Oooooklahoma!

We have had a great week here in the land of beef, wheat, and cheap gas! This weekend we managed to squeeze a wedding shower and a birthday party for four into one marathon Marzuola family day!! The cornerstone of the celebration was Papa's 87th birthday on Saturday. It was a blast to be with everyone, even if it was just for a few hours!

Yesterday, we spent part of the day with my grandparents, bid Jen & Jon good bye, and also got to see one of my good friends from high school and her beautiful family in their new house. We had a really nice dinner (some delicious burgers!) and talk with Andrea and Jared while Lilly and Addison played dress up... nice choice Lil!

Today we went to a family favorite on Route 66. Pops is really a gas station, but their selection of bottled sodas is impressive and their food is pretty darn good too.

After lunch we tried (and failed) to find a swimming pool that was open. You wouldn't think this would be hard in this part of the country this time of year, but apparently it is. We decided to take Lilly to her first movie at the movie theater of my childhood. It was funny to walk into the same lobby and sit in the same seats. We saw Planes and about 25 minutes in she whispered, "Mom, this is really cool!" It was worth it and we all enjoyed the show! Tomorrow we head out for Iowa. We are sad to leave this part of our family behind, but excited for some Mahaney family fun!!

Shawnee, America

We spent today with my sister, Jen, and niece, Julia, at my grandparent's house in Shawnee. It was a lot of fun. The kids played, ate Sonic, rode the law mower and shot the BB gun. Some of them stayed the night! This visit really had me seeing the past and I was flooded with childhood memories most of the day. It is a wonderful home, full of love and two amazing people.

No new states, but we did get 5 new tribal nations today!

Someone In Inman, Kansas Loves Us

Yesterday we went to see our good friends and old neighbors in Inman, KS. We didn't tell Lilly that she was going to see her good friends. So she got quite the surprise as we pulled in the driveway!

We had lunch (a home-cooked meal!) and took a little rest... some of us rested more than others!

It was so nice to see our friends and their new house! We can't wait to see them all again soon!!

We made it to Edmond around dinner time and boy were we beat! A good sleep and a quite morning have been much appreciated! License Plate Game Progress: 45/50 [Still! We need Kentucky, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and West Virginia...]

Hold your horses!

We had a big day. We started in Wyoming and were in Ft. Collins, CO for lunch. This was exciting for a few reasons. 1) Tom and I had never seen the CSU campus. 2) Our good friend Steph Mills is an alumna and has always told us how cool it is. 3) There is nothing like a college town in the summer. Relaxed, lots of parking, and nice weather! We had lunch at a local favorite (thanks to Steph's last minute suggestion) called Avogadro's Number. It was delicious. We ate outside in the beautiful 80 degree day and the kids played in the sweet tree house while we waited on our food.

After lunch we headed to the campus (after a stop at the bookstore for a fancy new green t-shirt!) We hung out in "The Oval" and soaked in the weather a little more before we hopped back in the car.

Our final destination for today was Burlington, CO (way out in the eastern part of the state on I-70) and the Kit Carson County Carousel! I know this is a crazy thing to get excited about, but I think it is really cool. This is one of the oldest, operating, hand-carved carousels in the country. I felt like 1920 called just standing there looking at it!! As you can imagine, Lilly was really excited for the ride (and she wasn't alone). Tom and Nora rode in a sleigh. Lilly chose a zebra. Garrett saddled up on a tiger and I chose the burro!!

I think we can all agree that it was fun. It is possible that it was startlingly fast for all of us! The idea of spinning around on a huge, 108 year old, wood and iron frisbee at 12 mph might have detoured me, but I'm so glad we did it. It was really fun! After we left we stopped by City Park (that's the only city park, in case you wondered) and played on their enormously awesome play structure for a while. While we were at the park Ms. Nora decided the time had come for her to sit up like a big girl!! I excitedly took a picture. I apologize for the quality, there wasn't a ton of time to focus! :)

The title for tonight's blog came from Lilly again. She was so excited as we were driving through town for the carousel. She was asking about all the animals that she would be able to choose from and decided to go with "HOLD YOUR HORSES!!" She could never have known that she really would have to hold on so tight! Lastly I'd like to boast about our License Plate Game stats... 45/50 states seen; 4 Canadian provinces!

The Great Sugar Lake

Today we got up early and were in the Salt Lake City area by lunchtime. We grabbed some sandwiches and headed for Antelope Island State Park. Antelope Island is just off the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake. It is gorgeous and fairly convenient to the highway. As we sat under a shelter at the beach eating our lunch Lilly said, "Is this a Great Salt Lake or a Great Sugar Lake (big crooked, cheesy grin)?" I'm sure she wished for the latter! We had a really nice time picnicing and enjoying the peaceful solitude of this ecological marvel. Here are a few shots...

The kids have done really well. Nora lost it for a little bit prior to our break at Antelope Island. We arrived in Rock Springs, WY chipper and ready for a nice swim. Some pizza and (more) watermelon in our bellies helped too!

The Great Watermelon Boondoggle

This morning we picked Garrett up early and headed south with Boise on our mind. The kids were so great. The morning was quiet with drawing, coloring, and lots of movie watching. It was really nice to have our whole family together and away from home. The traffic was light and before we knew it we were in SW Washington enjoying the arid scenery.

Just before lunch, we crossed back into Oregon (out east) and noticed Hermiston, OR (AKA Watermelon Mecca) was the first city we came upon. Our kids love watermelon... in a way that exceeds normal admiration of a seasonal fruit. Our dog even loves watermelon. So we decided to detour (about 10 miles round trip) to Hermiston to eat lunch and capture a fresh Hermiston watermelon. We also needed fuel. We got to Hermiston's business district, found food, and gas quickly and set about the task of finding our prized melon. Not having seen any or any mention of them in town (although we did notice the proud display of watermelon on the water tower), I suggested we detour to Safeway. "Surely, they are selling them. They are selling them in our Safeway in Portland." Hum, well I didn't dig through the pile of very green melons, but I immediately noticed they were from a farm in (*GASP*) Cal-i-forn-i-ah (read in Governator voice)!! I left Safeway dismayed. (You may have noticed my Facebook comment) We drove out of Hermiston broken-hearted and the watermelon water tower chuckled at us as we passed.

We were disappoint to say the least but then just out of town what to our wondering eyes should appear but a farm stand with... YOU GUESSED IT! Beautiful, round, delicious Hermiston watermelons! I chose a fairly large one... 22 lbs to be exact. The women charged me $9.04 (which I figure works out to about $0.18/pound). Tom thought this was a little large.

Lilly thought our new friend needed to be safely restrained for the rest of our trip.

The women at the farm stand also gave us these awesome little watermelon candies! It was a great stop!!

As I sit here, I'm enjoying our watermelon... it was well worth the boondoggle!

I'll just put 'er over here Clark!!

Well, he's no Cousin Eddie but there is some Griswold-esk quality to this set up! Here are a few pictures of the packing and our trip down along with Lilly showing off the "Big Trip" map we made for her to show her friends at school. She thought we drove from about Oklahoma to Washington today... boy do we have news for her!

I was feeling like our set up was a little too Griswold, until I saw this guy!

We spent tonight in Everett, WA with our good friends the Jennings' and their two beautiful boys. Lilly and Elliott were excited to spend the evening together eating pizza and playing in Elliott's new playroom. Nora and Henry (11 weeks) were a little more chill, but we could tell they were happy to see each other. We sure were happy to meet Henry and see the rest of the family!!