It worked out so well that we were able to go at all. Josh had business meetings in Mountain View, which is about an hour and a half away from Carmel, home of Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul. They were available to spend the time with us, so he booked a ticket for me and away we went!

The flight out there was amazing. The flight attendant managed to find us our own row on a full flight! After landing, we got our rental car and car seat, dropped Josh off at his office, and drove down to Carmel.

And then Nora finally got to meet Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul! She loved them right away and started giving them her flirty, squinched up face grins. She also loved exploring their kitchen as we ate lunch. (So many drawers! And cabinets!)

After lunch we went for a walk in downtown Carmel. There were so many doggies. And birds. Aunt Barb and I went from shop to shop and were always able to find Uncle Paul and Nora by listening for the cry of “Hey! Dog gee!” Uncle Paul was very kind and pushed Nora’s stroller while she exclaimed over all the dogs. She also liked to touch the potted flowers. (And maybe even snatched a few during drive-by flower pickings.) She was totally comfortable and didn’t even care that I kept walking away. Instant trust and love for Uncle Paul.

The next day we went to this amazing park (the wildlife kind) where you can look over cliffs and see seals. We even got to see a mother with her baby seal! It was so adorable. The baby swam right next to the mom and sometimes they touched noses like they were kissing! We named them “Mommy” and “Nora.”

Next up — the Dennis the Menace Park. Um. Wow. I really wish every kid could go to a park like this one. It was huge with these gigantic bridges and swings and climbing equipment. Nora loved it when Uncle Paul carried her across the wobbly bridge. Then Mommy took her down the long, bumpy slide.

And Nora’s world came crashing down. She absolutely lost it. She sobbed and wailed and let the tears flow.

So we took her to the swings where she cheered up and loved every minute of it.

Then I thought, “Let’s go to the baby slides. So she doesn’t have a fear of all slides.”

Too late. I held her on my lap and tried going down the 3 ft slide with her, and she was still hysterical. Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul even tried to hold her while she watched me go down the slide. (“Look at me, Nora! Whee!! This is so fun!!!”) Nope. Forget it. It was all too horrible for words.

Back to the swings. Because you can’t leave a park sad.

After she recovered, we headed back to the house. It was time to pack up and leave to drive back to Mountain View. It was sad to leave Nora’s new friends.

Then we went to pick up Josh from work. Uncle Kemble was there so we could all go to dinner. We went to In N Out, because we were in CA and you have to go at least once. (Them’s the rules.) Kemble was making Nora giggle pretty hard, which was impressive given how exhausted she was.

Time for bed. This promised to be interesting because we haven’t attempted to sleep in the same room with Nora since she was an infant. We put her pack n play next to our bed, turned out the light, and hoped she’d go to sleep. Sure enough, I heard the sound I thought I would hear; little hands struggling to find a grip on nylon netting. I saw one hand, then the other, grasp the rail. Finally, a little head popped up and there was Nora, ready to play the “You’re Pretending to Sleep and I’m Going to Get You” Game. She was giggling as she repeatedly tapped my head.

After trying to lay her back down a few times, we decided to try co-sleeping for the first time ever. First she just wanted to play with our noses and hair. Then she would sit up and flop onto one of us. Only to sit up again and flop down on the other one. And there were spontaneous bursts of giggles as she continued to attempt the Wake Up Mommy and Daddy Game.

Back to the pack n play, only this time we moved it as far from our bed as we could. She must have been totally wiped out because she didn’t even make a peep. (I was expecting some major protests.) A few hours later, we were waking up to get on another airplane and back to Seattle we flew.

Nora had such a GREAT time with her (great?) Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul. They took wonderful care of us! They had toys for her, her favorite foods ready to go, and lots and lots of love and attention.

Thanks Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul! We’d love to have you visit Seattle anytime!!

It started when we woke up around 5 am. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, which was nice and relaxing. Nora was doing just fine, crawling around on the floor at the gate. I know, I know, I can’t believe I was okay with it either. But it really is true.

Poor Nora’s had a bit of a cold and I think she was just worn out from all the festivities, but we were hopeful she’d do okay on the plane. (It was a morning flight after all- yippee!) I didn’t realize how exhausted she was. Just after take off, she burrowed herself between my arm and sweater and passed out in seconds. Josh and I stared at each other with hope. (This so did not happen on the last flight back to Seattle.) She slept for 40 minutes! It was a New Year’s Eve miracle!

