Reporting from Oregon

 B & B in Lincoln, NE

 weirdo dog in her carseat

 Cheyenne, Wyoming

 Salt Lake

 We made it...and the girlies made it too!

 Hanging on the Chetco river

 Making calzones

 View of the Pacific from our balcony

 relaxing listening to live music in the park

 Redwoods in Arcata, Ca

 center of town in Arcata.  If you are a hippie, this is the spot for you.

 our lovely beach

At Ocean World in Crescent City

 Chickens at a friend of ours

 Mala in swim class

 down at the boardwalk

 Miss Sass

 Miss "no pictures please"

Wow has it really been almost 3 months since my last posting.  That seems like a lifetime ago.
We are settled into our apartment in Brookings and getting to know the town and surrounding area.  I'll start with our drive.
The girls were with us for our first leg to St. Louis, that trip went better than expected due to tons of snacks, activities, and movies.  We only battled mild carsickness in the beginning of the trip, going through the mountains.  We relaxed for a few days with Ammamma and Achacha in St. Louis.  Then we left the girls, and Anil headed out on our own.  Anil in 1 car, Amelia and me in another car, we had walkie talkies for the trip which were super handy.  We did our trip over 5 days and honestly it was eye opening to see how big this country is.  We saw such bizarre terrain along the way.  Tons of flat land and farms, rolling hills, desert, mountains, salt flats, and loads of windmills.  It was really crazy.  Things definitely felt the most eery while driving through Utah and Nevada, seeing no trees and coming along these tiny little towns (would you even call them towns?) in which the residents seemed to have their own eccentricities.  We were so thankful to see trees again and grass.
Our last day was the most exhausting, driving through the mountains of California for 3hrs.  We were both starting to really miss our baby girls and really starting to feel the weight of this move.  I was thankful to be alone in my car for this trip so I could spend a good portion of it listening to corny country songs and crying.  When we finally arrived we at dinner at Vista Pub in town and both went through this emotional adrenaline rush, re-hashing our trip, talking mile a minute, and both of us on the verge of tears.
Our girls got here with Ammamma and Achacha the following evening and I felt like the piece of me that had been missing was back again.  We were ready to build our home. 

Some things we've learned about Brookings so far:

Don't shop at Fred Meyer on Tuesday mornings, that's senior discount day and did I mention that about 1/3 of our population here are retirees
There are lots of deer and they get a hankering for petunias early in the morning
About 1/2 of the town drives large, jacked up noisy trucks
We don't have mosquitos, hooray! So my sliding glass door stays open a good portion of the day
The beach is not a place for lounging, it is a place for exploring, chasing birds, climbing rocks.  To dress appropriately you wear a fleece, sunglasses, and some kind of hat to keep your hair from blowing in your face
The river is a place for lounging, it is always about 10 degrees warmer
The mornings are often foggy and the fog creeps up our street
This town is small, really small, population a little over 6,000, I'm realizing I like small towns
People are really into camping and all things outdoors and they look at you a little strange when you tell them you've never been camping
I am still blown away from the view of the Pacific Ocean that you can see all around town

Well there is so much more I could write, but it won't all stay in my head.  We are going on our first camping trip and kayaking...this should be interesting with a 5 year old that is still pretty nervous about water and a 2 year old that thinks she's a fish.  Stay tuned, I will try really hard to not be so crummy at updating this blog.