Cumming, GA

Hey Everyone,

After many tears we left Mom in Peoria to care for Grandma Judy, who is quite sick. We met Uncle Phil, Matthew, Michael and Stephen in Springfield IL and drove to their town, about an hour and 15 minutes south of Springfield. We drove all night last night, Dad didn't want to stop, and ended up going through Cumming at the time that our Co-op classes were going on. Co-op is through our homeschool group, we get together with other homeschoolers once a week for extracurricular activities. Anyway, we thought it would be fun to stop by Co-op and say hey to everyone! We walked into the building, said hi to some of the moms and then Josh and I went upstairs to the High School Class while Ben, Daniel and Anna stayed in the gym waiting for their friends to come to snack time.  We walked in to the High School class and everyone was so surprised! After some hugs and greetings, we sat in on the class for about 15 minutes when we had a break and then we left. Daniel, Ben and Annie got to see their friends for a bit too! We're so glad to be home, it's nice to be in a bigger area where we aren't walking all over one another.  After seeign the house, we started getting all our stuff out of the RV.  It was a chore, let me tell ya! If you've ever been to our house, you know what a hill we have! We would get the stuff out of the RV, put it in hampers, backpacks and bags, put them in the van and after the van was full, drive the van up the hill.  All in all, we made three trips up the hill to unload and it took about three hours. REMEMBER: Don't stop checking the blog, we are going to clean the RV tomorrow and take it back on Saturday. We can't wait to see ya'll who we haven't seen and tell you all about our adventures!!

Two Days!

Hey All,

Well, today we are going to leave Peoria, Illinois and head home. We wanted to stop by Peoria because it's our "home away from home" or our "second home." Anyway, we are going to leave sometime this afternoon after Dad gets off work and drive to Clarksville or Nashville TN. That will be our last campground! We hope to get home on Thursday evening.  We can't wait to see ya'll! We should be seeing most of you next week!

Happy Birthday Grandpa

Hey All,

Last night, October 11th was Grandpa Joe's (Grandpa Joe is Mom's Dad.) 70th birthday! We met Uncle Mike and Aunt Teresa at Gil's Restaurant, where Grandpa got his catfish that he loves! We had a nice dinner, and came back to the house for ice cream cake. Here are a few pictures from the party!

Grandpa opening his gift from Uncle Mike

The gift was a sign from the lake house
they had when they had the kids growing
up. 

Driving, Driving, Driving through South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois

Hey Everyone,

After we got out of Badlands, we drove all night, stopping a few times at rest areas for dad to sleep.  We got to Peoria Illinois on Sunday evening. Since then the boys, Dad, Josh, Ben and Daniel, have been staying at our Torre Grandparents and the girls, Annie, Mom and I have stayed with the Stein Grandparents.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

 Hey All,

We went to Badlands NP on Saturday, October 8th, after Wall Drug South Dakota. Wall Drug isn't a drug store, it's a bunch of little old west type of stores, we walked around and bought a few souvenirs. After Wall Drug we drove over to Badlands National Park. Here's what the National Park website says about Badlands:  "People are drawn to the rugged beauty of the Badlands. These geologic deposits contain one of the world's richest fossil beds. Ancient mammals such as the rhino, horse, and saber-toothed cat once roamed here. The park's 244,000 acres protect an expanse of mixed-grass prairie where bison, bighorn sheep, deer, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and black-footed ferrets live today." The deposits are so colorful, reds, greys, greens and even some yellow. Daniel and Anna got their Junior Ranger Badges, I think it's their 12th!  It took us about an hour to go through Badlands, we didn't stop and it was pretty rainy. Here are some pictures:

Wall Drug South Dakota, we're leaning against the posts....

Badlands rock formations

Badlands, it kind of looks like the Painted Desert.

More colored rocks....

Mount Rushmore National Mounument, South Dakota

Hi Everybody,

Annie here again, we went to Mount Rushmore yesterday, October 8th. We saw the four presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln whose faces are on the mountain.  It took 14 years to build it! The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, who had the idea for Mount Rushmore died a few months before Mount Rushmore was unveiled. Did you know that he also sculpted Stone Mountain in Atlanta? Cool huh? Here are some awesome shots of Mount Rushmore!

Mount Rushmore!

It's so neat to be at the places you hear about!

Mom and Dad in front of the Mount

SNOW, in EARLY OCTOBER

Hey all!

So we were driving through Yellowstone on Wednesday and we thought we would stop and camp there in the park at one of the many campgrounds. We pulled in and started to set up our big-rig. We had heard that there was snow in Yellowstone area but we really didn’t expect much accumulation. But we were wrong, oh,were we wrong. We got tops of 2 inches in Yellowstone that evening.  You all know quite well that snow doesn’t come without cold. So there we were, at a campsite with no hookups at all not even water; so we were cold that night. We got up at about 7 o’clock in the morning and proceeded to check the outdoor temperature which, by the way, was a chilled 29 degrees. So we had breakfast and suited up to play in the snow. We had snowball fights and threw snow balls at the side of the RV. All in all we had a barrel load of fun that day.

