Goodbye Provo, Hello Rochester!!

(I realize that we've been out in Minnesota for over three weeks now...but it's taken some time to get our pictures off of our cameras - and my main focus hasn't really been blogging lately :)

We finally were able to get all of our stuff packed up and ready to move out to Rochester (read: Tom's mom came up from Las Vegas and packed most of our stuff up for us since Tom was busy finishing up things he had to get done and I was busy with a baby - Thank you Mom Polley!!). We are also grateful for the help of some friends that helped us clean and load everything up.

We decided to take a more scenic route out to Rochester (instead of going via I-80...most definitely not a scenic route). After we got our trailer packed up with stuff and on it's way and got the apartment cleaned and the car packed up, we headed up to Rexburg, ID to see Tom's sister Ann (the one our little Ann is named after) and her husband Kreed. We left Provo a lot later than we had planned on and didn't get into Rexburg until about 1am. We were able to have lunch with Ann and Kreed the next day before we left Rexburg. We were glad we got a chance to see them, even if it was just for a little bit.

Ann X 2

After leaving Rexburg we drove through Yellowstone National Park. Tom had never been there and I hadn't been there since I was probably 7 or 8 years old. It was raining for the first half of our drive through the park, and it was absolutely beautiful (it was also beautiful when it was sunny out, too :) We spent the night in Gillette, WY (also getting there about 1am or so - if there is one thing we learned from this trip, it is that traveling with an 8 week old baby takes a lot longer than we had anticipated - more frequent and longer stops).

One of our stops while going through Yellowstone

Day 3 of our trip consisted of driving out of Wyoming, through South Dakota (via Mount Rushmore) and into Minnesota to Rochester (we were a little ambitious in our plans). Since things were taking longer than we had planned, we decided that it would probably be good to stop in Sioux Falls, SD and spend the night there (we were getting there around midnight and it was still another 4+ hours to Rochester). However, apparently no motel/hotel in Sioux Falls had a vacancy (we tried calling around 15 different places). After taking a break to feed Ann, we decided we might as well just continue on to Rochester. As we were leaving Sioux Falls, the most spectacular lightning show as going on. It did rain on us for a while before we got to Rochester. We finally got to my parents' house around 4:30am. Ann was a trooper and slept those last four hours of the drive.

Our stop at Mt. Rushmore - it was a hot, sunny day.

Since being in Rochester, Tom has started his PhD program at the Mayo Clinic, and we've been on the hunt for a place to live (we think we're getting close!). In the meantime, we've just been living with my parents with all our stuff taking over their garage. We're glad to be out here (though we miss our friends and family in Utah!). And Ann just continues to grow and get cuter and cuter everyday :)

The most adorable scowl you ever did see!

She can smile really well, but apparently will not do it on command :) This is the best I got during this little photo shoot

Nap time with Daddy (this is a rare occurrence...Ann almost never just falls asleep in our arms like this. And the only times she had done that recently have been when Tom was holding her)

"Just checking my email Mom...but it's a little hard to reach the keyboard..."