How we got here: Part 2

Apparently Im only allowed so much space for each post. I was on a roll with what is now "How we got here: Part 1" and then I could't upload any more pictures. ... so here we are Part 2

Hey! If you haven't read Part 1 go back and fill yourself in or you will miss out on the suspense!
(yes I am aware that I let the suspense drag on for far too long, and that by this time most of you have lost interest or faith in my returning to finish this thing. Take heart! I have returned, and will finish this thing, today!...I hope.)
Anyway, where were we...
Ah yes. Our trailer looked like this:

I made this picture extra large so that hopefully you can tell that the trailer tongue is riding literally 3" from the concrete. 

this is where Sack-boy and I waited for Phil to drive 30 minutes to pick up a new trailer and haul it back.  In the Outlet mall information office.

This is where we settled to camp that night as we did not make it quite as far as we wanted that day.
Not sure if I mentioned it or not but we only made it 70mi from Denver before we stopped.

This was not too bad of a place to stop, the bathrooms were clean and much to my surprise in the chill of the early morning, heated. There was a river just downwind of our campsite that lulled us to sleep in our open air tent. We decided it would be best to leave the rain fly off because of how moldy it was after Phil took it out last. (...all is forgiven, but certainly a lesson learned, nobody likes falling asleep to the sounds of nature and the smell of thick must.) Here there was also plenty of space between campsites, which we learned by experience later on in the trip, is a necessary commodity when lodging on non-wooded terrain.

Next Day we made our way to Aspen. Besides the outrageous price on gas, $5/gal, Phil was immediately convinced that we should live there because the bus drivers were courteous to us on the road. Apparently it's the little things with him. I was a little harder to convince, I mean, besides the fact that this was the most beautiful place that either of us had ever been our entire lives. This sign is what did it for me.
Im still not exactly sure what it means, but im convinced that there is a large hula-hooping community in Aspen and drivers are to be aware that they often utilize the crosswalks.













If those things are not enough to convince you to move to Aspen, CO, or at least visit; maybe these views we captured on our hikes will.
Day 1 went something like this

Day two began rather early. 3:45am to be exact. We wanted to catch the sunrise from Crater Lake which was just under a 2 mile hike from the parking lot at the base but around 1300' in elevation. It took us about 50 minutes in the predawn darkness with only our headlamps to light our way. The previous afternoon took us an hour+ to reach the lake. I think something about the possibility of being attacked by bears and or mountain lions could have made up the difference for our speedy ascent. (Remember how I had been sick just two days before this, well my fever had left me with a very unpleasant amount of sinus fluids, which rendered my breathing capacity at about 30% for this high altitude adventure, not to mention the fact that my insides were doing their monthly dance. Just note that I do not recommend an intense hiking excursion under either of those circumstances, let alone both of them at once.) Our fears were proven unnecessary, as we did not encounter one creature on the way up,  and whatever state of uneasiness, breathlessness, or bodily discomfort we were in once we got there ...it was SO worth it.

Aspen CO everyone, Go there!

 Our last adventure before moving in day, was to camp at Arches National Park in Utah. 

When we arrived we were flabbergasted at the # of people who had obviously copycated our great idea. We made the decision at that point to not go to Arches all together, and save the experience for another time when we can really enjoy it. Not that we don't like people, we just don't like crowds of strangers in our photographs.

 We camped just outside of Moab instead.  

Nothing says no worries camping trip, like all your earthly belongings camping next to you  in a UHAUL

This was the night that we discovered that camping at a public sight in the dessert kind of sucks. We fell asleep to the sounds of the river, the crickets, the frogs, and our neighbor camper snoring as if he was tucked right in with us in our two person tent. Also, breathing in copious amounts of dessert sand whilst battling a sinus cold...not cool.

What was cool though, was the Not crowded park that we went to to take our sunset pictures. 

Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah.

We woke up bright and early the next morning, surprisingly rested, considering our snorry neighbor and the blazing moonlight that made 1am seem like dusk.

Headed straight to Salt Lake City, through the stark wilderness that is Southern Utah, we were altogether exhausted, excited, and unsure of what exactly we would find once we got there.

So far, I think we like it. 

How we got here: Part 1

Its been just about two weeks since we arrived here in SLC to actually begin living. The 1st arrival was kind of a fluke, as we left 3 days later for vacation.
Now that I can say we officially live here, it's time for me to tell the story about how we got here (the 1st arrival), especially for those of you who did not follow Sack-Boy's updates on Facebook.

This is Sack-boy, He was made for us by our beautiful and talented friend Rachel Myers.
He is a replica from "Little Big Planet" http://www.littlebigplanet.com/ ...super fun game.

We love our Sack-boy

So here it is, our journey from Raleigh, North Carolina to Salt Lake City, Utah: A picture story.

I had a grander Map photo in mind, but as I am a novice in the Bloggosphere, we will all have to deal, until I get better.
2,344 or so Miles. We stretched out the trip over 15 days, so it wouldn't be excruciating, although the leg between Quincy and Denver ended up being excruciating anyway (more on that later).

Day one began at Liz and Jake Winfield's house
in Fuquay-Varina, NC. We Said goodbye to Zack and Laura Hanlon in Holly Springs, then we were on our way.
I really wish we still had a picture of our "truck and trailer" at the very beginning, Im not sure where that one is. This picture would only be important in that you would be able to see how low we were riding, and I don't mean that in a cool gangsta kind of way. The trailer seemed to be pulling fine enough, so we decided not to worry about it.

