Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

Natalee is glad to have her dog back again. We found these keys at a yard sale yesterday for a quarter. Natalee also got some brand new shoes for a dollar. She made out really well at the yard sale! Here, she is trying to pull herself up on the chair to reach her mommy. Made it!

Thursday evening, Mom, Natalee and I went over to Kenny, Sarah, & Kayli's house to visit with them, Mike, and Sarah's mom, Kim. Kayli was showing Natalee how to dance on her dance pad. When she moves on it, it makes noises. As of Thursday, I am released from my contract (finally). It is rather complicated, but they finally decided they could go with one substitute for the final 7 Thursdays of the school year. Thursday, I spent the day teaching and showing her what I've been doing and what could be done for the remainder of the year. I got notes, giant group hugs, and love from all of the Kindergarten students. It was so sad to leave them! Friday was spent getting all of the many things done that I needed to do before leaving the state. Now, we just need our house to sell! Then, Saturday, we flew back to PA to stay (hopefully). Natalee was once again a great sport in the airplane despite the fact that she was not able to take a good nap and we could not move aroun...

We have a few borrowed chairs now -- Thanks Mike! We also have a plastic tub that we've turned upside down to use as a coffee table/ottoman. Natalee was standing there playing with the monitor receiver. Then, she turned to playing with the book. Just fanning through the pages, watching them move... ...until she saw the camera! I tried to get a picture of her getting into the cupboard doors, but she was too quick for me.

Note for the movers--Here is a fragile item: By about 10:30 Saturday all of our furniture and stuff was gone from our house. I borrowed a pack-n-play for Natalee to sleep on and I borrowed an air mattress for us to sleep on. We do not have any chairs. Tonight, we sat on the floor and ate pizza. Natalee ate her peas off of the ground since she does not have a highchair. That's probably one of the only times she's allowed to eat off of the floor! Quite a few of them got squished onto the floor making a big mess.

Look at the size of this moving van! And it is only our stuff that is going in it. I don't know why they aren't driving the car onto this van. It would seem to make more sense than to pay another company to do it. I think this van is bigger than our house! Just to get a picture of the size of this van, we had Natalee stand beside it. We stayed outside quite a bit while the movers were transporting our things to the van. Natalee was enjoying her walk around the yard with her Pappy. (Thank goodness he was here to help!) On a side note: Natalee's first tooth poked through on Thursday. Today, she pulled up to a stand for the first time (on something other than ME -- she's done that for a few weeks now). She stood by the chair and then started wailing because she didn't know what to do next because there wasn't anywhere to go from there!

We went into Seattle for the day on Saturday because it was so pretty outside. It got up to 70 degrees! We went to the Klondike Gold Rush Museum (part of the National Parks Service) and Pike Place Market . Natalee and I on the Port Orchard-Bremerton Foot Ferry and Port Orchard in the background: View of PSNS and the Olympic Mountains: Natalee and I on the Bremerton-Seattle Car Ferry (and Seattle in the background): Natalee and I at the Pig at Pike Place Market (right behind us is where they throw the fish ): Dad, Natalee and I at the park with Seattle, the football and baseball stadiums, and Mt. Rainier behind us: I zoomed in on the stadiums and Mt. Rainier: While waiting for the foot ferry back to Port Orchard, we saw this lady and we sure would like to know what the story is:

1. "I didn't do it--I am NOT playing with the computer cord!" 2. "What are you looking at?" 3. "I want the purple block, but I can't get through!" 4. "I made it!"

I left Natalee in the living room with my Dad and her toys so that I could get some ice cream. I turned around to see.... ..... Natalee!

Yummy peas!

On the airplane yesterday, Natalee squirmed herself in a weird-looking position. This nap lasted more than an hour and a half. It was interrupted a lot, though, so she was still extremely tired. She handled it very well until the last hour of our last flight. She did not find anyone on that flight that she wanted to smile at ;) She was holding her ear. This is the view from how I saw her:

We made it to Pennsylvania yesterday. I wish we could have taken more time to do that trip! Day 1: Port Orchard to Boise It was snowing when we left Port Orchard. It was snowing at Snoqualmie Pass. It was also snowing here at Deadman's Pass in Oregon: Day 2: Boise, ID Natalee got to meet Kaelyn (Ken & Jen Hosier) She also got to meet Ruby (Eric and Teresa Kile) Day 3: Boise, ID to Rawlins, WY Meg bored and staring at the UHaul Trailer. Snow in Rawlins, WY: Day 4: Rawlins, WY to Berthoud, CO This was our aforementioned adventure of waiting for seven hours. The snow blew like crazy: Day 5: Colorado Natalee met her second cousin Jevin: We saw some Bighorn Sheep on the way up to the Ranch: Peaceful Valley Ranch , where Jesse and I met: Natalee met Miriam (Daisy and Andrew Farhat) Day 6: Berthoud, CO to Des Moines, IA We drove 691 miles this day -- No time to take pictures! Day 7: Des Moines, IA to Shipshewana , IN We met up with Colleen to eat breakfast at the Machine Shed i...

Sunday as we drove through Green River, we saw that the highway was closed past Rawlins. Since we have a dog and a baby along on our trip, we decided it was wise to call ahead for a hotel room and Rawlins--and I'm glad we did. By the time we got there, the only place to stay was the shelter at the Armory! The next day, they opened I-80 again. We left at 10, but ran into this at 10:40. The traffic was backed up for many miles. On the opposite side of the road, you can see the fire truck coming again. We also saw many police, tow trucks, ambulances, and a school bus (to take uninjured people back to Rawlins). We were stopped for nearly 7 HOURS . No kidding. Natalee practiced her driving skills. She also checked out everything in the front seat. The dog took a nice nap resting her head on Natalee's car seat. We all took a nap during our wait. Waiting for 7 hours, we were of course very bored, so we took a lot of pictures. The scenery was beautiful--I just didn't ...