Southern Living Yankee

We pulled out at 3:30 on Saturday and arrived in Kansas City at midnight, gaining an hour with Central Standard Time. The Mississippi River was awesome and too wide to fit into our camera-out-the-car-window shot. Maybe we'll catch on the way back. Sunday we drove through Kansas, into Colorado, and arrived in Estes Park around 6:30 p.m. Gained another hour with Mountain Time. This means I now wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning instead of 5 or 6. Tom and Aaron have no trouble with sleeping in or staying up. It all works out though, and makes for good driving rotations. Picture 1: Proof that we drove through Kansas. Yes, it is that flat. Creeped out Tom and Aaron, the mountain men. I think I could deal with it--I liked the feeling of freedom, no boundaries, and lots of sunshine. Back to the picture: Off in the distance you see "Kansas skyscrapers." AKA grain silos. Picture 2: Me and Aaron on top of Mt. Prospect in Estes Park. We took a tram up. Picture 3: We walked the rest of...

Picture 1: Here I am above treeline, surrounded by tundra and icy cold wind. I have no pride when it comes to staying warm. Elevation 12,110 ft., the "roof" of the Rockies. Picture 2: What we could see: A CLOUD. Not much you can see when you're inside a cloud, but it does make mountain driving even more exciting! Picture 3: The Alpine Center in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Not Alaska. Elevation 11,796 ft. We were amazed. Picture 4: This elk was a great conclusion to our drive along Trail Ridge Road. He was very hungry and paid no attention to us tourists--I didn't even notice the ones off in the background until I saw this picture Tom took. There are several more in the field at the top right. Picture 5: We drove west on Rt. 40 to Steamboat Springs to spend the night. We also had fun seeing Fish Creek Waterfall, over 280 ft. high, and cascading with fresh snow melt and a day of heavy rain. Today we'll make our way into Idaho, about 600 + miles, and that...

Aaron is officially licensed by the state of Ohio to operate a motor vehicle! It happened on Thursday. So far so good. And just in time to help with driving to Seattle and back. Please check back here every once in while to see if I can give you any on-the-road updates. Enjoy your month of June!

We didn't go to the Indy 500 for our wedding anniversary. But here's the key to our happy marriage: Tom and Aaron went and I stayed home! You can see pics of blurred race cars below. Here's where Tom and I went for our anniversary: www.glenlaurel.com It was a beautiful facility, our 5-course dinner on Friday was delicious (good-bye South Beach diet!). We stayed in a Scottish "croft"--a tiny house. Loved the screened-in porch and the outdoor hot tub overlooking the treetops. The weather was great and we had a wonderful time! It was a 2 hour drive from here. We left Friday afternoon and returned Saturday. It's about 50 miles south of Columbus, in case anyone wants a 50% off coupon in the next few months. E-mail me and I'll send you one. You'll love it! Yesterday while Tom and Aaron were at the race I spent the day putting my manuscript together. If I go to the writers conference I'll have to have the book proposal and a chapter in the mail by June 15...

Hannah goes to her home (not another hospital) TODAY! FINALLY! Just over one month ago, the whole family thought they'd be safely home within a few hours . . . Please continue to pray for "peace that passes understanding." Pray for safety and freedom from anxiety on the long car ride from Rockford, IL to MN. Thanks for doing your part.

EXCITING NEWS! You know how people watch pre-schoolers, then sigh, then say "Oh, to have that energy! Wish I could bottle it!" (Probably not those exact words, but do you get my gist?) Here's something better than the little yard apes energy: KEEP A GRATITUDE JOURNAL What??? Here's a quote (with my highlights) from an article by Drs. Blair & Rita Justice regarding research on being thankful: "Psychologists Robert Emmons at the University of California at Davis, and Michael McCullough, at the University of Miami, are foremost researchers in field of gratitude. What they have learned so far is that gratitude is good for you, really good for you. In an experimental comparison, people who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events (Emmons & McCulloug...