Ryker's First Dentist Visit

Ryker had his first dentist appointment yesterday! He was so excited to go to the teeth "Goc-ur". We decided to leave Radley with Grandma for the night so we didn't have both kids there. Josh and I both had cleanings as well. This was our first night away from Radley, but that made it special for both of them. We had some one-on-one time with Ryker while Radley had Grandma all to himself. 

Ryker did so good!! He let the hygienist clean his teeth completely and even floss. Right when we went back for him the dentist came in and explained that they would try cleaning them, but they wouldn't force it since most kids his age don't tolerate it. After that, the dentist would return for counting and checking for cavities. Of course Ryker did wonderful! The sweet gal told him what all of her tools were, she squirted water at a fake plant to make him laugh, she let him smell the toothpaste. It was such an awesome experience for his first time. Ryker did have some brown spots on his molars, but we learned that was because he was sick during their development (umm yes, basically the entire first year of his life!!), so that wasn't a surprise to anyone. It is nothing to worry about unless they start getting soft. Since he had a cavity free cleaning, he got a gift certificate for a free ice cream! He also got to pick out a new toothbrush (he chose the "lellow" one) and some flossers. 

 

Ryker was quite the hit around the office. Everyone he saw, he would ask, "What's your name?" When they responded he would say, "Nice to meet you. I'm Ryker "van woo-wen." He wanted to go back with me during my cleaning to watch. He asked the hygienist question after question after question. He even went in the room next door and was talking to another patient! I guess we know he isn't shy! He is his daddy's twin with the people skills for sure. After my cleaning, him and I went outside to burn some energy. The gal cleaning Josh's teeth was a newbie, so his took way longer than it should have. Ryker and I spent the time running up and down the sidewalk doing our exercises. We eventually climbed in the car and FaceTimed Radley. The boys did surprisingly well being away from each other. Ryker only asked where he was a couple of times. (The last time we left Radley for a couple of hours and Ryker was crying and asking to go get him. Brotherly love!!) All in all, we all got the "all clear" report. No Cavities here! 

Thanksgiving in North Dakota

In November we went to North Dakota to celebrate Thanksgiving with my brother, his wife, and my parents. We have been anxious to visit them ever since they moved while I was pregnant with Ryker. Our kids are not thrilled with car rides, so it was more difficult than it sounds. We broke up the 12 hour trip by stopping at a motel in Miles City. (It would normally be a 10 hour drive, but Ryker had only been potty trained for two weeks. We literally stopped every thirty minutes for him to pee). We picked up a pizza and did the whole pool thing. Radley hated the pool, but Ryker loved it! Josh and I quite enjoyed the hot tub after a long day of driving. Unfortunately we weren't able to bring Ranger inside, so Josh had a long night of keeping the car warm.

Making Lefe

The following morning we got up early and got on the road. We made it to Beulah by lunch time after a quick stop to see my Aunt Sheri in Dickinson. Breanne was busy in the kitchen finishing up some pre Thanksgiving dishes while Jesse was at work. For the afternoon we made a batch of our families famous Lefse. It is a tradition to make it every year for Thanksgiving. We made a small batch since we all needed to travel home, but usually we make enough to freeze some for Christmas and Easter. Jesse had set up his Ice Castle for us to stay in while we were there. We settled right in and had Radley down for a nap in no time. Ryker loved getting to run around with all of the dogs. Jesse and Bree have Gizmo and Indy. My parents brought Jo-Jo, and we had Ranger.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent most of Thanksgiving hanging around the house. Josh and I took Ryker to see the train tracks. The train travels right through the middle of town. We were able to listen to the horns all night long. After dinner a few of us headed to Shopko for a little black Friday shopping. We found a few deals, but we mostly enjoyed walking off all of the yummy food we had eaten! On Friday we took a tour of one of the local coal mines. Breanne's dad Stacey has worked in the mines for years. It was a very informative tour! Bree's sister-in-law Allison watched Radley for us. Ryker was a trooper through the whole thing! He loves all kinds of trucks, so we knew he would enjoy it! We spent about four hours there. We were able to see all of the different areas involved and even followed one of the trucks through the process. The best part was seeing all of the big trucks.

On Saturday we all got dressed up and drove an hour over to Richardton to take family pictures on my Grandpa's farm. It was below zero with the wind chill, but I made everyone brave the weather for a quick minute! We had planned these pictures months in advance, so there was no quitting allowed! The kids hated every minute of it, but we got a few good shots. After taking a quick lap around the farm looking for pheasants we headed to my cousin Ashlynn and Anton's house in Dunn Center. It was about another 45 minute drive. Sheri and Ashlynn had fixed a big lasagna dinner for all of us. Ryker and Radley enjoyed getting to play with their son Bray. Unfortunately Madison was with her mom for the weekend. We hope to get to spend some more time with them this Summer. Josh and I cut the evening pretty short since we needed to pack up and get back on the road.

