Long Stange Trip....

Well, we left the Albany apartment on April 30th and went to stay in Middleburgh. The next day, we all went on a hike up Vroman's Nose (apologies to anyone who knows how that is actually supposed to be spelled). Here is a what happens when you try to take a picture of Chris and the dogs.

After the hike, we went back to Chris' parent's house and played in the yard for a while. Here is Ursa looking pretty while she was playing with Rocky.

Say it with me in the Ursa voice everyone: "I'm pretty! Chris, look how pretty I am! Chris, I am so pretty, look!!"

We finally got the dogs to play tug of war together. Ursa didn't let Kendall win, but I think she eventually just got sick of playing with him and gave up. That little dog just doesn't like to give up during a tug of war! You'll notice in the background all the stuffing on the ground, before the tug of war, Kendall decimated a little stuffy toy as only he can do.

I don't remember what event at the Beer Olympics this is called, but Chris said instead of pails next time, maybe you guys could use dogs. Kendall thinks it is unfair that Ursa gets to go to the Olympics because she is a girl and since he is a boy, he should be the one that gets to go. It does kinda make sense....


So we hung out in the Burgh for another few days, saw lots of friends and family and of course, me being me, didn't take out my camera. Same things goes for when we went to Ogdensburg. Although I can tell you we had a great time and it was so nice to see everyone, I have to pictorial proof to show you all. You'll just have to trust me.

So on Sunday, we got on the road and managed to get all the way to Toledo, Ohio. The only thing in Toledo was a nasty old lady at the Motel 6 who yelled at us because the dogs were barking. We decided not to stay at Motel 6 anymore. Highlight of Toledo...having breakfast at Waffle House on Monday morning.

On Monday night, we managed to make it all the way Tomah, Wisconsin. We drove through Chicago and saw the Sears Tower and Wrigley Field.



Once we got outside the city, Chris said "Why don't we stop at Arby's for lunch?'"

I said, "okay, why not." Yeah, well the why not was because we both got food poisoning and I spent all night (and I mean ALL NIGHT) in the ladies room. Seriously, at about 3am I gave up and just tried to go to sleep in there. By the next morning, I was felling better, the evil had stopped, but Chris was still sick. We drove, well actually Chris drove and I slept all the way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Sioux Falls looks like it might be a really cute little town to go explore, but there was no exploration to be had. I crawled into bed as soon as we got there and didn't really crawl back out until 6am the next morning. Chris was still feeling sick, but he had dinner and went to bed early too. We woke up the next morning feeling MUCH better and got on the road for our first real day of exploring.

Wednesday was full of stops. First was the Corn Palace, seriously corny fun, get it corny..HaHa! Don't ask why I am holding a stapler, it is a long story.


Next we stopped at the Badlands Petrified Rock Garden, very interesting and worth the $5!

And then, we went to the Badlands!!!!! It was amazing and we had such a good time.

They call these the yellow hills, I think. Breathtaking!

And we saw LOTS of animals...there were prairie dogs:

Mule deer:

And buffalo, Oh the buffalo!

This one was actually hanging around inside one of the parking areas they have to pull over and see some "scenic view." Just walking around the parking lot, it was wacky!

Then, we got stuck waiting at an impromptu buffalo crossing.

This is Chris' face after seeing all the buffalo...I like to call it his "buffalo twinkle." He was so happy.

We stayed in Gillette, Wyoming on Wednesday night after stopping to have dinner in Sturgis, South Dakota.

Thursday we drove through the Rockies and they were huge!


And then, on Thursday, we saw this sign!

We stayed in Idaho Falls on Thursday and then woke up and drove to Mountain Home, Idaho so Chris could get his motorcycle. Then we drove to the new apartment and ran a bazillion errands. And that is the story of our trip!

Chris' first few days at work have gone really well. He likes it and has made some friends. The dogs are still getting used to the new place. The sliding glass doors continue to be a challenge for them because there are a lot of free roaming cats in the neighborhood; Kendall ran right into the doors three times already this morning. I am looking for a job, doing a lot of online applications and yesterday, I went to City Hall to get my "massagist permit," how dirty does that sound?? Well, that's about it for now, new post soon, I promise!

We're Here!

We made it safe and sound and without even fighting! Besides a little scuffle between Kendall and Ursa as we were leaving Middleburgh, it was smooth sailing (except for the food poisoning, but more on that later!).

I decided the easiest way to get all the pictures up and tell the whole huge story is to break it up into pieces. Today, I'll post the pictures of our cute little apartment, and then in the next few days I'll get all the vacation shots up.

Boise is great, Chris wasn't lying, lol. Everyone is super friendly and nice and we both really like it here. The mountains are literally our backyard and the views are amazing. We spent most of the weekend driving around town trying to figure out where everything is and looking at houses, but we will be taking the dogs for some hikes so we can take some pictures and show you all how beautifl it is out here.

But first, how about a tour of our new apartment???

This is the view as you walk in the front door:


The kitchen is off to the left and the laundry room (!!!!!!!) is immediately to the left with a door by the fridge (which didn't make it into the picture either, but is right next to the microwave). Chris is very happy with the quantity of counter tops, not so much with the quality of the knives they had here, but don't worry....we went Saturday and he got a new pan and knife : )

To the right, there is the dining and living rooms. We have a little patio outside the sliding glass doors. We are thinking about getting some plants and starting a container garden next weekend...I need to see how much sun the porch gets during the day so we know what types of plants to get. Chris wants to plant heirloom tomatoes and some herbs, I would like some pretty flowers and strawberries...we'll see...


And yes, that couch is as comfy as Kendall makes it looks and is SUCH an improvement over the last "couch" we had. For those of you who have as "fond" memories of that couch as I do, please be advised that the majority of the couch is now in the Albany City dump, but, believe it or not, the night we put it on the curb for the garbage people to take away, someone actually took part of it home...what is wrong with people???

Anyway, back to the nice new apartment. Down the hall, to the left is Chris' bathroom,


which does have a bathtub and shower also. I was standing out in the hall while I was taking the picture so that you couldn't see me in the mirror.

To the right across from the bathroom is the spare room. Ursa thinks it is her bedroom and is happily modeling her particualr brand of cute for all of you.

At the end of the hall, is our bedroom (view from the door):


and view from the bed:


Where I stood to take that picture is about where our bathroom is, and it is HUGE!

Its just a walk-in shower stall, but it's the size of a bathtub. Kinda weird, but whatever!

Well, thats it for the apartment. Its a really nice apartment community, the dogs are still barking at everyone they see, but we have hope that will stop soon (let me live in my delusion please). We are less than 1/4 mile away from a shopping center that has everything we need for pretty much everything. For the most part, we are settled in here and have everything we need to make it feel like home.

For tomorrow - pictures of the trip!

Unemployed, Un-insured and Homeless

Greetings - Chris and I have begun our trip to Boise. All our stuff is packed and on a truck heading to our new storage unit, and today is our first day where we are both officially unemployed, homeless and un-insured. Cheers to us!

Today we went hiking with the dogs and had a big bonfire and decided to start a new blog - Whoo hoo! We figured with all the moving, new jobs, wedding plans and what not, it would be easier to have a central place to point people to for updates rather than having to email everyone (and this way if you don't care about what is going on with us, you don't need to stop by, lol).

Not sure how internet access is going to be while we are traveling, but I will do my best to keep the posts current. Feel free to leave a comment or not. Hoping you are well and here is a gratiutious doggy shot because, well, why not?