Back to India

It turns out that India likes water - a lot.  We can't keep her out of it.

However, she doesn't like getting dried off. 

India

Cerah got her new bird yesterday.  She saved up her money and then her dad and I helped her with the rest.  It actually took her awhile to decide to get another one and then to find the one she wanted.  I think she made a good choice.

Here she is with India after we first got home yesterday.

Already India is comfortable with Cerah and taking a little nap

Here she is today.  You can't see it but she was sharing a string cheese with Cerah

See that look?  It's the same one I get from the girls when they get tired of me taking pictures of them

P.s. If you are wondering about the name I'm the one who suggested it.  Morgan said she thought the red stripe above her nose was pretty.  I said it reminded me of women from India who have it.  Then I said that I thought India was a cool name.  Cerah thought about it for a little while and agreed. 

Schooling, learning, and fun

O.k, it's a little late but here's a picture of  a couple of the kids for the first day of school.  Morgan didn't get a picture because she didn't have a first day at public school.  The boys didn't get one because they were in too big of a hurry to get to the school bus.

You can't see it but she has a transformers backpack.  I wasn't sure she would really use it considering she is in 10th grade but she does.  She is only taking two classes at the p.s but since she is going there I took a picture.

                                                           

This was actually Shannon's second day of school but since we weren't home for the first one I told her I was considering this one her first day.

She doesn't look it but she was actually excited to go.  She was just worried about whether she would like her teacher or not.

Since they were all doing so well in school we decided to take them back to the Henry Ford and Greenfield Village for a weekend treat.  Little did they know they would be put to work.

Here's Cerah and Kodi putting something on the motor of a car

Anthony and Hannah are listening as they are being given instructions on what they have to do.  Doesn't Anthony look so enthused?

Here they put us all to work on an assembly line.  Cerah thought it was pretty funny that us adults had to help too.

Except for Rob who used the excuse that he had to work the camera.

Anthony and Shannon had to put the wheels on the left side while Tara and Morgan had to put the wheels on the right side

I had to put the top on

Morgan wants to know what's taking everybody so long

And then they made us take them all back apart again

By then we were pretty hungry

Anthony didn't want to share

Then we all got to go play

Cross Country Trip 9

On our last couple of days going home we had to deal with

                        

raging rivers

broken roads

small towns

angry skies

impassable mountains

large angry bulls

not so angry bulls

and tired children

And you know what?  We wouldn't change a single thing about it.

Cross Country Trip 8

Oh, give me a home....

where the buffalo roam....

where the deer and the antelope play....

where seldom is heard....

(don't know why I picked this - just looks like a giant ear in the mountainside)

a discouraging word....

(YUK)

and the skies are not cloudy all day....

home....

(of old faithful)

home on the range.

Thank you, thank you.  I'll be here till 7:00 tonight.

Cross Country Trip 7

I had to post pictures of one of our hotels on the way home.  We weren't sure at first about staying here because we hadn't heard of it before, it didn't look like anything special, and it had a weird name.

But we were pleasantly surprised when we got inside.

there were moose on the walls

deer heads over the fireplace

and bears trying to escape after they found the moose and deer

Just the ambience I was going for.  Then, it got even better

it had an indoor waterfall that they wouldn't let us jump into

and a hot tub right outside our door that they did let us jump into

And we hadn't even gotten to our room yet

can we sleep now?

The first thing Morgan did was call me into the bathroom to show me that it had real marble counters

And before we knew it, it was time for breakfast.  We even had our own patio table outside our room!

Guess who were the first to get theirs?

Patiently waiting for me to stop acting like a tourist and eat - that's what Cerah told me.

But I had to take one, or two, more pictures to show you this:

All you have to do is push the big yellow button

and this comes out.  Just my kind of breakfast