Josh, Radley, Bray, Ryker

Sunday morning we got up at 4:30 and we were on the road home by 5:30. We put the kids in the car while still asleep and took off.  After a couple of hours on the road we pulled over to take a twenty minute power nap. After, we hit up a McDonald's drive through and we were on our way again! The trip home went surprisingly well! The kids were exhausted from all of the fun we had had, so we were able to power through! After a stop in Billings for lunch and a stop in Bozeman for groceries we made it home by about 6pm. It was a long trip with too much driving, but it was well worth it! We are really looking forward to our next trip out there.

Living Our Best Life

It's been a while since I updated this platform. I used this as an outlet in the early years of our marriage. That was before we had two kids, a dog, full time jobs, a house, etc. etc. etc. I have been feeling the urge to jump back into this old hobby of mine. For those of you following along, thank you for sticking by! For those of you new here -- Welcome! I hope y'all can find some inspiration, love, and strength from what will come of this.

Josh and I were married in July of 2013. That following year involved a lot of things for us (see prior posts for all of that). In July of 2014, on our one year anniversary, we picked up our first baby - Ranger Jo. He is a big, lanky Labradoodle. We like to call him our discount puppy! He was the last of the litter, but he was actually our first choice when finding him on Craigslist. We knew we were crazy for driving to Southern Utah to PURCHASE a DOG!, but he truly was everything we needed then and now! In October of that same year, we purchased our first home. It was literally the only property in the area in our price range, but it was also exactly what we needed. A few months later in February of 2015 we decided we were ready to add a human baby to the family. After two months of trying we found out we were pregnant with our first child. That was an extremely long nine months of crummy, yuckiness, but in the end, we were blessed with our baby boy, Ryker Jay. We stayed busy through multiple job changes between Josh and I over the next couple of years. In the meantime, we decided to start trying for baby number two. It took some time for me to forget all of the worst parts of pregnancies, but in November of 2016 (on the first try) we found out we were expecting number two! My pregnancy with Radley Jon was a little easier, but it was partnered with a full time job and a toddler! Another job change later for Janae' as well as an added side gig with Little Rangers Learning Center (our local preschool), we have found ourselves here --- Living Our Best Life.

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." -Robert Brault

Until next time.... 

Ryker's Birth Story

I had big plans to blog away while I was on maternity leave... unfortunately I realized I had a very needy newborn to take care of instead! Of course I spent way too much time snuggling that sweet boy, but I will never get those days back! I have no regrets whatsoever :)

Any-who...I better write this post before I forget everything. I have already forgotten so much (the human body is AMAZING that way!). For those of you reading..I apologize if this is TMI..after all this is my personal journal that I just happen to let you read ;)

I had a very tough pregnancy :( I really really wanted to LOVE being pregnant, but I honestly didn't. I was very sick in the beginning from about 5 weeks-22 weeks I couldn't hardly eat anything at all. I wasn't necessarily "getting sick" all of the time, but I was SOOOOO nauseous!! It was so bad I lost 5 pounds in that first trimester. Also, I was soo tired! I had no idea a person could be so tired from doing absolutely nothing..you know, except growing a tiny human! My poor husband did the dishes, the laundry, cooked the meals, and listened to his wife complain far too much for those first weeks! Unfortunately the nausea never completely went away, but I could at least eat food again after the first bit. In fact I was so happy to be able to eat again that I managed to gain 50 pounds by the end :( I regret that now, but once again, I was growing a tiny human! I never really had true cravings, but everything anybody suggested sounded good! I ate more than my fair share of biscuits and gravy and cinnamon rolls (oops!). If Ryker doesn't have a natural sweet tooth it will be a miracle.

I did get a teensy tiny bit of an energy boost during the second trimester, but it certainly wasn't anything to speak of. Fast forward to the third trimester and I was, yet again, so so miserable! As my mom likes to say - I "got pregnant" super fast. If you don't believe me... I started wearing maternity pants at 5 weeks pregnant! It's true I promise!! I honestly looked like I was 9 months pregnant for the last three months. I measured 2-5 weeks ahead at every appointment during the second trimester and the first half of the third trimester. Therefore, I had the last 2 week "I can't do this anymore", "I'm so huge" feelings for the last 3 MONTHS of my pregnancy!

Ok I will quit complaining now! I just hope the next pregnancy is more enjoyable :)

My last maternity photo
37.5 weeks (Nov. 13)

Now onto the actual birth story...

I had been "leaking" (urine) for the last few weeks of my pregnancy. There just simply wasn't any room left and my muscles were so strained it just happened. When it first started (one week before we were to leave for Canada!) I panicked. The day we were leaving I decided to stop in and get checked. I thought I would just waltz in, take a little test, and be on our way. Boy was I wrong! They checked us in and assigned us a room as if we were delivering right then and there! I got in a gown, left a urine sample, and stared answering all of the admission questions. We took the opportunity to scare Josh's parents with a little picture of me in the oh so beautiful hospital gown!

