Blogoversary and My First Giveaway

**If you don't want to read my ramblings about our Trip Across America and instead want the skinny on my blogoversary and giveaway, scroll to the bottom.**

Well here I am sitting in a hotel in Cleveland, Ohio and I can finally say that we're almost "home". It still feels a bit surreal to be moving across country, wondering what my new place will look like and how I'll get through the following months without a job. But we infertiles have been taught to adapt and overcome.

Tomorrow we get to Pennsylvania where we'll spend a couple days with my dad's side of the family. For now, though, I thought I'd share how our trip has gone so far. Our original schedule was to drive through Oregon and Idaho to Salt Lake City to visit Brandon's family and then drive across I-80 to Pennsylvania. At the last minute we decided to skip driving across I-80 (and thus miss the boring part of the journey) and go a little north to I-90 so we could see Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial. It only added 4 hours to the trip, plus however much time we would spend at the stops. Much to my dismay it was extremely cloudy and rainy on the day we went to visit those places so we couldn't see a thing. Needless to say I was pissed.

So we decided to salvage the day by visiting other touristy things in the area. We first stopped by Bear Country, a drive-thru wildlife park. It was actually pretty neat. We saw all kinds of animals like reindeer, mountain goats, and wolves. Some of the animals came within a few feet of our car. Oso was freaking out the whole time and we couldn't walk around the baby area (due to the rain) but we still had fun. We were supposed to keep the windows rolled up but we rolled them down for a quick second to take pictures.


We also stopped by a place called Reptile Gardens. It was like an aquarium type thing for the creepy crawlies. When we walked in the door we noticed a sign that said "Leashed dogs welcome". Seriously?! Are they trying to get free food for their snakes? Who would be stupid enough to bring a dog in a place to see large reptiles? Ummmm...we would. Oso did quite well though, even during the live demonstration. The snakes kept checking him out though. I told Brandon to hold him just in case they haven't eaten in the past week. Our favorite part of Reptile Gardens was seeing the group of 100 year-old galapagos tortoises. Oso enjoyed seeing them too. I bought a cute little hedgehog puppet in the souvenir store and then it was back on the road for a few more hours.

Next we stopped by a place called Wall Drug in southern South Dakota. They have a ton of neat little souvenir shops. Retail therapy can cure any disappointment and helped make the day a little better. And seeing Brandon ride a huge jackalope was definitely worth the stop.

Minnesota and Wisconsin was fairly boring, though the drive was much more scenic than I expected. Today we traveled through Illinois, Indiana and most of Ohio. My biggest complaint about today was the TOLL ROADS. I absolutely don't understand toll roads. How can you travel on an interstate for free in one state and then have to pay in the adjacent state? Shouldn't the taxpayers pay for the maintenance of the road? And if I'm going to pay money for a toll, shouldn't they use that money to maintain the road? I drove across some seriously crappy roads in Illinois. I think our money went to pay the wages of the person SITTING in the toll booth. We must have paid about $30 for each car in toll fees today and we still have more to pay tomorrow.

But back to the cool stuff. We stopped by a quaint little town in Indiana called Shipshewana. It's in Amish country and they have all kinds of shops and an enormous flea market. We were only able to spend a few hours there because 1) we were on a mission to get to Pennsylvania and 2) Oso was in the car and 3) we planned on spending a whole day in Amish country in Pennsylvania. Still, I'm a very fast shopper and I was able to find some cool stuff.

**Which brings me to my giveaway! May 22nd is my one year blogoversary so to celebrate the first birthday of my blog I have decided to have TWO giveaways! These are also my first giveaways so I guess we've got a lot of firsts around here!


The first giveaway is a beautiful sterling silver pendant made with the wings of a butterfly. They are made by Nature's Jewels. They're a small crafting company with no website but you can email Linda at naturesjewels@live.com on how to order your own pendant or earrings. Please note that no butterflies were harmed in the making of these pendants. The butterflies were raised on a farm where they were allowed to die naturally (butterflies only live a few weeks).


Entering the giveaway is simple. Simply post a comment in response to the following question: If you could take a road trip anywhere in the United States, where would you go and why?

During this trip I realized that I've visited almost every state in the United States, plus Canada and Mexico. I added it up and found that I've driven through or visited 36 of the 50 states. That doesn't count layovers in an airport because that's technically not visiting. But that's alot of traveling. I'd have to say the best state was probably Washington. Not because I just left there but because it has something for everyone to enjoy: shopping, big cities, wildlife, skiing, and just about anything to do with nature. This thought brings me to my next giveaway. To enter, simple post a response to the following question: How many states have you visited and which one was your favorite?

The second giveaway prize is a cute metal note pad that I found in a souvenir shop.You can also earn additional entries by becoming a follower. Post an additional comment with your follower status, whether you're a new or veteran follower. This additional entry will count for each giveaway so you only need to do it once. Entries will be accepted until midnight PST on May 21st. Entries will be listed in an Excel table for each giveaway and the winners will be selected through a Random Number Generator on May 22nd. Anyone is welcome to enter, I am willing to ship worldwide. Once I get to 100 followers I will have my next giveaway.

I can't wait to read everybody's comments!