Wildlife Everywhere

Yesterday while heading to Rochester, Matt and I saw three baby deer, many ground hogs, and even a buck. They were right on the side of the freeway! Mya gets to see squirels playing everywhere we go! Of course, I have yet to get a photo of the wildlife, so until I do, these photos will have to work. We thought they were sweet. Gus was more prepared for the photos than Mya. The last couple days, we have been spending a lot of our time at the park, since it is so close. Today, we have had rain showers on and off. It must be in the 60's. So nice! We are anxiously awaiting fall. We have heard that the colors are just incredible. Hope you continue to enjoy the pictures.

Jaime

Address

Jaime posted our new address a few days ago. Unfortunately our landlord gave it to us incorrectly. It is actually:

50 Lindbergh Ct.
Cheektowaga, NY 14225

If you send anything to "Buffalo", it will still get here, but it may take a little longer.

Niagara Falls

Yesterday we had some spare time to goof around. We were wanting to see Niagara Falls, since we knew we were close. It was only a half an hour away. We did a quick trip, but plan on going again for the full experience... boat ride and all. I was surprised at how much misting there was! What was interesting, is you walk along side this fast paced river, and then there's the drop off! I'm used to seeing falls from ground level... not from the top! After making a quick trip into Canada, we came back to get moved into our new home. It didn't take long, considering it was just unloading what we traveled back with. The house is very bare right now. Part of it is enjoyable to be so simple, yet the other part misses the comfort features, like a couch and bed. We slept on our air mattress last night. I didn't sleep well.
We have been LOVING the weather! I don't think we've been above 75 degrees since we've been here, and some of the locals have been complaining about the heat! Funny. Tonight we are suppose to have thunder showers. I hope so! Today (Wednesday) the guy we are renting from gave us a tour of the area. Showed us pretty much everything we could possibly need to get around. Great news for those that will want to come and visit! We're only 5 minutes from the major airport here in Buffalo! We are just blocks away from an amazing park! It has all the regular slides and swings, plus a huge water park for small children. On our walk there and back, we've had some of the new neighbors come and introduce themsleves. We can't believe how friendly everyone is! I just got inside from meeting our neighbors directly behind us. They knew we were new here because of "this huge dog in the yard, and some pregnant lady". They are both music teachers at a school nearby, and the best part... they're our age. New friends! A couple days ago, I had to laugh when I told Matt that a woman said she didn't notice my "baby-bump" when she first talked with me. I have NEVER heard that term! This is turning out so well, it's almost too good to be true. I keep waiting to wake up back in California, not even having left! I almost forgot to post a photo of the house. At this point, it's not much for looks, but we plan on adding some color and making it look more inviting. Looks tiny from the outside, but it is two story, with a very large basement. It will be perfect for us until we find a home to purchase.

Delirious?

Today did prove to be busy, but in a good way. We got a lot of things accomplished. It feels great! After our post from this morning, we all went on a nice walk. It was pretty cool outside! Our high today was 76 degrees. When we took our walk, it was somewhere between 60 & 65 degrees, with cloud cover and a light breeze. I was able to get a full family shot... Gus included. Mya had the most fun just pushing her stroller around.

Later on, Mya helped me get some laundry done. There was a soda machine in the same room as the washer and dryer. She would put her small bear in it with a blanket and tell it goodnight. Really sweet.

Mya went shopping with daddy at good-old Wal Mart, while I went to a local bank to set up an account in this area.

Matt was told by the manager of the hotel that our dog was intimidating to some of the guests, evn though he was tied next to the truck, and requested that we bring him into our room. I couldn't believe it! Mya was all excited about that!

We scheduled an appointment with someone to view a potential house that was for rent. It was a total answer to prayer. Matt told him the situation we were in, and even with having the dog, and he didn't think twice about anything. We now have a home, and to our surprise, once again a blessing, we get the house month to month, leaving us the option to buy a home when we know the area a little better. God is great! Thank you all for the prayers you sent up on our behalf. This is and of itself has been the greatest part of the day!

Our address is: 50 Lindbergh Ct., Buffalo, NY 14225

We came back to our hotel, and got settled for the night.... with the addition of Gus to the room. Cozy! Tomorrow we move in to the house with the items we traveled with. The rest will be a week or so behind.

Good Morning

It is 7:30am here in New York, and we are all up and ready to start a new day! Mya has had a good night's sleep. She ate most of her donut. Like the way she eats it? It looks like a rat got a hold of it! The face she's giving in the photo is because she doesn't want any more. We all wanted to say "Good morning" to everyone. We have a busy day ahead of us. We'll keep you posted as to how things go.

