January 24 Day 3: Gillette to Kellogg

Day 3 started off in lovely Gillette, Wyoming. After a restful night of sleep Sue and I were ready to hit the road and maybe even get home to Seattle by the end of the day or early morning hours. I have to say that it was a beautiful sunrise over snow covered mountains and I think I can truly understand the lyrics "Purple Mountain Majesty". It was truly majestic and I feel lucky to have witnessed this.

This doesn't even do justice to the purple mountains

Just an example of the road conditions...

This will be the end of my love of Wyoming. The roads were still snow packed in the morning and I for one could not WAIT to leave this state. Luckily I didn't have to wait long to leave. We entered state #6 Montana by mid morning. Immediately after entering the state of Big Sky Country I noticed something wonderful... clear roads!!! The folks in Montana sure do know how to properly clear their roads for travelers and I greatly appreciate it!! Montana was also very beautiful with mountains and river valleys. It was cold but clear and big, blue skies in Montana.

At a gas stop in Billings, we noticed that one of the highlights to my car was out. Not a big deal we thought, it was early in the day and it wasn't supposed to snow that night so we would be fine. We got to Missoula (home of my friend Jill Henkel Yacu) around 4pm that afternoon and a little bit of snow was starting. We had about an hour and a half before the first of the two difficult mountain passes (Lookout and Fourth of July, both in Idaho) but with the risk of snow coming for the next day Sue and I both decided better to head over the pass now when the snow was just starting rather than wait and possibly be stuck in Missoula for another day. So away we went, the closer we got to the pass the loss of the headlight earlier in the day started to become a problem. It was very hard to see and with very few other cars of the pass it was hard to see what twists and turns were coming. A semi truck passed us and we used the tail lights to guide our way down the mountain. Once past the snow level it was raining pretty hard but we still thought we would keep going and get home tonight, we could handle some rain. However, just a few miles later two big semis came by and splashed us so severely we were completely unable to see for a few seconds. After the second blinding semi came by Sue and I just had to look at each other and knew we would be staying in lovely Kellogg, Idaho for the night. We were a little nervous at first when the lady at the gas station said there was only one motel in town, but then we drove by a lovely little ski resort Silver Mountain Resort that was pet friendly and oh so nice! We had a great night, a yummy meal, a very comfy bed to sleep in, and even some doggie treats for Roscoe! Tomorrow was a short day home to Seattle! Lights out.

January 23: Day 2 Rochester to Gillette

Day 2 started out in a very cold and snow covered Rochester, Minnesota. It wasn't any new snow overnight, but Roscoe was in snow drifts up to his shoulders for his morning ritual, I really wish I had the camera with me to capture the moment when he slid down the drift and was basically peeing from a handstand! Too funny! So we took to the road and in the early morning crossed into state #4: South Dakota! Now some of you might be thinking what a boring state, and how horrible to drive across this long, boring snowy state. I have to disagree, South Dakota may have been my favorite state, it was definitely the most entertaining! Within 5 miles of entering state line you begin seeing signs for both the Corn Palace and Wall Drug. I had heard of Wall Drug and was VERY excited about stopping there, but the Corn Palace was new for me. (Although Sue and I decided not to stop at the Corn Palace I guess it is a pretty fun place to see) The entire outside of the Corn Palace is done in corn and the design changes every year. Below are some of the fantastic signs to see along the way in South Dakota.

Please remember these were taken while driving :)

As you may be able to read, it's only 25 minutes to Wall Drug!!!

Roscoe is REALLY excited about Wall Drug too - this was just before his best meal of the trip

So the day was going really well and the driving conditions were great. It was really cold, but no snow and very very sunny. The only problem on the trip was that Roscoe had yet to eat since the beginning of the trip, which made it almost 30 hours since his last meal. I tried to feed him the first night in Rochester, but he wanted nothing to do with food. (Don't worry though, he was drinking plenty of water) So at a little gas station in South Dakota, with worry overtaking me I bought Roscoe this:

Yes I know I might be a bad dog Mommy, but... my little buddy needed to eat. So with a full belly it was on to Wall Drug. It really is quite the site and I would HIGHLY encourage anyone driving across South Dakota to stop at this landmark. Inside you can find a large array of everything you ever imagined, and I even found out was a corn cob pipe was (you know like from Frosty the Snowman). I also had a delicious bowl of ice cream! It was a great pit stop!

Posing by the famous Wall Drug sign

Me and my cowpoke just hanging out down by the Wall Drug!

