Road Trip: Part II

Now, for the second part of our epic road trip!

After leaving Chicago, we headed to the homeland where we stayed a night with my parents in the cities and a night with Luke's parents in Wells. It was great to say one last goodbye, and load up on snacks, of course :) We hit the road early on Tuesday morning for our riveting ride through South Dakota. The one funny thing about South Dakota is that our friend Patrick's family owns Wall Drug. So, we made it a destination! 

I mean really, how many Wall Drug signs are there?

That night we made it all the way to Billings. The next day we took to the road again and made it to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho by early afternoon. 

Gotta love those mountains!

We spent some time exploring the town and treated ourselves to a nice dinner. It was funny because that was our first stop where we could really tell we were back in the Pacific Northwest by looking at all the people... and all the vegetarian restaurants!

A view of the lake...

Somebody's happy to be out of the car :)

Luke riding a moose!

Me and a very dirty Jeep! 

On Thursday, we headed for Seattle! 

 Even Eastern Washington can be pretty...

And there is nothing like coming through the Snoqualmie Mountain pass after hours of Eastern Washington. 

All in all, our trip was fabulous. We had great weather and made really good time. 

We are getting better at the whole road trip thing, I would say :)

After getting here, catching up with friends and apartment hunting like it was our job, we signed a lease and moved in to our place five (yes, FIVE) days later. And thanks to our amazing friends (Elise, Travis, Chris, and Nick) we had the whole truck unloaded and everything moved into our new apartment in an hour. It was awesome!!

The boys figuring out how to unload the motorcycle...

All of our stuff on the sidewalk in front of our building.

Now, we are pretty much all settled in and have even hosted a Superbowl Party! We still have some final decorating touches to do, but we are LOVING our new apartment and the location. We always talk about how our new neighborhood feels a lot like our old neighborhood in Chicago--with possibly even MORE restaurants within walking distance. Is that possible?!?

I'll get some apartment pictures up here soon!

The Grill Man

Besides our wedding, the day we bought our grill might be the happiest day of Luke's life. (Or maybe third to the day he discovered $5 nachos at the Matador). Last week we took the better part of a day to find the perfect grill. And this is what we found!

It's the newest member of our little family...

He couldn't be happier :)

We have arrived!!

Hello all!

I know this post is a bit delayed, but we sure have been busy! (And without internet). But we have made it safe and sound to Seattle and have actually been here for 3 weeks now! We are having a blast and have stayed very busy settling into our new apartment and catching up with friends. As Luke would say, it feels like we never left.

Our trip from Chicago to Seattle was FABULOUS! We were blessed with perfect weather and lots of sunshine. But, let me start from the beginning...

We got back to Chicago from Christmas in Minnesota and I had probably packed a total of three boxes... maybe. But luckily, Luke's mom was able to ride back and help us pack up all of our stuff. (THANK YOU!)

So, we started with packing everything up in our apartment. We went through lots of packing tape and lots of bubble wrap (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)

Then all of our boxes had to be moved into the UHaul trailer that we rented and we had to drive it down to the loading dock on the South Side of Chicago, where we had rented space in a semi trailer. We also had to load the motorcycle onto the trailer and pack everything VERY tightly.

Luke and I both agreed that our moving skills (and communication skills while moving.. cough cough) since we first got married have improved GREATLY. We are pretty much the dream moving team now :)

And there it is - our life in boxes, packed 7-feet-deep on a semi trailer.

After packing up, Luke's mom had to go back to Minnesota, and we went to stay with our best Chicago friends, the Picketts, for a few nights while Luke finished up working. We also got to ring in the New Year with them!! We had a fabulous Italian dinner to celebrate our last night in Chicago and the end of a fabulous year and a half in the Windy City.

Kim and I. We are kindred spirits :)

Sean and Luke. They are nothing but trouble. (As if the bow tie didn't tip you off?)

We also made a delicious New Year's brunch the next morning before heading to our first destination on the road trip. Yum!

It was really great spending our last few days with Sean and Kim. They graciously opened their door to Luke when he had to move to Chicago a month before I was able to make it, and there we were, ending our time in Chicago at the same place with the same people. Little did we know, they would become some of our very best lifelong friends. You are the best, Picketts!!

Now, that is only the beginning of our epic move across the country. More blog posts to come!!

Merry Christmas from the Hills!

We just wanted to share some more holiday cheer with this year's Christmas card. Why are we holding an alligator? The photo is from our September trip to Florida, where we spent a day riding on air boats and watching crazy people wrestle alligators. And of course, Luke INSISTED that we hold one. Little did I know, the cute little guy would make it into our Christmas card.

So, Merry Christmas from the Hills and their alligator friend!

Still Writing About Space...

Yes, that's right. I'm still writing about space ships and launching people into orbit. I never thought this would become my speciality (who knows, maybe my true calling is to work for NASA).

I've started doing some freelancing for Seattle Business Magazine, which is owned by the same parent company that I work for in Minneapolis. I had sent the editor there my resume and it had some info about how I wrote articles on NASA and space travel. So, when Paul Allen announced Tuesday that he was investing $200 million in a new space travel vehicle, the editor called me up and asked me to crank out a blog article in an hour and half. I knew my Master's degree would be good for something! So here's the result:

Read the full article here!

Out of This World Sugar Cookies

I'm going to share this FABULOUS sugar cookie recipe with you. I've already made it twice in the past week and it's simply the best. It's so easy and quick - you will love it. I got it courtesy of my mom, so you can thank her when you become addicted to these little treats!

Makes about 2 dozen

1 cup sugar, divided

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine or butter

1 egg

1/4 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make cookies: Cream 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup margarine together. Beat egg, 1/4 tsp vanilla and margarine mixture together. Combine flour, baking soda and salt thoroughly and add to margarine mixture. Form round balls using about 1 Tablespoon dough. Roll in remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Press with glass dipped in sugar. Bake 7 to 9 minutes, until light brown at the edges. Cool on wire rack.

Happy Baking!

Super-Happy-Holiday-Fun-Day!

Yesterday was our second annual super-happy-holiday-fun-day! We spent the day doing all things holiday and were definitely wiped out by the end of the day. Here are some pictures from our adventures!

We commenced the day with cookie baking. Well, let's be honest- I commenced the day with cookie baking and Luke unwrapped the Hershey kisses :)

We went downtown for a little Christmas shopping and had lunch at Macy's Walnut Room next to the GIGANTIC tree.

Then we made it to the Millennium Park skating rink. It was raining a bit, but we endured and enjoyed some time on the ice.

And then we delivered more cookies to Luke's friends at work. Here are a couple pictures of our walk downtown on the State Street bridge. Gotta love those city lights!