I'm Back!!!

Where did I go?  Well, a little bit of everywhere.  A quick summary:

Boulder->St. Louis->Boulder->through CO, UT, NV, and up CA to San Francisco->Twain Harte->San Francisco->Twain Harte->and now I am at home in SF.  All of this in a month.  It has been about 66 hours in the car...

Of course there are explanations behind all of these trips.  It started with my dad and I heading home to St. Louis for Christmas.  We drove so I could bring Lola without having to pay the silly airline prices to fly with her.  Plus, always some good father/daughter time.  A very uneventful trip that ended at my house all decorated in true Eilene fashion beautifully.  It is something I look forward to every year and have never been disappointed.  I will let the rest of the holiday festivities speak for themselves...

The Smith family-Christmas Eve

Dado-don't worry, he's "just tired".  He fell asleep in the living room and my uncle created the sign for him as a bit of a dig at my mom.  As an only child I would occasionally (ok, a lot) get rather crabby and my mom would always say, "oh, she's just tired".  We all know I was just spoiled and not getting my way!  The joke has lived on ever since.

A little family piano playing...Erin, me, and mom.  For the record, I have lost all of my piano playing skills I once possessed.  So much for all those lessons.

Christmas Day-Grandma Koon's

From there, it was time to head off on our cross country (half of it anyway) journey.  We made it to Lee Summit, MO. before the adventures began.  I got a call from my saying that she found an empty container of Decon (mouse poison) in the house.  She wasn't sure whether Lola got into it or not but had taken Belle (our dog in St. Louis) to the vet to be treated.  So began the frantic search for a vet-even though no part of me believed she got into it but better safe than sorry.  A very nice office let us come in on their lunch break and gave Lola a prescription for some vitamin K.  $100 and one hour later, we were on the road again.  

who me?

We finally made it to Boulder in time to crash.  The next day was filled with packing, packing and more packing.  We finished the night off with a trip to Sushi Zanmai for a goodbye to Boulder dinner (I was Walnut Brewery-ied out).  It was a great way to end my time in Boulder.

MOVING DAY!  With everything loaded, we trailered up the car and hit the road...

Day one was brutal.  Lucky for me, I was the co-pilot (aka-assistant) for the trip so I didn't have to actually maneuver this thing through the Rocky Mountains.  If you went above 30 downhill the entire thing began to shake.  It was about 5 hours of white knuckled driving just praying for some flat land.  Enter Utah!!  We decided to take a Southern route to avoid I-80 in the winter and also thought it would be flatter...WRONG.  Utah is insanely mountainous, even through the desert.  So we went 14 hours in the mountains and concluded the most stressful day of driving in St. George, UT.  

Day two was SO much better.  Smooth sailing right into San Francisco.  Well, the driving went smooth anyway.  Unfortunately we received a call with three hours left to go in our drive that Scott's dad had passed away.  I don't really feel like my blog is the place to go into details about this I will say that Bernie was an amazing man and will be missed dearly.  Scott was able to tell his dad everything he wanted before he passed and his dad is definitely in a better place now.  That is the reason for all of the trips to Twain Harte. 

Scott's family has had a cabin in Twain Harte since Scott was 6.  We were able to spend time with Scott's family and laugh and cry and celebrate Bernie's life (as he wanted).  While the circumstances were unfortunate it was truly wonderful to spend that time with the family and get to know them all better.

Scott enjoying his "Scott" wine in Twain Harte

After many rounds of Apples to Apples (if you haven't played this, you NEED to) we headed home and got the house all put together.  Everything is now in its place and it truly is our home.  Pictures to come.  

Well, this has become very long so I am going to sign off.  Next post...my new neighborhood!  I LOVE IT!

Steph