Just in case you were all wondering what a corn cob pipe looked like too

After leaving Wall Drug it was back to the road. Earlier in the day Sue had suggested that we also stop at Mt. Rushmore since it really was only an hour total out of the way. I have to say that at first I wasn't sure I wanted to stop, I was afraid it would put us too far behind and we wouldn't have made it all the way to Billings, Montana. (Our original stop for the night) We did stop and I am so glad we did! It was so amazing to see such a masterpiece and such a fabulous piece of our country's history. The sun was just starting to get low in the sky and it made for some beautiful pictures.

At the entrance of Mt. Rushmore with all the state flags, each post has the date the state entered the union

So majestic and regal

Road trip buddies! Me and Sue!

So it was back to the road after visiting George, Tom, Teddy and Abe. We quickly left South Dakota and headed into state #5 Wyoming, it was just getting dark and starting to snow a little. We talked to Ryan's dad Bob and he said there was a big snowstorm headed our way. I don't think we really took him seriously because it had been so nice all day and it was barely snowing. Within 30 minutes, the snow had really picked up and was starting to coat the roads. I was driving and had to slow down to about 35 mph. Sue was the perfect co-pilot telling me where the road lines were and how to navigate the roads. The wind was picking up and it was near whiteout conditions and it was getting harder to drive on the snow packed roads. Luckily the little town of Gillette, Wyoming was only 10 miles ahead and it became our new stop for the night. We made it there safely, but it was definitely time to relax with our nightly Stella Artois and watching some TV to relax. We needed to rest because we were hoping to get all the way to Seattle the next night! Lights out!

January 22 Day 1: Chicago to Rochester

So first let me say I am sorry it took me a little while to blog about the travels to Seattle, it was pretty hard from the road, although I did have internet access I was pretty exhausted from the long days of moving and driving. Then when I got here to Seattle, I misplaced my USB cable from my camera and I figured that without the pictures it really wasn't worth the post since I would want to go back and put them in later. Sooooo...without further delay here is the story of my travels...

Day 1: Started off in Naperville at the Petrucks house (aka my Chicago mom and dad aka Erin's mom and dad) and I took the train back into the city to be at the condo for the cleaning lady. As she cleaned (and did a fantastic job by the way!! ) I ran some last minute errands and finished packing my car. I then headed out to the airport to pick up Ryan's mom Sue who flew out to Chicago to drive with me to Seattle. It was so wonderful for her to volunteer to come with me. I had a great time getting to know her better and share an amazing journey with her. We headed out on I-90 and drove about five and a half hours to Rochester, Minnesota for our first pit stop. We had a very uneventful day as we checked three states off our journey (Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) and crossed the Mississippi River. It was dark out most of our trip, which is why I have don't have pictures from this day of the trip. It was super cold in Minnesota that night (-20 I believe), this meant that Sue and I needed to have our evening cocktail of Stella Artois delivered to our door. No problem for the wonderful staff at the restaurant of our Best Western. It was an early night as we had a long day of driving ahead of us the next day (our goal was to get to Billings, Montana the next day). Lights out!!

Hibachi, Cupcakes and Goodbyes

My last week here in Chicago has been stressful, fun, full of great food and friends, and also very bittersweet. On my last Friday night in the city I met up with Karli and Norelle from work at Comer to go and support another co-worker for her upcoming mission trip to Haiti. Norelle is also moving in a few weeks to Las Vegas so it made it all the more important to have a girls night. We started the evening out at Zocalo and had a great time with some great sangria!

Sangria, Sarah and Norelle!

Sarah and Karli

On Wednesday the 19th all the girls from work went out for a final girls night and some fantastic Hibachi! I started out the evening at my friend Sylvia's house (aka Roscoe's best friend Mason's mom). I brought Roscoe with me for a last playdate with Mason before we moved. So Sylvia and I left the "kids" with her husband and headed over (in the very very cold Chicago winter) to Jessica's house for a drink before our night of Hibachi fun. I was very excited about the Hibachi and very VERY entertained by our fabulous Hibachi chef. We had soooo much food and I had the very yummy golden shrimp. This night was so fun with all my Comer girls. I just want to let you all know you have been such a fantastic group of people to work with and learn from and I will miss all of you very VERY much, come to Seattle to visit anytime!!

Hibachi grill ready to go for the Comer girls

An onion tower on fire, I was very impressed!

Our fantastic Hibachi man flipping shrimp into his hat!!

My last few days in Chicago were super crazy with packing and getting all the details in place and ready for the big move and trip across the country. My saving grace the last few days was my best friend Erin. I seriously don't know if I could have finished all my packing without her incredible direction and help. She knew just when to push me to get things done and when to let me have a little moment of emotion overflow. Although we had a LOT of packing to do, we of course managed to have a little fun too. We enjoyed a burger at one of our favorite Chicago hangouts (Local Option), a final night of take out sushi, and of course a final cupcake at our favorite bakery, Sensational Bites. This is the same bakery that Erin used for her wedding cupcakes so not only are they oh so yummy but very special to us too. Erin, thank you so much for all your help! I really could not have done everything without you and your amazing help!!