After she woke up, I thought, “Great, she got a nap time in. She probably won’t fall asleep the rest of the flight.” Oh, me of little faith. My girl took another quick nap about an hour later. Then, in the middle of flipping through one of her books, she just leaned back onto me and closed her eyes. And took her third nap- she slept for an entire hour! I even got to sleep.

So yay for another good flight! She did get a little fussy towards the last hour, but not enough to draw too much attention. Oh, and I should mention that on both this flight and the one into Atlanta, we recognized a flight attendant from our Oh-No-We-Are-The-Parents-of-The-Screaming-Baby-on-the-Plane flight. And both said, “Oh yes, I do remember you guys.” They were nice about it, but still. Oh dears.

Thanks so much for everyone who prayed for our trip. We really appreciate it and are so thankful that the last two flights went so much better. Praise the Lord for the small things that make such a difference.

We landed around 11 am Seattle time. It was the weirdest feeling to drive home from the airport feeling like we had so much of the day ahead. Our day had started 7 hours ago. We woke up in Marietta and were in our Kirkland apartment by lunch time. (Local time, anyway.) The wonders of modern travel. I mean, we crossed the country in one morning. It took the pioneers on the Oregon Trail, what, six months to do that?

Nora was downright giddy when we walked down the hallway to our door. Remy wasn’t there; he was still at our AWESOME FRIENDS, THE SMITHS’ (YOU GUYS ARE WAY TOO GOOD TO US!!) house. So while there was no Remy to greet us, guess what was waiting for our arrival? The saddest, Charlie Brownest tree you ever did see. Aww…

And guess what else was waiting for us? Lots and lots of Christmas cards! Most people were still sending them out when we left. Opening them felt like a 2nd Christmas. I love this tradition. The Christmas cards will be displayed for awhile. The tree has got to go before it just keels over.

Then we had an afternoon that we didn’t really know how to fill. We ended up ordering pizza, getting some things unpacked, waiting on said pizza, catching up on Tivoed shows and taking turns holding Nora who was just about done.

Okay, fine, the truth is that I bent over to pick up my bag when I was standing next to the opened door of the taxi while I was holding Nora and when I stood back up, I didn’t realize how close the door was and she bumped her head and it was all my fault and she’d been doing so well and suddenly she was a train wreck and I felt sick about it. I admit it.
So while she was probably just tired and recovering from the busy day, she was pitiful, cranky, and not at all herself. I spent the afternoon reassuring myself that there was very little chance she had a concussion.

Josh went to pick up Remy around 5. When he made his grand entrance, Nora was absolutely thrilled. Her eyes lit up and she was so happy, she couldn’t do anything but sit, stare, and yell with pure delight. If we’d known she would be so excited, we would have documented it.

Nora was ready for bed around 6. Josh made it until about 6:15. He didn’t even make it to a bed, he just slept on the couch. I caught up on some Glee episodes- reruns I hadn’t seen yet, yay – and read until I could no longer form coherent thoughts. I fell asleep around 10.

However. I was awake at the stroke of midnight. I probably could have slept through the nearby fireworks, but Remy could not. It turns out that along with my phone’s low battery warning, Remy is terrified of the sound of small, planned explosions. He paced nervously around the bed and breathed on my face until I woke up to reassure him. So I did get to hear fireworks and the clock said it was exactly midnight. I didn’t miss New Year’s after all.

Hope you all had a great New Year’s celebration! Or at least that you were awake for it. =)

Nora had an amazing flight out to Atlanta. It was the best flight I think we could have had. We got to sit in first class! It. Was. Awesome.

And a long story that I’ll try to condense down. Josh wanted to cash in our frequent flyer miles for a ticket and it worked out that we could only use it for a first class seat. Josh figured we could send me and Nora up there and he could convince one of the coach fliers to trade seats with me.

I found my first class seat and it was already time to taxi and for take off, so I made small talk with the man who turned out to be incredibly kind and sweet to Nora. He called her a future beauty queen and complimented her hand eye coordination. (I took his word for it.)

The moment the seat belt sign was off, he told me that he wanted to switch seats with Josh so we could sit together. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He packed up his stuff- including a Bible- and went to find Josh. We wrote a note to him to let him know how much we appreciated his kindness. His whole attitude was so humble and he was such a servant.

