Moving In

Thanks to Ruth we have a couple of pictures from move-in day...thanks Ruth!

This is one of the side-yards...it goes all the way around the back of the house (like a "U"), and it's about this wide all the way around too! Ok, maybe a little wider in the back. This is what's in the other end of the "U"...a cute little play house that has little bunk beds!!They came and tore out the rotting, broken "porch" so now you just step up into the little house.

I'm sure our neighbors were glad to see this thing pull up! It may not look like much, but it's a great car, and best of all, it was FREE!


Yes, our bed required a separate trailor and a trip to Olympia...that's a story for another time.

Do you see that lovely appliance on the right? Yes, it is a dishwasher!! Our first one! I think I ran it 4 times the first day. It's great.

Ruth had fun getting beds set up... :)


The fish traveled in style...they acutally lived in this for almost a week! But even the corals survived and everyone is happy back in their tank now.

Part of the moving crew - Next to Greg is Ted, then Todd & Tab (boy do we feel like the odd couple - not starting with "T"...kind of like when Greg lived in a house with 3 Matts!)

This is the back deck. Thank you Connie for the touch of color in the planter! (You can't really tell, but they are holding hands in this picture. So cute. Ruth may have prompted them to do that.) :)

I will post more pictures of the house once we get it looking all Better Homes & Gardens...may be a while. :)

Somewhere between Boise and Puyallup

Driving Day
We're excited to go to our new house!
I started out following Greg, but it stressed me out too much, so the kids & I went ahead. We stopped so many times, that even though he was going a lot slower than us, we only beat him by 20 minutes!

Thanks to movies and food, there wasn't a lot of this... The kids did so good...they were way more patient and content than I was. :)

Maren slept for a bit (maybe 1 1/2 hours)

Joel "rested his eyes" for a while...

and then looked out the window with his binoculars

Almost there! We timed it really bad with Seattle traffic, so it took us probably an hour to get there from this point (we also had to stop 2, or was it 3 times? to go potty in the last stretch).
After 11 hours in the car, we made it!! We stayed that night with Todd & Tab and their girls Madeline & Julia. The kids got all their energy out by running around the backyard for a couple of hours. Then we had dinner, and little mini ice cream cones for dessert. A great end to a hard day!

I just want to thank...

This is going to be like an Emmy acceptance speech because I have SO MANY people to thank for helping us move. I don't have ANY pictures from moving day - it was just too crazy and I was afraid to get my camera out and then lose it! So you can skip this if you don't want to hear about all the wonderful people who made it all possible. :)

In order of appearance:

Kathy - Took the kids to the zoo & lunch the day before we moved so that I could pack (and go to the chiropractor!)

JR - went WAY beyond the call of duty (and what he had signed up for) by not only helping to load the truck, but clean up around the outside and weed whack for us! Did I mention it was 100 degrees that day? He was there until the very end, helping Greg get the car onto the trailor...

Amit - helped load the truck for a bit in between meetings!

Tom - rearranged the truck so everything fit!

Carolyn - This goes way back...she started helping me pack weeks before the actual day. Then she showed up on move day, helped pack, made a delicious lunch, and stayed until the bitter end helping us clean. I will never be able to thank her enough for everything she did.

Lisa - Cleaned all the gross things I have been avoiding cleaning and was dreading :)

Ashling - Ditto on the cleaning...she was a trooper.

Nathaniel - Among other things, he used a cinder block to bust up my broken desk so we could put it in the trash. :)

Nicky - Watched Joel & Maren ALL day (like 9 hours)...and she has 3 kids of her own, so this was a big job!!

Jodi & JR - Let us stay the night at their house Thursday night - they fed us dinner, dessert, breakfast and sent us with food for the road.

Todd & Tabatha - After a LONG drive on Friday, we stayed the night at their house so we didn't have to unpack that night. They fed us dinner and the kids (their girls are Joel & Maren's ages!) had a blast together. It was just what we needed after a hard day of driving. They then helped us unload and unpack the next day!

Aunt Ruth - Helped unload the truck, arrange things, and bought lunch for everyone (drove from Vancouver).

Del - Helped unload the truck (drove from Portland).

Dad & Connie - Took the kids to lunch then to NW Trek for the day. Then helped us arrange things and took us out to dinner (drove from Portland)!

Uncle Ted - Helped unload the truck and drove to Olympia with Greg & Todd to pick up our bed.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL OF THESE PEOPLE FOR THEIR TIME, ENERGY & LOVE. WE COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU!!!

Saying Goodbye

For some reason I can't drag the pictures around today, so these are not in the order I intended but here goes:Carolyn has been a HUGE part of our lives since the day we got to Boise (before, actually...she and Amit did house hunting for us before we moved!). She spent so much time with the kids - doing art, being outside, or just playing on the floor - and we all spent a lot of time together, mostly eating, over the last two years. I didn't expect that she would connect so well with all of and it was such a blessing to spend so much time with her. There really is nothing like the family connection (she's my mom's cousin).
My Tuesday night "Bible Study". We did do studies, but we also had a LOT of fun, shared our lives, and a few glasses of wine. I will miss this, for sure.

Our friends Jodi & JR threw us a going away party for a small group of friends...it was so fun to have people from different parts of our lives all together. It was such a fun, mellow, great party. Thank you Duggers...you guys are amazing! (Somehow they managed to avoid the camera!)

Greg & Pete went biking a handful of times

One of the many reasons we love Carolyn - she runs and plays with the kids. :)

Maren & Sara - just getting old enough to play together. We will miss seeing these kids together!

Joel & Ella - Greg met the Engbloms at the park right after we moved to Boise (and they had just moved, too!). That's her dad and new little sister in the background.

Carolyn, Kathy & Starlyn (aka Poco, Pickle)

Ethan - don't worry, it's root beer!
This is Brian, Greg's really good friend from work. They were in residency together and then both got hired by the hospital. They were fast friends and and a great support & encouragement to each other over the last two years.

We had dinner one last time at the Bistro with Amit. This was where we started going on Sunday nights when we got tired of Parilla. :) We will miss Amit's friendship with all of us, including the kids!

This is Ryan, Katie & their little boy Henry. Greg met Katie at work (she's a nurse) right after we moved here. They had just moved here, too, so we became fast friends. We will miss BBQ's and playing Settlers of Catan with them!

GOODBYE TO BOISE AND ALL THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT SPECIAL!

Final Days in Boise - getting caught up...

We tried to enjoy Boise as much as we could the last couple of weeks we lived there. It was a great place to live and we really did enjoy it. Here are a bunch of random pictures of the last couple of weeks...I'm having technical difficulties, so these are in reverse order...

Greg got the chance to go fishing one last time - 2 days before we moved!





The kids & I had fun making play-dough...it has become a favorite pastime (especially for Maren) and we were in need of a new batch!

Using our new mini tri-pod in the backyard to get this pic.

Greg & the kids did a lot of "creek walking" (really it's in a fork of the Boise River that is slow moving enough for them to splash around).

Gotta have a big stick...

Having fun in the man-made rain. There will be plenty of this where we're going!

The best part of the Dugger's beautiful house...yep, the dog door.

Swimming one last time in the lake.

Eating at Parilla Grill with Carolyn...this was a Sunday evening tradition for us for about a year!

Joel got some brand new crocs! Guess who picked them out?!

Here are two of Joel's projects from his summer art class. It was a sea theme and the dish has beach glass and shell impressions in it. It turned out really cool.

Mmmmm...doughnut.

Mmmmmm...Starbucks.