365 Day 244

I had no idea Niagara Falls was this big!

365 Day 243

After some added stress reaching Niagara Falls was a highlight. Never would've imagined a waterfall to be so pretty at night. Following this, we headed over to Hard Rock Cafe for drinks. Awesome bartender!

Pregnant ladies sitting at the bar are funny. 

365 Day 242

If I eat nothing else this will be enough.

 Though it was good, the chili cheese dog wasn't nearly as delicious as the regular one. For just $2.49 I got a delicious hot dog topped with mustard, relish, freshly chopped onions, sliced red ripe tomatoes, kosher pickle and sport peppers piled onto a perfectly steamed poppy seed bun. Why have I never considered pickle spears and tomatoes before?!  It was enough to make me temporarily forget being out of bread pudding. I almost was a good little pregnant girl and went for a salad instead, boy would that have been one hell of a mistake!

365 Day 241

Oh Nebraska, you stole my heart. And I dream of your bread pudding often. 

Thank you for this beautiful sunset to remember you by. 

365 Day 240

The church in Salt Lake City at Sunset. 

Cross Country Day 1

I'm not sure if I'm really ready for today to begin and yet at the same time I've been ready for months. It's bittersweet knowing that I get to spend a solid week with a genuine best friend and yet at the end of this we'll no longer even be in the same time zone.

I'm afraid of how much I'll miss my kids but since I know I've left them before (with Cliff by my side) I'm sure I'll survive again. I do expect it to be different without Cliff with me though and I've never really left him for this long without easy electronic communication either. Damn me and my lack of data plans....

The day started out almost as early as we planned but there was a small delay after the cat got miserably car sick driving to my house. We loaded up on trash bags and paper towels and crossed our fingers that it wouldn't be a non-stop issue. It's much easier at a house then it is on the side of the road.

The plan was to stop in Reno to visits her family, but the timing was off so it didn't work out. We drove on until we reached Lovelock. The town has it's own catch phrase- Don't let love pass you by- on signs all over the town. Weird.

Standing at the top level of the rest stop.
I wish the sparkle was visible in this picture. 

I didn't see (or wasn't paying attention) a 'welcome to Nevada' sign but when we noticed the Utah sign we just about parked on the freeway (very empty freeway) to take a picture. Hilarious.

All of Nevada was desert and rocks and Utah was no different. When I looked on the map the salt lake flats seemed huge. We stopped at the first rest stop (the better view was on the other side of the freeway) to take pictures before we got sick of the endless white. It was a very simple stop with a 2 story shade structure (nice for pictures of the other side of the road), a foot wash (for what?!), and a broken pet corral (the thought was nice).

Turns out if you stay on I-80 there really isn't that much of the salt flats to see. It was beautiful to see the land sparkle in the sunlight and as we drove down the road you could see random frames still stuck in the ground on the side of the road from where photographers  went for the trendy shots. My favorite part, besides the sparkle, was the warning signs posted every so many miles: "Drowsy Drivers. Next Exit 15 Miles. No Fatigued Driving". It's hard to imagine with such wide open spaces that the death rate is high enough to warrant such a sign.

 When we reached Salt Lake City, Juliana suggested that we go check out the Mormon Temple (yes, we know we never could of gone inside). Neither of us were real set on it and we almost kept driving but I had a headache so we chose to stop, find the temple, and fill up on gas.

Utah is so bleak and desert like to me. Some people may like the look of the rocks but I'm a tree and water girl. I was not a fan. For as ugly as the state was, the Salt Lake City town center was beautiful! Trees, flowers, amazing architecture. I loved it. The whole town was like a giant Mormon square though. Mormon convention centers, Mormon church libraries a block long, Mormon history Museum; and all of the buildings were insanely huge. At the center of all of it was their temple (stunning) surrounded by what appeared to be beautiful gardens and then a large concrete wall. We would of loved to stop and walk around for 15 minutes, but with pets in the car in the unforgiving Utah heat it wasn't an option. We circled the temple and then headed for the gas station.

Turns out the one thing I needed (tylenol) is not sold in Utah. In fact, when I asked if there was another store nearby I could try the two people in the station went on a mini tangent about how terrible Tylenol is, how there is a recall on it because it has so much rat poison in it so all of Utah has removed it from the shelves, and how in my pregnant state I shouldn't be taking it. Advil is safer. Hmmm. Okay crazies, I'll try again in another state.

See the reflection of those pretty blue lights?

Heading up the mountains of Utah was too much for the loaded car to bear and it struggled to make speed. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry when an oversized truckers kept passing us easily. When we finally made it down hill there was a little too much celebration in achieving normal California speeds and within only a couple miles of our triumph local highway patrol pulled us over. Somehow when mentioning that it would really suck to get a ticket on the first day of our trip across the country the officer decided to let her go with a written warning. Yes, a paper warning. I didn't even know they did those!

On our last stretch to Wyoming, we passed the cutest little town (it looked like a small Tahoe ski or mining town). The hotel was comfortable enough but after sitting all day we wanted to move a little so we walked across the street for a beer. Turns out Rock Springs closes early and we had to walk back to the other side of the freeway to find an open liquor store (po-dunk gas station). As a bonus, they had milk (pregnant lady loves herself some milk!) and wifi! Who knew? A gas station with wifi.

Are you paying attention Sacramento? If this little town can have it why can't we????

After all that walking Juliana didn't even want a beer anymore, but I enjoyed my milk and the sights of a far off lightning storm as we walked back to the hotel and got a few hours of sleep before heading out in the morning.

365 Day 239

After many days of procrastination, I finally finished packing for my week on the road.

365 Day 238

This is not helping me pack. 