So we both got to sit in huge, comfortable seats with plenty of leg room. The flight attendants are so attentive up there. And you have leg AND feet rests! It’s incredible. Nora got to watch cartoons on her own little tv. Granted, she was distracted after 5 seconds, but still. Cool stuff.

We landed in Atlanta so relaxed. Nora did great! She slept about half the time and played with her toys the rest of the time. She was tired, but it was easy enough to find ways to keep her occupied.

We had a great, great week in Atlanta/Florida. We’ll have to post pictures from the trip soon. It was so much fun!

Then it was time to fly home. It was a night flight, leaving at 9:30 pm. First we had to drive over 6 hours from Florida to the airport. Nora barely napped in the car at all. I repeat- she barely napped at all. That meant there were two possible outcomes- she’d pass out on the plan from exhaustion or she’d be too exhausted to sleep at all and scream for hours.

Guess which one it was?
It was awful. Nora, who is almost always a very laid back baby, was screaming like a banshee before the plane had even reached cruising altitude. We couldn’t get up, so we just had to try to distract her. It didn’t work.

Finally, the seatbelt sign clicked off and we jumped up to walk with her. For the next hour, Josh and I took turns keeping her just calm enough that she was whimpering with only occasional screaming. But she was getting more and more exhausted until she hit a breaking point where she was simply inconsolable. That’s when Josh hid in the lavatory.

An hour later, I went and traded with him. Horrified that he had been in a lavatory, but at the same time, glad that something worked to muffle her cries. But I wasn’t going in there.

After trying to keep her quiet in the tiny flight attendants’ area, I gave in and also went to sit on the toilet in the airplane lavatory.

Now. Those of you who know about my….germ and general nastiness aversion, you’ll appreciate the things I did. Things that would NEVER be in the realm of acceptable in the ‘real world.’ But this was survival. Not only did I sit on the toilet lid- ew- but I actually rested my head against the wall. Against. The. Nasty. Tiny. Bathroom. Wall. Something about that small space did calm Nora down so it was worth it. I suppose. But yuck. On a normal trip to that room, I try to avoid touching anything. This trip, when the scratchy airplane blanket (that I also avoid on the average flight) fell off Nora and touched the toilet, I just picked it up and wrapped it right back around her. Earlier, I was standing right near the airplane door, where every single person on the last flight walked out and every single person on this flight walked in. And I dropped the pacifier. The one object that offered a few breaks from the screams. I dropped it. And picked it right back up and stuck it in her mouth without even wiping it on my jeans. Germs, schmerms, we had to stop the insanity.

She finally started to dose off, so I made a break for it and ran down the aisle as she started waking up. My goal was to get to Josh so she could suck on his pinky finger. That was the only way she would calm down. By the time I made it to him, she was starting back up with the kind of screams that start with the long inhale.

Miraculously, Josh was able to get his finger in and she calmed down and finally went to sleep.

( Interesting side story- At one point, the guy sitting on the window seat had to go to the restroom. Not wanting to wake the finally sleeping baby, he somehow scaled the wall, found a grip, swung over Josh and Nora, and landed in the aisle. He was a ninja, that’s the only explanation. There is no way a non-ninja could have done it. Nora didn’t even stir. And then he did it again on the way back. I stared at him with my mouth open. Okay, fine, I also gave him a thumbs up. I was that impressed.)

Nora slept the last 2 hours of the 5 hour flight.
People came up afterwards to tell us how sorry they felt for us and how they had been there, too. We, my friends, were those people with that baby.

But.
It is totally worth it. She’s our sweet girl. Though she was beyond exhausted that night. I think God was ministering to my heart during the worst of it because I thought how grateful we are to have our Nora, even when she’s hysterical. And that’s such a true thought, it had to come from God.

However, we will never be flying at night again.