Back to the story... They checked me for amniotic fluid and it was negative. We were on our way to Canada for a tiny "Baby Moon" for the week.

Fast forward to the first week of December... I was dilated to 1.5 and 70% effaced as of my 39 week appointment. I asked my doctor to strip my membranes in hopes that it might move things along a little. When I sat up from the procedure, I felt a little gush of fluid. I figured it was normal - she told me to expect a little spotting. If it worked, I would go into labor within 24 hours. I didn't go into labor :( I was so so sad! I was soooo ready to be done with my pregnancy and to finally meet my little guy! When I stood up from the table I felt another little gush. I thought I should probably ask the nurse, but when we walked out she was busy. I just blew it off and we went on our way. That afternoon as we were shopping I felt another little gush, but that was it. I didn't feel anything the rest of the day. However, everyday for the next 5 days I continued to "leak" more and more each day. Finally on Monday morning (Nov. 30) I decided to call and talk to a nurse. I explained that I lived in West Yellowstone and I had already been in once to get checked. I REALLY did NOT want to drive down again just to be sent home. She said she completely understood my hesitation, it was a tough decision, but ultimately, the only way to know for sure is to be checked. I decided to call Josh and let him know what I was considering. I told him it wasn't an emergency, but we might need to go down just in case. At this point I decided to take a nap and see how I felt when I woke up. When Josh came home we talked about it some more. I told him I honestly didn't think it was the case, but I was a little concerned that I was leaking so much and so often. I finally called my mom because you know thats just what I do! She was in Bozeman with my dad doing some shopping. She was paranoid that if it was my water leaking that I could be risking infection to Ryker. She suggested I just come down. If it turned out to be false, we could all go to dinner together and head home. (90 miles one way for dinner? sure why not!) I still wasn't convinced, and Josh had been working construction all day. We both decided to shower (yes, I was lucky if I washed my hair once a week all pregnancy long!) and get ready for the evening. I picked up around the house and did the dishes..just in case. The whole time we were driving down I was still in denial. I kept saying we were wasting our time driving down. There was no way it was amniotic fluid.

I called when we got to Big Sky to give Labor and Delivery a heads up. The whole unit was empty when we arrived! That like NEVER happens in Bozeman. They put us in the big unit in the back (thankfully! you will find out why later ;) They started the test right away (it takes 10 minutes) and then the nurse started asking me a few questions. She was doubtful since I was "dry" when she did the test. She said if it was a true "water break" that we would know within a few minutes. She checked before she left the room and there was no sign of a positive whatsoever (its just like a pregnancy test). I started kicking myself again for coming down. We had wasted an evening I just knew it! Finally after the long 10 minutes the nurse comes back. She looked at the test and didn't say anything. Finally after what seemed like forever (probably 10 seconds max) I asked her what the result was. She says, "Well, its on the border, so I am going to ask the doctor. She has younger eyes than me." I turned to Josh with a big smile thinking, "Holy Crap this really could be happening." She left the door to the room open, but I couldn't see or hear anything at the nurses station. She comes back and excitedly says, "Your having a baby tonight! You get to stay!!" I was in total shock! This was really happening. Then I started to think, wait, I have so much work to get done before this. What about Bonnie? Someone needs to tell her. What about Ranger? He is home alone. Then the excitement kicked in some more and I told Josh to text all of our parents. The doctor came in to introduce herself and give me a little run down of what would happen. Even though my water was only leaking I was still at risk for infection. Had I known my water broke the Wednesday before, they would have wanted to deliver within 24 hours. It had now been 5 days! She started me on pitocin to try to get my body to realize I was in labor. At this point I was finally able to call my mom. They were running a last minute errand before coming up to the hospital for the long night ahead. She was so excited she just started squealing/screaming :) It was very exciting!! I also had Josh text Kendra. I had asked her to be there with me for the delivery. At this point nothing too exciting was happening, so she brought Tay with her. Josh was glad for some friendly company at this point.

