Welcome to Pennsylvania!

Well, we made it. We made it here on Wednesday actually, but we've been so busy that this is the first chance I've had to write and tell you all about it. No pictures this week, because, well, even though we crossed the country (approximately 2100 miles of it) all I saw was the inside of the truck cab. LOL. The kids were real troopers though. Entertained themselves with books, coloring, and a portable DVD player. Oh, and Vash learned that eating silly puddy will actually induce vomiting. All over the back seat in fact. It's ok though; Tuku soaked up the majority of it.
Rhyla got to be adored by people from seven different states. Every restaurant we stopped to eat in along the way had people coming up to the table and telling us what a doll she is. Then the next thing they'd ask was if she and Vash were twins. I probably had to say, "No, they're 19 months apart," about 19 times. But twins do run in my family and even though their exponentially difficult, I wouldn't mind a set someday.
Vash got to ride in the Penske will Craig for a few of the days. He kept saying how excited he was to ride in the big truck. Rhyla just seemed excited to have the back seat to herself where she could enjoy her back pack of goodies without Vash taking everything from her. I found out that she likes the same music I do. I'd plug the flash drive into the truck adapter and she'd konk out listening to the Civil Wars. Then she'd wake up and cry if I turned it off.
I almost got to meet my Aunt Paulene when we stopped for the night in Oklahoma City, but Craig's GPS misled us and we had to cancel. It wasn't the first time. Our first night, it led us almost an hour away from our hotel instead of towards it. And several times since we've been in town it's tried to lead us to the middle of nowhere saying that it's taking us to Wal-Mart. If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was doing it on purpose, trying to kidnap us and become our evil overlord. *JOKE*
We got to stay the night at Craig's cousin Julie's house our last night out. Her kids are about Vash and Rhyla's age, so we're pretty excited to be just a few hours apart. She might even make it down for Rhyla's birthday. (I'm planning on inviting the entire nursery in hopes that we'll make some friends and it'll make up for the lack of family around to celebrate like there usually is.)
So about Pennsylvania, or Pensin-nane-ya as Vash calls it. The first thing I've learned about it, is that you have to pay a toll to go anywhere. We went to Ikea and we had to a pay a toll. We went to Walmart and we had to pay a toll. And it's always at the Turn Pike. Papa warned us about the Pike but I didn't understand that when he said we'd get to know it, he meant that we'd be getting to know a financial threat. *Also a joke... but only sort of* Our town is small but has everything you can imagine here. We live on a hill right by a river and a train runs right along side it through the town. There are trees everywhere and even though their crackly and dead looking now, it's still kind of hauntingly beautiful in a way. Right at the end of our street is an Italian food restaurant that is always packed. Rather serendipitous, seeing as how pasta is my all time favorite food.
The Wal-Marts are different here. The bags are grey instead of white. You can buy boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts right out of the aisles. And you can buy anything you can imagine with a Steelers symbol on it. True story. Oh, and all the malls sell coats and boots instead of shorts and flip flops.
It's rained every day since we've been here but I don't mind at all. The kids thought it was an outdoor shower so Vash kept rolling the window of the truck down to try and get a drink. Rhyla is loving all her new clothes and protests putting a coat on because she wants to see the characters on her shirts.
Our little place here is great. Three stories, if you count the basement. I do because it's huge. It's like a garage/laundry room/ storage room thing. Mind blowingly large. The kitchen is smaller than what I had before but it's ok because we stored everything I don't have room for in what we've nicknamed the "Harry Potty Bedroom." That's right. We have a room under the stairs; but it's full of pots and pans instead of a teenage wizard. Some times, I think about just popping my head in there and yelling "Lumos!" though just in case. All the rooms are huge too. The dining room, the living room, and the bedrooms all look so empty because we have no furniture still. (It's getting delivered on Monday. So excited!) We share a front porch with the neighbor and we have a tree in the front drive. We don't have a yard but right up the street is an enormous field where we can take the kids to play.
We've put most everything way. The kitchen and bathrooms are entirely done. Everything else will get done quickly once we have dressers to put stuff in. The living room will be the biggest change since we'll have a new couch and entertainment center to put all our movies and things in. We'll need to get book cases eventually but right now we're just going to keep the books in their boxes, stacked against the wall. That's kind of the same thing right? I can't wait until we get the wall mounting stuff so I can put all our family pictures up and the kids' birthday collages. To me, that's really the finishing touch on making this feel like home.
We went to our new ward's Christmas party tonight so we had a chance to meet some of the people we'll be getting familiar with. Our Bishop used to be in the Marines so... let's just say he's all business. I've talked to him for less than five minutes and I got yipped at twice... I'm mildly terrified of him and that's all I'm going to say. Every one else seemed very nice.
So, that's all for this week. Super excited to start the Smith Family adventures in PA. It's been interesting so far.