Independence to Louisville- DAY 5

On Saturday we left early and made our way across Missouri to St. Louis. We went to see the arch and it was really cool. We never realized how huge it is. We also had to go and find the new Cardinal's Stadium. We stopped in St.Louis for about an hour.

This was a nice view that Steve found by walking down to this pond that not many people went down to. It was so HOT and humid outside when we were there.

The front of the Cardninal's stadium. We had to pull over so that Steve could walk around and look in and get his pictures. Katrina has learned to just deal with this and relax in the car while Steve gets his sports fix.Welcome to Illinois

Yeah, not such a good picture. It was kind of in a weird spot.

Welcome to Indiana

Since we were visiting Meagan and Todd in Louisville we had to drive across the bottom of Indiana to get there. We got to the state we were moving to but didn't stop.

Welcom to Kentucky

We stayed with Meagan and Todd and Fisher for the weekend. It was a lot of fun to see them and play with little Fisher. We can't wait to give him a little cousin to play with.

Columbus to Independence- DAY 4

After we left Kendra and Michael's, we drove to Omaha and stopped at the Winter Quarters Temple and visitor's center. This temple has the coolest stained glass. It was really beautiful.

Welcome to Iowa
We crossed over the Missouri River to get to Iowa when we left Omaha.

Welcome to Kansas

This state shouldn't really count because we drove across the brigde, took a picture, and turned around to go back into Missouri. Oh well, you do what you gotta do.

Welcome to Missouri

We ended our day in Independence. We went to Liberty Jail first and then drove down to Independence. In Independence, we went to the Church's visitor center, drove past the Truman historic sites (Steve got half way through a book on Truman a few months ago so this was interesting for him to see), and then found a hotel to stay the night.

There weren't many places to choose from for dinner that night so we choose the Denny's across the street. We knew that it wasn't the best choice when we found out that they had a smoking section inside the restaurant. Why do they think that a 5-foot high wall will prevent the whole place from smelling like smoke? It was fairly easy to identify the smokers as they came in the door. Then when they approached the counter they would hold out their smokes with pride and announce that they wanted smoking. It was as if they were saying, "I am going to eat dinner and finish off this pack at the same time." One particulary obese gentlemen passed his cigs to his lady-friend and said, "You know what I want" as he strolled into the bathroom.

Maybe these are the people that wash their hair in rest stop bathrooms?

One more Denny's story. As we were leaving two older gentlemen and an old lady in a walker came in. One of the old men proceeded to start counting to five out loud. He got to five, and then told them that he was leaving because he hadn't been seated yet. Needless to say we boxed up our food early and went back to our hotel.

Columbus, NE- DAY 3

Looking through our pictures we realized that we didn't even get any with Kendra or Michael in them. We have some videos that they are in but we can't post those. Sorry guys, guess we have to pretend this is our kid:)

Sawyer looking very proud to be sitting in his own chair. (He fell off about 5 seconds after the picture.)
After Michael came home from work, we all went to the water park they have in Columbus. Katrina floated around the lazy river with Sawyer while Kendra, Michael, and Steve all went on the big water slides. It was a lot of fun to just cool off for a few hours.
Breaking him in already.

Steve gave Sawyer an unopened soda can and he was trying so hard to get something out of it. It was really cute. Kendra just told us that Steve accomplished another thing while we were there..............He let Sawyer drink out of his cup and put his fingers in it so now he acts like he wants a drink of water and he will immediatly shove his hand in. Kendra and Michael aren't very amused (but Steve is).

Denver to Columbus- DAY 2

Welcome to Nebraska

We should have stopped to take our pictures like these people and maybe ours would have been a little better:)

This is at one of the many reststops we stopped at for Katrina to go pee and stretch her legs. It was pretty funny becuase we both walked out and looked at each other and we knew what we were both thinking....."did you see that sign in the bathroom?!"

Salt Lake to Denver - DAY 1

On the first day of our trip we drove from Salt Lake to Denver. We got to Denver in time to find a hotel, visit Steve's cousin Mark, and then go to the Rockies Cardinals game that night.

Welcome to Wyoming

We decided to take pictures of each state's welcome sign as we traveled to Indiana. The first few were a little messed up.

Welcome to Colorado

Steven didn't turn on the windshield wipers so that Katrina could take a decent picture.

Our view from the baseball game. While waiting in line to buy tickets a guy who was already inside the park offered two tickets to a group of guys next to me. They said no since they were looking for three so I stepped in and bought the $50 tickets for $15 a piece. The pitcher is last year's NL Cy Young award winner Chris Carpenter and the Third Baseman is perennial all-star Scott Rolen.

It started to rain about the third inning so fans took shelter in the nose bleed seats under the overhang. We moved up for a few innings and then were able to go back to our originals seats at the end of the 7th.

Steve with his cousin Mark.

Goodbye Utah

This will probably be our last post from Utah. I am writing this laying on the floor of the bedroom in our empty apartment. We have our final walk-through this afternoon and then we are outta here.

