RV Roadtrip Plans

We've been planning this RV trip for several months. I've always wanted to take a roadtrip around all the states and Hollie was willing to let me plan this. This chance to see most of the Southwest is the first part of achieving that goal.

We're renting a 2009 25' Diesel Fleetwood Pulse from Craig Smith RV Showroom in Galion, OHIO and starting off on Thursday March 26th. We'll be heading down through KENTUCKY and TENNESSEE then over through ARKANSAS before picking up Hollie's sister Leanna and her husband John in LOUISIANA. Except for the night we stay at Leanna and John's place and the night we camp near our final destination in Colorado, we're going to stay overnight in Walmart parking lots. This will help keep our costs down. By Saturday, the four of us will head over into TEXAS then up to see OKLAHOMA, but we'll pass through Texas again on our way to NEW MEXICO. Sunday evening we should arrive in Cortez, COLORADO and check into the Sundance RV Park. The next morning we're going to go see the Four Corners where you can stand in four states at once (NEW MEXICO, COLORADO, ARIZONA and UTAH). Then we will see Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado where there are ancient Indian dwellings carved into the side of cliffs. On the way home we'll pass through KANSAS, MISSOURI, ILLINOIS and INDIANA.

We are going to take a lot of pictures and some video. I specifically want to take some landscape shots in each state to turn into panoramas when we get back.

October 2008

Byron has been busy helping run the lights and sound for a couple weekends of Agatha Christie's murder mystery "The Mousetrap" at Huntington Playhouse.


Hollie went to carve pumpkins with Kristin and Jeremiah and their kids the other night. When Hollie brought it home Izzy was very curious and a bit of a scared-y cat.













Earlier in the month, Kristina and Henry brought their kids up to take some family fall pictures at the park.

Labor Day Weekend '08

This Labor Day we enjoyed time with our families. Saturday we went canoeing with Henry and Kristina and Little Henry in Mohican. This time we got a canoe, a kayak, and a couple innertubes that we could share as we made our way along the river. We had a great time splashing and chilling in the sun for hours... then Little Henry came home with us to stay for the rest of the weekend. We took him on Sunday to the Cleveland Air Show and saw the Blue Angels perform. Even though he said it was boring while we were there- he kept telling us later that it was cool, "... like transformers!!" he exclaimed. He's a great kid and we enjoyed having him. Although, we definitely got an experience with discliplining an 8 year old little smarty pants. Now that Kristina's family has moved back to Ohio, we will probably be seeing a lot more of the kids!!! Yay! So, on Monday we invited Byron's parents and Hollie's parents to come up for a picnic at Edgewater Park, along with Kristina & Henry & kids, Grandma & Grandpa Doup, and our friend Kristin & her kids. A good time was had by all! It was really nice to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather and good food.

9 Month Catch Up

Been awhile since we updated this. The last post was for August 2007 and now it's June 2008.

What's been happening lately? Well May through June has been graduation season, but this year has been the first that we have both been out of school.

Big thing, since our last post, we moved to Cleveland in November! That means we canceled the gym membership we had after only about three months. That's the thing we missed most about moving away from Cuyahoga Falls. Hollie is much closer to work now though. In fact, we recently bought bikes and are considering getting bus passes, so we think we're going to try to sell Hollie's car. We don't need the extra gas and maintenance fees and we can have a better impact on the environment. The house we are renting is in a nice Cleveland neighborhood just a few blocks from Lakewood. It is a two level home and we live in the upstairs. As of this blog post, no one is living beneath us. We are very close to Edgewater Park on Lake Erie!

Since we haven't been busy with school and had moved to a new city, we decided it was time to join a church for the community. We found West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church and we love it. It's not a traditional church that tells you what dogma to believe, but UUs have had a history of letting people explore different beliefs. UUs come together as a community for social action, to explore spiritual issues, and to lead purposeful lives. We've met a lot of great people there and learned a lot. We think that West Shore is such a great thing that we joined a new Tech Team, which is making progress improving the audio and visual elements of the services and making media available online for everyone to see and hear!

Babies have been popping out all around us! Our friends Anne and Jay added baby Will to their family. We visited Kristina and Henry for the second time in South Carolina after she had baby Ruthlynn. Born just a few days before her was Jason and Jessie's second baby Mackenzie. Our friends Ben and Sonja just gave birth to baby Sienna. Mike and Leslie added a second boy, Oliver, to their family. And we recently found out that Jeff and Robin will be having twin girls soon. In May, Leanna and John were married. Again, we were both in the wedding party. So Hollie and all her siblings are now hitched. And knowing how Leanna is with kids, it surely won't be long before there are more babies around.

Geauga Lake

After Kristina's wedding, we decided to go to Geauga Lake with them. Hollie's other sister, Leanna and her fiance John were home for the week from Louisiana. Kristina's friends from Nebraska also came with us. We had a great time riding rides and chilling out in the sunshine. In the afternoon, we went to the water park to enjoy the Lazy River... where you just lounge on an inner tube and float along. Henry had a great time riding all the roller coasters and he loved the bumper cars. Little Henry really enjoyed the day there between the Kiddie Park rides and the water playground. He was exhausted by the end of the day. Leanna and John got a video from one of the roller coasters showing their reactions as they rode. It was pretty funny. Henry joked around that he was going to vomit on Hollie right as they got on the coaster... good thing he was just joking. That evening, we realized we had bright red sunburns. What a great souvenir from such a fun day! It was worth it.

What we did in June

Hollie's friend Kristin with husband Jeremiah and kids Gavin and Elia moved back to Ohio from Kansas. After they moved in, Byron had his first experience babysitting all by himself. Elia slept the whole time, so all he had to do was play Wii with Gavin. Byron totally forgot about the laundry because the Wii was so fun.

Hollie attended her friend Anne's baby shower. They don't want to know if it's a boy or a girl (they call it baby burrito), all the baby stuff has a frog theme. Hollie can't wait to have another baby to spoil, hopefully it's a little girl.

Weddings- Our friends Paige and Eric got married. Hollie was a Bridesmaid. They had a fun outdoor reception with great food and lots of music.






Hollie's sister Kristina also got married at the end of the month. Hollie was the Matron of Honor and Byron was the Best Man. She married Henry, a guy she met in Honduras. He has a son, Little Henry, who is six years old and full of energy. This is a picture of Hollie with Henrito at ChuckECheese.

We've tried to learn a little Spanish and Henry and Henrito are still learning English. They make a great addition to our family.

Kristina and Henry got married in a court back in February to get the paperwork moving. They had a wedding and reception in Honduras for Henry's family and friends in April. And so the wedding and reception here in Ohio in June was their third.

When they came up to Ohio before the wedding and stayed at our apartment for a couple days we went fishing. Byron had only been fishing one other time in his life, but he got the hang of casting out the line and relaxing in the breeze with the new fishing pole Hollie bought him. Henry caught a small fish that he wanted to cook for dinner, but we had to explain that our lake has a catch and release policy.

The month of June was so crazy busy, but all-in-all, we had a blast with family and friends. Celebrating these big moments in each other's lives bring us all closer. We are so grateful for all the people in our lives!