Welcome to San Diego

 We have a huge patio outside out apartment which is perfect for the kids to play on.  I've really enjoyed staying home with the kids.  Definitely starting to feel like we need to get some more activities going.  We're thinking about signing Anne up for swimming lessons.  There's a lady that comes to our apartment complex to teach them so it's very convenient.

San Diego Zoo

Our first weekend here we didn't waste any time.  We've already got our membership to the San Diego Zoo as I'm sure we'll be going back quite often.  They also have a safari park which is out closer to our place where they get the animals acclimated before bringing them down to the city.  We've heard it's better to go there when the weather gets a bit cooler though.  It's a little further inland and can be quite hot this time of year.

 They have a gondola across the park which was really fun.  It's also great because it takes you right back to the entrance if you've wandered all the way to the back of the park.

 We had really great timing by the gorillas as they were just getting fed when we showed up.  The dominant male was pretty funny, just sitting there while food was getting thrown at him and would only eat whatever landed directly into his hands.  He was so massively huge, Anne was not much of a fan.

Tuscon, AZ

Jeff was really excited to take the kids to the University of Arizona.  They had fun running across the lawn and playing in the fountain.  We had a really nice dinner there, too.

Austin Texas

Sorry folks, but I don't have any pictures.  I think Jen has a few though and there are some on Jeff's phone.
We arrived a 1/2 day early in Austin.  Unfortunately, but thankfully, Jen had strep throat, so she had to call in sick to work, but then got to have lunch with us.  We then spent the entire next day hanging out in Austin before heading on towards San Diego.

Michigan

Next, it was on to Michigan to visit with my family.  Anne got more and more comfortable with the water the longer we were there.  She liked floating out in the inner-tube with Grandpa.

 We went over to Hope College for a visit too.  I ever ran in to a couple of professors I knew in the science building.  It was fun to catch up with them and tell them what I was up too.  One of them was the pre-med advisor.

 Grand Haven, MI has a big coast guard festival.  We took the kids to the parade.  It was pretty hot, but we had a good time together.

Anne with Aunt Renee.  Always nice to have an extra grandma around!

Indiana

 The first day we were in Lafayette, Jeff and Ron took Anne to Purdue's campus to run in the fountains.

 Ron and Ellen took all of us to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis.  It was really fun. We picked up Amy to come hang out with us too.

 And Jeff got to meet Peyton Manning!

 We also took a trip out to the house where Jeff grew up.  This is Ron standing by the new road they are putting in. It was pretty noisy out there with all the construction vehicles.

 The kids and I found some oldies, but goodies toys.

Ron got out his toy train set and ran it for the kids.  It was pretty cool.  The kids really enjoyed it.  Ron's father bought it for him when he was a very small boy.

On to Akron

 We had a wonderful visit with Jeff's Aunt and Uncle in Akron, OH.  We also stopped in to visit Jeff's grandmother.

 Anne and Owen entertained us with their piano skills.  

Aunt Kit read Anne her bedtime story in a colorful New Orleans accent which entertained us all!

1st Stop Philadelphia with the Yu's

 Jeff and Owen spent the morning napping while Bethany, Evie, Peter, Anne and I went over to the park.

We had a great day with Bethany, Evie, and Peter.  Jonathan joined us for dinner before we hit the road.  We drove a couple hours out of Philadelphia and stayed outside of Harrisburg, PA for the night.  The kids all had so much fun playing together.  We also got a little tour of Penn State which was fun.  Evie and Anne just seemed to pick up right where they left off.  They are both into wearing dresses.  Evie really liked Anne's flip-flops, so they traded sandals for the day.   I can never get enough time visiting with Bethany, but it filled me back up for a while.

The Big Move

The packers came on Monday, July 23.  On Tuesday, this giant moving van showed up and loaded everything up.   Anne and Owen spent some time at our neighbor's, Nancy's, in the morning and we were also able to meet up with our playgroup friends for one last time too before we left.  Worked our great, because we needed to be out of the house anyways.  We hit the road about 4pm for our first stop of Philadelphia.  Hard to believe we were really leaving for good.