I was officially checked in at 6pm on Monday, November 30th. I was on pitocin for 6  hours. I was having mild contractions that would get closer together so they would slow down the pitocin and work back up to the max over the course of the 6 hours. In all of this time I dilated one more centimeter! The next step was to break my water the rest of the way. (I only had a small leak at the top of my uterus). The doctor did the procedure (can I just say painful!!!!!! WOW!!) and said it might take a while for things to get moving and left. I got my first strong contraction almost immediately. Then another one, and another one, and another one. The nurse finally decided the doctor better come check me. It took her a few more minutes (30 min. total from breaking my water to coming back in) and I was to the point where I had to concentrate on breathing through the contractions. She checked me again and I was now dilated to a 7. However, she was headed into an emergency c-section with the only anesthesiologist, so I couldn't have an epidural. I was heart broken!! I do NOT handle pain well at all! She instructed the nurse to let me get in the tub to try to handle the pain.  *Side note..the doctor had everyone leave to break my water so it was just Josh and I at this point. He kept asking if I wanted my mom and kendra to come back in, but I was honestly in too much pain to decide. I was at that embarrassing, first time delivering stage. End side note* The tub helped a lot at first. I would squeeze Josh's hand during the contractions and he would rub my forehead. We tried playing music, but that honestly just distracted me from breathing. I finally said my mom could come back in. This gave Josh's hand a little break :) After about 20 minutes the tub didn't help anymore. I moved to the exercise ball and that helped for like 2 contractions! I finally got "comfortable" (if you can call it that) standing and holding onto Josh or my moms shoulders and swaying. Once again, this worked for about 20 minutes. At this point I tried getting back into bed. That didn't even last through the first contractions! Very bad idea. I finally made it through the hour long emergency c-section and I could get my epidural! Hooray!! I had had one before for my knee surgery, so I wasn't scared at all. I was just ready for some relief. The port went in just fine and he started sending the medicine through. My right side started to go numb, but my left side was unaffected. He adjusted the port and we gave it a few more minutes. Still nothing on the left side. He adjusted the port one more time (they can only "set it" three times), and it still didn't work. They had me lay on my left side for the gravity affect. I was so uncomfortable I couldn't handle that for very long.  After some time, the doctor came in to check me. I was dilated to a 9, so she said I could try a few practice pushes with the nurse. The nurse was training a student, so she was very informative through the whole process. She explained to me where I needed to focus on pushing. I pushed a couple of times while still feeling everything on the left side. Then the right started to ware off too! And guess what... the anesthesiologist was in ANOTHER emergency c-section! I was moaning, groaning, crying, whatever I could do to get through the contractions. Read that with as much enthusiasm as possible! This is why it was a good thing we were in the back room! The poor student was terrified! At one point the nurse told her that this wasn't normal. For a while it helped to push through the contractions, but after some time, I could feel a change. I could tell Ryker wasn't moving. Remember at this point my epidural has completely worn off. I was moving my legs up into the stirrups and back down again by myself! At one point the nurse says, "You shouldn't be able to do that!" I was trying so hard to focus on "the spot", but it became so painful. I knew he was stuck. I could feel that he wasn't moving at all, and I just had a feeling.  I started crying hysterically and asking for a c-section. Josh, my mom, and both nurses kept telling me I was strong, I could do this, just keep pushing, the doctor will be here soon, etc. etc. etc. At one point my mom got down in my face (my glasses weren't on, and my face was FULL of tears) and said, "Janae', God created your body to do this." I simply responded, "He also created c-sections." She couldn't help but laugh and agree with me! I could go on and on about my begging for a c-section and wailing that I couldn't do this. Finally after what seemed ages (it had actually been 2 hours), I said to my mom, "What more do I have to say to convince you I need the c-section?". My mom immediately turned to the nurse and asked, "Is there anyone that can come in and help her? I can tell you she has her mind made up." The nurse quietly responded that she was already prepping me for a c-section (she had already sent the orders back to the OR). The nurse turned down the pitocin to try to help me through till the anesthesiologist and doctor could come back. When he finally came in, he gave me another epidural and then left again. Thankfully it took the edge off a little bit. The doctor came in a few minutes after when I was at my most relaxed state since midnight! She said, "I hear you want a c-secition?" "Yes, I do!" "Are you sure you don't want to try a few more pushes now that I am here?" "No. He is not moving. My epidural wore off, and I could feel everything. I know he isn't coming. I want the c-section." She agreed and said she would prep.

For a short recap since I left out all of the times...
6pm - I officially check-in and start pitocin.
12am midnight - break my water
~ 1 am - get my epidural
~ 2:30 am - start pushing
~ 6 am - put my foot down and insist on the epidural
7 am - they start prepping me for surgery
10 am - they take me back for surgery