The site across the road from us

Our RV in the snow

Our van was quiet snowy.....

Yellowstone NP Day 2

Hey All,
Sorry we haven't posted before, we were in Yellowstone and didn't have Wi-Fi. We got up on Thursday, October 6th and left the campground around 10 o'clock left for Old Faithful; after all the roads were cleared of snow.  Old Faithful erupts every 35 to 120 minutes for 1 1/2 to 5 minutes. Its maximum height ranges from 90 to 184 feet. This makes Old Faithful geyser one of the easiest geysers in Yellowstone to see. Old Faithful erupted about 8 minutes before it was supposed to erupt at 11:52. After the 141 foot eruption we headed back to the campground to pick up the RV and head out. We headed out the East Entrance of the park, got over Sylvan Pass. As we were headed down the pass we saw a buffalo on the road. Yes, he was in our lane, just taking his merry time not in any rush. He was nowhere near his home, on one side of the road was a rock cliff, on the other side was the guardrail and a sheer canyon wall.  Finally, he pulled over towards the shoulder and we passed him. He didn't really even look at us! We went about another 3 or 4 miles before we saw a spot where the buffalo could get off.  It was going to take him a while! We drove and drove all night, stopping at two or three rest areas and Dad would sleep for a few hours. Here are some pictures of Old Faithful and Yellowstone. 

Old Faithful erupting

Even further along in the eruption

Proof that we were there! 

Buffalo Crossing! 

Just meandering along the road......

Yellowstone NP, Wyoming

Hey Friends and Family,

On Wednesday, October 5^th we pulled into our campground, after driving all afternoon, Yellowstone RV park, only about a mile from the North Yellowstone Entrance.  We got into the park, RV and all and headed to see the sights.  First we went to the Albright Visitor Center near Mammoth Springs where Daniel and Anna got their Junior Ranger activity books.  Next to the Visitor Center are some houses about 100 years old.  Out in the front lawn of one of these houses was a herd of elk, about 6 females, just as calm as can be eating the grass in the front yard. After we got out of the Visitor Center we saw a buck with the females, he had a huge rack! We drove just out of the Mammoth Springs Village to the Mammoth Springs itself.  These are hot springs just under the surface of the earth which let out water and a bunch of steam. Now, it’s about 45 degrees outside and raining while we were on the boardwalk to the springs, so we were seeing a bunch of steam! The hot water from the springs was letting off a bunch of steam, which was billowing into the air. After Mammoth Springs we headed down the road and saw a huge hill, not quite a mountain, but a hill blowing off steam.  We got out, hiked back to it and saw it was called Roaring Mountain. This mountain was blowing steam and also making a roaring noise, not really loud, but you could definitely hear it! Next we stopped at the Norris Geyser Basin where we saw more hot springs, mud pots, and a few small geysers.  The mud pots are holes in the ground with hot spring underneath them and it makes the mud boil. We got back to the RV, at a quick lunch and drove on to Artists Paintpots.  This is a beautiful place, hot springs, many mud pots, geysers and gorgeous colors in the ground! We walked around the area, and saw some interesting mud pots; one was about 3 yards long and about 2 yards wide with white mud.  This white mud was really thick, and it was bubbling, so it was throwing the mud up about 2 feet high. We also walked past a mud pot that was pinkish and bubbling like nuts, it wouldn’t stop! Also, we saw a large geyser letting off so much stem that it fogged up our cameras!  When we got down a bit lower we saw how Artists Paintpots got their name, there was blue, green, pink, red, yellow and even red in the rocks and in the hot spring pools. Our final hike was to Gibbon Falls, one of the waterfalls in the park. We made it to one of the few campgrounds in the park that is still open, checked in and got set up.  As we were setting up the RV we realized that it was snowing! We decided to just hunker down in the RV with some hot chocolate for the afternoon and watch some Andy Griffith.  We ate dinner then some of us played in the snow for a little bit. Ben blogged about the snow, mom and dad went for a walk, we made some baked pears watched a bit more Andy Griffith and that pretty much finished up our evening!

Elk in the front of the yard

Mammoth Springs

Artists Paintpots, beautiful colors!

A spring bubbling like fireworks

A large view of Artists Paintpots

Gabrielle's Birthday, October 4th

Hey all who follow our blog!