An amazing little treat lies inside this precious box

Can you say yummy yummy in my tummy?

These signature flower cupcakes are the ones from Erin's wedding

And Away We Go...

Hello there everyone, I just thought I would write a quick post before I hit the road in a few hours. I promise that there will be one last post that I am working on from my last days in Chicago, but it might not be up until later this week. The good news is that the movers came and everything fit in the storage space, the cleaning lady is here now and almost done, my car is packed (and there is actually room for me, Sue and Roscoe!) and I am just ready to get rolling! Please pray for some great, clear skies during the big road trip. Right now everything looks like it will be great (very very cold today and parts of tomorrow -19 in South Dakota tonight!) and clear. The plan is to pick up Sue ( Ryan's mom) from the airport and hit the road to Rochester, Minnesota tonight. Depending on weather we are hoping to get to Billings or Bozeman, Montana tomorrow night. I am not sure if I will be able to update the blog, but will definitely post quickly on Facebook to let you all know how the journey is going. I am so excited to go, but also very bittersweet to leave Chicago. It has been an amazing home for the last five and a half years and I will miss it, but I am truly, truly so excited about the future in Seattle.

One Wicked Gift

Last week Ryan and I celebrated Christmas together, and it truly was one Wicked night. I picked him up from the airport and he was in quite the rush to get back to my apartment to start opening presents. I knew he had something planned for the evening, but I didn't know what was planned or why he was in such a rush to start opening gifts. He started pulling out box after box from Nordstrom, then he said to start opening but I had to make some choices. The first box I opened had a beautiful navy blue silky dress with black beading details at the straps and at the side with some rusching. The back of the dress came to the mid back with draping details, so pretty and elegant.

Dress #1

The next box held an amazing one shoulder dress! The dress was silver on top with one shoulder and a big black bow at the top of the shoulder. A high waist black sash separated the top from the bottom which was a navy and silver skirt with a few layers of tulle underneath. This dress was definitely very fun!

Dress #2

Next came several little boxes full of jewelry to match the dresses, I could pick from any of the several necklaces, bracelets and earrings to wear with the dress. I was amazed with everything Ryan had picked out by himself for me and couldn't wait to start trying on dresses and jewelry, but before I did he handed me the last box... tickets to see Wicked that night!

I now understood his rushing to get home and open presents, we needed to leave for the theater in a little over an hour. I quickly started trying on the dresses and mixing and matching the jewelry. After much debate (and really wishing I could wear both dresses - what girl wouldn't?) I decided to wear dress #1 with some black dangly beaded earrings and a multilayer necklace with black, silver and clear beading, and of course my favorite black heels!

The final look all pulled together (please ignore the moving boxes in the background :) )

Once Ryan and I were all dressed and put together we grabbed a cab and headed down to the theater district for a quick glass of wine before heading next door to the Cadillac Theater. The show was so incredible, I found myself wanting to sing along (and at times actually singing along), laughing and just being amazed by the fabulous cast. If anyone reading this has not seen Wicked go and see it! The music, the story, set, everything is just incredible, I would see it again and again and have been singing the songs ever since! It was an amazing night put together by an amazing man, I could not have imagined a better gift! Thank you Ryan, I love you!

Ryan, Sarah and witches from Oz

Rocking New Year's Eve

"Rocking" out with Colbie on New Year's Eve

Last week I truly had a rocking New Year's Eve. I went to Madison, WI to visit my good friend Hillary, her husband D.B., and the cutest baby girl they just adopted... Colbie! So I literally was rocking Colbie all day on the 31st and on the 1st. And I loved every minute of it! She is so cute and cuddly. Not only did I get a bit of a baby fix in, Hillary and I also spent the entire time gabbing and catching up and she gave me so many tips and pointers for when I move to Seattle. She and D.B. moved there for his fellowship in the summer of 2006 and she worked in the same unit (Pediatric ER at Seattle Children's Hospital) that I will be working in, in just a few short weeks. She gave me great ideas of things to do, races to run, places to train, people to meet, and of course the best advice girl to girl ever... a new hair stylist and colorist!!!!!!! I had such a great time with Hillary, I am so sad to be moving far away, but I also am very excited that I will get to see them when they visit Seattle (D.B.'s family lives in the Seattle area). Thank you Hillary, D.B., and Colbie for an awesome New Year's Eve and Day!

Colbie supporting the Irish! They are undefeated since she was born!

This is an old picture of Hillary and me from her going away party, but so cute of the two of us