Unfortunately only Josh could come back with me. I felt so bad that my mom couldn't be in there! I even apologized to her after they told me no :( I was taken back first. There was now a new anesthesiologist on shift (I LOVED him! He was soo great!). He gave me my third epidural (you can only have three). He was talking with me and explaining everything that was going on. All of the nurses were running around getting set up for the doctors. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, Josh got to come in. We had warned the doctor and anesthesiologist that he had nearly passed out before. The anesthesiologist had a chair ready for him! Right when Josh walks in he says, "Why don't you have a seat right here and don't move. Go ahead and just sit there until this is all done." Finally Dr. Simons and Dr. Kronfus came in. The anesthesiologist asks if I'm ready. After I reply yes, he says, "Oh good. They are done cutting already." haha :) The process of cutting and pulling him out was just a lot of pressure. My body was seriously being tugged around like crazy! I felt like I might roll right off the table. At one point I hear Dr. Simons yell out, "His shoulder is stuck. That was a good decision you made (to have a c-section). You would have never got him out on your own." I knew it! I kept saying he isn't moving, and I was right! When they pull him out, Dr. Kronfus says, "Oh we got a little line backer on our hands! Look at those wide shoulders." (He is a Hermanson after all!!) They immediately rushed him over to the pediatrician and nursery nurses. I start hearing them call out numbers, "ONE! .... TWO!.... THREE!.... Ryker wasn't breathing. He was blue. Josh could see him, but all I could see was the nurses working frantically. They were suctioning his mouth and slapping his feet. Yes, slapping. This triggers the breathing reflex. Finally after three MINUTES he took a breath and immediately pinked up. Then he started crying. Like everyone says, it is the most wonderful sound to hear! After getting him swaddled, they brought him over to Josh and I. The nurse held him close enough to let me kiss his face (over and over and over!) and just look at him. She held him there for what seemed like a really long time. Then I started to feel some pain. I was already crying tears of joy, but they started to turn into tears of pain. The nurse said to Josh, "I'm going to take him to the nursery. You stay here and take care of mom, and I will take care of baby." As soon as they left, I started crying harder and saying it hurts really bad. ... You guessed it, the epidural wore off AGAIN!!!!! The doctors were pushing my placenta out, and I seriously thought I might die. I was screaming as loud as I could through my cries. (Not purposely, just naturally :) The anesthesiologist finally says he could give me something. He put something in my IV, something else in my epidural port, and gave me a shot in the leg. I felt almost instant relief...and exhaustion. I knew my baby was alive and my pain was finally gone for the first time since midnight. I wanted to sleep SO bad. I was soooo tired and thought to myself, "If I just sleep for a minute, I will be more awake when I get to see Ryker." Well... I was soon woken up by the anesthesiologist and reminded to keep breathing! Yes, I had quit breathing. I heard the panic in Josh's voice when he realized what happened. He was told to keep me awake and remind me to breath. That started the next 30 minutes or so of me falling asleep, waking up to Josh's panic, gasp for air, then falling asleep again. Over and over and over. I was so tired, yet I knew I needed to remember to breath. Before too long, I started to wake back up. There was some more tugging and pulling as they stitched me up. Then it was off to recovery! They said to expect to be there an hour, but since my epidural had already worn off, I only had to be there for 20 minutes. They wheeled me back to my room, but we couldn't see Ryker yet. He had low blood sugar, so they were giving him formula. He had to meet a certain number before he could leave the nursery. They gave him 10 ml and then checked. 10 more ml and checked again. Finally after giving him 30 ml of formula the nurse decided to bring him to me. She said skin-to-skin might help bring his numbers up faster. They checked him again right in our room, and he passed! He was allowed to stay in the room with us!! Unfortunately he was full now, so I didn't get to breastfeed right away. It was still so nice to have him on my chest :)

Ryker Jay van Leeuwen
December 1, 2015
11:05 am
8 lbs 9 oz
20.5 inches

Ryker's very first picture!
Through the nursery window.

The first few nights in the hospital were really tough! My milk didn't come in until day 4, so we had to continue supplementing with formula. We also had a lot of visitors, so I probably wasn't as relaxed as I could have been. However, I was very pleasantly surprised with the surge of hormones those first few days. We were up till 2:30 most nights before finally giving up and asking the nurses for help. We hardly slept, Ryker was constantly hungry, and we were in a hospital room after all! Through all of this I had this sense of peace. I never panicked or wanted to give up. I just felt peace with my new stage of motherhood. I had faith that we would "figure it out". Josh was also extremely sleep deprived, but he didn't have that surge of feel good hormones that I did :( At least one of us was in good spirits right?? We ended up spending 5 nights in the hospital. I opted to stay an extra night for more healing and more time with the lactation consultants. Once my milk came in, it got a lot easier. I will leave the first night at home for another post ;)

I am so thankful that the human body is so amazing. I am so happy that I was able to bring my sweet baby Ryker into this world. I am so glad that I have already forgotten the worst of it! Despite my claims during my pregnancy...I just might go through it again!

Our first family picture <3

Going home outfit! Just a little big ;)

Our Journey back to Montana!

Our last few days in Franklin were bittersweet. We made sure to eat lunch and dinner on the porch everyday! I went to the library and updated the blog and our Shutterfly book nearly everyday. The best part was enjoying a night out with friends to say our goodbyes. We went to the pizza place/bar again. There was a guy singing, and we just enjoyed telling stories. Everybody shared what his or her plans were for the summer. We hope to see many of them again someday! Hopefully sooner rather than later :)

The day we arrived

The day we left!

Josh and I have packing down to a fine science now! I do all of the actual packing and cleaning. Josh does the heavy lifting/packing the car. He could probably beat the ultimate life size Tetris game after moving us to the East coast and back in a Toyota Camry! However, the day before we actually packed the car, we finished up a few last minute adventures. 

We drove the Tail of the Dragon. It is 318 curves in 11 miles! We were going between 30 and 40 miles per hour, and there were motorcycles passing us the whole way! The curves in the road are so angled the car is shifting back and forth the whole time. It wasn’t scary at all, but I did get a little tense in a few places :) Josh was on cloud 9 the whole drive! Rather than drive the long way around, we decided to take the same road back at a little slower pace to give our poor brakes a break!

