We are home!

We got home on Monday, January 5th. Our plan was to be home in time for the boys to get to school, but the mountain passes across the Cascade Mountain Range were either closed or open at times. We chose to go over White Pass, which is a smaller pass, but was open...so we went for it!

It went very well...just took it nice and easy. The pass was compact snow and ice. The night before, the area got a dumping of snow so they were worried about avalanches. We made it safe and sound at home around 2pm.

We came home to melting snow on the ground. By tuesday, the snow was just about gone and on wednesday...not a trace in sight! But..... another storm was headed our way, and nice big rain storm that brought us 4" of rain in 24 hours. NICE! Our basement flooded, of course....

Dan rented a backhoe and found the problem. A couple years ago we did some landscaping and must have messed around too much with one of the drain pipes. Over the years it slowly started to crush under the weight of the soil. So we think last year, it finally gave way. Which explains the floods in our basement! Now that we have figured it out, and have big trenches dug around the house...we are nice and dry! At least I know for sure we'll get to landscaping the backyard this Spring!

School is closed today because of the floods. The Coweeman River, which is right behind the boys' schools, was above flood stage lastnight. They were afraid the levies wouldn't hold it. It held tight by the school but gave way in South Kelso where 2000+ residents had to be evacuated! We aren't out of the woods yet, they think in another day or so the water levels will be down considerably. I am sure there will be school tomorrow...maybe.... : )

So a nice welcome home, huh? Glad this happened when we were here and not when we were half way across the country!

January 2nd, time to head back home : (

We left Minneapolis, MN this morning around 8am. We were lucky to see Penny one more time before we left because we had left some things at her house and she was so nice to get them over to us before we left. THANKS PEN! Auntie Pat made a wonderful ham dinner the night before and was so nice to make us ham sandwiches for our lunch, this morning. They were tasty!

It was a cold, cold morning in the midwest! We hit -8 degrees, not counting the wind chill, so it must have been -60 below! It was chilly! Anyway, our first stop after we left Mpls, was St Cloud for some more coffee and then in the famous Fargo, ND for gas and some books. Our plan was to stop in Bismarck ND but we decided to keep going and we stopped in Dickinson, ND instead...almost to MT. The wind gusts made it a little hard to drive, we were tired and hungry...so we are now at a Holiday Inn Express, and they have a water slide!

Thank You Auntie Pat!

Thank you, Auntie Pat, for an amazing time. And for putting up with our crazy schedule. You are the reason this whole trip to MN was possible--we appreciate everything you did for us while we were there. Thank you for helping us make wonderful memories for our family. We look forward to seeing you again soon!

A few more misc pics from MN

The kids having fun!

My cousin, Bryan! It was so nice to see you!

The kids sledding or "sliding" as they call it. This hill is called Power Hill to the locals. It doesn't look very snowy, but it was soooo cold and icy, the kids flew down this hill fast!










Randy and Conner

Sledding and misc pictures

This is a picture of my cousins, Chris and Penny--

This is Penny's daughter, Emily--she did a wonderful job making sure we had plenty of fun things to do!














Our family the last night in MN.














All the cousins together...the spent a total of 96 hours together, non stop and enjoyed every minute of it!














Randy, Penny, and their kids, Emily, Brenna and Bennett. A HUGE thank you goes out to the Roseth Family for putting up with us for almost a week. You showed us an amazing, wonderful time! THANK YOU! We look forward to spending more time with in the future and creating more fun memories!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We rang in the New Year at Penny and Randy's house. The kids spent part of their time downstairs watching I Love Lucy reruns.

















This picture was taken right after the clock struck midnight! It was a fun night! We had so much food, and a ton of laughs! Thank you, everyone, for getting together for us. This will be a New Year we will never ever forget!















Here is a picture of my Auntie Pat, Penny, Bryan and his wife Nicolle

We made it!

We made it to Minneapolis, MN on December 28th. The boys are havning a wonderful time getting reacquatined with their cousins. They pretty much have been together since we got here. They've spent 2 out of the 3 nights together so far...

The first picture is of Bennett, he is the youngest of my cousin Penny's kids. But he has no problem keeping up with the big kids.















This is Bennett at Lego Land in the Mall of America!




















Tyler & Conner with Emily & Brenna in the downstairs rec room.














Conner, Brenna, Emily & Bennett at the Mall of America














Brenna and Conner in the truck on the way too the Mall.

Here are a few more pictures from The Badlands....the land that God forgot. It was an amazing sight...we all enjoyed our adventures today.

We arrived in Mitchell, SD...not on purpose, but got really tired. We were going to try to make it to Sioux Falls, SD, but saw that this Holiday Inn Espress had a water slide, so we HAD to stop. It was time anyway...we had a fun, but long day!

The Badlands, SD

We got out of Wall Drug, SD as quickly as possible before the sun set. We had 1 hour before the sun was gone. We saw buffalo, rams, and a ton of deer. The colors were amazing because of the setting sun. Just wish we had a little more time.

Wall Drug, SD

Wall Drug, SD is the neatest little town! The "drug" store was started in the 1930's and has since then turned into a little tourist trap. They are known for their wonderful cake donuts and $.5 coffee. Yes, five cents!

Conner had to have his picture taken with the famous 6' rabbit! Tyler just liked the look of this statue...teenagers!

About 50 miles before you actually arrive in Wall, SD, the billboard signs start appearing...everything from "kids love Wall Drug" to "free coffee and donuts for veterans--in Wall Drug".

Mt Rushmore, here we come!

We left Deadwood, SD this morning and headed to Mt Rushmore! Deadwood-Lead are huge gold mining towns. It was neat to see all the signs about mining. Mt Rushmore was only about an hour from Deadwood. The day was beautiful, not a cloud in site!

Dad and the boys watching a movie!

Here are Dan and the boys watching The Transformers. Nice ending to a fun day!

After stopping by the Knuckle Saloon store to pick up some souvenirs, we headed back to Deadwood. The boys settled themselves into the room, while Dan and I got some coffee and walked around the town. We stopped in the Lucky Nugget where Wild Bill was shot. We had a couple drinks and then started in on the penny slot machines. We had a blast for awhile, when we were winning, but we quickly lost it all. It was a lot of fun, but also very frustrating!

We are now back in the hotel with the boys watching Transformers and will turn in pretty soon. Tomorrow we head to Mt Rushmore, Wall Drug & The Badlands. The weather tomorrow is suppose to be clear, but cold. Hope it isn't too much colder than today. Here in Deadwood it was 12 degrees when we arrived. Brrrrrr.....

In Sturgis, SD, we drove around to look at the town and then stopped for lunch at The Knuckle Saloon. We had lots of yummy food...nachos, chicken bites, hot wings... this restaurant is voted the best food in the Blackhills...we didn't think it was the best, but it was good. Also, this saloon is the longest bar in all of SD. Cool, huh? It was a neat experience.

We made it to Deadwood, SD around 11am this morning. We checked into The Holiday Inn Express right in town. If you look at the town picture, the hotel is on the right. It is made to look like an old western building. Really neat. We checked into the hotel and then decided to head to Sturgis, SD to have lunch. Sturgis is only about 10 miles from Deadwood.

These are picture of I90 towards Deadwood, SD. They actually close this highway from time to time due to snow drifts and ice. Every once in awhile, we'd pass big gates that they use to close off the road. We were glad it was open today! Every time someone would pass us, a local of course, we couldn't see the road for awhile. It was scary at times, but we booked right thru it.