Road Trip 2011!

We just spent over a week on the road, traveling from our beloved Seattle to Janesville, Wisconsin. As most everyone who's reading this blog probably knows, we're moving to Madison, Wisconsin for Kyle to do a sports medicine fellowship that starts on July 1. We finished the road trip in Janesville instead of Madison because we're staying with Kyle's parents for a couple weeks while the house that we'll be renting in Madison finishes up a renovation.

After we packed all our worldly belongings and watched them get loaded onto a huge semi truck on our tiny street, my parents helped us drive ourselves and Baby G (short for Baby Girl) through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Once the little one got the hang of napping in the car seat, it was a great trip! Highlights included Sylvie's seven month birthday, the introduction of new kinds of solid food (sweet potatoes! carrots! peas!) and her two bottom teeth starting to grow in. Below are some photographic highlights of the journey.

For lunch, we often stopped to picnic. This is us, still in Washington, at a rest stop. Baby G is enjoying peas while sporting a strawberry hat.

In Missoula, Montana, we hiked halfway up a mountain that gave us a view of the city and the University of Montana campus. It was kind of muggy, but it felt great to get out and get moving after a day of driving.

We stayed for a night in West Yellowstone, Montana. My parents, Sylvie and I took a walk while Kyle went for a run. We ended up getting caught in a rain/hailstorm, but this is an over-the-shoulder shot of BG on my back during the walk, before the rain came.

Quick photo of my parents as the rain began...

Sylvie, who is supposed to be napping stole glimpses of the geothermal features in Yellowstone National Park.

We had lunch at Old Faithful Lodge, in Yellowstone, while waiting for the geyser to blow. It finally blew!

Kyle, Sylvie and the obligatory bison in Yellowstone.

The mineral pools and bubbling mud pots in Yellowstone are surreal.

Sylvie on my mom's shoulder at Mount Rushmore. She likes it!

A family shot at the national monument.

While in South Dakota, we spent some time in Custer State Park, which was beautiful! Needles Highway, lots of granite spires and pine trees. We stopped for lunch to picnic at Sylvan Lake and discovered this most excellent climbing school - Sylvan Rocks. We searched for t-shirts to buy, but alas, the Sylvan Rocks people were all out climbing so a photo had to suffice.

Sylvan, me and Sylvan Lake.

Walking through a little canyon in Custer State Park.

Wind Cave National Park, apparently the least visited National Park in the country, is just south of Custer State Park. Kyle had visited it before, but our friends Kate and Christoper, who met while working in the park and are now married, raved about the park, so we went for a tour of the massive cave. It is huge! And full of cool geologic formations. The park also boasts pronghorns, bison and tons of adorable prairie dogs.

Gratuitous thigh and foot shot.

Playing peek-a-boo with dad.