So Tuesday, October 4^th was my 17^th birthday! We had left the day after the wedding and drove all day Monday. Monday night, the day before my birthday we stopped at the Yellowstone RV Park only a mile from one of the Glacier National Park entrances. Yes, it was called Yellowstone, and no, we don’t know why! Anyway, I woke up to rain on my birthday, not a great way to start the day, but it was alright. After breakfast Mom did some laundry, we did school and Dad worked.  I walked over to the laundry room and the lady who owns the RV park saw me come in. Now, about an hour earlier Ben had gone into the office and bought me a juice for my birthday, they didn’t have anything else out, they were packing up for the winter, so he really didn’t have a choice! The husband had rung Ben up and went and told his wife how kind Ben was being by buying me birthday present.  The wife said “didn’t you show him the necklaces?” and the husband said that he had forgotten that the necklaces were still out. After I came into the laundry room, the wife came up to me and said that she heard that my birthday was that day. After telling mom and I the story that I just told you, she took us into the office and let me pick out a necklace, she was so sweet! We talked with her for a while, during the time our laundry was drying, she told us where to go and what to see in Glacier.  Also, while we were talking, she said that we could stay another night at their park and she wouldn’t charge us for us kids (she had charged us for the previous night) because it was my birthday and she thought (correctly) that I didn’t want to drive on my birthday. Most campgrounds charge for people over 6 years of age in addition to the site fee. We left the RV at the campground about an hour later and headed to Glacier NP. On the way to the park we were looking for a place to have lunch, Dad spotted A&W Root Beer, asked me if I wanted to eat there and I said yes.  Now, some of us Torres have had a birthday at an A&W so Dad and the boys have named it a “Happy Burpday” on account of them burping after the root beer.  After a lunch, we made our way to the park. Now, it’s October 4^th and some of the roads are closed on account of weather and for the winter.  We didn’t get to see much, in fact, it was kind of a letdown, maybe it was because of the closed roads and everything, but we really didn’t enjoy it.  After driving the van around the park for about 5 hours we decided it was time for dinner. Most of the places in the little village of the park were closed for the winter, so we had to go into the town.  We ate at the Halfway Restaurant (supposedly it’s halfway up the mountain), and it was halfway decent. We drove back to the campground full, and tired. We showered up, got our pajamas on, watched some Andy Griffith and had a Ding Dong cake.  Here are some birthday pictures!

My birthday breakfast

Me and the A&W Bear, we're pretty good friends......

Glacier National Park

     

     Birthday cake or birthday ding dong time!

Annie and I posing at the falls......

St. Mary Falls after a nice hike down

The Wedding, Seattle WA, October 2

Hey Everyone,

After we got ready for the wedding in our tree houses we went our own ways. Josh and Ben explored the property and Daniel and Anna played on the balcony of our tree house.  Around 4:15 we headed down the trials from our tree houses to the large tent set up for some fellowship time. Five minutes later we headed down to the small grassy area where the wedding was to be held.  The ceremony was so nice! It wasn’t your typical wedding ceremony; some humor was thrown in, which was great! Danielle, our cousin, looked beautiful in her dress! After the wedding ceremony everyone took their chairs and headed up to the ten for the reception.  We had a “milk and cookies social hour” then ate dinner. After the meal we all headed towards the dessert and dance floor.  Danielle and Chris had the first dance, naturally, then Danielle and Uncle Bill had a father/daughter dance, finally Chris and his mom danced.  Then everyone started dancing! Around 9 Josh and Ben retired to the tree house because they were feeling pretty sick, while the rest of us kept on dancing. Around 9:30 the party started dying down and we went up to bed.  We slept well until about 6 AM when mom came in an woke us up.  We left in a quiet hurry to get on the road.  That day we drove from Seattle to Glacier National Park, about 800 miles! Here are some pictures from the wedding!

Chris and the Pastor

Uncle Bill and Danielle

During the ceremony

At the end of the ceremony

The reception dinner

Chris and Danielle

First dance!

Father/Daughter Dance

Mother/Son Dance

Uncle Chris and Aunt Vicki dancing away!

Uncle Bill and Aunt Karen dancing!

Tree Houses!

Hey Everyone,

After sightseeing in Seattle on Sunday we headed back to our RV to get the things we would need for the wedding.  About 30 minutes later, around 3 o’clock we were pulling into Tree House Point. Now, the week before the wedding we learned that we were to stay at the tree house place the night after the wedding, and we were pretty excited about this! First, we went into mom and dad’s tree house, it was so cute, small, but good for two people.  They dumped their stuff in there and we proceeded to find our tree house. We walked around the area for a while, finally finding the tree house.  We hiked all our stuff up the steep ladder and opened the door.   There were two sets of bunk beds, Daniel and Anna wanted the top bunks, Josh and Ben took the bottoms, so I was stuck with the air mattress on the floor, which turned out fine. Inside the tree house is the bathroom, well, not really a bathroom, just an incinerating toilet. We were so excited to be sleeping in the tree house! Here are some pictures of the tree houses. 