Tree of Shame
It is covered in bike parts!

After finishing the Tail of the Dragon, the next plan was to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a portion of Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and the most visited National Park. (Since it is a parkway between two parks ;) We had been in Smoky National Park before, and we weren’t impressed. We felt as though all of the stuff outside of the park was prettier. However, we needed to say we had done it anyways. Well… we got about an hour into the park, stopped for lunch, and decided we were bored! I know were crazy, but honestly the trees weren’t even in bloom. All it was was a 45 mile per hour highway. SO, we decided to head back to Cherokee. It is the Cherokee Indian reservation, but it is a big tourist attraction. They have an awesome movie theatre, a casino, and lots of shopping. We looked around at a few of the shops, bought a few souvenirs, then headed home to pack! We said our goodbyes to Becky and got to bed early so we could get up early and hit the road!

 

Our last selfie in Franklin!

Day 1: The first day of our journey took us through Tennessee to Charlottesville, VA. One of my roommates from USU moved their for her husband to attend UVA. We got there around 3:30. Cara took us around the grounds (campus) while David studied for his law school finals. Before heading back to pick him up, we got an awesome cup of coffee at Shanendoah Joes. It was a really cute coffee shop that used fresh ground Guatemala coffee and a drip system to make our coffee! It was so neat and really yummy :) We picked David up to head to dinner at ZinBurger. It is a gourmet burger joint. They were awesome! After dinner we headed next door to Cups. It is a frozen yogurt place owned by Hooters! The workers are very attractive women that wear tank tops and yoga pants :) It was a fun place. We had such a great time catching up with Cara and David! They are a great couple, and we are so glad to have them in our lives :)

Day 2: The next morning we headed to DC. We had plans to ride a trolley and visit all of the different monuments, but when we got there, it was already lunchtime. 

Ben's Chili

We headed to Ben’s Chili to get a chilidog! No Bill Cosby or Obama sightings, but it was still fun :) After navigating traffic, we found a parking spot right by the White House! We were able to see the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Reflection Pool, Veterans Memorial, and the WWII memorial. We knew we wouldn’t have time to tour Capital Hill, so we decided to drive by and get a few glimpses. (It was raining all day, so we were glad for a break in the car!) We found parking right outside of the Air and Space Museum, so we toured that for a while. I am not into that stuff at all, but it is an amazing museum. We made it through very quickly as we did for all of our stops. We are more of a quick take a picture, ok I saw it kind of people :) Our hotel was 40 minutes outside of the city, so we headed for the room. Of course it was right during rush hour! That was miserable driving. Poor Josh! :( He was a trooper though :) We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then enjoyed our first chance to watch TV in 4 months! It sounds silly, but I don’t think we had ever been so excited to “flip channels” haha. Our motel was kind of sucky :/ that’s the down side of Hotwire. You get some awesome places, and some not so awesome places. Oh well it’s cheap and we’re young :)

Day 3: Our second day in DC was pouring rain like crazy! The first day said rain too, but it would just drizzle on and off. Day 2 in DC was miserable!! We started off navigating rush hour traffic! (Why oh why must everyone want to go everywhere at the same time??? We didn’t have enough time to wait to start our day any later.) We got to the Arlington cemetery first thing. We planned to have enough time to look around at a few of the famous graves before heading up to the Changing of the Guards. Of course right when it started to rain harder, we headed that direction. Every sign would tell us to take another turn. We kept following them and it kept getting closer and closer to the start time. We finally gave up and figured we would just wait for the next time slot. Turns out we were right on the other side of the building! However, it worked out kind of well. We were able to watch the guard walk in peace and quiet for a while. We looked up a lot of information about their service, and we enjoyed talking about what they do for our country. We are both so grateful for our military! We are well represented from all sides of our families :) Anyways, when it finally started, it was well worth the wait! It settled down to a drizzle, so we were able to get a video and pictures. After the changing of the guards, we also watched two sets of changing of the wreaths. I can’t remember what that is called, but it was really cool! Both schools had students representing them for the ceremony.

After the cemetery, we headed to the Holocaust museum. We wanted to go early and get tickets since we knew a lot of people would be escaping the rain in all of the museums. It worked out great! We were in within a half hour; just enough time to tour the exhibits. Josh and I aren’t too fond of museums. We are amazed by them, but we both like to cover ground pretty quickly :) We are great tour buddies!! Plus we could only find 2 hour parking! 

By the time we finished in there, we went on the search for the DC food trucks. Josh had seen them on TV multiple times, and we couldn’t wait to try them. Unfortunately they were nowhere to be found :( We saw them the day before, but we drove around for about an hour before ending up in Chinatown starving. We were planning on heading to Chinatown for dinner, but it worked out well to go there for lunch instead. We weren’t too into touring or shopping there, but we got the classic Chinese Arch picture. 

