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/

Made it to Oregon!

We started off our visit to State #2 with a relaxing day in Seaside with our friends the Hessel family. What a nice welcome into Oregon!

We hope to visit many of the Lincolns or Lincoln City-like towns in America, and here's our first. Of course we had to visit the Abe statue. He's reading a book - how perfect is that?? Apparently, Abe was asked to be the governor of the Oregon territory way back when, but he decided to give the Presidency a go - there's one of those string-theory-different-dimension-spin-offs for you!

Couple photos of life around the house: got the veggies fermenting, Wii games happening, Thane did some whittling and crocheting outdoors when it wasn't too windy, everyone got haircuts, and we accompished a lot of itinerary planning. Rhanna shot that photo of me and Abe - apparently that's what all the excitement looks like. LOL!

This beach wasn't far from where we were staying, and Gwynnie in particular was beyond thrilled to find some good sand in which to play. Nothing like a relaxed beach day!

We had seen a lot of surreal photographs of Thor's Well on the internet, so it was on our list of must-see places. It was pretty darn cool! We trekked down to the site (a laborious undertaking for Abe, who ends up carrying Emrys a lot of the way, and for Thane, who helps out by carrying the cumbersome walker) and were duly impressed. The little ones were also able to earn new Junior Ranger badges.

Before we left Lincoln City we spent another afternoon at Gleneden Beach.

We hung out in Bandon for a week, waiting for Rhanna to finish her week at camp.