Home Sweet Home

We are officially moved in! Hooray!!! It feels good to have all our stuff and to have made this house a home.  We realized we have a ton more space than we did at our other apartment and we definitely have room to grow for a while.  I have always been a bit of a home-body (for those of you who know me this is very obvious) so having all of our stuff set up makes a huge difference for me.  I was full of anxiety and worry and just angst without having something that felt like home.  Don't get me wrong Andy makes me feel at home and I know material comfort can be bad (especially when you feel so bad without it), but boy do I feel SO much better now.  (We'll get to the heart issue later...he he)

God has definitely blessed us.  He has given Andy a wonderful job that will improve and widen his skills as a physical therapist.  He has given us a great place to live that's safe and friendly.  He's given us a home with space to grow.  He's an awesome God and I feel like sometimes we take these blessings for granted; so Whoo Hoo God! Thank you!

A little tour of our humble abode...

Office Area (in the living room)

Living Room

Half Living Room, Half Dining Room

Dining Room and Kitchen

Couch, Living Room (The white door is our front door, the brown door is the front closet)

Laundry Room (located in the kitchen)

Bathroom and Hall Closet

Bathroom

Our Bedroom (SO much bigger than our last)

Bedroom from the opposite side (with Jonesie of course)

Another Bedroom (far left door is normal closet, walk in closet on right)

And the nursery has yet to make some progress, but if you
look out the window you can see my bike which is our
little porch area.

Yellowstone (& the last of these rambling posts)

So Andy and I also took a day to drive through Yellowstone National Park.  We probably went through all the seasons on this trip.  We started out in shorts and t-shirts a few days before this then on this day we went through the other three.  One of the entrances were closed due to snow! Snow! We drove through snow! Ridiculous for the end of May: I mean come on!  We then went through cooler weather, you know jeans and a sweatshirt (fall). And then the sun came out and it got kinda warm (spring).  (I guess you could switch fall and spring to whatever suits your description of seasons best) My point is we experienced ALL seasons.  When we lived in Idaho last year we went to Yellowstone to cross country ski (Andy ended up going alone... too cold for me) but I had never been when you could actually travel by car inside the park.  It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  I so enjoyed this part of the trip and the wildlife was amazing.  We even saw a bear! And that rare fox that I will mention farther down (I don't have a picture, my camera is TOO much of an amateur).  And of course here's the pictures...  

B&W: Bison in a field

Just gorgeous landscapes

Beautiful.  Bison are only a river away.

So apparently a very rare fox to be seen was sited and these people with HUGE (I'm talking like ten feet long...) cameras were all over! We had to get a picture of one.  

I don't remember the name of this geyser (sp?)

Oh Hello, I'm just one of many bison in Yellowstone who likes to freak out drivers by walking along the side of the road only to come right in front of your car and make traffic stand still for maybe a half to an hour at a time.  Nice to meet you.

See?

Old Faithful

Pretty

Pretty

So this was our trip out west! I hope you enjoyed seeing pictures and hearing a little bit about it!  Let me know if you need our new address! Send me an email : adsmcg@gmail.com Thanks!

Mount Rushmore & Surrounding National Parks

So after the Badlands we headed to Mount Rushmore.  It was definitely cool and neat to see, but boy was it busy!  It was crazy to think that most of it was done with dynamite.  I don't know I feel like I don't seem ultra enthused about it but it's hard of other things to say about it.  I know I've been overloading you with pictures but I do this for my sake as well as yours! (and really it just makes these posts all the more interesting!)

Someone did not like Mt. Rushmore...

Washington state flag!

Haha! We love Washington! Haha! This cracks me up.

There they are! Sorry this pics are so poorly shot.

B&W Presidents! ...

Our car got SO dirty from the badlands.  I had to wash my hands every time I opened the door!

Oh just some bison on the road...

Oh just the same bison scampering across the road...

Run into those woods bison!

Chicago!

So this post should have been done before Badlands... But I forgot.  To celebrate our 2nd anniversary (seeing as we were moving out on our actual date) this year on the 24th we went to Chicago to do tourist-y things we had never done before.  So we took a Chicago Architecture Boat Tour and went to the Shedd Aquarium.  It was a beautiful day and just really fun.  Here's some pics. =)

Marina Towers, in 2nd grade I did a report on them and made a replica using toilet paper rolls.

So this is an old bridge that is not in use that Chicago won't take down and they consider it cool art and frankly so do I

Awesome building reflections

Washington! 

Our good old Sears tower (Willis whatever...) For the longest time probably until I was a senior in high school (literally) I thought it was called the Sirus Tower.

Sky Line.

Buckingham Fountain

The BEAN! Had to visit this again!

classic bean pic.

Another skyline picture: the sky was SO blue.

I can't believe another year has passed since our ultra super fun wedding! It's just really hard to believe.  We have gone through so much together and again starting this year we're are starting all new adventures.  I can't wait to see what this year has in store.

Trip Out West: Badlands

So we stopped and drove through the Badlands in South Dakota.  Unfortunately it was super foggy and it was impossible to see a long distance away and everything just looked hazy.  But despite the rainy weather it was still really beautiful.

Did I mention we stopped by The Corn Palace? We don't really understand it...

Pretty.

Us by more pretty: look at my wind blown rained on hair...

Pretty.

a tree that was sliced. 

These became less and less exciting as the trip continued

Buckley's new love.  Cows.  Like an excited human boy on a trip: he didn't sleep a wink because he had to keep his eyes on the side of the road for he could not miss a pasture full of cows.

So a short story about our drive through the Badlands... We drove by Prairie Dog Field or something and so there were prairie dogs as far as the fog allowed you to see.  Buckley who recently discovered his love for finding cows along the road spotted them and was going crazy!  So I had my window down and Buckley came and joined me in the passenger seat.  Luckily I'm pretty smart and had a good grip on his collar... So I looked like right next to our car and there was a prairie dog like RIGHT there.  It took Buckley a little bit but as soon as he spotted the little fellow he jumped (note remember that I'm smart) I yanked him back in.  He literally had jumped out of the car! If I hadn't had his collar, Andy and I would be dogless and Buckley would be lost among prairie dogs.

Goodbye St. Louis

Saint Louis will always have a place in Andy and mine's heart.  It was a really great two years despite everything I liked to complain about.  We will definitely miss a lot of people, the on-going events, our church, and Pi and Bogarts and Ted Dru's and FroYo... 

Not the greatest picture, but we love you arch!

Andy being the arch

Wash U and Cardinal Pride!

Of course, Buckley enjoying St. Louis humid heat

The arch!