... and so the journy begins

Randal and I had talked quite a while about wanting to start a blog about life in Wyoming. I don't knoiw if it's that we get busy with other things and forget, ...you know... things like going out and exploring the wilds looking for "teddy bears" and stuff, or if we just get caught up in normal routine things like our daughter, work and school. I figure if I start it, he'll jump in and start typing stuff up when he has free time.
Since we wanted to write this about our experiences, I guess I'll start at the very beginning. I can't promise it will all be in chronological order for a while, but once this gets caught up it should be for the most part. ...and now.. on to the story..

The finishing process of packing on the last day was less than fun and more overwhelming than we anticipated. Sierra wasn't cooperating very much, I would guess she didn't understand what was going on and needed comforted. We finally called for backup, because we knew it was either ask for help, or head out by ourselves... and while driving the moving van wouldn't have been all that bad for Randal, driving by myself with Sierra would have sucked, because she wanted fed the exact moment she decided she was hungry. Liz and her daughter Maggie and son Ben came over to save us. Ben just kinda played and "helped" in his unique way, which was mostly doing his own thing, fighting with Maggie, and occassionally doing what a 5 or 6 yr old can do best... get in the way, while having the best of intentions. Don't get me wrong, I more than appreciated their help, even Ben's. He kept Sierra occupied occassionally, and Maggie took over most of the rest of the time. Liz was a godsend! She cleaned while we packed the truck, and we finished a lot faster than we ever would have, plus, the house was a lot cleaner than it would have been. ..hrmm.. now that I think about it I think we still need to contact Dee... lol.
We headed to Nebraska where Randals parents live. I got to meet his brother, sister-in-law and neice, and see his parents again, it was nice, although very late, so we didn't get to spend as much time as any of us would have liked. His neice wasn't thrilled about sharing grandma with Sierra.. which was to be expected, it was actually kinda cute seeing her act jealous of teh new comer on her turf. I can't wait to see Sierra's reaction to her cousin in July, because she now LOVES babies, and kids... and Z is only a year older than her.
Randal showed me around his old hometown the next morning before we headed out. His dad drove the moving van and his mom drove their car, while we rode in our car as a family. We putzed as much as we dared taking in a bunch of sites and treated it similar to a vacation. Our first stop was Cabelas in Sidney. I looked for some of my old co-workers, but since it was noon, they were all on lunch. I was disappointed. Sierra enjoyed the aquarium, and she made friends (as usual) everywhere we went...including a group of older ladies at Perkins where we had lunch. One of them even gave her a kiss on the cheek...I'm slowly getting used to this type of thing which seems to be much more common out this way. We stayed in Casper, but I wasn't feeling well at all so we didn't get to visit Randal's friend that lives there. I actually felt like I was going to pass out again, I didn't thank goodness.. but I felt like it for a while.
We also stopped at the dinosaur museum in Thermopolis, which was incredibly cool. A must see if you have never been there!
When we got to Powell we were shocked that his parents beat us there...ooooops! I was sad that there was a winter storm approaching, so they had to leave right away. I was really hoping to get to spend a lil more time with them, and especially for his parents to spend more time with Sierra. Unfortunately, life doesn't always go according to plan. ...on a side note, it was a good thing they left when they did as the storm shut down the majority of highways in Wyoming. ...us.. well, it was a dusting while the rest of the state got about a foot of snow.. I won't complain about a dusting lol.
The people at Super 8 were awesome. The asst manager gave sierra a book, they gave us a discount because we had to stay much longer than anticipated, and they were just really friendly and accomodating. Several days into the stay I discovered I had internet in the room, and not just in the lobby.. woooo! Then much to my dismay, the internet went out everywhere for a day.
We finally got all the paperwork taken care of and got into our apt. a cozy 2 bedroom apt, with lots of closet and cupboard space! Randals co-workers helped unload the truck, and his boss bought us a pizza for dinner that night. They are awesome people!!

...I'm gonna end the story here for now because Sierra is wanting to cuddle before a nap and 1 handed blogging isn't fun.