Happy T-day

Last-minute plans for a trip to UT were scuttled by bad weather. But, we had a great Thanksgiving here in NoCal with just us, our new TV (a pre Black Friday splurge, we've been TV-free since we moved), and the zoo (the real zoo, not just our three little animals- we took a trip to see the zoo critters get Thanksgiving goodies).

It was a graveyard smash...

Halloween at the new schools includes a parade! Hurray for West Coast!

We've got Mario, Luigi, and a baby. The Mario Bros. were popular this year, but ours were the cutest. The neighborhood Halloween was sort of a bust. We had ONE trick or treater come to the house. The kids hit every place on our block and only scored a handful of loot. We'll have to scout some better neighborhoods for next year.

This one's not even Halloween- but who can resist the BatToddler?

Number 1 reaches Number 10

She's up in the double digits now.



We celebrated with a chocolate ice-cream cake.

And the now-traditional whipped-cream beard.

Tiny bubbles, in my yard

The big 7

Actually a lot more than that, but we only had one candle in the house for mom's birthday

Ewoks and Dinosaurs and Ward kids, Oh My!

We took an outdoor adventure up Fern Canyon- where they filmed lots of famous movie scenes (Jurassic Park, Return of the Jedi...)

Great hike, but a long day so we had to soak our feet on the way back.

Big Trees

Here is a little peak at some of the amazing trees that surround the area we live in.
We have gone hiking at least once a week and to the beach several times since we have gotten here, but we keep forgetting the camera or forget to take pictures. We have seen elk and even some dolphins and a sea lion. We have collected agates, jade and other cook beach rocks.

More Fun and Family in Utah

Yummy!

Isn't he a heart breaker?

Great Grandma's 90th Birthday Celebration!

Lots of Time on the tramp in the sun!

Aint nothin new under the sun

In summer 2008 we made a much smaller move. Across the neighborhood instead of across the country. The whole process wiped Kid #2 out and he zonked in the middle of the day on the floor (stairs actually).


New state, new kid, same story:

It's no double complete rainbow...

We (by we I mean Dad) really liked the wide open expanses on our drive.

Salt flats with Grandpa and Grandma...

Birthday on the road

Kid #2 is lucky. His mid-summer birthday is usually on vacation and he gets repeated celebrations at multiple places. He had a NH friends party before we left and two in UT!



On his actual birthday, he wanted to go bowling, so Grandpa and Grandma took the whole family (cousins and all).

Then, we had a Super Mario themed party on Sunday for Kid #2 and super cousin with almost the same birthday. Notice how I'm carefully not writing names. Hopefully no one looks closely at that picture.

Kid #3's favorite thing about this entire trip was meeting everyone's animals. And feeding them things that probably made them sick.

The real victory...

We are finally going to give you all some closure and wrap up the cross-country blog. There was a lot of cool stuff on our trip across the country. Historic sites, big cities, scenic farmland, family and friends. But we weren't going to be really satisfied unless we won the license plate game. You sort of have to on a cross-country drive, right? We ended up tapping into a North Dakota connection in SLC to get one of the last holdouts. Cheating? We think not. Anyway, it broke a license plate drought and we saw one on the interstate a few days later so it was worth it. But Hawaii? What are the chances of randomly running across a Hawaii license plate?


Turns out the chances are good. We saw this right after getting back on the road for the last leg from UT to CA. Forgive the photo quality- this picture was taken at 76 mph on I-215 at the SLC airport. But make no mistake, that is a genuine Hawaii plate. In the middle of Utah. I'm sure that poor guy will never forget the minivan of honking, waving, maniacs that chased him down the interstate. Totally worth it.

Sea to shining sea

We made it! Sorry for the blog delay. We are in Arcata and back in Box Hell as we unpack. More to come later and pictures of the last leg, but no internet yet at the new house!