However. There are those that game the system. Not Googlers, as it turns out, but other taxi drivers. Rogue taxi drivers–that in my case posed as the car service Google has arraignments with. Here’s what happened…

Leaving my desk for the day, I received a phone call that a driver was rolling up in a white town car. I walk downstairs, see a car of that description driving up, approach the window, confirm my name, the driver confirms, and I hop in. Moments after settling in, I realize through a very confusing, and twisted discussion with the driver, that I’m in the wrong car — not the one that I had called. The quickest way to realize this was to ask if at the end of the drive I’d have to pay. “Yes, yes, yes. YOU WILL PAY.” I told him that in prior rides I didn’t have to pay, but he nodded and insisted again: YOU WILL PAY — 3 DOLLARS A MILE. He went on to lecture to me that I should “never ever” call the other people, that they only do local drives, but he will go anywhere in the Bay Area, and offered me his phone number multiple times.

At this point, we weren’t quite off the campus but we were still driving and, at this point, far from where he’d picked me up. I suggested that he should take me back. He refused. Really. He did. A quick glance at my door I noticed it was locked, and briefly went into MacGyver mode thinking I might bail out anyway. I decided to stay the course and just be driven home. Shortly after crossing the freeway, I received a phone call from the original town car service, “Josh, the driver is waiting outside, can you give us an idea how much longer you’ll be?” After a quick explanation, they expressed their sympathy and told me not to worry.

Moments later I arrived at the curb of my hotel, and paid the driver sans tip.

Today, a week later, I took the local bus system to the campus up here in Kirkland. No issues as of this morning!

Sadly, I had to leave Lauren in our as-yet unfurnished apartment for a week of training and orientation in Mountain View, CA. At the Seattle airport as I was boarding I noticed a guy wearing a bright yellow Google t-shirt, and hurried off to me seat in 18c. I was in the aisle, and next to me, in the dreaded middle seat, was a lady perhaps in her late 60s / early 70s. As I got my things in order and sat down, she gave a welcoming smile and friendly nod. Moments after buckling in, she began making a myriad of oddball comments about everything from the volume of the flight attendant voices, to “I wonder how many times that man has given the safety demonstration” kind of things. She was looking for laughs, not solely from me, but from any innocent passer-by. I meanwhile was looking for just a little quiet reading time before the crazy week began. The man to her left, near the window, was a bit more gracious to her conversation attempts and generally played along. That was until he got the 10,000 foot all-clear for electronics usage, as he whipped out his iPod headphones, turned up the volume and zoned out (we would never hear from him again). I was getting to that point myself as I fiddled with my iPhone, trying out a few new games only to realize that my neighbor-in-flight was committed to talking the entire way. No big deal, really — typically I try to talk with who’s seated next to me at least a little. I’m fascinated by the amount of travelers and what journey they’re on. I fully appreciated and enjoyed sitting next to her, although this was just one of those times I wanted to sit in quiet.

We talked. And we talked. Actually, she talked and she talked. Politely I’d ask a question here and there, but you get the idea. Eventually my reason for travel came up and I told her it was for work… “what kind of work are you in?” “Internet… Google. I work for Google.” Everyone’s got something to say about Google — makes for a really fun topic. So she told me everything she knew about Google. Friends of friends daughters that work there, stories of the same people who eventually left, etc. We quickly jumped back into discussing her art collection and her history of growing up in San Francisco — she’s lived in the city for close to 50 years now. She’s got a lot of art — we perused the in-flight magazine as she pointed out what she liked, didn’t like, the whole kit-n-caboodle. Overall it was time well-spent, just a bit different from what I’d pictured heading to the airport.

At some point just after we landed I reached for my phone and I must have made some off-hand remark along the lines of “Guess it’s about time I figure out how to get where I’m going.” Unbenowst to me she would made note of that. We said our goodbyes, nice-to-meet-yous and parted ways. Five minutes later, we’re all waiting for our baggage to roll up. She rushes to me out of nowhere as I’m on the phone, checking in with Lauren, and interrupts to happily tell me she found “another man on the plane that works for Google! He was wearing a yellow shirt and I asked him and well, he works at Google!” She scurries around the corner to get him, and up he walks with a slightly confused look on his face. “I thought you could get a ride with this man, perhaps! Maybe you can ride together wherever you’re going!” It actually was a pretty great idea, however he’d had his own arrangements and itinerary and I had my own and it just didn’t match up.

In the end, I ended up getting towncar service to the hotel and met a Googler in the process. Funny note: Our luggage was taking a little while to show up and fellow co-worker whispered to me that perhaps we should build Google Search for Baggage in our spare time. Har har har…

To see the entire album from each day, click on the Destination photos.

