Friday, February 29, 2008

Our new house!


Most of the boxes have been unpacked, and some of the pictures have been hung...it's beginning to look like home! Here's a peek at our new house.











The kitchen






The living room



The back yard





TV Room





Dining Room

Varsity freshman!!


Okay, since it's my blog....I get to brag a little. So, I want to congatulate my boy on becoming the newest varsity player on the Anacortes High School Soccer team! Way to go, Alex!!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

We made it to Washington!!!

The view out our front door!


After spending many days and hours in the car and crossing many state lines together, we have finally arrived in beautiful Anacortes, Washington where some of us hope we'll never have to leave!
Inspired by a friend who maitains a fabulous blog, I've decided to give blogging a try as a means of keeping in better touch with our friends and family around the globe.


I'm going to backtrack a little in my next post to tell you a bit about our trip out west.


Hope you'll visit our site often!!

Getting here

Did I mention that our drive was very LONG?! Here's a little recap of our westward adventure!



















After a tearful goodbye in Virginia Beach, the boys and I traveled to Franklin, Indiana to visit my sister's family. After a fun filled visit with our favorite cousins, we picked Henry up at the Indianapolis airport and began our journey.












On day 1, we managed to get through Indiana and Illinois, which was pretty uneventful. Once we entered Iowa, the scenery began to change (see pic below), and we decided to call it a night! We woke up on day 2 in Marshalltown, Iowa to a temperature of 6 below 0, and a windchill of -31 degrees!!










On day 2, we skirted the border of Nebraska, and while passing through Sioux Falls, witnessed the most amazing sunset. Inspired by the beauty of miles and miles of vast desolation, we pushed through until we reached Rapid City, South Dakota, where we camped out for the night.













Day 3 welcomed us with snowy but sunny skies, and knowing that a national monument was only 30 minutes out of our way, we decided we had to visit Mount Rushmore! Although covered with a light dusting of snow, it truly was an amazing sight to behold. And so were we, being the only crazy patrons there in the dead of winter!










We left South Dakota feeling awestruck and upbeat, and suddenly found ourselves driving through Wyoming in blizzard like, near white-out conditions! Henry insisted (despite my begging and pleading!) that we continue on, now feeling justified for spending an outrageous amount of money on new winter tires for the car!










Once we broke through the storm, we had the Rockies in view, and continued on a beautiful drive towards Montana.









On day 4, we woke in Billings, Montana, and soon found ourselves driving through some very scary, winding mountain roads. We knew the west had been getting some snow, but the welcome sign to Idaho summed it up best: (can't read it? exactly....neither could we!)
















After a long day, we finally arrived in Spokane, Washington. Hurray....almost there!












After enjoying a night being back in civilization, we piled back in the car for one more long leg across the state of Washington. Day 5 afforded us good weather, beautiful views, and a glimpse into what our new area had to offer. Welcome home, Rendon's!!