Smemoe Vacation Chronicles

With all of the moving, we were never able to post pictures of our vacation. We enjoyed our time in Ohio, visiting my Uncle Jack and Aunt Gwen. Uncle Jack and Aunt Gwen were very good hosts and took us to see all of the sites. We of course had icecream at Toft's (Best ice cream in North America), visited the Carousel museum to see all of the work my uncle has done restoring the carousel horses and went to ride the coasters at Sandusky. My uncle was brave enough to go on all the coasters with Lance. ( I was chicken.) We were also able to meet my cousin Kris' kids. . . and had lots of fun swimming with them.

Amish Country

Visiting Amish country and my relatives in Ohio and West Virginia was my second favorite vacation of all time (after last year's trip to Finland, of course). I loved visiting Yoder's Amish home, sampling at least 1000 cheeses at one of the many cheese factories and eating Amish Dutch cookin' at the Der Dutchman. More importantly, I loved the simplicity and the beauty of the area. The sunset at the bed and breakfast was breathtaking!

WV Music Time

We loved spending time in David and Vicki's new home and eating David's delicious home cooking. My "friend", three year old Katie, came over to play with me. David was trying to teach me how to play the ukulele in this picture, while Katie hammed it up.

We also spent time at Blennerhasset Island on the Ohio River, went to the Marietta farmer's market and had a shrimp boil.

At the pool everyday

Yes, my dear friends and family in colder climates, we have been to the pool every day this week. We won't need to join a gym until maybe December, when it will be a little too chilly to swim. It sure is nice to have a 24 hour pool right across the road! We are happy to report we will receive the last shipment of our stuff tomorrow. Then we can finally unpack our living room and office. Lance starts work next week so we are trying to do some fun exploring before he starts. Sofi is still really young so we can't leave her for long. Here is a recent pic of our "baby." Isn't she sweet? We are still working on the housetraining.

Our Trek West

We made it to CA on Tuesday around 6 p.m. (2 hours ahead of schedule :-) We took a week and a half to get here, stopping for a mini-vacation in Branson and visiting Lance's mom and dad. I am proud to annouce Sofi is a wonder-traveler...no car sickness, no accidents in the car, only a little barking and she adjusted wonderfully to new surroudings. I bet she thought she would be a transient dog the rest of her life. Luckily, she is adjusting well to being in the same place permanently.

Our movers come today (Murphy's Law failed us this time...we thought for sure the truck would arrive before us but here we are, sleeping on the floor and eating breakfast cereal on our living room floor.) I can't wait to sleep in my own bed tonight!

We will email everyone with our new contact info soon.

Welcome Little Ones

We are happy to announce that the Smemoe family has two new arrivals...our Sofi Ann (beagle pup) and Nicholas Shihao Smemoe (Richard and Joan's new son....born on the 16th of August to Lance's brother.) Here are some pictures of Sofi. She is such a good dog...although she definately has her naughty puppy moments. When we stayed at my brother Tom's house for a few nights, Sofi and Adrianna, my niece, were the best of friends. Adrianna and Sofi would talk puppy/baby talk to each other and play for hours.