Day 1
Destination: St. Louis

After shoving two huge suitcases, our airbed, feather mattress, my terrarium, four pillows, a dog bed, a bag of books, Josh’s laptop, and of course, our car sick prone dog, Remy, we left Mom’s house and took off on the beginning of our great Road Trip ’08.

We got one block away before we had to turn around and go back to get some stuff (yup, even more) that we realized we forgot. So we were only an hour late meeting our Tennessee friends for breakfast. Thanks Davy, Emily, Kirby, Kristin, and Robbie! These were the guys (sans Kevin) with whom Josh won the trip to Paris a while back.

Several hours later, we did get to see some of flooding in Illinois that was all over the news this spring. It was so sad to see the tops of soccer goals and baseball field lights peeking out over feet and feet of water.

After driving about 6 hours, we arrived south of St. Louis- a whole hour earlier than we thought we would!! Our Garmen GPS didn’t include the time zone change when giving an estimated time of arrival. We were so excited — we were able to take a NAP before sightseeing! Luxury, luxury.

We then went down the famous arch. The Gateway Arch. There’s a really pretty park that we walked through. And three guys that I’m pretty sure were smoking marijuana. Either that, or they just wanted gullible people like me to think they were smoking marijuana. Hmm.

Anyway, we didn’t go up into the arch because it was going to take an hour and well, we were too hungry for that. But we did get to see the museum underneath the arch. There were some creepy animated “people” that moved around and told about the Lewis and Clark expedition. I didn’t like those guys. And, there wasn’t one for Sacajawea. My first disappointment of the trip.

 
Day 2
Destination: Sioux City, Iowa

Probably the coolest thing that happened on this day was upon our arrival in Sioux City. When we got to our hotel, Josh went in to check us in and came back saying the room was “pretty rough.”

Now. Family. Friends. If Josh, thinks a room is rough, well, then I wouldn’t be comfortable walking around in it. Let alone using their supposedly laundered sheets. Turns out, they wanted to place us in a dimly-lit smoking room at the back of the motel. No thanks.

So being the good husband that he is, he agreed to drive around and see if we could find a better room. The tricky part: finding hotels that allow pets. Consulting Garmen and the iPhone, we found a Regency Inn nearby that allowed dogs. Well, we found where it was supposed to be. Actually finding it took awhile.  When we did… Yikes. Nobody could be serious about it being a hotel. We were about to call it quits and go back to the Pretty Rough Room when we saw a Marina Conference Center. It looked gorgeous.

Not only did it allow pets, and not only was there a room available, but it had the nicest staff who checked in with us every time we walked by the concierge. And the room was fancy nice. Easily the best place we stayed in the entire trip. 
 
Day 3
Destination: Buffalo, Wyoming

The highlights of the drive this day were Corn Palace and 1880 Town. We saw a lot of billboards for it when we were in SD two years ago, and this time, I was determined to check it out.

It’s a building with sides that are decorated with murals made of corn. They change it every year. When you go inside the Corn Palace, there’s a photo history that shows the themes for each year (2008-Everyday Heroes). There’s also vendors selling souvenirs. But the town also using it as a community center — basketball games, meetings, even proms. We really couldn’t figure this place out. Is it supposed to be serious? It seemed like more of a funny landmark than a historical one. We were laughing the whole time. I hope that wasn’t rude. Is this how people who are visiting Georgia feel about The Big Chicken?

1880 Town has a two prong approach to nab tourists’ attention. 1) A museum of memorabilia and props from the film Dances with Wolves. 2) Original buildings from the frontier that have been preserved and moved into one location. It did feel weird when you caught your first glimpse of the town. Like a ghost town — only one that has been pieced together manually.

 
Day 4
Destination: Bozeman, Montana

This was the best day on the road. We left early so we could get to Yellowstone with time to look around. On the drive towards the park, Remy started making some gagging sounds.

By the way, Remy was a trooper on the trip! He only got sick one time, when weak Lauren fed him a french fry. But other than that, he just dealt with the long hours. He did crack us up with his sitting habits. He rarely sat in the bed we put in the back seat for him. No, Remy preferred to sit on the armrest between Josh and I. He’d gradually push himself back until he was blocking our view of each other. He also liked sitting on top of the luggage we had in the back seat. Or laying on the floor behind the seat. But no matter the place he choose, the position was the same — face the back of the car. It was like he was on timeout the whole trip. But it worked. 

