Most Recent Pictures - Wood Stove, Last of the 'Board' Siding....

Below are pictures I've been meaning to post!!

We have since finished ALL the 'Board' part of our siding (still have to do the batten, but will probably wait till spring to do that), our wood stove is completely installed (I'll get more pictures of that soon), and what I don't have pictures of - after today, we will have the loft completed and ready to move our stuff up there!!  For the loft, we had to create a 2' wall the comes out from the kitchen/bathroom and this will provide a place for the joists and the 2x12's to attach to.  Doing this and finishing the subfloor up there will double our space in the loft!  The goal is to move our bed and all our clothes up there leaving just a living room, dining area and the rest of our boxed up stuff in the down stairs.

Enjoy!!

WE HAVE HEAT!!

The one thing I love about life in Wyoming is that every little thing had been an adventure!  Every day is a new challenge and it’s the little things in life that mean so much!

I think the last time I wrote that we now have the tiniest bit of electricity… enough to run the TV (by the way there are NO free channels here! What am I gonna do without my Bachelor!!!) but we don’t get quite enough electricity to run the microwave.  Well, technically it will work, but usually it takes 30 seconds or so to cook a single hot dog and now it takes 3-4 minutes!  I think I’m going to try and see if my crock pot will work this week! Like I said, every week is a new adventure!

The great exciting news about this week…. WE HAVE HEAT!  We went about 2 weeks ago to buy our wood stove from TSC ($549) plus all the piping (~$600) and 600 wood bricks ($300).  Here is the interesting part.  Scott’s truck has been acting up so we don’t trust driving it long distances.  Well, in order to go get the wood stove we took my car and pulled our little white trailer.  Funny thing… we underestimated the weight of the wood stove (~250 lbs) and the 600 wood bricks!  We first started loading all the wood bricks at the front of the trailer and ended up the weight on it put too much pressure on the hitch of my car and the shocks on the back tires!!  So we had to rearrange everything and put most of the weight on the back of the trailer.  We were laughing the entire way home!

It took about a week or so to get the mudroom cleaned out, the trailers organized and brought down by the house, all the wood bricks brought into the house and stacked up in the mudroom, plus getting the woodstove in the house.  We decided we didn’t want the stove to sit directly on the floor and we don’t have the money right now to add carpet or another floor covering, so we had to be creative!  We decided to use a free wood pallet and cover it with scraps of plywood.   Then we went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Powell and got about 30 12x12 tile squares, a bucket of stuff to make the tiles stick to the pallet (forgive me I forget what the stuff is called!), and I even found this rustic metal bucket that is perfect for putting kindling in – all for just $17!!  Scott said the tiles alone would have cost close to $100 or more, so I think we did pretty good!  I’ll take a picture this week of the tile on the pallet to show you the fun design Scott came up with.

I think the hardest part of putting in the stove was 2 fold  - first the stove was REALLY heavy!  We had to take our sweet time getting it into the house and then lifting it up on the pallet too.  Second, getting the piping to fit correctly in the hole we had to make in the house was stressful.  You wouldn’t think it would be, I mean, first make a hole, second put the pipe in the hole, third add the trim pieces…. But here’s the problem.  We didn’t even think about the fact that our walls are much thicker than the common wall because of all the foam insulation!  So Scott had to make another trip to get another pipe that was long enough to go through our wall. But we finally got it installed! I say ‘we’, but I must admit that I mostly pulled ‘cat guard’ the entire time so we didn’t have any crazy cats try to escape through the hole!!

