recap...

okay, yes, we've been in maryland for almost 2 weeks now. and, yes, i have plenty of time to download all the pictures and type the cute stories to go along with them all i want. no, excuses, i suck! okay? now, lay off me, people!
(sorry, i like to pretend you all are waiting on pins and needles to hear what we have to say...a girl can dream, can't she?)
now that i have gotten your forgiveness, here's the 411 on how we got to where we are.

first stop on our cross country adventure was west jordan, utah...

we weren't able to spend too much time there, but it was still a great chance to see our dear friends, the martushevs. i must admit, we didn't take too many photos here. i guess we were having too much fun with our friends to think about the camera!

here's illya & artyom in downtown slc.

an artisit at work. this is sofia, charity & artyoms oldest. she's painting a flower pot i got her from the dollar spot at target
(1 dollar for 20 minutes of entertainment? i think it's well worth it!)

one of the few times i broke out the camera was during the girls bath time. here's some shots of sofia & her baby sister, ella
(pretty cute, huh?)...

after we left utah, we did a straight shot to tulsa oklahoma....

illya & i made some friends in oklahoma. their names are mia...

...hannah...

...and addy. pretty funny kids
(mia calls me "pretty, pretty princess" & illya "big head"...i think they're both pretty fitting!)

my cousin, reagan, got an electric scooter for christmas and was showing it to illya and i. i must admit, it was pretty dang fun to ride. illya LOOOVED it! at one point, my aunt and i went to the store and coming home, we turned onto their street, and here comes illya, coming towards us on the scooter, going about 5 mph...in the rain! we were cracking up!)...

...i think i know what illya will be asking for, for christmas this year!

my aunt is going through beauty school right now. she has all these creepy mannequin heads lined up on a shelf, which she gets to practice her cut & colors on. one of the heads has a wig she learned to make in class. here is my cousin jaxon with it on. rocker on!!

and, here's illya
(the creepy part is, he looks like he can pull off that whole goth rocker look!)

we were able to spend easter sunday with my aunt & uncle there in tulsa
(i was so glad it worked out that way. the timing of the trip was perfect)
since their kids are too old to dye eggs now, we decided to dye my uncles head instead
(you have to admit, he was a pretty good sport about it!)

from there, the next stop was our new home, rockville maryland!...

we actually went through rain storms, snow storms & had some huge wind gusts. so, it was nice to finally see some blue sky.

lucy was such a trooper. she is an amazing traveling dog! we made a bed in the backseat behind the driver and she stayed there a lot of the time just sleeping.

when we finally made it to maryland, we hit the morning traffic. and, it was BAD! illya was driving and i couldn't blame him for being extremely frustrated at the bumper to bumper situation. i hope this wasn't an omen of what's to come here!