We will go to Denver tomorrow and plan on seeing a Rockies game. Then we go to Nebraska on Wednesday in order to visit Kendra, Michael, and Sawyer. We will spend a couple of days there and then make our way over to Louisville to visit Meagan, Todd, and Fisher. Our stuff should arrive in Indiana on August 1st.

Here is the trailer out in the parking lot.

Katrina and Steve standing in front of the load. Our whole life crammed into 9 ft of space.

So long my good friends

As part of the moving process we are having to make some tough decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of. I am going to have to get rid of some of my hats which brings me a lot of sadness. Katrina tries to hide a few of these from me every know and again so that I don't wear them.

One of these hats I have no problem getting rid of. Can you guess which one?

The moving truck is here

This morning, ABF dropped off the semi-trailer that we will use to move. It is weird to think that this week is here already. Our house is a wreck, we have spent the week going to the dentist, going to Katrina's last doctors appointment, packing, and we had a ward BBQ last night that was planned so that we could say good-bye to our friends in the ward.

We will load up most of the truck on Saturday, finish it up on Monday, and we hit the road on Tuesday.

Indiana here we come.

Kira the Cook......... Part Two

Kira was kind enough to send us some pictures of Steve's birthday cake that we wrote about a couple of weeks ago.

Enjoy:

(Make sure to double click on picture to see a close up version)

Lake Tahoe

The day before we left Reno, we went up the Tahoe and rented a boat and cruised around the lake. It was a beautiful day. Dad, Mom, Aunt Jeanne, and Alicia were all there also. We were able to see the American Century Championship at the Edgewood Tahoe golf course. We didn't see anyone really famous but it was still neat to see all people there and we were able to pull the boat up right alongside the 17th hole (we could have gotten even closer if dad wasn't such a chicken).

Katrina showing how freezing it was when we first started out and the boat was going fast.
We saw the M.S. Dixie giving a tour at Emerald Bay.

Here's the Tahoe Queen on it's way to Emerald Bay.

San Francisco

We took a little road trip to San Francisco while in Reno. It is about a 3.5 hour drive and we realized that driving across the country is NOT going to be fun! Katrina having to go the bathroom every hour is not cool!

Katrina standing in the park in front of Ghirardelli Square. It was very windy!!
The Golden Gate Bridge

You can see how foggy it was so we had no view and it wasn't very impressive.
AT&T Park

This is where the San Francisco Giants play baseball. Barry Bonds launches his steroid powered home runs into the water where people on kayaks wait to retrieve them. Anytime we are in a new city, Steve has to go find sports stadiums.
Steve standing on a pier with Alcatraz in the background.

Kayaking on the Lake

We went kayaking on Lake Tahoe with Mom and Alicia while we were in Reno. It was really windy when we got there so there were some waves that were kind of scary to Katrina. Overall it was fun though.

Steve and Katrina taking a break for a picture.
Some rocks that Steve wanted to kayak through.
Mom, Alicia, and Steve.

Feeding the Bird

One of the evenings, we went with Dad to go feed his bird. Suka is "hacking" at a house in the middle of nowhere. Basically he is playing and feeding with other falcons. Suka perched atop a telephone pool.
Suka feeding on Dad's hand. Suka eats quail, so many of them that Dad has a freezer half-full of dead quail waiting for him to eat.
MMMMMMM............ Quail Guts

DONE WITH WORK

Today was my last day at Merrill Lynch. It was weird because this day seemed to be so far out for so long and now it is here. It felt like the last day of finals knowing I had to go to work but that when the day was over I would have a long vacation.

Katrina came to work at the end of the day and met some of the people that I worked with. A lady that I work with even bought us two onesies as a going away present.

So long Merrill Lynch, hello Purdue.

Selling my Ride

Today was a sad day for me but a happy day for Katrina. We sold my Prelude in preparation for our move to Indiana. In honor of my beloved partner of the past seven years here are some memorable moments:

1) Sam taking a picture of himself while we were driving down to Moab. This picture was taken while he was standing up out of my sun roof with the car traveling in excess of 100 mph.

2) Traveling back from Moab with Gordon and Robbie. The snow was falling through Spanish Fork canyon and we needed to clean off the windshield. We decided to pour water out the sunroof to wash off the front windshield. Dumb idea. All that happened was that the water came right back into the car and soaked Gordon who was in the backseat.

3) Watching Todd's Prelude get T-boned by a Provo City Power truck going 50 mph while driving home from work.

4) Having to go to the bathroom while driving to Reno with Gordon and Amy following me (enough said)

5) Walking out of my apartment in SLC while I went to the U and seeing that my car had been broken into. They broke my window, didn't steal anything but broke my CD player, all the while leaving my roommate's truck unscathed even though it was brand new and had a much nicer everything inside.

Note: Since Katrina has never liked my car all of our activities since knowing each other have taken place in hers.