We’ve now had the wood stove up and running for 3 nights!  It’s been wonderful!  It’s technically not cold enough out for us to use it yet, however it’s so nice and cozy, not to mention soothing and relaxing to end the day with a nice fire.  We’ve also used these last few days as a ‘test’ to see how well our insulation would do.  Keep in mind it had been in the 70s during the day and down in the 40s at night… so not too terribly cold out.  The first night we put a little kindling on to get it started plus one wood brick, that’s all!  The temperature in the house went from 63 to 72 in a matter of about 30 minutes.  It stayed at 72 up till we went to bed.  I forgot to close the windows that night (we had two of them cracked open) and in the morning it was still 68 in the house! Last night, the temperature also went up to 72 and by morning it was still 70 degrees.  We kept the house shut up all day and didn’t have a fire going till late this evening.  Even then it was still 68 in the house!  I’m really impressed with our insulation!  It seems that we only need to burn one wood brick at night and it’s been keeping the house at a very comfortable temperature throughout the night and the next day.  One wood brick cost us fifty cents! That’s it! And the kindling has all been scraps so basically free.  I’ll keep you all posted how many wood bricks we need throughout the winter, but I am going to make a hypothesis that it will be cheaper overall compared to paying for a propane or gas powered furnace.

On another note, we discovered that no matter how hard we try, we can’t get any free TV channels here! I realize I already mentioned this above, but it’s been driving Scott nuts so I guess it’s worth mentioning twice!  Well, we’ve watched all 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls like 5 times just this year, so we are now going through all Scott’s movies.  I’m sorry, but I can only handle so much of John Wayne!  Yes, I’m a cowgirl at heart, but those movies tend to put me to sleep.  Today we went to Cody and checked out 8 DVDs and 4 VHS tapes. It’s exciting to watch different stuff now!!

And today I bought some new things at the grocery store in an attempt to try cooking on our woodstove tonight.  So tonight for dinner I cut up some red potatoes, tossed them in vegetable oil mixed with a chopped up piece of garlic and some Italian seasoning.  Then I used my horse Ceasar’s old horse shoe as a trivet and cooked the potatoes in a skillet covered in foil.  It took about 1 hour to cook and let me tell you it was worth the wait!! They were so good!!  I can’t wait to cook something else tomorrow night.  I bought stuff to make homemade rice crispy treats as a surprise for Scott!

I really don’t have a lot more to say… I’ve been sewing and working on some new things for sale and also hemmed curtains and made some curtains for one of our neighbors.  Now I’m getting ready to make a few more things and some curtains for another neighbor!  Scott helped on a project for our neighbor Gordy and he’s starting to apply for jobs, fingers crossed!

And for anyone wondering, we still don’t have running water or full electricity (just one power strip is all), and our OH house is still for sale.  But we have a great realtor working her hardest to sell it and we’re so thankful for her! Just waiting for that special person to see just how wonderful it is!

Again, I apologize for not having pictures this time…. I’m using the ‘hotspot’ on my phone for the internet and the pictures are just taking forever to load, so I’ll wait till I’m in town to do laundry next and you all will get a bunch then!!

Have a great weekend!!

 

Almost done! Lots of fun updates

Hi everyone!!  It has been a very eventful and exciting few weeks since we’ve been back to WY.  There is so much to share with you.

First, we worked really hard on the house – we officially have ALL the board up for the board and batten siding! (just have to make, stain, and put up the battens to cover the gaps between each of the boards)  And we put up the entire roof on the mudroom and even one piece of the trim (over the door).  We will finish the other side of the trim this week.  We also put up some of the ‘wood’ trim along the angled edges of the mudroom – that was the not so fun part… Lots of ‘let’s see how it fits!’ while both of us climbed the ladder and held the board up.  The other hard part of last week was adding the upper boards to the gable end of the front of the house! Boy that was tough… As you know I’m not a fan of ladders, although I have to say I’m getting much better and not quite as fearful.  But anyhow, when we were putting up the front siding for the gables, Scott would climb the ladder, I would hand him and help him shimmy up the board, then with the long level, I would hold it (from the ground) and push on the bottom of the board so Scott can get the drill ready to screw the board down.  PFHEW!! It was a long few days doing this, but now, our house is starting to look complete! 

We still have so much work to finish, but at least all the heavy stuff, well most of it, is done now! 