Anyway, so he was making gagging sounds and Josh decided to pull over at the next side road. Which happened to be at the most breathtaking mountain lake shore we’ve ever seen. Remy was magically and instantly cured when we stopped the car. He took off and got to explore the water and grass and wildflowers growing. It’s just impossible to describe how absolutely beautiful this place was. The pictures don’t even come close to doing it justice. It was the best part of the whole trip.

Then on to Yellowstone! Yellowstone was of course, incredible impressive. Just driving through it was amazing. Waterfalls on the side of the road and lakes and snow we could get out and touch right there next to our car. One area we were looking forward to seeing was this trail that led to hot springs. I had Remy on his leash and heard two different people whisper, “I didn’t think you could have dogs on this trail.” Josh was off getting close-ups of a bison — that people were literally running to go see. I started waving him down with panic and gestured that we had to get out of there. Sure enough, there was this dopey little sign at the very beginning of the trail that showed about 6 things that shouldn’t happen on the trail — including dogs. I felt so guilty. I mean, Remy’s not exactly the kind of dog to take on a bison (the reason behind the rules), but still. I would have cried like a kindergartner if a Park Ranger had reprimanded me.

As we drove to Old Faithful, we were thrilled to see a crowd building. The geyser goes off every 90 minutes or so, so if we’d missed it, we’d be there until almost nightfall. There must have been 300 people there. It was crowded. But we got to see it go off in all its faithful glory after only waiting about 10 minutes. 

On the way out of the park, Josh lamented that he hadn’t seen much wildlife. In front of us, traffic slowed and people were parking their cars and running to the side of the road with cameras. I can empathize with people who live near Loch Ness. Of course, we parked our car and Josh took his camera. Guess what it was? We’re actually not sure if it was a deer, an elk, or a moose. But he  some good shots of whatever it was.

Then there was a second traffic jam. The one was caused by a herd of buffalo. There was a river on one side of the road and a mountain on the other, so I have no idea where they came from. Perhaps they just traveled down the highway for awhile. But that was a fun adventure. And even Josh’s expectations for wildlife spotting were met. He didn’t even slow the car down when we saw some deer a few minutes later.

That night was the most interesting (and by interesting I mean depressing) night in terms of hotels. It was our last night on the road, and the only other time that booking online meant getting stuck with a smoking room. It seems that when you book online to get a the better price, you also agree to getting whichever kind of room is available upon check in. And let me tell you — it was horrible. The room itself looked fine, but REEKED. We were too exhausted to search for another room and decided to deal with it and sleep. But both of us had a hard time sleeping and breathing the stale air. So. Let that be a warning to everyone who books online — always call afterward and confirm that you are a nonsmoker. Unless, I guess, you’re a smoker. It was the only time I busted out the sheets I’d brought to use in the new apartment. And our (personal, of course) pillows still smelled the next day.

 
Day 5
Destination: Seattle!!!

Not too much to report from this day. The last hour of driving seemed to take longer than the rest of the trip combined. But it’s amazing — even a short half an hour away from a bustling city, and you’d never know. It’s just trees and ice capped mountains and pure nature. 

Then we finally arrived home In Kirkland. Our new home and a new start.

It was a great trip.

Yesterday we arrived and stayed in St. Louis, visited the Gateway Arch and tomorrow we’re headed to Buffalo, Wyoming. Tomorrow’s leg will probably be the most boring part of the trip, but the next day is promising with a visit to Devil’s Tower as well as our road-trip’s highlight: Yellowstone National Park!

We’re taking a lot of video thanks to our handy Flip camera…however it really isn’t the most exciting footage just yet. At this point it’s a bunch of interesting bridges, scenic crops, and Remy antics (and yes, he’s done just fine!). We’ll try and post one or two more times along our journey before we begin writing all about what’s going on in Seattle. :)

As of last weekend I’ve officially accepted the job, and this weekend we’re off to visit the area for the first time, complete with an arranged housing tour and a dinner with the future co-workers. Everyone up there has been overwhelmingly welcoming, and I’ve already worked with a few of them from this past summer.

Below is a box of swag they sent along (as if we didn’t have enough already) and a picture of me signing the documents to make it official.

Logos everywhere!