Our 1st stop was in Murfreesboro TN.  Where we spent two days with my oldest brother and his family attending track meets and community theater auditions, baking eclairs and getting very little sleep.

We stopped by in Saint Louis for a lunch date with friends. (yes there are very few pictures that have either Phil or I in them, but here's one with the both of us, oh and Sack-boy of course.)

We spent the next 4 days in Quincy with my parents, and the remainder of my immediate family. This was a special part of the trip because we got to meet Leila (our youngest niece) for the 1st time. 

Instant Best friends!

4 Days with family and good friends we rarely get to see, ='s a great time and consequently 6 days total of little sleep.

In order conserve days for camping once we got out west we drove through the night from Quincy to Denver. As you may well have guessed, we got little sleep that night too, but it was worse than that. My body decided to revolt and i battled a fever all the way through Kansas (and into our brief stay with Phils Grandparents in Denver). As if driving through Kansas wasn't torture enough, Phil had to stay awake and drive the entire night as I was incapable of either driving or sleeping. 

Turns out Grandma Hoy is a good nurse (an entire day of sleeping didn't hurt either), and I was feeling better (better in a relative sense, I still had some sinus infection of sorts to deal with) in time for us to head into the Wild Wild West for some camping and photography. 

Before we left, Grandpa Hoy tried to get us to rearrange our low riding load, but in the end we decided it wasn't worth it. So we headed into the mountains with high spirits, and unbenounced to us a very very low ride.

Silverthorne, CO is where we decided to stop for lunch. Im pretty sure God made us both hungry at the same time, this is apparent to me because all we had to see was the Chipotle sign, and we were off the freeway. As opposed to the usual, "Phil: Are you hungry yet" "Me:I guess" "Phil: what do you feel like eating?" "Me: i dunno, what do you want?" "Phil: I want you to tell me where we should stop." "Me: we should stop where you feel like eating." ...etc and by this time we have usually traveled 10 -15 more miles, and, not uncommonly, passed our last exit for food for another 45miles. Ahhh road trips. 

Not this time though, this was one of those times when God provides, when all of your prayers for our safe travel were answered very graciously. You see, when we stopped for lunch, our trailer looked like this: 

On becoming a housewife.

It's not bad, this getting to stay home while Phil is at work. Spending my days doing whatever I want to  do.
The world is my oyster.
I'm on no bodys time clock but my own.
Master of my own schedule.
For example this is what my day looks like tomorrow:
6:10am Make Phil's lunch
6:20am Drive Phil to work
6:45 am Make an attempt at Bible study
8:45am Wake up from attempt at Bible study
8:45-10am Have breakfast, make coffee and sit down to Bible study...seriously this time
10:30 am Begin the day which will inevitably consist of cleaning the kitchen, the dishes, and then there's the floor; begging to be swept and moped. (Before I do though, I have to buy a broom.) The waiting list for the washing machine is getting shorter but there seems to be an endless line of stragglers; bath towels, pants and teeshirts, dress shirts, undermentionables, one by one filling up the laundry basket. (Who am i kidding we haven't replaced the one we gave away yet, so these things pile up in the corners of rooms and bathrooms.) Various and sundry chores to do online. Including getting this blog in running order. Playing my guitar which i have tragically neglected out of exhaustion since...oh since I decided I wanted to play in the 1st place. Make chicken salad for dinner. (Oh! the chicken, the roasted chicken that was supposed to be our dinner tonight that took 1 1/2 hours to bake instead of 30min like the recipe said. My poor starving husband. He got a smoothie instead of roasted chicken and vegetables. Im certain June Cleaver would never approve; not to mention I'm supposed to be a professional.)  ...If I get all this done before 5pm, I may make it out to the pool for some R&R.
If not, the dry cleaning needs to be picked up, and Phil will need to be picked up around 6.


Wait...how does this happen. Somehow I managed to keep us fed, and safe from drowning in dirty laundry while working full time the past 4 years. Now that I actually have time to keep the floors clean and pick up my guitar, I can only seem to get to one or the other. It's almost as if I NEED less time in order to get things accomplished. Time management is officially not my forte. An entire day with no time constraints, I just don't know what to do with.

I'd like to know how she does it. I want to be like her.

The Wife of Noble Character

Proverbs 31

^10 [b]A wife of noble character who can find? 
    She is worth far more than rubies.
¹¹ Her husband has full confidence in her
    and lacks nothing of value. 
¹² She brings him good, not harm,
    all the days of her life.
¹³ She selects wool and flax
    and works with eager hands. 
¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships,
    bringing her food from afar.
¹⁵ She gets up while it is still night;
    she provides food for her family
    and portions for her female servants.
¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
    out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
¹⁷ She sets about her work vigorously;
    her arms are strong for her tasks.
¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable,
    and her lamp does not go out at night.
¹⁹ In her hand she holds the distaff
    and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor
    and extends her hands to the needy. 
²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
    for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
²² She makes coverings for her bed;
    she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
²³ Her husband is respected at the city gate,
    where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them,
    and supplies the merchants with sashes.
²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity;
    she can laugh at the days to come.
²⁶ She speaks with wisdom,
    and faithful instruction is on her tongue. 
²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household
    and does not eat the bread of idleness.
²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:
²⁹ “Many women do noble things,
    but you surpass them all.”
³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
³¹ Honor her for all that her hands have done,
    and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.