Some more exciting news!! Well, the not so exciting part first – we called several places last week about getting our electric put in but each place said it would be either 3-4 weeks before they could even come out for an estimate and up to 4-5 months (yes MONTHS) before they can get it in for us! UGG!  You just don’t realize how much you miss certain things, certain guilty pleasures like using a microwave or even watching The Big Bang Theory on TV, that is until you have to go without them.  It’s been since April 24^th since we arrived in Wyoming and since then we’ve had no electricity or running water.  On the bright side we do at least have a toilet now and our septic is hooked up! That’s very exciting.  So I digress…  the exciting news! We wanted to be prepared for winter time and have some form of heat.  Yesterday we went to TSC to look at wood stoves again.  The one I like is big, heats up to ~2,700 sq ft I believe, has a gorgeous glass front and was on pedestal feet.  However, it was $899!  Way out of the budget (considering we have no budget since we’ve spent all our build money).  But, there at the front of the store was another large wood stove with a solid base on it, regularly $649, but on sale for $100 off for only $549!!!  Here’s the best part! With the money we saved (keep in mind we also didn’t have to pay tax on anything because we purchased in MT) we were able to buy an entire pallet of compressed wood bricks.  We were planning on getting wood, however, 2 issues – first, we have no way to split the wood (or a chainsaw to cut it up even) and second, we have no storage to keep it dry.  And we already have our scooters living with us in the kitchen plus lots of Scott’s tools in the mudroom and even trim pieces for the room that are also in the kitchen…. So we just don’t have room in the house for numerous cords of wood too!  Supposedly (we’ll keep you posted), the compressed wood bricks – by the way they were also on sale and saved us $50!) are supposed to last 2.5 times longer than traditional wood.  And they are much smaller so it won’t be an issue to find a place for them in the house (probably in the kitchen with everything else! Haha).  Ah! I’m so excited for the wood stove.  We are going to use the little trailer today or one day this week, pull it with my car, and go pick everything up.  YEAH!

Would you like to hear another piece of exciting news??  My husband is a GENIUS!!  But don’t tell him I admitted that! Just kidding!  He knows!  Anyhow, while we were in town yesterday he picked up an outdoor outlet.  You all may remember that back in June the electric company came out and we thought they were going to run poles to the build site and attach an outlet to the pole so we could use electricity. Well, that’s not exactly what they did.  They instead just put up the meter box, no outlet at all, right at the pole at the road.  So all summer we’ve not had a lick of electricity and have had to use the generator for everything.  Well Scott had an idea.  After carefully examining the box at the pole, he determined that he could hook up the outdoor outlet himself.  I have to admit I was VERY nervous this entire time because I didn’t want him to get hurt.  But he insisted he could do it and by golly he did!!  We now have an outdoor outlet at the meter box and a 300’ extension cord to the house! I guess when you go without for such a long time, you are willing to do what you can!  We have one power strip hooked up and that gives us what we need!  That means, drum roll please….. I can sew again!!!! YEAH! Ironically 2 days ago I realized that my sewing machine worked when hooked up with inverter on my car… when there’s a will, there’s a way!! But I have to admit, this way is much easier!  And for anyone curious, this came up when I talked with Charlotte, since the electric company came out in June, we have had to pay a monthly fee no matter what and we are on the meter so everything should be all right!

And the first thing we did with electricity? Hook up the TV!  But for some reason either our converter box isn’t working or the remote to the converter box isn’t working (yes, we have a very old-school TV, so big when I put it in front seat of my car, my car then proceeds to tell me it needs a seat belt).  That’s one of those things we never jumped on the band wagon for – getting a flat screen.  Of course we wanted one, but these last 6 years with Scott our motto has been ‘Use it up, wear it out, do with less or do without!’  Well, getting a new TV when the old one worked perfectly fine just wasn’t an option.  Anyhow, back to my point… we weren’t able to watch TV, but we did hook up the DVD player and have been watching Gilmore Girls (we have all seasons on DVD).