Jaime

New Church

We wanted to make a point to go to church today, and try to make some connections with people in this area. Thanks to Leah Harris, we were able to meet up with a couple from this area. They told us the church they attended, and we agreed to meet. We really liked it there. It's bigger than we're used to, but they do offer small groups, and have a lot to offer for kids of all ages. Mya went to the nursery, and as usual, met no strangers. She had fun there.

This afternoon we checked out some houses that were for rent, but didn't find any that we were interested in. We will try again throughout the week, and hope for the best. It would be nice to get settled in our own home.

Just a note, this photo is nearly a month old. We're still growing! Mya is constantly wanting to kiss the baby, and give my tummy hugs. We can hardly wait for her to meet her new brother or sister. She seems to understand that the baby is still tiny, and needs to grow and get big in mommy's tummy. It's fun to see the connection she is already making with the new little one.

We're not there yet!

We've made it to New York, but our trip is only half over. We still need to find a house to rent, a nice church, and a job. We will keep you posted. Thank you for all the posts so far. Stay tuned.

Ohio, Indiana, Pennsyvania & New York!

Well, the title should say it all! We were on the road for a LONG TIME yesterday. Once again, we slept in at the hotel, and left the Chicago area around noon. We figured (after Matt had talked with someone from the Rochester area of N.Y.)we could make it to Buffalo in 10 hours. We didn't get into New York until 1am.The first hotel Matt went to check in to was booked up. The next two stops were booked up as well. Seems there was a big Bass Tournament going on. I called four other hotels in all directions, and still, all booked up. We thought we might have to sleep in the truck. I was hoping to not have to do that again. Thankfully, there was a place Matt came across that had a room. Not somewhere we would want to stay again, but it was better than the truck. My main thing was wanting a shower after being in the car for so long. It was 2:30am before we made it to bed.

We did get to have another delicious breakfast at "The Original Pancake House". Right now, we are in a new hotel, getting ready to nap Mya. Matt and I are working on getting oriented with the area. There is a lot around here.

Chicago, and the 3 hour pizza

We left the hotel at about 4 o'clock in search of an authentic Chicago pizza. The front desk lady recommended a place called Giordano's. The plan was to eat somewhere downtown so we could also see lake Michigan.

At least that was the plan.

We made it to the city just fine. Our hotel is in Joliet which is about half an hour west of Chicago. We didn't have a map of the city, but we didn't think it would be a problem because I looked up the directions on our laptop, and saved the screenshot so we could just use the computer to navigate. Everything was fine until we got to our second exit and found that it was closed due to road construction. No problem, there was a detour.

We followed the detour. Our next exit was only supposed to be a little under a mile away, but because of the detour we did not cross that exit. Instead we went through the middle of the city. Neither one of us has ever been to Chicago, and I'm sure some parts of the city, are nice looking, and safe. This was not one of those places. Let's just say that if we were going in search of soul food instead of pizza we would have had about six thousand places to stop. We were getting very frustrated, so I decided to find a gas station, and buy a map. We pulled into the gas station, I stopped and considered getting out. I decided not to get out of the truck after witnessing a blatently open drug deal go down about twenty feet away. After two hours of following a detour through Harlem we finally decided to find the nearest highway, and get out of town. We got back on the nearest highway, and found a SAFE gas station to ask directions to the nearest pizza place. The WHITE casheir kindly informed us of a wonderful place just around the corner. After 3 hours of driving with our doors locked we finally ate a nice dinner, and came back to the hotel for a late night swim.

Note*

Just wanted to let you all know that I forgot to add some things about our trip on the main blog. I posted it as a comment to the Wyoming blog if you're interested.

Iowa & Illinois

Finally! I have always wanted to catch a lightning bolt in a photo! We left Paul & Shelley's house around 9pm. We weren't far from the Iowa border. Matt & I kept seeing the sky light up from lightning. It was so cloudy that we knew we were probably going to hit a storm. I drove the first 200 miles, then Matt took over. The lightning was so frequent, you honestly couldn't count all the flashes per second. Every once in awhile, you would catch a bolt come down, but for the most part, it was just the sky lighting up. Matt took over driving some time after midnight. I fell asleep, but then woke up when Matt said that he had to pull off due to such heavy rain. We litterally hid under an underpass for nearly two hours, waiting for the storm to lighten up. The thunder was incredible! Gus managed to stay pretty dry. Mya slept through all of it. I was so determined to catch a picture... even without the proper conditions, that while Matt & Mya slept, I was trying to keep my camera as still as possible, hoping and praying that a bolt would shoot down where my lens was pointing. I think it took me almost an hour of trying. I only got two shots that were worth saving. I'm looking forward to the next time I can try that. It was 3am before the storm lightened, so we headed on our journey again. I drove again at 4:30, but the rain got heavy again, so we had to look for some more cover. We would have stayed in a hotel if it weren't for Gus. Thankfully, we were blessed with finding a shut down hotel that we were able to park under the front entrance. Had it not been for that, who knows what we would have done. It was pouring! We all rested there... in the truck (not comfortable with three of us), until 9am. The weather had cleared a lot. We were less than three hours away from Chicago. As I type this, we are in a hotel about half an hour west of Chicago, and Mya & Matt are sleeping. In a bit, we will be heading to the city to have what Matt has been dreaming of: an authentic "Chicago Style Pizza". We were recommended a specific pizza place right on the lake. I think it will be beautiful. If we have enough wind, we would like to help Mya fly her kite. I will try and post again tonight when we get back from Chicago. We pretty much are having to rely on the internet from the hotels we stay at to place a note. That's why it's not as frequent as we had planned. We don't stop much. We are thinking that we will be in Buffalo tomorrow, but we'll see.

