The countdown Begins!

Jason and I both had three day weekends over Easter, so we headed 9 hours south to Eastern Tennessee. We found beautiful scenery, warm weather, and wonderful fellowship as well as a few possible places to park our trailer. We're excited to be semi-permanent residents of Johnson City, TN next spring.

There were signs for miles warning about the Cumberland Gap Tunnel

Plotting our campground tour

Uncle Doug and Auntie Sue

I loved the color of the trees along the road!

It was dark when we drove through Kentucky on the way down, so we had to stop for the sign on our trip home

We also had the priviledge of a visit from Cody! Somehow Jason managed to convince him that our floor would be a much more comfortable place to spend the night than the concrete of I 90.

Well it is definitely time to begin our countdown! 11 days and we're off on a 3,732 mile adventure....Budget truck and all. The days seems to be getting shorter and busier! Several times I've pondered throwing everything straight into the back of the truck...who needs boxes and organization anyway??

Julie!

We got to have Julie for a short visit at the beginning of the month. She was actually headed to Wisconsin for a business trip, but came a little early and spent some time in Chicago.

The weather was less than pleasant but I decided to give her the grand tour anyway...

We got caught in a downpour and had to make a mad dash for the protection of the bean. The rain left us stranded underneath it with about 20 other tourists...

..which gave us a lot of time to take pictures:)

When the rain let up a little we headed for the "Magnificent mile"

..and stopped for some of the worlds best cupcakes!

Although we didn't see any plays at the theater Julie did get a few pictures which I thought were worth sharing.

Cheyenne

I'll admit I'm a little overdue posting pictures from my weekend in Cheyenne, but I kept hoping Beth would post first. Her writing is so much more entertaining.

Wyoming! My first official visit...

...And I thought Rogers Pass was high!!

Braving the wind to support Buford...what a lovely town:)

Beth took us out to Vedauwoo for the afternoon. A little chilly but totally worth it.

Such a classic Julie and Sue moment: Julie falls, knocks me over, and then laughs hysterically while I fear for my life... some things never change! :)

Unfortunately Julie only got to spend a short weekend with us so we sent her back to Portland Sunday night. I had another day in Cheyenne so we spent a little time exploring the town

Lane Frost and I attempting to ride Red Rock...almost ready to take on the rodeo circuit..

There are huge painted cowboy boots all over towns, so we had to find our favorites.

We couldn't resist the covered wagons!

Company!

I had an awesome time with the girls in Cheyenne! It felt good to see the mountains and breathe fresh air! Julie is flying into Chicago this afternoon so I'm going to wait to post pictures until I get some more from her. This is her first time visiting me here, so it will be fun to show her around the city. We are currently in severe thunderstorm watch so hopefully her plane isn't delayed!

Jason is on the countdown to boards...9 days to go! We are both excited for this to be over, and move on to life "post boards" as Jason calls it.

I will post pictures of my trip soon. Hope everyone is doing well!

Wyoming Bound!

Hello! Hello! We are alive and well here in this insanely busy city. In fact, I just came within about 600 feet of Mr. President himself!...No, I did not see him, but I did get a nice view of his helicopter as it flew right over our place! 

We enjoyed worker company and special meetings the last two weeks which, as we all know, is priceless and makes us feel very spoiled!

Jason is finishing up finals week and after tomorrow's final will only have one more ever!  

I am still enjoying my job immensely and have received a new position which has a few management responsibilities. Not sure I am quite as good at that part, but I am learning a lot! 

Next weekend I am headed to Wyoming for a roommate reunion of sorts! Julie and I are meeting up in Denver to spend the weekend with Beth and her companion! It has been way too long since the 3 of us have been together. I'm so excited to meet all the friends I have heard about!  

We had some gorgeous weather here over the past couple days, which has made me anxious for springtime...bike rides, rollerbades, hiking, barbeques...it's going to be a long 6 weeks!

Game nights...

We had a few friends over the other night for board games. Josh and Trese got Jason a game called Guillotine for his birthday that we have been addicted to ever since! I would highly recommend it. We also got a new game from Mom & Dad Barnes called Bohnanza which we had yet to try, but we'll let you know how it is once we do. 

Jason's classmate Cory and his wife Melissa!

Montana Trip

We recently had the priviledge of packing our bags and heading west. Of course our trip was way too short, but the Barnes side of the family so kindly made the trip to Montana so we could see everyone at the same time! We missed seeing Joel, Jana and Beth though!

John is a senior this year, and I haven't seen him play basketball since he was a sophomore so we tried to plan our trip around a game or two. We ended up being home for the Plains game, which is one of his biggest rivals, and beating Plains is always fun to watch. John had a very good game!

We didn't figure out the sport mode on our camera until way after the game was over, and John wouldn't stop moving long enough for us to get a good picture!..so I do apologize for the blurry ones!

Congratulating the winners!

A few of the Barnes..

...and a few Buckinghams....

Sunday afternoon was spent in true Montana fashion..

....trying to get vehicles running...

Jason hadn't ever ridden a horse, so Mandy got Whisper saddled up and took us for a ride! ..such a good time!

And then of course, you can't skip the guns... 

Dad got out his .22 pistol for us to fire a few rounds.