More fun things to talk about! How about those pack rats??  Well, we’ve been working a little everyday to clean up our building materials and get them better organized or put away for the winter.  In the process we found that pack rat condo! And everything got burned…  His pallet, his cacti security system, everything!  And we even found the bugger and well, he is no more.  Last week he started nesting in my car on top of the battery and even chewed a wire completely off! Funny thing… we have no idea what that wire did because it doesn’t appear to have affected anything in the car.  So as a precautionary, Scott used something liquid on the ends of each wire that hardened so it wouldn’t cause any issues.

We also decided to pay-it-forward this week.  We’re almost nearing the end of getting the outside of our house complete and here in WY the thoughts of winter are all around us.  One of our neighbors, in their late 70s and early 80s, are still working on the outside of their room addition.  We both went over and helped!  Scott worked with Joe and put up some more of the siding and Helen and I worked on staining all the siding they have up so far so it’s protected through the winter. 

We still have a lot of work to accomplish, but we’re getting there! And I can say our house is starting to feel and look like a home.  This past week I wanted to do something to jazz it all up and I’ve been putting up all of Scott’s Army pictures plus, yes I’m admitting it, all our Christmas decorations too!  I’m sorry, but I’m a sucker for Christmas! It’s my favorite time of the year and I guess having all my favorite decorations up, makes it feel cozy!

I hope you all are doing well and I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures attached to this one… I will soon!

I feel this is appropriate: "Back to Life.. Back to Reality!"

It has been crazy since we've been home.  It took us a few days to recuperate.  Returning the rental truck to Utah was an adventure in itself!  It was 8 hours, one way, and on the way there we drove through Yellowstone, down through Idaho, and into Utah.  While there we found an El Toro!!!  Any by golly, it was pretty darn close to the one back in OH and really good! We were in heaven! 

On the way home from Utah we took one of the most scenic drives! (pictures to come later.... I don't have my camera and camera cord at the moment). The drive took us between the mountains, down by a beautiful lake and over into Wyoming to Jackson Hole.  We then drove by the Grand Tetons and through Yellowstone again on the way home.

My it was a REALLY long 2 weeks of traveling - about 5,000 miles (just on my car, plus the ~2,200 miles Scott also drove in rental truck).

But we are finally back!  We got everything unloaded in the house, some 'non essential' stuff put up into the loft, and have a temporary living room set up with our L-Shaped couch all in pieces.  The cats are in heaven! They are climbing on everything and sleeping on the couches now. But we can tell they don't want us to leave because when we are outside, they (specifically Buddy and Tuffy) go to the window and meow at us.

We have spent a few days back to work - we have all the rest of the foam on the gable end of the mudroom and yesterday we put up almost all the 'board' siding above where the mudroom roof will go.  Today we hope to have the roof on the mudroom and by tomorrow have all the 'board' siding on that entire gable end.  Then we get to start on the very front of the house with the siding.

We started calling about getting our electric and water hooked up - something we are going to let the professionals do!  But most were out hunting so we haven't actually talked to anyone yet.  Seems like hunting season out here is similar to Darke Co. Fair Week back in OH! 

Otherwise not a lot else to say....  still making progress! But it's nice to have all our stuff here with us!

I'll update with more pictures of our progress and our current living situation in my next blog post:)

Have a great week!
Kristen

O-H-I-O - Return back to get all our stuff and visit with family and friends

Boy oh boy!! We've had a really LONG week, but a crazy fun one at that! 

On Thursday, September 25th we left Wyoming to head back to Ohio. Now that our house is under roof, we needed to get all our stuff and bring it to our new home.  On Thursday we drove to Bismarck, ND.  We drove through Montana and part of North Dakota.  In ND, it was interesting to drive past where they were drilling for oil!  Also, ND is a very odd state with sever of the 'World's Largest...' items including the World's Largest Holstein Cow, Buffalo, and metal sculpture!  Didn't expect to see those!

Friday we continued our drive through the rest of ND, all of MN and just into WI where we stopped at Scott's friends house.  We had a blast!! We stayed with him and his wife for 2 nights, had a cookout with their family, and even took a trip to Costco (my first time ever being there!).

