Am I There, Yet?

Don’t you hate it when people get back from vacation and have to show you all 300 pictures that they took?  Well…here are my pictures from our last couple of months. 

We started our trip in Phoenix, AZ.  This was the welcome sign as we arrived in Arizona…we knew just from this sign alone that we were going on an adventure:

Here’s the view from our condo in Phoenix.  It’s a little bit fuzzy, but we could see the downtown lights, and of course, I loved looking out at the palm tree:

Here’s our son on the back patio…showing off his artistic side:

We had a great time in Phoenix.  We got to spend a lot of time with my brother and sister-in-law.  It was really hot there…but bearable.  Give me dry heat over that humidity junk any day.  We went to a pizza place one night and the kids got to play with pizza dough while we were waiting for our table.  They thought that was the coolest thing:

Josh and I then flew to New Jersey.  We stayed in a hotel that George Washington stayed in…near a battlefield that he fought in.  There was an original Norman Rockwell painting downstairs.  It made me want to go brush up on my American history.  I loved the ancient architecture in the area…everything was so historical.  Here’s the view from our room…overlooking the Princeton tower:

One night we ate dinner at The Original Soup Man…which is the “Soup Nazi’s” franchise.  As Seinfeld fans, we were thrilled.  All of the rules were written on the wall.  The soup really was amazing:

We made our way to Philly, where we saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall:

After our trip back east, we loaded up the kids and drove from Phoenix to Des Moines.  While in Des Moines we caught a baseball game.  The Iowa Cubs were playing the Portland Beavers.  Our daughter learned all about baseball from her uncle and even got mad at me when I cheered for the Portland team:

Our son wasn’t thrilled about the game…but was excited to see one of his superheroes:

While in Iowa we visited Ledges State Park.  It was a really beautiful area and the kids enjoyed climbing the hills and walking through the creek:

Josh and I left the kids in Iowa with his family and headed on to Green Lake, Wisconsin for the church planting assessment.  I discovered “cheese curds” and thought it was pretty funny to see them in almost every fast food place.  Here’s a Taco Bell sign advertising this Wisconsin delicacy:

While in Wisconsin, we took a trip to Sheboygan and got to see Lake Michigan.  It felt like we were visiting the ocean…instead of a lake.  Sheboygan was a fun little town with very friendly people:

Back to Iowa to pick up the kids.  Of course, we couldn’t leave Iowa without getting a picture of the kids in front of a corn field while wearing their Iowa State Fair T-Shirts. 

The Iowa State Fair is a story in itself.  I didn’t actually go (I think the brothers-in-law were trying to keep me from going because of all the things I could make fun of. )  But, I did read about all the events in the newspaper.  What a quirky fair.  Everything is on a stick…including beer and deep-fried Twinkies.  One of the “must-sees” every year is the butter cow.  Somebody carves a cow out of butter…and this year somebody carved a superman out of butter.  Iowans are very proud of their famous people who were born there…or once lived there (but, nobody talks about the fact that none of those famous people actually stay in Iowa!)  Well, the actor who plays superman was once an Iowan and so they had to commemorate this and I’m sure Mr. Superman actor is thrilled to have a butter likeness.

Speaking of quirky…South Dakota was our next adventure.  What to say about South Dakota?  You just have to go there to truly understand.  We did take the time to drive through the badlands.  Our daughter loved it there and cried when we had to leave.  Even the rattlesnake warning sign didn’t deter her.

Here’s me and my son goofing off:

The badlands at sunset:

The next day we took the time to go to Mt. Rushmore:

Did you know that there was recently a 5th face added to Rushmore?

I think that Wyoming was one of my favorite places.  We spent the night in Cody…Buffalo Bill’s hometown.  Every night there’s a rodeo…and it’s hilarious.  You have to see it to believe it.  Wyoming is so politically incorrect…and I love it!  Where else can you see Barney the Dinosaur shoot a cowboy???

We enjoyed Yellowstone.  We saw elk, bison and even a bear.  We were eating a picnic lunch and all of a sudden this huge bison walked out of the brush and right by our table.  He walked between us and the car and I was so disappointed that I left my camera in the car because I would’ve loved to get a picture of him standing by our car.  However, I did get a picture of this bison who decided to walk out in front of us as we were driving down the road:

Here’s a picture taken from Artist’s Point…it was breathtaking to be there in person…the picture doesn’t do it justice:

Here’s my boy in front of Old Faithful:

Here’s me playing around at a lake in the Teton Park:

Here’s the last picture.  These are the Teton mountains…they’re absolutely gorgeous.  I’m reminded why I love the mountains when I look at them:

See…those vacation pictures weren’t so bad…where they?