Greeting from Bozeman, MT. WOW is Montana pretty. It's almost enough to make one want to move here... maybe not almost even... hmmmmm.

We're two hours away from Yellowstone, so we'll have a leisurely morning and meander on down to the splendor of a place full of hot air and water (sounds like me...)

We leave Seattle in two hours. The trailer is hitched, most of the stuff is packed, and we'll be booking soon.

Had a quiet get-together with my sisters at Katie's house last night, which also happened to be her birthday. Too bad Katie's in Texas, but we had a good time anyway. :)

I've got a cold, Lynette is getting one, Aly has a rash, but we're going to enjoy our journey across America!

First Idaho, then Montana, Yellowstone for two days, Mt. Rushmore, Kansas City, Mammoth Caves for two days and the HOME!

Jennifer, something may be coming to house by FexEx or UPS this week. I'll see if I can get it delivered when we get back, but just in case, can you leave a note on the door for any deliveries to go to Terry (if that's okay with you, Terry).

Thanks and see you all soon!

We are down to our last week before the long drive back. We've felt like we've been running the whole time we've been here, but there's so many things to do and people to see that we haven't been able to fit in. We seem to get more stuffed in when we're here for a couple weeks than when we're here for over a month. Go figure.

Jon has taken it upon himself to try and resurrect our yard back home. Jen is clearing out the party animals as we speak. SunTrust is thoughtfully piling on the deadlines for July. My side clients are doing the same. My Orlando life is so full and we're not even there!

My sisters have covered every need, lavished us all with love, made us welcome at odd hours in their homes, and made me thrilled all over again to be part of this family.

Bi-coastal blessing! Hard to beat that!

We needed to pour some more concrete to finish the stream in my parent's back yard, but considering the previous weather and the dark sky (going from ash grey to jet black clouds) we didn't dare risk it.

So of course, it's the one day it never rained. Of course, if we HAD mixed the concrete it WOULD have rained. In the Northwest you actually have that kind of power over the weather...

The fam is back from Portland! We're together again for the first time... (and wait until we get back to see what I mean...)

Mom asked me when we were heading back to Orlando and cried when I gave her the answer. :(

I never would have guessed this could go so fast...

A week and a half before driving back. !

It's drizzling.

Not again... still...

Well, maybe there were a few breaks. Like two nights ago when we were leaving Lynette's cousin's house and saw the neighbors lined up looking at the sky. I was thinking UFO, so I scanned the sky carefully. A neighbor saw me looking and breathed, "isn't it beautiful?"

I looked again and said, "what? The sunset?"

A ripple ran down the watchers. "Oooo! It's called a 'sunset'!

The little girl next to me asked, "Mister? What's a sunset?"

"It's... when the sun sets over the horizon..." I answered.

She seemed to chew on this for moment, then asked, "What's a 'sun', Mister?"

As one the crowd swivelled around to catch my answer.


Lynette and the kids are in Portland, Oregon visiting a good friend. I'm working. We've put 10,000 miles on the van since we left Orlando and I'm doing so much work for SunTrust that I'm considering putting in an expense account for mileage. At 35 cents a mile...

Hello from the great Northwest! Remember that the camera adds ten or twenty pounds to anyone wearing a red baseball cap...
Florida folks: the white stuff is SNOW. :)

It's drizzling here. That's rain you can see but can't really feel. You can walk through it and barely get damp. It's like the moisture in the clouds became bored and decided to just hang around in the sky.

Lynette and the kids are off hiking with her dad and I'm at my sisters working and pirating someone's wireless network.

Have I mentioned what a wonderful family I have? And I'm not just saying that because they read this. It's almost enough to make us want to move back (but I refer you to the first paragraph which discusses a whopping reason I don't want to move back.).

The kids have now seen snow for the first time. Ben found it to be too cold...

We went camping with my sisters and brothers-in-law, they in their beautiful campers and we in our tent. We had a great day driving over the pass, seeing the most gorgeous countryside God ever made. The kids counted 111 waterfalls on the way there.

My sisters - bless 'em - will forever see me as the baby-brother, babying me within an inch of my life. It means we get good food, camper bathrooms instead of outhouses, and offers of money "in case I don't have enough." Life is good.

The rain didn't set in until the second night around 3 in the morning. Our tent, it seems, is a good one; it didn't leak (nor did the air mats provided by the Splitters). Packing up was messy, but the food was terrific and so were the margaritas.

Had to replace the tires on the van and recharge the air system. We're installing a hitch and renting a trailer for the drive back in just three weeks. Our stuff seems to be growing...

Lynette's father came up to Mt. Vernon to help design and create a waterfall stream in the back yard of my parent's house. That's the second big hole I've dug this trip, and miraculously my back is fine. We got two days into the project, mortaring the stones in place when it started pouring rain. We covered it with tarps and hope the mortar sets up. It's a lot of work, and Leonard is a saint to help with this. I believe it will bring a lot of peace to my mom and dad. I'll take a picture when the project is completed next week and post it.

Talk to y'all later.

Lynette's father came up to Mt. Vernon to help design and create a waterfall stream in the back yard of my parent's house. That's the second big hole I've dug this trip, and miraculously my back is fine. We got two days into the project, mortaring the stones in place when it started pouring rain. We covered it with tarps and hope the mortar sets up. It's a lot of work, and Leonard is a saint to help with this. I believe it will bring a lot of peace to my mom and dad. I'll take a picture when the project is completed next week and post it.

Talk to y'all later.