WARNING: Tons of photos!

Be prepared to spend a few minutes reading this post, because it is a long one!

Getting back into the swing of things has been hard, but we are getting there.  There is a lot of drama going on at work right now, so it is just not a fun place to be.   I will somehow probably get into trouble for saying that, because we seem to get in trouble for everything lately, so please ... shhhh. :)  Anyway, I wanted to share pictures from our trip and I had a hard time narrowing it down.  We took a ton and I actually wish we had taken more!  I hardly took any of the family when everyone came down for memorial day, so  I am a little mad at myself.  If anyone else has some, please send them my way.  Also those who are on facebook probably already know that I posted more pictures on there.  Here are some of the highlights ...........

The first day on the road, there was a huge fire in the median.  It may have been a control burn, but was pretty scary and seemed out of control.  The flames were so close to the car!

While on our honeymoon in Panama, we made some friends who live in Albuquerque, NM.  We had a blast with them and exchanged email addresses before leaving.  I emailed them to let them know we would be coming through their city and wanted to meet them for dinner.  They insisted we stay at their house, cooked us a delicious dinner and a wonderful breakfast the next morning.  Below is their absolutely beautiful house!  We had a great time with them.

This was the view from our bedroom!  The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was absolutely breath-taking and a wonderful thing to wake up to.

I had to take a picture of the bed because it was quite possibly the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in.  We both slept like rocks and woke up feeling very rested for our long day of driving.

Rudy and I with our honeymoon friends.  They go by Grasshopper & Ant (their real names are Anthony & Glenna).  They are just wonderful people.  This is the view from their front yard.

This was somewhere in Texas.  It is the largest cross in the world (or maybe the U.S.?)  Can't remember, but either way it was huge!

Here is the largest McDonald's in the world.  It is located in Vinita, Oklahoma.

This is the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.  It is the largest man-made lake and is absolutely huge!  It has more shoreline than California.  This is just a small piece of it.

Litter of kittens in my grandma's barn ... it broke my heart.  It started with 7 and there were only 2 left the day we were leaving.  Only about a week old, eyes not open yet.

One day at my grandma's a swarm of bees showed up and planted themselves in this tree.  There were soooo many of them!

This dog showed up on the farm and decided to stay awhile.  He was adorable, but I am convinced he is on his last leg of life.  The poor thing can barely breathe and I am sure he either has a respiratory infection or heart worm.  My dad named him Cleatus.

I celebrated my 26th birthday while we were there.  Rudy, my grandma, my dad and I went to dinner at The Red Dome Inn.

After dinner we indulged ourselves in the cake my grandma baked for me, along with some ice cream of course.  The way to make a pregnant girl happy, for sure!

The day after my birthday, we took the Amtrak up to Chicago and spent the night there.  The first day, we went to the zoo.  It was awesome!  But we did sooo much walking and it completely wore me out.  Out hotel was across the street from the zoo, which was really convenient.

The zoo was beautiful!

This gorilla was posing for everyone, hilarious!

Sorry ladies, but I have the best husband in the whole world!

This monkey was adorable!

cute little polar bear.  reminded of our dog Pluto.

Walking through Chicago, we saw this.  I thought it was strange and funny.  Maybe they have a lice problem in Chicago.

Lincoln Park, right in front of our hotel.

That's our hotel behind us.  The Beldon Stratford, it is a historical hotel.

The Sears Tower

The 2nd day we went to The Shedd Aquarium and it was AMAZING!!!

cool looking fish .... 

Downtown Chicago (just outside the aquarium)

Part of the aquarium had just been remodeled and the day we were there was the grand opening - but for members only.  Go figure the next day it was going to be open to the public.  We were totally bummed, but on the plus side we saved $10 each on admission.  It was the area with the dolphins, whales, otters etc.  Basically a must see.  We had figured out that you only needed a sticker to get down there and as we were leaving we found 2 stickers outside!  We were a little nervous to go back in, but decided to give it a try.  Piece of cake!  Below we are very happy because we were able to see the new area and it was so worth it.  And by the way, just after we found the stickers a couple walked out and offered us theirs.

Back in Pittsfield and more family is at my grandma's now.  These are some little cousins, Gabriela (she was the flower girl in our wedding), Vaughn and Andre playing in the water.

My little cousin Lily who I think is just adorable!

My nephew Joel - how cute is he!?!?!  He is sooo happy.

My cousin Meghan & I.  We just don't get to hang out enough.

My love ...

The old barn

Fishing in my grandparents pond on our last night.   I caught a fish within 30 seconds!

Rudy caught 2

One of the 2 remaining cats on the day we left.  He almost got to come home with us and I kind of regret not bringing him because a lady from work wants him.  Hmm, I wonder if you can ship a kitten??

Leaving :(

I LOVE the farm.  It's my happiest place on Earth.

Our 2nd night on the way home, the sunset in Alamogordo, NM

The White Sands, New Mexico.  I love this picture!

It looks like snow, but it's really sand!  Soo beautiful!

My favorite picture!  I am definitely going to have this one blown up.  I have been wanting for awhile to have a sign made with our last name and this is just perfect.

Almost home.  You know you are in the desert when you see a sign like this at a rest stop.

Whew!  Hope you made it through all that!  I wanted to post so many more.  That's all for now though.  Now that we are home, I am ready to get moving with our house projects.  Hopefully we will get our bedroom painted in the next week (we finally picked a color, woohoo!) and then we can finally get the flooring in there.  I am really tired of the cement.  By the time we are done with our room we can start on the nursery because we will know whether we are painting it blue or pink!  Can't wait!  I hope the next 3 weeks go by quickly.  I want to know if I have a girl or boy inside of me.  I am sure it will be here before we know it.