Wyoming/Nebraska

We had planned on getting up early to hit the road on Tuesday. All of us were so exhausted, and didn't even know it until we woke up at 8:30am. We did get to have a wonderful breakfast that was provided by the hotel.
We drove about 300 miles just to get to the State line. Then, it was another 500 miles to Omaha. We did it, but didn't get to Paul and Shelley Carter's house until a little after 1am(Central Time). We have now put 1500 miles on the truck in two days. We did hit a thunder and lightning storm that was really neat. We saw a beautiful sunset.
Over half way to New York now. It will be nice to have this behind us. Although we're still doing fine, and staying rested, it does not make it any shorter of a trip.
We plan on getting back on the road later tonight. Chicago is our next stop.

Wyoming

Matt drove into Wyoming a little before 3pm. We have put almost 700 miles on since yesterday. What a long drive! All three of us are still enjoying ourselves. I'm thankful for that. We were wanting to make it to Cheyenne, Wyoming before staying in a hotel, but when we realized it was nearly 500 more miles, we decided to pick a closer place. We came into Rock Springs around 5pm and decided to stay for the night. We couldn't belive how busy all the hotels were for a Monday night. We went to 5 or 6 different places that were completely booked out for the week before finding one with a vacancy. Apparently, there is a big oil boom going on that is bringing a lot of people from all over the U.S. to work here. Who would have thought? It's not a very big town here.

Utah

We have been trying to stop at every State line to take a picture of where we are, but we didn't see one when we entered Utah. I think it was about 10:30am or so.

Mya has been having fun using all her new toys she was sent with. Thank you all! Grandma Warta gave her Dora p.j's the night we left, and she refused to take them off until her bath time at 7:00pm the next day.

We are having a great time seeing the country. Matt thought the scenery was worse in Utah than in Nevada, and in some areas, I would have to agree. I did get some neat shots of all the white salt with a few mountains in the background.

In the early afternoon, we hit a thunderstorm. It didn't dump much rain. The clouds were beautiful with the sun peaking through!

Monday Morning

Matt was able to drive through the night without any problems. We took about three stops to stretch out and let Gus get a break. Before even leaving Nevada, we started having rain showers. They continued on and off all through Utah. It was really cool. A couple times we even drove through small dust clouds.

I took over driving at about 6:30am to let Matt get some rest. Mya was still sleeping at that time. She did great for us! We stoped at McDonalds for a quick breakfast. We were finally able to get our cell phone up and running after fighting with it the night before.

We still had about two hours left until we would cross the Nevada/Utah border. We had planned on being much further into the trip at this time, but we were still making decent progress.

Nevada

We crossed the Nevada state line at about 11:45 Sunday night. We are now in Winemucca, and it's about 3:30 Monday Morning. Mya has slept well most of the way, so we continue to press on.

I had this post all ready to go last night, but we were having trouble finding a decent internet connection. I did have one, and was in the middle of uploading the pictures, when the manager of the hotel we were parked in front of unplugged their modem. Anyway, expect these updates to be more of a nightly thing as we will have the best connection in the hotels we stay at along the way.

Moving Day

The big day is finally here. It took a little longer than we thought it would. We are now ready to pull out of the driveway just a few hours later than we expected.

Our initial plan is to drive through the night, and make it to Salt Lake by morning. We will be constantly updating this blog along the way.

We will also be updating our email address soon.

Preparing for the Big Move

After a lot of prayer, preparation, and anticipation we are finally about to leave California. I know many of you have probably heard a lot of different destinations thrown around as to our final decision. After much consideration, we decided on Buffalo, NY.

No, we do not know anybody there. No, I do not have a job lined out. And no, we do not have a home already established. This is a great leap into the unknown, and we're sure thinks will work out just fine.

We will be updating this site along the way. Where ever we find an internet connection, we will post new updates with where we are in the U.S., and what fun things we have encountered. Hope you enjoy!