She has no respect for my clean laundry and I have no respect for her choice of beds...

365 Day 237

There's a baby in there! Getting all these extra ultrasounds is kind of fun. I've never seen a baby moving around so much before.

365 Day 236

A piece of my past that is literally 20+ years old and it still looks as great as when I got it. 

What an awesome suprise to bring me!  

Months Behind

It's not so much that I planned to fall behind or that I stopped taking my pictures (entirely) it's more that complications beyond me frustrated me too much. I use Smugmug to store all my photos. I use Google's Picasa program to manage my photos on my computer. Normally, they communicate with each other just fine. All I have to do is touch a button and I can upload how ever many photos from Picasa to Smugmug. Then Picasa went and got an update.

I'm not happy with this update. I understand why they did it, mainly because they used to also run Picnik and they shut that down so they had to remove the Picnik button from Picasa. This would all be fine if this update didn't effect my other endeavors (like smugmug)-which it did!

Yes, Picasa is free and yes, there is still the method of selecting the photo files from my computer and uploading them directly to Smugmugs website so I have no room for complaint. However, it was so convenient and easy before! Now, I have to actually work for it.

Add in that my life has been pretty crazy lately (running kids here, and there, keeping them entertained, etc) and I just lost motivation. I uninstalled and re-installed Picasa and the Smugmug button with no success.

I did find a trick where I uninstall both, find the button file, delete it, and then reinstall everything and I can use Picasa as my uploader no problem. I shared this info with Smugmug (who had been trying to help me for weeks with no success) and they were happy and gave me credit on my account. Have I mentioned before how much I LOVE Smugmug? Then, unfortunately, the trick stopped working after only a few uploads until I repeated the process. Booo!

It's not that I can't blog without pictures, it's just that it's boring to do so (take this post for example). Frustrated or not, I'm working on catching up.
2 months done, 10 days still missing (and counting if I don't pull my camera back out).
I don't expect anyone to catch up on what I've been neglecting, but just saying work has been done.

365 Day 235

Sometimes it's just nice to wrap up in the comfort of your blanket. Even when you're just taking your brothers to school.

365 Day 234

I've got choices for things that actually help my migraines and yet all I am allowed to take is acetaminophen. 

Boooo! I feel like I've been teased.

365 Day 232

My finished painting: Bowl of Cherries from 'The Painted Cork'. 

I had such a fantastic time painting this. It was so much fun and great time spent with my mom!

265 Day 231

Painting Monet's Ocean Cliff at The Painted Cork in Folsom. So much fun! Even if my picture didn't look like Monet's I enjoyed myself and will back to paint more! 

365 Day 230

I stole a pear when you weren't looking, and I'm going to sit here and look cute while I eat it. Go ahead, just try to tell me I have to take it back into the kitchen...

365 Day 229

After lots and lots of drama and weeks of waiting I finally got to see my doctor (isn't insurance fun?). She was so good waiting in the doctors office very, very patiently for almost 2 hours!

365 Day 228

My beautiful sister.

I admire her so much. She's stunning and beautiful (even with coloring I can't get hair and dark as hers), intelligent, generous, funny, fair.... The list goes on.

 I admire her strength, her parenting, and how great she is with all our kids. She is creative and helpful in so many ways and I feel so blessed to have her as my sister. 

She works so hard and so often that I have very few pictures of her. Turns out the most recent picture of her is from my wedding and even then she managed to avoid the camera for most of it, only getting caught while filming the ceremony for me. 

I love you, Sis!

365 Day 227

Her new thing is telling me to take her picture every time she sees a large rock! This time it's outside Nugget market during the farmers market.

365 Day 226

I braved a new candy and actually liked it. The unreal peanut butter cups and the unreal Twix were both pretty tasty and just a little more guilt free then their counterparts. 

365 Day 225

Bug loves Auntie Lissa's jam and wants it with everything (even beans!). It wouldn't be so funny if she wasn't picky and refused to eat the store bought stuff.
Of course, we can't blame her. We love the stuff so much we're willing to pack the weight in and out of the hole!
Nothing like seeing jam where it doesn't belong.

365 Day 224

Car lights are on again. Ut oh.

365 Day 223

After walking the boys to school, we stopped on the way home to play at the park

365 Day 222

She picked out her outfit and wings, then let me do her hair so that she could look like tinkerbell. It was so cute and she was so proud!

365 Day 221

Holy Cow! I have a 2nd grader and a (eeeek!!) 6th grader! Bear and Gator are growing up so fast!

First day of school

365 Day 220

I am addicted! Passion Iced Tea with no syrup (sometimes with lemonade) is so yummy!
And now, I get free refills on my tea when I use my card? Yes, please!

365 Day 219

Picture taken at the Dave Wilson Informational *8.4* 

"Take my picture when I climb the rock, Mama!!!"

Rock climbing is her new 'thing'

365 Day 218

We found a new game at shower time. This is her painting Ariel with bubbles

365 Day 217

10+ years in 2 and a half hours. 

Catching up was great! It's funny how much people can change, and yet how you still remember why you were friends in the first place. 

365 Day 216

Bug's portrait of Mommy and Daddy (Mommy has the extra hair on the left) and one of those smiles (or maybe all of them) is her. It was in my kitchen so I may have accidentally spilled some water on it, oops.

365 Day 215

Mamaw and Grandma Debby have been teaching her to ride a bike!

365 Day 214

We took a picture of this car because I thought it was supposed to say "MCC WOLVES". I thought it was hilarious they spelled their mascot wrong. When we passed, it was written more clearly on the side, it says "MCC WAVES". Guess it was a good thing I got my new glasses after this!  Mockery fail.