End of 2014 catch-up!

 November-December photo catch-up! Lincoln's birthplace, Mammoth Cave, Great Smokey Mountains, Fort Sumter, Emrys' birthday, Charleston, The Angel Oak, Folly Beach, Caw Caw Swamp, Savannah, and our first Christmas on the road!

(click on photos to enlarge)

October in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana

A lot to see between California and Iowa!

We've seen so much since the last update! We'll have to skip over some things, but here's a look at what we did in September.

La Pine turned into a whirlwind of projects as our back slide turned out to be completely moldy and needing replacement. What a good thing that Abe decided to bring so many of his tools! His work in replacing a complete FLOOR was very impressive.

 Across Oregon and into Idaho - totally new landscapes! Rhanna was pretty freaked out at the lack of trees, so she was happy when we got into Montana.

Yellowstone involves a lot of driving while in the park in order to get to the different areas, but we were lucky to see quite a few animals on our first day. Emrys had been wanting to get to Yellowstone for months, so seeing a bison up close in the first fifteen minutes was super exciting for him. He also really loved the museums, and all the kids enjoyed working on the Junior Ranger program.

We celebrated Rhanna's 18th birthday while at Yellowstone! She wanted to dunk herself in Yellowstone Lake to commemorate the occasion; it was cold, but she did it!

Made it to Jackson, Wyoming to see the Tetons! The girls and I drove a different route and arrived earlier than the boys, so we had time to walk a labyrinth.

The Autumn colors were stunning!

Tea party with magic tricks under the crabapple tree in Jackson.

Rest areas in Wyoming are FUN.

We ended September in South Dakota, where we were met with a DOOZY of a storm, with high winds, about three inches of rain, and flood warnings. We kept checking this little creek behind our parking space for trouble, but it never overflowed its banks, thank goodness!

This rain was not the cute kind of rain we get on the west coast, no; it was a deluge. So we stayed indoors hiding out for the last couple of days of September. You'll see Mt. Rushmore in October. :)

PS - you can read a little more about this on a new blog we've recently started with another Fulltiming family, here: http://www.nomaderwherewego.com/thunderstorms-in-south-dakota/

August in California

We got Rhanna back after Not Back to School Camp! She had a terrific time this year. Time to head to California now!

I teared up when we crossed the border. I'm definitely a born-and-bred Californian, and so happy to be back in the redwoods.

Having such a light "schedule" for this leg of the trip has helped us find a more normal daily rhythm, which has been pretty delightful. Our little "yard" even has blackberry bushes and we picked enough to make a cobbler! I'm especially enjoying the fog/sun/fog routine, which feels like Real Summer to me!

How fun to find a second Moonstone Beach! (We got married on a Moonstone Beach in Cambria, much farther to the south.)

For the previous week, I had been telling Gwynnie all about redwoods, how their bark is so soft and warm that you can feel that they are alive when you touch them. She was so eager to touch her first redwood! The whole experience made her giddy.

The old cemetery in Ferndale, CA is one of the neatest cemeteries I've ever seen! We enjoyed walking through this quaint town, and Rhanna and I got new hats! Thane felt like he was making a pilgrimage to the blacksmith's shops (he wants to be a blacksmith!)

New Junior Ranger badges, gigantic Mother Trees, octopus trees, and a field of dragonflies. Gorgeous days.

We ended up staying in Trinidad much longer than expected due to a dental emergency with Emrys. We're actually still here now; his procedure is on Wednesday. As long as everything goes well and we can leave when we think we will, we'll have been here in one parking spot for 27 days, which seems like a really long time!! 

Forks (apparently land of vampires, although that was a surprise to us!)

We dialed it down this week; Abe and Kel weren't feeling that great, so there was a lot less running around. Plus, we were finding that most of Olympic isn't very handicap-accessible, so it was frustrating to drive for an hour to a place we couldn't even see (multiple times). Our last week in Washington (for a little while, not forever) - bring on Oregon!

More of the Olympic Peninsula

 (click to see larger)

(it's pronounced "Skwim," like 'Swim to the Gym in Sequim') ;)

 The views here at Hurricane Ridge were breathtaking!