Mom and Dad's tree house

Mom and Dad's "The Nest'

Outside the balcony of our tree house

The bunk beds in Upper Pond

The door on the left is the bathroom, and the back of the room

Two Seattle Icons

Mom and Dad here again…

(No driving, laundry or cooking the past three days in Seattle so we have time to post!)

With the wedding scheduled for 4:00 on October 2nd, we had time to do a little more sightseeing in the downtown Seattle area.  Tom was eager to visit the Space Needle again.  He attended the World’s Fair in 1962, the year the space needle first opened.  At that time, the view wasn’t impressive as there was no window in his mom’s tummy! 

 

Since 1962, the iconic Seattle Space Needle has beaconed locals and tourists alike.  With a view of the architectural wonder just outside our hotel window, how could we refuse the call!  We headed to the base where we purchased tickets then climbed aboard the elevator for a 45 second journey up 50 stories to the observation deck.  Once on deck, we had a 360 degree panorama of lakes, urban neighborhoods, the Seattle skyline and the Cascade and Olympic Mountains.  Everyone enjoyed the experience and, of course, the down elevator just happened to open up at the gift shop.  We spent almost as much time shopping as we did sightseeing!

The view at the top of the Space Needle. 

Standing below the Space Needle.

Kodak Picture Spot! 

Meeting the InLaws

Finally, a post by Mom and Dad….

(No time to post with all the driving, cooking and laundry for the past 7 weeks…)

After a day of touring downtown Seattle and the Boeing factory, we headed to the Torre/McLaughlin rehearsal dinner.  The McLaughlin family lives north of Seattle near Lynwood, Washington and graciously invited all of the Torre family to the dinner.  We joined Uncle Bill and Aunt Karen, Uncle Chris and Aunt Vicki and Uncle Phil along with the McLaughlin family for a nice evening of fun, food and fellowship!   Everyone there was fascinated by our travel stories and adventures which gave all of us something to talk about the entire evening!  It was great meeting the McLaughlin clan all of whom are friendly and down-to-earth.  The food was wonderful; we enjoyed dips and snacks followed by wings, BBQ beans and meatballs.  Several dessert choices topped off a great meal and evening! 

We enjoyed meeting our niece Danielle’s fiancé, Christofer, for the first time.  Like Danielle, he LOVES the outdoors.  They both shared stores of their outdoor adventures; our favorite story was the marriage proposal.  Chris planned to meet Danielle at the swimming pool, her favorite hangout, but she didn’t show for her morning workout.  Later that day, Chris asked Danielle to go running again with the intention of proposing.   During the run, Danielle fell down and was covered with mud.  Disappointed and upset that he didn’t come to her aid, Danielle hurried to catch up with Chris only to find him in a tree.  After much coaxing, Danielle climbed up the tree and joined Chris where he finally proposed; the beginning of their tree house adventure together!

To the New Couple!

Danielle and Chris greeting guests

Girls Sightseeing in Seattle

Hey All,

On Saturday morning we checked into our hotel, Best Western Executive Inn, did some more sightseeing in Seattle. We girls went shopping and looked around Pike’s Place Market. Our day started out walking to the Monorail, kind of like a mix of Marta in Atlanta and a train.  The monorail took us to the mall where we got off and went hunting for a shoe store.  Somehow, on our many travels, I had lost one of my tennis shoes, so I only had one pair of shoes for this whole trip.  We think that when going through one of the national parks someone opened the door to the RV while we were moving and my shoe dropped out.  Anyway, we got directions to a Payless Shoe Source, got some shoes and then decided to go to Pikes Place Market. We looked around the market; there were so many things on sale!! There was jewelry, flowers, artwork, clothing, homemade jellies, preserves, even jerky!! The venders have to make or produce everything that they sell; they can’t buy it and re-sell it. Aunt Vicki got Annie a bracelet with her name on it! Thanks Aunt Vicki!! After the vendors we went to the Pikes Place Seafood Market, known for their fish throwing.  When they get an order, they yell and throw the fish to guy by the scale and he finishes the transaction! It’s really neat!! Next we went to a gelato shop, now, gelato is an Italian ice cream, it’s really sweet, creamy and good! After the gelato we headed back to the mall for lunch, and to catch the monorail back to the hotel.  Before we got on the monorail we went into a Turkish shop in the mall, Aunt Vicki wanted to get me something, and I found a really pretty pair of earrings, which she got for me. Thanks again Aunt Vicki! We hopped on the Monorail, and went back to our rooms at the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.  We didn’t take any pictures, but here’s a picture looking out over the water.