george and jodi: May 2013

Well, this is a bit delayed. I was hoping to blog about our trip as things happened but then I decided that it was WAY more important to spend that time enjoying our girls before they left. So, they are in the airport getting ready to board their flights and I am here, sad, but ready to blog the highlights from our 10 day excursion. Here we go...

Day One: South Dakota-Montana (via Wyoming)
*We left South Dakota early in the morning...packing all of our luggage for the trip plus Dani & Amy's luggage for the flight home was an adventure. Every time we had to repack it we had to shove and cram and hope the door on the hatch would shut!
*We stopped at Devil's Tower on the way to Manhattan, Montana. This is something George has always wanted to do but we have never taken the time to.

George and I in front of Devil's Tower

*We also stopped at the Little Big Horn Battlefield on our way to Manhattan.

Photo by Dani at Little Big Horn

*We arrived in Manhattan, dropped our stuff off at my Grandparent's house and went into Bozeman to eat at Olive Garden...we got salad and dessert only because the electricity went off about 10 minutes after we sat down. We also went to a movie.

Day Two: Montana
*We took the girls to the Lewis and Clark Caverns. George and the girls went into the caves, I stayed in the parking lot (was just there recently and I'm not a big fan of hiking up the mountain to get to the opening). They seemed to enjoy it.

Picture by Dani - down in the cave

*We also went to Virginia City and walked around. Most of the shops and such were closed because their season hadn't really started yet but we did make it into the candy shop! Virginia City is basically a "ghost town" where people went to mine gold in the 1800s (it was the original capitol of Montana Territory in 1865). It has been preserved and has a historical marker on practically every building!

Day Three: Montana
*George and Dani got up early and went to climb MSU's "M" mountain (they actually climbed past the "M" as well). George has also always wanted to do this but climbing a mountain does not appeal to me. He found a nature-buddy in Dani and he's going to really miss her!

Picture by Dani - looking over Gallatin Valley

Picture by Dani - George and Dani at the top of the mountain

*We ate at my Aunt Robyn and Cousin Jordan's cafe "Rise and Shine"for lunch and then spent some time in Bozeman hanging out and taking in another movie.

Day Four: Montana-Jackson, Wyoming
*Day four was a big day. We saw most of Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Teton National Park. We were hoping to see a moose but never did. We did however get to see a black bear and her cubs! We stayed in Jackson, WY that night.

Mama Bear & Cubs

Day Five: Jackson, Wyoming-Moab, UT (via Idaho)
*Day five was mostly driving. By this time in the trip everyone except me had caught the crazy cold Amy came down with the first night of our trip. George was especially suffering so the girls and I ate supper and spent some time in Arches National Park after we dropped him off at the motel. We got to the Arches right at sunset and it was beautiful.

Beautiful rock formations

Day Six: Moab, UT-Albuquerque, NM (via Colorado & Arizona)
*We spent the first part of this day going through the Arches National Park with George. He was still pretty sick with the cold but able to do a little more after some much needed rest. The highlight of the park was probably the Delicate Arch as it is the one you think of when thinking about Arches National Park.

Amy, George, and Dani standing under the arch

*The other part of day six was traveling to the "Four Corners" were Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado meet. Pretty fun to say you've been in four states at the same time :)
*We had an AMAZING supper in Albuquerque.

Day Seven: Albuquerque, NM-Dallas, TX (via Roswell, NM)
*This day was mostly traveling but we did stop in Roswell, NM to see the UFO Museum. Normally we would have skipped this but we were so close to Roswell and George likes alien type stuff so we just had to go! It was fun and we also had some great food for lunch at a Mexican restaurant.
I just realized I haven't loaded those pictures...will share them in the next blog because I have a couple super funny ones of George and Dani!
*We made it to Dallas, checked into our motel, and slept!

Day Eight: Dallas, Texas
*Our first full day in Dallas was a bit of a bust as far as plans went. We started the day out at the Dallas Museum of Art and got to see George's sister Leigh's art exhibit "DallasSites" which was incredible. We also went through three other exhibits which were interesting. We went to lunch with Leigh and then ended up going back to the motel because both George and Dani were feeling under the weather. Honestly, I think we were all pretty tired!
*We were supposed to go to the Texas Rangers game...so we headed out with Leigh, got there, parked, ate some supper in the ballpark, and then the game was cancelled due to the rain and lightening. So, we had custard instead and went back to the motel.
*The pool was still open so we spent about an hour swimming and relaxing in the hot tub. It was fantastic and I think as simple as they may be it will be one of my favorite memories from the trip.

Picture by Dani - Bridge near Uptown Dallas

Day Nine: Dallas (and Oklahoma)
*We started today out with a flat tire. We were REALLY thankful for the full sized spare we had to constantly pack around because on this day it saved us!
*We went BACK to the ball field and exchanged our cancelled tickets from the night before for the afternoon Texas Rangers game. We had a ton of fun watching the Rangers beat the Diamondbacks 9-5 and got a little sunburn (okay, I got really sunburned but everyone else just got a little).
*After the game we spent some time resting in the motel and then went out for sushi with Leigh (this was probably Amy's favorite activity of the trip!).
*We ended the night with some swimming and our last road trip--quick trip to Oklahoma so the girls could be in that state as well before they left.

Day Ten: Dallas (and Germany and San Francisco/Australia)
*That brings us up to the present. This morning we got up, went to eat together for the last time as a family and brought the girls to the airport. We said two tearful good-bye for nows and watched our daughters go through security as they prepared to fly home to their biological families.

If you've made it this far into the post you are a committed reader and to you I share my heart at this moment--that was the hardest thing I have had to do. We both feel such an absence and know that life has forever been altered. Hosting has been a joyful and sorrowful experience. We have learned so much from our girls and will miss them dearly. Right now it feels like a gigantic piece of my heart is missing and I know that they hold it as they cross the ocean. To love someone always means that you will eventually have to let go of them. So, for the past 4.5 months we have made memories and enjoyed and loved our girls and now we let go of them so they can return to their biological family. However, we will always hold them dear in our hearts and they will always be OUR first daughters, Dani and Amy.

Okay, I promised to keep the blog posts coming. Last time I blogged I was listening to Dani clean and pack her room...now I am listening to Amy do the same. Reality is beginning to hit that these girls of ours are leaving in a week and a half and we have so much to do yet...including blogging the entire month of May, so I better get started!

After prom we made a trip to Fremont for George's birthday, went to an amazing music concert that both Dani and Amy were involved in (and I directed of course), two awards nights and graduation (which they skipped to help George deliver bulls across South Dakota) all in one week. It was a tiring week for all of us! By that point we were in countdown mode to the end of school. One week and 1.5 days left. In that last week we had a Dinner/Theater (Elementary Spring Musical) that the girls and George helped make and serve food for and Dani also ran the lights while I ran the sound. Plus we spent last weekend going to the last couple of places we wanted to take the girls to before leaving on our final road trip.

Today we had our last 1/2 day of school. (Notice we are experiencing a lot of "lasts" now, which makes this Host Mommy sad.) The amazing thing about the whole experience of hosting these girls is that I am so incredibly sad about their leaving that I was even sad that today was the last day of school! I am also so happy though because I know that the feeling of sadness comes for good reasons but more about that in a different post.

Anyway, I thought I would share a few of the pictures from our trip to Snake Falls and Smith Falls that we took this past Saturday. Both of these places are within 50 miles of our home so it wasn't a long road trip to get there but well worth it. George also took the girls to Scottsbluff (about 3 hours from us) on Sunday to climb the big butte (I stayed home to do laundry...fun, fun).