Pete Ross

This is Tara and Johnny's dog, Pete! He was such a cute little bug-eyed thing! I love the way he breaths with his tongue! This is just a short, random video of him!

The Ross Family!!

Tara is 37 weeks pregnant! Johnny holding Pete and Robby holding Clara! Clara was so interested in Pete the whole time!The Ross family! Robby, Clara, and I drove to Mobile, Alabama this week and spent two nights with our good friends Johnny and Tara Ross! We had a bunch of baby stuff to pass on to them and we just wanted to hang out. Tara is about 37 weeks pregnant with their first child, a boy whom they plan to name Jack. Tara looked great and was doing so well for 37 weeks! They have a dog named Pete and Clara just loved him, but I think Pete thought she was just a big toy! He would get so excited when we held her as if he was saying, "come on, just throw her down the hall and I'll bring her back"!!! One of the highlight's of the weekend was getting to see an old friend of ours, Brian. In all, we had a great time! Thanks Tara and Johnny for being such great hosts! We love ya!

Clara's new Car seat!

Clara's new big girl car seat! We love Thomas! Robby and I laughed really hard when we saw this! There is no doubt we are back in the South!!!!

At home

Hudson Harrison pointing at the Kangaroo at the Zoo. We have been so busy lately! We are unpacking, moving things to storage, and trying to spend time with family and friends! These are just some pictures of my sister's kids. We have gotten to spend a lot of time with them because my mom keeps them during the week.We went to the zoo with them the first Tuesday we were here. Then, last Tuesday we went to our first play date with my sister and her kids! There were about 30 kids there between the ages of 2 and 6 and they apparently all loved babies.... if there was a stronger word for it I would use it! But those kids were all over Clara! I felt like I spent the whole time trying to keep her from getting hurt! Most of the kids there had really gross runny noses. I mean the kind that form a slime trail from there nostril to there mouths!!! At one point I looked down and saw a green pea sized boogie on her pants and I thought I was going to die! If I had had it with me, I might have been tempted to dip her in Purell at that point!!! It was a very cool play group, but Clara was a bit young and I don't think we will be going back until she can fend for herself!

Back in Birmingham!

The Austin's threw us a surprise welcome home party with our families. It was really fun and a great way for Clara to meet the family! Below are some pictures from the night!My mom bought Clara a cheerleading outfit for the number one team! Nana (my mother's mom) and Clara! Nana, Clara, and Harrison! Harrison is my sister's 2 and a half year old (one of the twins) M, Hudson, and Jennifer. M is my sister's mother-in-law and Clara's honorary Grandmother! Hudson is the other twin, and Jennifer is my big sister! Family and friends! The girl in the green shirt is Valerie, Rhett's soon to be wife!!!! Yea Rhett! Mamaw and Clara. Mamaw is Rob's grandmother on his dad's side. She is where we got the name Clara from! More family... Sara Jane and Matthew BaileyAudra Claire and Clara. Audra is Rob's 14 year old sister. Robby, Clara and my daddy (Poppie)! WAR EAGLE!!!!Mr. Austin (grandaddy) and Clara

Thomas, my sister's 4 year old, and Clara! Clara LOVES Thomas! My sister and Clara. My sister is also a nurse. But she works with children! We went to watch Thomas play soccer. He is a really good player. He scored two goals and is very helpful to his teammates. I have actually never met a little boy as sweet as Thomas. He helps the other kids up when they fall and has the most joyful heart I have ever seen in a child. Jennifer and Christopher must be some great parents!!

Chicago

Clara and I dressed and ready for the rain!

Clara's rain jacket! It rained most of the time we were in Chicago! Robby and I took the "higher road" back to avoid hurricanes and they found us! We still had fun though. We just toured the architecture and walked around with umbrellas! We went to Frank Lloyd Wright's studio and home. We weren't allowed to take pictures so I hid behind the big pot and jumped out when Robby took the picture above! That is Frank Wright's house behind me! It was fun and it made me really excited to think about Robby designing our home one day! Chicago really did remind me of Gotham City! It was really dark feeling, of course it might have been the rain! I also felt like people were rushing me and yelling at me all of the time which I really did not like at all! I am just not a city girl...... It made me miss Berkeley so much. In fact, I miss California every day........ don't get me wrong, I am totally stoked about being with our families and friends in the South. I just wish I could bring some of California with me!

Mount Rushmore

Next we stopped at Mount Rushmore and stayed there for the night. It was really amazing how huge the president's heads are. It was also really interesting to hear how they created the artwork. Several different artist actually hung from the rock and chiseled and drilled the heads with machines. They did it all by eye without any drawings or markings on the rock! All they had was a big plaster head hanging from the rock to look at while they were making each president! Clara also liked being there because there were a lot of her "fans" hanging around! Clara is an older person magnet! Robby and I joked the whole trip that that was the reason she would wake us up at the crack of dawn! We would be out eating breakfast at like 7 am and walking around sight-seeing by 9:30 or 10! Everyone else out at that time seemed to be a good 50 or more years older than us and they LOVED Clara! She would coo and smile at everyone. It was funny....

My family!!!!

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

Some guy who barely spoke English wanted to take this picture of us! I like how Robby is pointing to the rock and how Clara looks like she is contemplating the meaning behind it all!

10 of these goats were given to some state park in South Dakota a few years ago and the broke out of there pen! There are now at least 200 of them just free on Mount Rushmore now! We were surprised to actually see one on the side of the road!

From Yellowstone to South Dakota

There was another really long drive between Yellowstone and South Dakota. I can't remember the name of the place that we stayed in and Robby is asleep right now, so I can't ask him. We really just drove, watched tv at the hotel, slept and took off again the next morning after our continental breakfast!

We drove through more bad lands... I thought that they were really pretty..... we listened to some more Bruce Springsteen....

I thought this train looked cool...This is Clara's very first time to watch tv!She was amazed by the tv!Clara would only take fresh bottles from me if she was in the car seat!! This is the first time she has ever really taken a bottle from me without putting up a fight!Every time we would drive though a tunnel Clara would get this look on her face! It was like she couldn't quite figure out what just happened....but she didn't like it!Most of the trip she was just a happy little princess!Clara LOVES my bottles! I guess it is because I am thirsty all of the time and am always drinking something from a bottle.... she is obsessed with them. I have this great video I am going to try to post below to show you guys just how much she loves my bottles!

Video of Old Faithful

This is Old Faithful Geyser at Yellowstone. Clara was asleep in the BOB at this time. It was very beautiful and it was kind of amazing how many people there were there to watch it go off! There is a picture of the people waiting with us in an earlier post. The geyser goes off like every 22 minutes or something, so for there to be that many people there with us when we saw it, there must be thousands of people a day seeing it....

More Videos

This is the Bee Hive. It was my favorite geyser at Yellowstone! It shot up much higher than Old Faithful! For some reason I am having trouble posting the video of Old Faithful.....