Finally on Sunday we made the last, really long, leg of our trip back to Ohio.  I was texting with Scott's Uncle Guy most of the day and just when we got into Ohio I took a picture of the arch and messaged him:  'Welcome to .... (fill in the blank)' and he responded 'O-H-I-O'

 
We finally made it back to OH late on Sunday night.  And our first stop was Skyline!!  We just had to get some chili dogs:)

I am SO thankful that we had the chance to spend so much time with Don and Charlotte, our amazing neighbors who let us stay with them!  And their animals H (their dog) and kitty remembered us!

 Monday morning, I was so excited to go visit folks that I didn't sleep in much. I let Scott sleep in till about 9 or so while I went and did some errands.  Then, I just couldn't wait, I went to the bank and surprised Allison!!!  I walked in, peered behind the counter to the drive-thru part, and Allison looked toward me.  The look on her face was priceless! 

We have been searching high and low for a good Mexican restaurant in WY/MT and haven't had any luck yet.  It's more Tex-Mex and not what we like.  Well, we couldn't resist! Our first lunch back in OH and we had to go to El Toro!!  And well that night for dinner we also went to El Toro! (can you tell we really like Mexican?). I was hoping so much that our friend Monica would have been working, but she must have had the day off.  We miss you Monica!

After lunch we went and spent the afternoon with my parents.  They had no idea we were back yet!  We pulled in the drive way and I thought for sure my dad would have seen us.  He was in the office in the shop and apparently didn't see us!  Out working on the combine was his friend Kenny and I motioned to him, 'Shh!'.  I snuck in and said to my dad, 'Did you miss me' and he just said, without looking up from what he was writing, 'uh huh'.  Then a few seconds later he turned and looked and said, 'It's you!' and then reached out and hugged me! Now he is not normally a hugging person, so this meant the world to me!  Then he spotted Scott and said, 'Well, I guess they don't have razors out in Wyoming!' haha!  For the last 4 months, Scott has said he's on strike - he won't shave till the house is done! Well my dad just couldn't believe we were there.  By the end of the afternoon we saw Dad, Kenny, Uncle Jed, Cousin Jason and Ron too!  They were all working on the corn header for the combine and of course put Scott to work too.
My mom was out at the time but when she came back I had her come with me for a few more surprises!  We headed to town to the dog grooming place to surprise Tracy Dohme.  Little did I know that Shala Urlage was there too (I think the last time I saw Shala was probably around 2004/2005!)!!!  As I was walking toward the door to the dog grooming place, Shala comes walking out and starts screaming! I'm so excited to see her too and then coming ever so slowing around the corner is Tracy Dohme. She was in complete disbelief I was there! It was great:) It was so much fun surprising them both!! 

When we got back from our surprises, my dad had to show us his toys!  He got a Honda Silver Wing Scooter! We couldn't hardly believe that it has 600cc's!  Then he couldn't wait any longer to show Scott his new Camaro SuperSport.  And lastly he got a sprayer for the fields and they were all out admiring it.  Plus we had to take a ride in the Camaro!  Dad seemed to have a little too much fun showing us all the horses.  And speaking of horses, a visit home wouldn't be complete without seeing my horse Ceasar! He may be 27 years old, but he's still my baby and as happy as can be.

We headed over to my little brother Ty's new house to say Happy Birthday!!! It was supposed to be a surprise but Jenna said that my dad was so excited we were there to visit that he spilled the beans to Ty, haha! 

We went back to El Toro for dinner with Scott's mom! After dinner we went to her place and she got out all her baby pictures.  We spent I think 2 hours going through them.  All this time Scott wasn't sure there were any! Let me tell you, he was an adorably cute kid!

Tuesday we spend the morning and lunch time with our wonderful neighbors Don and Charlotte! And they were so nice to take us to their favorite Mexican restaurant! After lunch, we went over to see our other neighbors, Anzel and Mavis!  While we were sitting out chatting with them, our friend Jack drove by and quickly turned around to come say a quick 'hello'.  I think we shocked him! He wasn't expecting us to be there!

