We're Moving!

Hey Everyone - just lettin' y'all know....

We are hitting the road. Packing up a U-haul Truck, U-haul Trailer, and OUR own BIG Ford TRUCK. Where did we get so much stuff??

We are packing the vehicles tomorrow and taking off Saturday morning!

Will post pictures of our NEW ENVIRONMENT soon!! Can't wait to be done lifting so we can start EXPLORING!

Transition: Wren's Bikes

Wren has been up to a lot of things since we've been back.

1) He had to buy a dirt bike while in Iowa and transport it to Chicago (See the orange, blue and red one)

2.) Sold his most prized possession: The Ducati. Very sad to see it go - took more pictures of it than we did on the whole trip. I kid, but it truly was hard to part with. I mean, look at this adorable elephant that is engraved on the top of the gas tank. Very cool.

3) In efforts to forget the Ducati, bought a BRAND NEW (albeit from Craigslist) Yamaha dirt bike. The pretty blue one.

A boy needs two dirt bikes in order to move to Colorado, right? Of course he does.

Transition: Wren's Beard

OH god.

He might kill me.

But how funny is this?

Blogger has of course lined these up the complete opposite way

that they should be shown. Ug!

1) 'Road trip beast' Beard

2) 'I'm a professional but I have a beard' Beard

3) 'King of the Fu Manchu' Beard

4) 'Clean Shaven' Non-Beard

Corn, Corn, Corn, Corn, Hey Look a Tree!?

Home, Home, Sweet God it feels good to be Home! Or, our fake home - in Ames, Iowa. While we were home we managed to do a lot. Visited family, friends and ATE more than I've ever eaten in my life. My parents made us MANY meals that we happily scarfed down. We also hit all the local spots that are a must when we visit: The Mandarin, Bruegger's Bagels, and let's not forget - Battle's BBQ - we had to eat there TWICE.

Melissa and Kwanzaa came over to meet us for a 4 day weekend. Melissa and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to show our boyfriends how 'outdoorsy' we are - and took them camping at the Ledges, in Boone, IA. Little did we know, the biggest thunderstorm that would ever hit IOWA was brewing.

We managed to start a fire, set up camp, chop up vegetables, make foil packs, drink a few drinks, and wind down before we felt the first sprinkle. The DNR kid came by to tell us how bad it was going to be around 10pm so we knew it was coming but trying to sleep during a storm like that - while you are outside actually being a PART of the storm - well, let's just say we were all tired and wet the next day. Kudos to Melissa and Kwanzaa for staying in their tent all night, Wren and I took the spoiled route and crawled into our truck (with furnished mattress) early in the evening...

We saw a lot of family while we were home. We went to Bickford cottage and saw our cousin Doris Kinyon. We brought Bowser along and he was definitely the shining star of the group. We went to Carroll, IA and visited with the Huelmans - Grandma Lola, Aunt Marge, and Denny and Janette. Had a picnic and kept cool in the shade of the shelter house! My cousin, Monica, stopped by my parents house to say hello and make us laugh. The big party was on Sunday night, when my parents hosted a Kinyon get-together in our backyard. All my cousins came and my grandparents. My Aunt Susan hadn't seen Bowser in way too long - so she got down on the ground to take this great picture with him! My little cousins all came with their swimsuits on and all their water guns and super soakers!! Look how serious Lauren is about gettin' everybody wet! I made the mistake of trying to watch on the wrong side of the fence and got my new sandals all wet (Thanks Hunter!). I love the picture of all the *experienced* adults that know where to stand in order to be safe (notice though, some of them still seem concerned.)

I'm always bad at hanging out with friends when I'm back, but I'm so happy I got to see my PEETZ, Rachel. She's pregnant and having a baby boy this AUGUST! Yay! Notice our pose, I'm the dad and she's the mom. But, not really. Love you Rach!

All in all, I love Iowa and so does Wren. Trying to figure out how we can make it to the state fair in August!

Mileage: 240,120

I have this grand plan of keeping this blog going so that people know where we are and what we are up to. Hmmmph.

If only I could actually keep blogging so you guys stayed interested! Wouldn't that be helpful?

So, to get to where we started -in Evanston, IL - took us 11, 189 miles.

Can you believe it? We drove 11,189 miles. Yikes-o. Damn. Didn't seem like that much - but hey. It's been like a month since we've been on the road now.

Here is a beautiful outline of a 'rough' version of our route. Notice the green highlighter. Now, remember the route wasn't exactly planned to look so silly, like a weird outline of the state of Oklahoma. It was supposed to stretch up into the Northwest. But, then again - none of you sent us MONEY like we asked - so we took I-80 all the way home. :) Te, he.

When we got home we met up with friends and ate and drank and were merry. We still are (merry). More in the next few blogs..... (I promise because I'm doing them right now.)

Decision: Come home.

In the midst of navigating the California interstate system, we decided very truthfully that we needed to come home. Our bank account was looking very, well, sad. Our truck was acting very tired. And, we honestly felt a little worn out ourselves. So we hopped on I-80 and set out for our 3 day trip to Iowa.

Hey -- just cause we decided to come back didn't mean we couldn't enjoy ourselves along the way, right? Near the border of Nevada and Utah we stopped in Wendover, NV. We thought we were just getting diesel and some snacks but it turns out there was a car show going on.

We walked around and got some good shots of BATMAN's car, some sweet old cars, and this HUGE MONSTER truck that Wren deemed 'not that great'. Wendover is near the famous salt flats where they have big races - Woo Hoo. Pretty cool to see.

That night my Mom put us up in a hotel in Evanston, Wyoming. We thought that was kinda funny so we had to take a picture. Thanks for the room, Mom!

Santa Cruz - we love you.

We don't know how to surf yet, but we still enjoyed Santa Cruz. So did Bowser. I mean, can you see the size of that dog he got to play with? And, in the Pacific Ocean nonetheless. F-U-N.

We were in Santa Cruz for a day. Ate a lovely little breakfast and headed over to the dog-friendly beach. After Bowser got all of his energy out we walked back to the truck and along the way - found a dog-friendly WATER FOUNTAIN. OH, my. How thoughtful!

We walked around the boardwalk and watched 12's, 14's, 16's and 18's girls sand volleyball. I was so jealous! Maybe if I grew up in California I would have been a beach volleyball star? Or, at least it's fun to pretend huh??

We also ran into my friend from high school - Roya! What?! It was so random!! And awesome - I was so awe struck that I forgot to get a picture of us! Dang! Good to see you Roya! Way better than seeing a celebrity in California!!