The last days! 34 & 35

Tuesday the 22nd, after saying goodbye to our new friends, but before saying goodbye to Eugene, we went back to the University to see some summer sessions in action. (this was the first school that actually had classes we could peek into). It was great chatting with some of the students and getting their opinion of the program. 

Just 10 minutes after arriving into northern CA, we noticed a vast difference in the sky! We could barely see any mountains around us. Having completely missed the beginnings of all of the CA fires, we were shocked at the scenery. (this picture was taken midday, that is not fog out there!)

We had a 7.5 hour drive to Sacramento, where we surprised Donna's mom (Stella) and sister (Katie—our most faithful blog commenter) with a visit (which also helped us break up the trip!). It was so nice to be with family and enjoy putting up our feet for a bit. Well... actually we didn't really put up our feet— mom has a Wii (thanks for giving that to her, Katie!), and if any of you have played a Wii, it is anything BUT sitting down! It is quite easy for the hours to slip by while playing this. One of the fun things about the Wii is watching others play! They look quite ridiculous, as we did! The pictures below are of us "in action". (It is a good thing pictures were not taken of us doing the hoola hoop game!)

We had lots of laughs and great mom-cooked meals! (thanks mom!) Donna went to bed around midnight when mom, Katie, and Corey were still going strong playing the Wii. Below is a picture of the orange moon we saw! (the fires sure have weird effects!)

On day 35, we were headed home! Over 9,000 miles were traveled on this trip (we don't even want to add up the total for gas!). This is the first trip that we have taken where we were REALLY looking forward to coming home. Don't get us wrong, we have LOVED this trip, but it is a long time to be on the road. We were so excited to come home to our kitties, Feist and Frou-Frou. They have been following us around for the afternoon, making sure we don't leave again! (they are really happy to see us—they just smile on the inside with their purrs!)

So, to all you viewers out there, this is not goodbye! It is just "see you later". We will post occasionally so if you want to pop back into our blog and see how we are doing, it will have new posts on there. Thanks to EVERYONE who has been following along and praying for us! Also, a big thanks to all those friends and family who have let us crash at their place... that made this trip possible (and more affordable!).