God is so good!

Our trip in pictures continued....

God took care of us and protected us the whole way. It seemed like in every way He paved a smooth path.  God is so good!  

The morning that we were going to leave Oklahoma City, Justin went and checked my tires because I had a light come up on my dashboard meaning to check the tires. He found a screw in one of them, so they had to change the tire. Thankfully my spare was in good condition. It put us about 1 1/2 behind but that was ok with us. At least I wouldn't be driving 10 hours with a tire that could have possibly blown out. God's protection over us was amazing. 

The drive through Kansas and Nebraska was pretty. It was rolling hills of farmland and cattle. The skies were a rich blue the whole day and there was not any traffic. (not many people want to drive through Kansas and Nebraska because there is NOTHING at all!)

This was my view the whole trip, following the truck.  

Josiah did exceptionally well during our long day. He watched his mini-dvd player, slept, and my mother-in-law was great at entertaining him.  He only got fussy the last hour of that day. Again, a blessing from the Lord!! 

We drove into Nebraska and got to our hotel about 10pm. It was a nice hotel and we all slept so good. The next morning we just had a 3 hour drive. We got to our house and had people there ready to help us unload the truck.  The poor guys had to unload in 40 degree weather and bring furniture up and down stairs. Justin and my father-in-law were both pretty sore the next day. 

My in-laws stayed several days so we decided we weren't going to unpack everything, just the necessities, so we could spend some time sight-seeing with them.  We drove up to Mount Rushmore and enjoyed the museum and eating lunch in the very expensive restaurant. It was really cold that day and I forgot to put my insulated long johns on under my pants and my legs felt like they were going numb!

We also drove to Sylvan Lake, it is a beautiful area. The lake was frozen over and Justin and his mom wanted to walk on it. I stayed in the car with Josiah, it was tooo cold and windy. I'm a woosy, I know. 

Then we drove to Custer State Park and drove around what's called the wildlife loop. It's about a 45 minute drive through a lot of beautiful land where they have protected animals of all kinds. We saw buffalo, antelope, white tale deer, mule deer, donkeys, turkeys, and some other things but I can't think of what they were. Anyway, it was nice and my father-in-law took about 100 pictures of all the animals. He loved it!

This donkey was in the middle of the road and decided to come right up to the car. He put his nose up to the window and sniffed. It was really funny. 

On our way back out of the park, we were trying to get home and we encountered this sign... "No winter maintenance next 2 miles. Travel at your own risk." ha ha ha... GREAT! So what did we do, we kept on going. What's life without a little adventure!!! ha ha!! Thankfully my car has all wheel drive and we did fine, just drove slow. It was exciting. Our first real adventure in South Dakota. ha ha

Then sadly, we had to say goodbye to Justin's mom and stepdad. We loved having them here with us. Thankfully they had a great flight home.

It snowed the day after they left and this is the view from our living room window. Pretty snow!

View from the backyard. Everyone has kids play stuff in their backyard. We have many neighbors to get to meet!! 

Thank you for praying for us! We felt your prayers as God's protection, provision, and blessings over us have been overwhelming.  Pray that God opens up opportunities for us to meet people and that we would be a reflection of Him in all that we do and say. 

We are doing fine in the cold weather, it just takes some extra effort getting out of the house. Getting jackets and gloves on, starting the car 10 minutes before leaving, ect. Our house is awesome and does a great job of keeping us warm inside. Josiah is adjusting well.  A baby gate was the first thing we bought when we got here. Chasing a 15 month old up and down the stairs is very tiring, and worrisome for a mom.  

We Love You and miss all of our dear friends and family already. 

Keep in touch!