Sunday, August 9, 2009

We made it!

Today, our 3rd day in Savoy, IL is a hot one. Not very hot to the locals, but hot to us. Everyone we have met so far is nice. I mean, it's surprising how nice everyone is. People smile, are helpful, and will strike up a conversation even though you are perfect strangers--this includes big burly men with long hair and tattoos.

On the road to Nebraska, somewhere in Wyoming on I-80

It was a long four days of driving, but by the 3rd and 4th day we were used to it. I can't complain, our car was stocked with food, books on tape, music, and Todd drove most of the way. For some reason my eyelids were heavy the whole trip. If I sat behind the steering wheel for more than 30 minutes without getting sleepy I was lucky. But, we made it.

Henry was our navigator. This simple piece of paper entertained him for the longest time!

We stayed in Ogallala, NE the first night and it was windy and warm. At breakfast the next morning Henry was adored by the group of seniors staying at the hotel. We drove down to Kansas City (more towards Adam-ondi-ahman) and on the way we stopped in Lincoln, NE and ate at a great coffee shop--Mills--I think. Henry was fascinated with the trains there. I liked the brick-paved streets and old homes. The endless corn fields kind of made me sick, though.


Our stay in Adam-ondi-ahman was amazing. We stayed with Todd's uncle and aunt. Their home is right next to Adam-ondi-ahman, know by RandMcNally as the "Mormon Shrine", and sits on a huge farm. Uncle Eric gave us a tour of the farm riding atop a Kubota and the land was beautiful and green. We rode along the Grand River and saw a lot of soy bean plants, and listened to the crickets while fireflies lit up the ground. We were so grateful to stay with family and to be able to eat some delicious food and be with great company.

Henry helped uncle Eric drive the Kubota and he LOVED it.

The sunset at Adam-ondi-ahman

The next day we drove onto Nauvoo, IL and relaxed at the LDS temple site. It is gorgeous there. We stayed for hours, taking turns attending the temple, and walking around town.The Nauvoo temple
The sunset in Nauvoo, IL

To our surprise Vocal Point, BYUs famous a capella group, was performing just down the hill from the Nauvoo temple. And it was free! Man, we felt lucky. Henry wasn't such a fan of the cheering crowd. Every time the crowd would cheer he would throw his hand in the air and scream, practically yelping. Then he'd stick out his lower lip and look at the crowd in disgust. It was actually pretty cute.

You can hear him yelp, but this is what his face actually looked like:

Because Henry got so upset with each outburst from the crowd, and because there were so many outbursts (it was Vocal Point, for crying out loud) we left early and 10 seconds after putting Henry in his car seat he looked like this:

Cute and SO tired.

So we were back on the road to Peoria, and to make a long story short . . . by luck we made it to our apartment in Savoy the next day at the exact same time the ABF truck driver did. And that made everything a lot easier. So, for the past few days we have been unpacking. We're excited for what the future holds and so far we love it here.

The next posts will be about our last days in Provo, and what our new home looks like, etc. but I wanted to put down first as our first post here that we made it and it's great!! We miss you all back home!

4 comments:

Amy said...

Good luck out there!!

Katie Lewis said...

I'm glad you guys made it out there okay! Be sure to post a picture of your new couch when you show off pictures of your new place! :)

Rabecca said...

Happy to here you guys are there safe hope all goes well for you and then you can move to washington for work ha ha good luck.

A and N said...

You guys are actually kinda close to us! We are only 4 1/2 hours away!!!!!! That's kinda exciting to have family that "close!" I hope you're settling well.