Sunday, January 30, 2011

First trip to San Francisco


When I saved this picture I saved it as "sick of the kid"! Poor Mable really is getting harrassed a lot these days! No matter how much she takes she is still waits by his door for him to wake up pretty much every morning.
She misses her yard and being able to go in and out as she pleases but other than that she is doing great. She was quite a bit scared of heights for the first week or so. She loves the balcony now and will lay out there all afternoon if it is sunny.

These are pictures from our very first trip into San Francisco. These were suppossed to be Christmas card pictures but as it is almost February I am guessing that isn't going to happen! This picture is at the Ferry Building with the Bay Bridge in the background. The Ferry Building has an amazing farmer's market (at least for our standards) every weekend. Yummy fruit, veggies, cheese, bread and meat around every corner. I keep hearing it described as a "foodies" place. I can't agree more!

Thomas and I outside of Yerba Buena and the W Hotel, with some very cool art. Tommy's office is just across the street from both of these things.

See...this would have been the perfect Christmas card picture!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Stuck


"Mommy, hewp me"


"What's wrong buddy"



"I'm stuck"

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Saying Goodbye and the drive out to sunny CA


I am not going to lie and say that leaving Indiana was an easy thing to do. Well, maybe leaving the actual state was easy but leaving the people certainly was a bit more difficult. We miss our neighbors, friends and family more than I could begin to describe on this blog. We are lucky that technology has advanced so much that we can text, email and video chat easily! Seeing the house empty was bitter sweet...I was super happy because that meant all the packing was done!
Mable was pretty bummed too!

This is the reason I will miss our actual house.
An original Tommy McLaughlin we had to leave behind.

Finishing up cleaning...high and low!

Then off to California we go!

This little speed limit sign was a beautiful sight! Just in case you can't read it, it says "75"...legally, which of course means you are okay doing 80! WAHOO

This is pretty much what we saw for the majority of the ride. You will not find me complaining about this though. I grew up in Kansas, flat, see for miles land is my home and I think it is beautiful! Other people don't seem to share my love of treeless land.

Thomas was a TROOPER the entire ride. We pushed it and made the whole trip in about 36hours. The birthday toys I hid were a huge help on the trip and so was Dumbo. Which I think I now have memorized after hearing it 47,000 times!

We passed several wind farms on the drive. I had never actually seen them in person and let me tell you they are pretty amazing. They are HUGE! I do not understand why critics of wind farms choose to use the "they are ugly" argument. Maybe they aren't fans of modern art!

HUGE I tell you!
The scale of these things just can not be shown in a picture,
taken on a cell phone,
while driving 80mph!

An amazing view of cloud cover on a mountain.
I think this is somewhere in Nevada.

There were a couple spots that were a bit perilous thanks to our good buddy snow. We narrowly missed an accident near Salt Lake that was not pretty, but we inched around it and everyone involved seemed to be ok. The car did fairly well...except when all of the gauges decided they were done working! It is much easier to read your speed on the speedometer than to try and "feel" it!

Now a Note from Daddy aka Tommy: The trip was great but a lot more fun the second time with people in the car with me. That drive is hard (but the salt flats make it suicidal road side mud graffiti and all) and I can't believe how well both our children did the whole time. We do miss being closer to all of our family and friends even the ones that were 10 plus hours away because they were only 10 plus hours away. If we drive 10 hours now we won't even get out of Utah or the State of California (if driving southward).
The car did do well except when climbing from 4500 feet to 7500 feet in about 10 miles (okay a little exaggeration but it was pretty close) and if the gauges and speedometer is out during that time it makes it even more fun. But so far it has all been worth it. Great place to live and phenomenal place to work. Now if all of our family and friends could move out here. Did you get that subtle hint that everyone needs to move out here, just making sure.

Peace and Love from the McLaughlins


Monday, January 17, 2011

Thanksgiving (We're back!!!)

Thanksgiving with the McLaughlin's! Here are all the "adult" cousins with Grandma Betty.

And all the "Kid" cousins!
We are very much going to miss how easy it was to get to Lawrenceburg for the "McLaughlin" family Thanksgiving (and all family events for that matter).

Aunt Melanie and cool in my shades Thomas. Pretty sure Aunt Melanie's heels are taller than Thomas!!!

Cowboy Thomas and Cowgirl Aunt Melanie!

Mere, Thomas and Aunt Melanie warming their feet by the fire!

A moving box! I wonder what is in the large moving box?

here is a teeny hint!

It was Mere and Thomas!!! I would much rather have packed Mere in the box to ship out to CA than all of our house stuff! Although, I don't think she would have appreciated the week long ride in a box sans food or toilets!

I am busy editing all of our photos from the last month or so. I am so far behind on the blog and everything else for that matter (Christmas presents too....please please please forgive me...I promise I will get them out sometime!). We are doing well and really enjoying Dublin.
Of course we miss our IN friends and family very much!