We also found an amazing authentic Chinese restaurant! IT was sooo yummy!! I LOVE Chinese food, so this was very exciting :) They had ducks hanging in the window, and they were making their noodles homemade right in front of the customers! Definitely worth it!! Plus it was probably the cheapest meal we found the whole trip! Our next stop was the Smithsonian Art Museum. Josh is the artist of our family, so we were excited to check out what they had. We were kind of disappointed :/ It was amazing art work, but we really like modern and abstract art. The museum had mostly 17^th & 18^th century religious art. It was still amazing, but not as exciting as we had hoped for. Once again we booked it through without disappointing the other person :) 

The last stop was Capitol Hill. We were hoping all day that it would stop raining. When we came out of the museum, it was back to a drizzle. I insisted we had to walk up to the Capital to talk pictures, and since it wasn’t raining too hard why not walk around the back to see the Library of Congress and Supreme Court building??? That was a giant mistake!!!!! It started a full out downpour when we got half way around the building. We were literally wading through water while walking up hill! I kept saying, “It will stop, let’s just wait it out.” Josh was soo over it. I had been there before, so I insisted he had to see these building. It just kept getting worse and worse. We finally decided we were soo wet we may as well just walk around the back, snap a few pictures, and head back to the car. 

Cherry Tree Selfie :)

Rain Rain Go Away!!

Well, by the time we got to the car, we had to wring out our pants just to sit down! I have never been so soaked in my life! We had given up on the umbrella because we were still getting so wet. Even though it was now rush hour AGAIN, we decided to head for the room. We had hit all of our must sees, and honestly we were miserable :( We couldn’t wait to get to the room, shower, and put on dry clothes! In fact, we had to wash and dry our pants and coats that night! DC was great, but it would have been nice to see a little sunshine while we were there!

Day 4: We wanted to beat rush hour the next morning, so we left the room at 6:15. By the time we hit the Maryland state line, we had been driving considerably under the speed limit most of the way :( Oh well! 

We crossed the Pennsylvania state line a little bit later, and eventually ended up in Hershey, PA, home of Hershey Chocolate World! 

This was sooo much fun!! We absolutely loved everything about Hershey!! We started off by taking an interactive roller coaster type thing. We sat in cars that took us through the tour at a slow pace. There were dancing/singing cows, and a guy explaining the process of making chocolate along the way. It was definitely designed for kids, but still very interesting! 

After finishing that, we hoped on the trolley for our tour of the town. We had a tour guide and a driver. The “Conductor” told us all about Hershey’s business journey. He started out making caramels, but the only place that would buy them was a company in England. He later found out that the company would coat them in chocolate before selling them. People would suck the chocolate off and spit out the caramel. That led Hershey to sell his caramel business and start his chocolate making business. He came up with the idea to add milk to the chocolate, which became today’s milk chocolate! He failed 5 times before finally succeeding with his chocolate business. Also during the tour, we learned about the Hershey School for underprivileged kids. The school is privately owned and funded, designed by Hershey.  Students preschool through 12^th grade attend the school while living with house parents. They attend on full scholarships, so you must apply to get in. 90% of the graduates continue on to college! The house parents are paid $65,000 a year to be full time parents! Elderly also volunteer to be honorary grandparents. They spend at least one day a month taking the kids out for “family” activities. They also give them gifts on their birthday and Christmas. It is such a neat concept! Josh and I decided we should retire there someday! It was such an awesome town with great history! The tour was well worth the money!! We highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves near Hershey, PA!

After a few more pictures, we got back on the road to head to Cleveland, OH for the Christmas Story House!

When we got there, we realized that is the sight of the Zombie Apocalypse! It was creepy!! We drove through right at 5:00pm, and there was hardly a car in sight! The entire town looks like old abandoned factories. The neighborhoods we saw were scary! We had been trying to find a restaurant from Diners, Drive-In’s, and Dives the whole trip. We followed Siri to the first place, and it was closed. We followed her again to another place, and there was a dumpster diver right outside! It looked super sketchy, and there was no way we were going to leave the car jam-packed full of all of our belongings with him there! We drove around looking for other decent places before giving up and heading for the room. We were staying right by the airport, so I decided to find a place near there. I figured it would be a little better. I found a tavern with really good reviews, so we decided to give it a try. It was a score! We ordered chicken fettuccini alfredo (my favorite!!) to share, and got bruschetta for an appetizer.
Best. Decision. Ever.!!!! It was awesome! That made our night a little bit better :)

