Silver Spring and beyond...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and since arriving in Silver Spring a little more than a week ago, we have done so many things that the thought of blogging about all of it seems impossible to me.. so here are thousands of words (in pictures) and a few real words too.

We live about a mile and a half from the temple.












The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History - the butterfly house was very cool!

Curly and Lou's birthday countdown chains. Notice Curly's shirt. She has decided that she like's Lou's clothes better than her own and is modeling Lou's sundress.














- My close friend, Jill, lives out here and I have been able to do things with her several times. She came with us to the museum and we visited her in Virginia. The girls adore her!










We took a tour of the Supreme Court, walked along the National Mall, and enjoyed the flowers at the National Botanic Gardens.











Our ant infestation! We are working really hard to get rid of them... at least they aren't cockroaches!















The National Air and Space Museum



Lou's first taste of ice cream at the NASM. She's a fan!Lincoln Memorial. We have very few pictures with the girls because they are either asleep or too grumpy to participate in a picture.

Can we sell the car and fly home?

Our 2,000 mile road trip was, well..., long. 35 hours of driving... 78 gallons of gas ... 10 states ... 13 rest stops ... 6 fast food joints ... and two squirmy children ... We made it here with a few big highlights along the way!

We were able to visit friends in Kansas City and Indianapolis. In Kansas City, we saw the recent tornado damage, but fortunately didn't see any tornados. We also visited Liberty Jail and Jackson county. Curly loved playing with Timo and Bella!

In Indianapolis, we relaxed and it felt great! Alli and her mom (who was visiting) served us a wonderful home-cooked dinner, Curly met Jackson, another great friend to play with and we enjoyed a walk to the the lake near their home. We love that part of the trip and we wished we could have visited with both of them longer! Thanks you guys.

It was the last leg of the trip that was the longest and saddest and hottest (for everyone)... The car started overheating, so we had to turn to AC off while going up hill. I think we had all about had it! We were about an hour from our destination when Fisher said, "Can we sell the car and fly home?" ... I wish!

Dispersing

Our time in Rexburg has ended and tomorrow we will make the looong drive across the US to Washington DC. I would rather blog right now than pack... so here is the wrap-up of our last fun filled week in Idaho.

I attended to my sister's high school graduation. She is the last of my siblings to graduate from good old Madison High School. I saw many of my old teachers and we sighed that it is the end of "The Lovell Era".

Our good friend Susanna and her children visited my family. Susanna was our exchange student a long time ago and has always remained close with our family. We had so much fun playing with her and her children. Audrey's cousin Letty also came to visit and the three girls had so much fun together!

We got to visit all of our favorite Rexburg, Idaho tourist attractions (yes, there are great things in Idaho). We went to the Carousel and park. We picnic-ed, rode 4-wheelers, and flew kites at the sand dunes. We visited my family's cabin. We went to the Playmill in West Yellowstone. We ate frozen yogurt at Millhollow (there is no fro-yo like Millhollow's) and had Craigo's yummy pizza buffet.

There was a houseful at my parents all week and in the next 24 hours everyone that was there will disperse across the United States. Susanna is headed back to Georgia. My sister is headed to California. My brother's family already went back to Washington and we will head east. Then my parents will go home to Idaho all alone...sad.

Well, that wraps it up. We won't have internet at our house, so who know how often I will be able to blog. Hopefully it will be soon! Until then...

Photo Shoot

Just wanted to share Lou's recent pictures. I'll keep her!

The Grass is Greener...

I haven't mowed the lawn for six years (we haven't had a lawn to mow since we got married). So, I volunteered to mow my parents lawn. Ten years ago, mowing my parents huge lawn was a biweekly chore for me and I can honestly say that I enjoyed doing it - except running into rose bushes (OUCH!)and itching all over from the little grass clippings plastered to your legs. I enjoyed it this time as well, nothing like the smell of cut grass mixed with mower exhaust to bring back memories of summer. Unfortunately, I am a little out of practice with my parent's monster mower (seriously - it is a monster!) and I left a few bald spots on the lawn, but at least I didn't take out a sprinkler!