Later that afternoon we headed to Columbus to visit Scott's Uncle Guy and Aunt Carol.  The last time Scott saw them was when this picture below was taken, when he first returned home from the military back in 2008.  I had never met either of them before.  And we were treated not only with an amazing home cooked meal (Aunt Carol you are AWESOME!), but Scott's cousin Kenny and his wonderful kids Reed and Clark came over too!  It was so much fun to meet them and learn so much about them.  They have such a wonderful family.  Carol and Guy even let us stay the night so we were able to spend more quality time with them.  Before we left, they surprised us with a really fun bald eagle (by the way we named him Dougie after the pot belly pig that seems to wander our OH neighborhood!  Just seemed like a fun name!) and they also gave us the 'Welcome Home Scott' sign that they made when he returned home from the Army! That was so nice!  We actually plan to have a memory room at our house and this is perfect! Thank you guys so much! And I have to tell you all a fun story - there is a picture of Uncle Guy with his dog Lulu.  Lulu always wears her harness and it's the cutest thing.  It's like her little tuxedo! They said she doesn't like it when they take it off her.  She reminds me a lot of our silly cat Tuffy.

Below is Scott on the left and his brother Paul on the right from Christmas 2008.

Wednesday we detoured to Bellefontaine to visit Scott's Uncle Gene.  He unfortunately suffered several strokes this past spring and is still recuperating from them.  We are so thankful to have gotten to see him and spend an entire afternoon visiting with Bev and Gene.  We told Gene all sorts of stories about our adventures in WY.

When we got back, we finally went over to see our house.  It was still just like it was before, but not fun for me to go through it.  It didn't bother Scott, but it was pretty emotional for me.  We still haven't sold our house quite yet and I was getting emotional over the thought of needing to stay back in OH to keep up with the house to get it sold...  luckily we decided that wasn't necessary.  I don't mind staying in OH, but I've had to be apart from Scott in the past and that's what I don't think I can do!

That night was a great one! We went and visited our friends Jack, Katie, and little Serena!  My goodness she is getting so big and loves to 'cheese' for the camera!  It was so much fun just hanging out and playing with Barbie's with Serena.  And I finally had the chance to give Jack his snake rattle:)

Thursday was the day I was DREADING! We went in the morning to pick up the Penske truck.  We opted for the 26' long truck, just to be sure we had more than enough room (didn't even fill half of it!).  While waiting for the truck to be ready, we were talking to the rental guy about our Wyoming adventures.  He surprised us with a nearly $400 additional discount!!! In total, the rental truck was only ~$1,900 including the insurance.  What a great surprise and we are SO appreciative!
We got to the storage unit and everything was there with no issues.  I think we started loading up at about 10:30am.  A little while later, my dad's friends Ron Fritz and Ray Cates came by! Scott had the original block and transmission to his '66 Ford truck that he gave them.  We just don't have the place to store them and he didn't think he'd ever use them again (so no use taking them with us). Plus we know between Ron and Ray they'd be put to good use.  And the two of them were so amazing and helped load the heavy stuff - all the wood working tools! And Ron even left his dolly for us to use (we can't thank you enough!).  They had to leave to go help my dad get the combine ready to harvest Ron's field, but it was so much fun to spend time with them and hear lots of their fun stories:)
We were more than halfway done loading everything up by ~ 1pm and I went to get food.  Scott thought of the perfect way to take a lunch break!

Scott's mom even came by for maybe about an hour while we finished loading the last little bit.  Boy it was a HOT day! We were both sweating like crazy, but we did it! By 3pm we had everything loaded up and ready to go. 

Afterwards we chilled and hung out with Don and Charlotte for a little while before we headed back to see my folks.  When we got there Dad was no where to be found.  Mom said he was up running beans so we headed that way!  I believe it was last year that my dad got his new combine and it had been YEARS since I've ridden in it with him.  Not only did he give me a ride but he couldn't wait to give Scott a ride in it.  While he was out with Scott, Ron and I heard them honking the horn on the combine.  I found out later that a little bunny ran out of the field and they saw a hawk swoop down and get him! 