Day 5: The Christmas Story House didn’t open until 10:00, so we found a McDonalds to get some breakfasts while we watched the news and used their Internet. It gave us a chance to upload some pictures, and regroup before a long few more days in the car.Josh LOVES Christmas Story. He faithfully watches many airings of the 24-hour special every year :) We watch the DVD multiple times throughout the year as well. We are just Christmas junkies all around! The house was used for all of the outside scenes, and any scenes that showed the outside. The director wanted to have the 40’s era show through from the surrounding steel mills. It was a low budget movie, so they sent out letters to a ton of major towns asking the malls to let them film inside. They had a few stipulations: they had to leave their Christmas decorations up for as long as the filming took, they had to shut down every night at 5pm and let a bunch of kids come in and run around, and they would receive no monetary compensation. Out of the 40 some letters they sent out, Cleveland was the only place that responded! When the director came to town to check it out, he asked his driver to take a side road so he could get a better look of the factories. The driver said, “Oh you don’t want to go over there, that is where all of the steel mill workers live.” Well that is EXACTLY what they were looking for! It was the perfect location to film! Also, they fully expected there to be snow in December and January. He found the house he wanted, but no one answered the door. He figured if he had just gotten home form a 12-hour shift at the mill, he would probably be at the bar. He walked in and asked if anyone owned the house, and sure enough, the owner was there. He offered him like $20,000 to rent the house for 9 months. Well, filming began, and the snow never came! They finally decided to call in a ski resort to make snow. That quickly became too expense, so they chose to use fire hose foam on the streets! Also, the “snowing” is actually potato flakes coming down! That is a low budget film for you ;) It was such an awesome experience to hear all about the filming. The best part was the house has all replica pieces in it, so you can touch everything! The guy who opened the tours bought the house on eBay for next to nothing. It is the same person that started making and selling the leg lamps! The house was trashed, so he maxed out a ton of credit cards to completely gut it and start over. He went through the movie frame by frame to make it look exactly like the movie even though the indoor filming was actually done in Canada. 

There is a museum next door with as many of the original items as they can recover. I think this made the trip much more bearable for Josh :)

Original Chalk Board front he school

Dept. 42 Christmas Story Series Village

After leaving Cleveland, we headed through Indiana, the land of the toll roads! We spend $4 to cross one bridge!!! It was insane! We spent like $25 in tolls just to cross Indiana and Illinois! That put a bad taste in our mouth!! Our next stop was in Chicago for some deep-dish pizza! We missed our first exit, so, once again; we took the “scenic route” through sketchy down town Chicago! I have never wanted to live in a city, but after this trip, we know for sure that we have NO desire to live in any city!! There is way too much traffic, it is dirty, and you constantly feel uncomfortable with the weirdos wandering around! Once we got our pizza and got back on the interstate, in rush hour traffic I might add, it was worth it! The pizza was very yummy :) 

The last stop for day 5 was Elkhorn, Wisconsin to see Ed and Toni Davis; Tara, Doug, Max, and Zetta; and Cameron, Ashley, and Aubrey. It was sooo fun to see them and catch up! We had a great time hanging out, visiting, playing dice, and watching the kiddos run around. The beer and brats were perfect! We hadn’t seen Cameron in forever! It was the first time we met Aubrey, the cutest little girl ever! And it had been way too long since we had seen everyone else too! We can’t wait to see everyone again, and hopefully spend some more time in WI!

Day 6: The next morning, we were on the road by 6:15. We had a LONG day of driving ahead of us :( just before the Minnesota state line, we stopped for some cheese curds! We had to get a picture with him :)

When it came time to stop for lunch, we just picked a town. It turned out to be the Home of the Green Giant!

The next place we planned to stop was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. Every year the designs are different. We thought the whole building was made from corn, but it is just the décor on the outside and a few “posters” inside. We were kind of disappointed, but it was still neat to see.

After 12 long hours of driving, we stopped for the night in Wall, SD. We got there just in time to see Wall Drug before closing. We didn’t have enough time to look around, so we just grabbed some dinner and headed to the room. When we got there, the maid had forgotten a wet towel in the bathroom. Everything else was spotless and nice, so they took $10 off our total! We ended up paying $50 for a 3 star hotel, not bad! I’m always looking for a deal ;)

Day 7: Once again, we were out of the room by 6:30. We headed straight to Wall Drug after grabbing some breakfast. We looked around a took a few pictures, but the backyard was closed :( We were soo disappointed! Josh got to ride the Jackalope, but that was about the only thing we could see! We are just gonna have to go back someday haha We were so anxious to get home, so we got on the road right away! 

It was another long day of driving, so after a quick pit stop in Billings we were on the home stretch! It was so nice to be back in our home state! We were exhausted from being on the road for a week. Plus Josh was in decompression mode from finishing school. I was so ready to see our family and friends. It was just a really great feeling :) After leaving Billings, I started getting the giddy bugs! I would just randomly get butterflies in my stomach, and all I could do was smile! 3,048 miles and 12 states later, we were home!

 

Welcoming Committee :)

We have absolutely no regrets for the last 4 months :) We were able to see and do sooo much. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would have the opportunities that we did. We will be in West Yellowstone for the summer and probably the winter. We are still hoping Josh will get a job as a Park Ranger somewhere close by. For now we are just enjoying being married, graduated, and free!