautiful....especially along the shore of Lake Michigan. The weather was absolutely perfect, too.....about 82 degrees and sunny with a refreshing breeze coming off the lake. There are beautiful and interesting parks throughout the city, too....complete with fountains, unique sculptures, tall walls that spit water at the children playing below, rehearsing orchestras, "The Bean," and a 30-ft eyeball!

Wednesday morning we leave for Minneapolis and the Mall of America. We may go through Milwaukee on the way there....not sure.

We are having a great time seeing God's creativity -- both directly and displayed through the talents of his greatest creation, people.

(Pictures are in reverse order.) Saturday we drove through the beautiful mountains of West Virginia on our way to Columbus, Ohio. Hayley said that the mountains were her favorite scenery so far.....Wait until she sees the Colorado mountains! We had a picnic lunch in the wonderful Battelle Riverfront Park where there is a replica of Christopher Columbus' boat the Santa Maria. After our vigorating tour (for Gayla anyway), we drove through Ohio State University's campus. Lots of red, but not as much as NC State!

We continued on to Worthington, Ohio, just north of Columbus where we drove through Tom's old neighborhood. You can see the picture of his old house below. There was a lady in the front porch swing....I felt a little weird taking a picture of her house with her right there.

We left there and traveled north to the coast of Ohio.....Sandusky to be exact. We walked out along the shore of Lake Erie and enjoyed the gorgeous sunset. The first picture is the kids on that shore with Cedar Point Amusement Park in the background. We will hit that in the morning after going to church here in Sandusky. The plan is to stay at the park all day and then drive a couple of hours to some point in Indiana Sunday night. Monday we will leave for Chicago, where we will stay with Tom's aunt and uncle for a couple of days.

The kids are doing relatively well in our overstuffed car. We've learned a lot about packing that will help us in the future. :0) Outside the car, they seem to be having a great time with us and each other. We are reading a chapter of Proverbs each day and encouraging godly behavior through a little incentive game we're playing. So far, so good!

1 day

1 day 1 day 1 day 1 day till we leave

I've added our schedule under the "Schedule Highlights" tab.

Gayla

Count Down...4 more days!