When we got back, my brother Darren and the boys stopped by real quick. But I'm glad they did because I've been saving our second snake rattle to give to them! They thought it was really cool.

My parents neighbors Ted and Mary also walked over for just a few minutes! We wish we could have spent more time with you both but thank you so much for coming over to say hi!

After we all got back to the house, we ended up going and getting pizza with mom and dad.  My dad is so funny! He always does this - we eat, then he has ice-cream, we all sit in the living room and while we're chatting he falls asleep.  Then as soon as we get up and say it's time to leave he comes up with something to keep us another 30 minutes! It's just one of those things I'll always cherish.

I'll tell you my dad cracks me up!  He is so attached to Scotty that when he found out we weren't leaving till Saturday he insisted that we come by again on our way back to WY, and Scotty agreed:)

We were originally planning on leaving on Friday morning, but we decided that we'd sleep in a little and then spend the day doing some odds and ends around our OH house to get it ready for the open house.  I pulled weeds, trimmed a few of the bushes and trees that hung into our yard plus I trimmed our crazy black berry bush!! It was so tall it was laying on the top of the garage.  We took our time and got everything in tip top shape for the realtor.

That afternoon we were spoiled rotten by Don and Charlotte! They made grilled T-bones, corn on the cob, mac n' cheese, and baked beans! Boy oh boy that was a great meal.  And I'm not usually a big fan of steak, except for T-bones and Don you outdid yourself! 

Friday night we headed back to Darke County to spend the evening with Ty and Jenna.  I just can't explain how much fun we had with them!  We get there and Ty made Scott's day by letting him drive the 4-wheeler into his back woods. Of course I went with him and it was so peaceful and relaxing back there.  They are so lucky to have such an amazing place.  This whole summer while we've been building our house, the two of them have been renovating their new place.  I'm just so proud of them, of all they've accomplished, and of how hard they've been working.  I've grown so close to Jenna this year that it was so hard to leave.

Our last night in OH was bittersweet.  We had a great time coming back, visiting and surprising so many people, but we were ready to hit the road.  Saturday morning we visited Scott's mom for breakfast then headed to my parents one last time for a quick lunch.  There were 2 really hard things about this trip - leaving and saying goodbye to Don and Charlotte and then doing the same with my parents.  The worst is saying goodbye to my dad.  I admit I've always been a daddy's girl and seeing him get choked up when we had to leave was the hardest thing.  He kept trying to convince Scott to stay saying he'd have a job for him all fall if he did!

But finally we headed out.  We were both pooped out!  We had had a very long week and only ended up making it to Bloomington, IL till we crashed at the hotel. The next morning, we were in a fun and crazy mood so we decided it was time for Scott to have a 'shave down'!  First he cut off just his mustache and fluffed out his beard to see what he's look like if he was Amish.  Then he cut just his side burns and then a stripe down his chin.  We had way too much fun with this!  But now he looks like 'normal Scotty' to me.  However I have to say I already miss the beard so now he's going to grow it back out!  We headed out that day for WI.  I couldn't believe it but on the way we drove past the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile and the Planter's Peanut Mobile too!!!  I'd never seen them before in person!

Then on Monday we left WI and headed to Bismarck, ND.  Just one day left till we see our babies!!  It was so hard to leave the cats and we just can't wait to get back to them.  Tuesday is our last leg of the trip back to WY.  Here's the fun part.  After we unload the rental truck, then we have to drive it approximately 9 hours one way to Hyde Park, UT to drop it off.  It won't be too bad because we're going to drive through Yellowstone on the way there and then through the Tetons and Jackson Hole on the way back. I've never been to UT or Jackson Hole before - plus we get to drive a little bit through Idaho too.

Here are pictures of our time in OH plus some of the drive too.  Enjoy! More pictures/info of the UT/Jackson Hole trip in next post:)  I apologize, they are not in order below - first are the pictures from my camera and then from my phone.  Click on the first one to make it bigger then you can easily scroll through. Enjoy!