2411.79~Part Two!

We stopped for about a day and a half in Colorado Springs to visit my sister and her family! A much needed break from the endless driving!

~Rest of day 3 and 4~

States visited, Colorado!

My super adorable niece and her crazy uncle.... 

My sisters husband is in the military, so we got a tour of Fort Carson. I was surprised that all the tanks were tan, until I remembered where they are using them right now and realized green might not be the best camouflage color.....

Scary helicopter.....

Look, they match! And are being photo-bombed.....

 The Garden of the Gods is NOT in Utah like previously assumed, so we went to see that too!

They called this formation the kissing camels, I can totally see it!

It was dusk, so not the best light to capture the amazing color of the rocks, but this picture caught the last of the sunset!

The photo ninja, she sneaks up behind unsuspecting prey and snaps a picture before they ever realize whats going on....except your camera decides to take forever to focus so you are left hanging there for oh, about 15 seconds.....

I wish I could have captured the color and scope of the Garden better, but you'll just have to go and see it for yourselves some day!

Climbing guy made a good photo op!

Another picture where the color of the rock shows up better!

Is or isn't this the perfect beginning of an adventure story!?

Neat, right? =)

This is the other side of climbing guy!

Then we ate here!! I finally got my honey chipotle chicken and might I say it was delicious!

My brother in law painted this tree in Buggy's nursery, isn't it fantastic?

~Days 5 and 6~ 

Sates visited, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee!!!!!

Crossing the Mississippi, never quite believed I'd do this!

 The fall color was still pretty amazing when we got here in the 70 degree heat!

Rolling, treed farmland, I can deal with that, beautiful isn't it?

 Home sweet home!

Our town visitor center, how cool is that bell tower?

 Downtown

City Hall in town square!

It was a long, long week, but well worth it to be all together as a family again. =)

It's been tiring, but fun to unpack and find new places to put everything.....Now that I think on it.....maybe more tiring then fun for the most part..... ;-)

The house and town are proving to be pretty fantastic and hopefully a job opportunity will fall into place (fingers crossed and prayed prayed please!) 

2411.79

That my friends is how many miles we drove to get from Bend, OR, to Colorado Springs, CO to visit my sister, then to our final destination, Columbia TN! 

Let me tell you, it was a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG week of driving, especially for those of us who, even after taking ginger pills for carsickness (they really work!) can't read or do anything else in the car but sit there.....and sit there.....and sit there.....me and my little brother (the other carsick one among us) were pretty bored for most of the time!

But, we got a few books on CD, some from the library and one from Audible. I snagged it using a free download through Hulu Plus. I got Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke, read by Brendan Farser. The book and the performance were excellent, I highly recommend all of Cornelia's books and any of the audio versions of them read by Brendan!

~Day one~

States driven through, Oregon and Idaho.  

 Tilly, in our empty living room the morning we left.....

 One last picture of the ol' homestead as we all climb into the car.....

First day of driving was a little lacking in scenery, it was like this for, oh I don't know, about 6 hours.....

I was going to have my parents stop at each, you are now entering this state, type signs, but as we were traveling on interstates most of the way, we mostly just got to wave at them as they flew by!

 Idaho was very flat

For this, grew up within sight of a mountain range girl it was odd and fascinating not to see anything on the horizon.....

~Day Two~

States driven through, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.

The Rockies!!!

Ahh, wind farms! Made me think of driving to my Grandparents, we always passed some in Southern CA on the way to visit them.....

~Day Three~

States driven through, Wyoming and Colorado!

Yeah, almost to Megan's house!

Downtown Denver, let me say, I'm so happy I was not the one driving while we went through Denver! Now only were were in a big older car, but we were pulling a little one behind us! Sure, hop over 3 lanes of busy 75mle an hour traffic, no big deal!

Some scenery  between Denver and Colorado Springs!

And that was the first three days of our trip, stayed tuned for part two!

Surprise.....

Remember the hint that there might be a trip in my future? Well, guess what? It's going to happen!

...and not only am I taking the trip, the rest of the family is too, along with all of our stuff!  

Yep, you guessed it, the Pillsbury clan is moving to Tennessee! (With a stop along the way to visit big sis and my adorable little niece of course! Though early next year they will be moving to DC which is only 10 hours away from where we are moving, is that serendipitous or what?)

Dad got offered a permanent place with the company he's contracting for and he said yes! There are some i's to be dotted and t's to be crossed, but for all concerned it's a done deal and hearts are all a-flutter with the prospect of moving 2,00 miles!

I am filled with excitement, it's always been a dream of mine to live in the South.....and to acquire an accent!.....

Yes, one of the first things I did was check to see of there was a Chili's (My very favorite restaurant) close by, try more then 5!

....but I'm sad and nervous too! I'll desperately miss my tea girls!

 .....and church family we've found here. I've lived in Bend for the last 16 years, and our current house for 15 by far the longest I've lived anywhere! When we moved up form California I was 9 and there were only 5 of us. But, God has a plan and I am looking forward to see what he has in store for us in the coming months!

Source: flickr.com via Traci on Pinterest