Look out New York

So we arrived in NYC on Saturday afternoon. We spent a day driving in the rain through Ohio and into PA, and then the final day into NYC. We got a little bit turned around once we arrived because we wanted to take the Holland Tunnel, but it turned out that Uhaul trailers aren't allowed to pass because of the threat of terrorism (duh, the new things I have to consider) so we had to back track to the Lincoln Tunnel, which brought us into Time Square (driving the Jeep with a trailer through Times Square was so much fun, I truley loved it) and then it was over the Brooklyn Bridge and then to Julie and James place, our new home for the time being! We unloaded our trailer into a storage unitm, which was a nightmare because Tropical Storm Hannah hit and the rain was torrential, and also because it involved manuvering the trailer in a really crowded lot. I used my best cute girl from a redneck state act to get the Uhaul men to back the car and trailer into the space it needed to go, and it worked!

On Sunday Julie took us to Prospect park, which is incredible, its bigger then Central Park, and really nice, we took the kids to play and to feed the geese and then back home. Today, Julie showed us the grocery store and target where guess what?????!!! Food and Baby Supplies are totally cheaper then they were back home! I figured prices would be similar, but everyone back in Idaho/Wyoming warned us ominously that the prices would be really inflated. But they are wrong! Jackson/Idaho is way higher, at least for the things I buy! Gas is cheaper too, and I won't be filling up every 3-4 days anymore! I am so excited, our money is going to go so much further here. (assuming we get good comprable jobs).

I love love love it here, its so vibrant and alive. There are people everywhere, and such diversity! Walking down the street you hear so many languages, some I can't even begin to guess what they are! I love driving through traffic, its just as thrilling as the pass, but more so!

Sully is loving it too. He had a great day today, I think he loves all the sights and sounds and smells. Exactly what we were hoping for! And did I mention the food? Oh, I love it all. its all too much for now, its going to take me a long time to process it all.

Well, thats all for now, I need to get to sleep. We miss you guys in Jackson/Idaho and hope you come to visit us once we are settled. We are so happy with our choice to move here. there is no doubt at all that it was the right call.

I will try to post pictures soon.

We are like a hurricane

Heading out the door and out of Iowa in a minute and its raining all over the midwest. Looks like we are heading straight through whats left of commrade Gustav! Glad we got the wipers replaced.... now its off to Chicago, and lets win there! (sorry,having a RFK moment)

A Day at the Zoo

We spent the morning at the Omaho Zoo. Sully had sooooo much fun! to tell the truth, so did we! Omaha is squarely in the kick ass column on my list of places. After Sully could no longer stay awake, it was on to Davenport, Iowa. We hope to make it to central Pennsilvania tommorow and into Brooklyn Friday. Thats the plan anyway.

Sully, looking in a mirror! Seriously though, the gorilla scarred him a little, he made a sort of "uhhhh?!" sound when they made eye contact together.

Butterflies Rule!

The largest indoor desert in the United States!

Its a frog faced bird!

Sully was trying to talk to the monkey, yelling "BAA! BAAA!

Sully and Mike, laughing at the climbing, swinging monkeys

That's a big cat!

Mike, showing you his sunny side

Sully being eaten by a hippo

Sully and a porqupine

Sully was not sure about the goats.

wrong one.

This is the goal at the end of the day.

Day 3: Omaha, somewhere in the middle of America

43 North
103 West
elevation: 4,090

We made it across Nebraska today, in case you were wondering, it is still full of corn. We are spending the night in Omaha, a city that I love, love, love. I loved it from the instant I saw it back in 1996 when the greyhound bus taking us to Jackson stopped here. Its a clean, friendly little place and I am super pyched to get to spend some more time here.

Tomorrow, we are going to the zoo, and then heading for Chicago. Sully is still holding up wonderfully, hotels with a pool are made for traveling toddlers.

Here are some pictures...

at the hotel last night, he emptied the tissue box and then hit the TP

Team Solis fuelin up

If there is a heaven... its gonna look like Nebraska

Yep, this is where your creamed corn came from

Day 2: We're on the road thru no where

41 North
109 West
6448 Feet

After a refreshing night at the Outlaw Inn in Rock Springs,Wyoming, possibly the strangest hotel on the planet, we embarked on the long haul out of the cowboy state. Nothing but vast expanses of sage brush and rock as far as the eye could see all day long.

Sully did exceptionally well, thanks in part to excellent timing on his parent's part, a well balanced meal and the avalibilty of our portable DVD player and Simpsons DVD collection. (Did I mention that Sully now laughs at jokes on TV?).

We made it nicely to Sidney Nebraska at about 7pm, plenty of time to hit the pool and have a nice dinner in our pimped out AmericInn suite... very deluxe (http://www.americinn.com/hotels/NE/Sidney), and Team Solis is in decent shape to tackle Nebraska on day 3.

Really going to miss the enormous Wyoming Sky.

Day One: Get as far as possible while the boy sleeps

The first stop on our road trip? Calvin & Sarah’s birthday party! We wouldn’t have missed the party of the year for anything. Sarah turned 3 on Friday, and Calvin turned 1 on Thursday. We are going to miss all of the Idaho Family terribly and the party was a really nice time.

When the festivities concluded and after our trailer inspection from Mark, mandated by Big Daddy Solis, we were off. It had been raining for most of the day and it was getting cold. Sullivan, properly worn out from playing with his cousins crashed before we got back to the highway, so far so good!

Our last trip over Teton Pass did not disappoint. Fog, rain blowing horizontally, and just a few degrees above turning to snow. I will miss driving that insane road, in the best of conditions I felt like a bad ass in Grand Turismo and in the worst of times I was sure the end was near. Sufficed to say, our future commute will be much safer.

The rest of the night was unexceptional, dark, rainy, cold. We made it to Rock Springs at about 2 am, and passed out for the night.

August 15-30: Operation Condense and Destroy

We spent our last two weeks as Idahoans ( a favorite term made popular by our creepy bathroom sex soliciting senator Larry Craig) condensing all of our belongings into a 5" 8" Uhaul Trailer. To say we downsized our lives does not adequetly describe the copious amounts of crap we unloaded from our lives. Much love to all of our friends and family who took the good stuff and who humored us in taking some of the crap too! Mike did an insanely good job packing the trailer up. Its so well balanced, that the car pulls it beautifully. The last two weeks were a blur of car maintenance, cleaning products, staying up late, getting up early, watching the sunrise, drinking gin and tonics, eating up as much of the food in the freezer as possible, Sully learning to say hi and bye, and mastering the art of laughing at fart jokes, cutting four new teeth (Molars!), yard sale, bbq’s, the hits just kept coming.

Dreams do come true, Sully wanted to climb on this TV stand forever.

No Foolin, thats one organized Car & Trailer

Jen, teaching Sullivan how to tag

Sully, the Swifer Man