Time Flies

Time seems to be passing so quickly right now. I don't realize how long it has been since I've posted until I look at the date. Most of our time has been getting settled into our new apartment, unpacking, and shopping. I am happy to say I only have 3 boxes left to unpack and it is mostly just filled with pictures. Hopefully, this weekend Dwayne and I will buckle down and take the time to get all our pictures up. I still have a counter full of misc stuff and papers I need to go through and either get rid of it or find a home for it. Because this place is so much smaller, I'm going to have to work really hard to keep the clutter down. I can't just set it aside to deal with later because I'm going to need that space for something.

I'm very grateful to say that we have already found a church that we are comfortable with and are attending regularly. We visited one just down the road from us the first weekend we were here. As I was glancing through the bulliten I noticed that they were having a newcomers dinner that very night. After talking to Dwayne we decided to go ahead and attend because what better way to find out about the church? After meeting some of the pastors and listening to the reasons why they do some of the things they do we decided we were comfortable enough to just sign our names as members. I really feel like it was God's hand at work because I really wanted to make connections quickly since I'm so far away from my friends and family. It is a HUGE church. Every weekend regularly has 3000-4000 attendees between 4 services. Dwayne has a huge heart and loves working with children so he is planning on volunteering for the children's ministry. I just don't feel the calling to do that. I never have. Luckily, they have a fairly large bookstore and coffee shop and I will be attending some training this weekend to start volunteering my time there. It will be so great to continue utilizing the skills and knowledge I picked up while working at the Christian bookstore in Washington.

We've already toured the town pretty good and checked out the local library. We received our tax refund last Friday so this past weekend Dwayne took Friday off and we finished getting things done with the cars like registration and new license plates. We also took the time to upgrade and transfer our cell phone service. So it's official now we have Colorado driver's licenses, registrations, phone numbers and Colorado license plates. Does that mean we are Coloradans (sp?) now? Friday evening we went shopping for a new TV. We finally have a tv that doesn't have lots of lines running down it. The picture quality is so much better. Saturday we went and got the brakes done on the van and went to look at mattresses. Dwayne has been complaining about our mattress for quite a while. We went to only "look" but I knew we would be financing and buying a new bed. That was my Valentine's gift to him. With his new raise, I was able to justify doing that for him. The mattress was delivered on Monday and we are so enjoying having a good night's sleep with actual back support. In just the few night's we've slept on it his snoring has reduced tremendously as well.

Sunday morning, Dwayne gave me the morning alone. I took the time to go do some serious shopping. I decided to get some new bedding to go with our new bed. Our quilt was looking pretty raggedy and literally just falling apart. Because I was alone I was able to take over an hour just going through all the different bedding options and really take my time. It was wonderful! I also was supposed to go shoe shopping. I didn't find any I really liked but was very excited to find a really nice pair of waterproof winter boots for only $12. They are nice enough that I can get away with wearing them with my every day clothes too if the weather requires it.

I also went ahead and purchased Sam's preschool program this past weekend. I'm pretty excited to start working with him a little and I'm sure Evie will be tagging right along. In fact, the FedEx guy just delivered it so I'm going to dive into all our new books as soon as I'm done with this post. As you can see, we are keeping ourselves busy and trying really hard to lay down roots quickly. So far, we are really loving it here. I didn't think I would feel so comfortable so quickly. People have been so nice and welcoming. It is weird having so much sunshine. I see the sun and think it is going to be warm but one step outside and its a little chilly. I also miss the trees. I feel very exposed here but I'm sure I'll get used to that. I miss my family, of course, but it isn't as bad as I imagined it would be. The hardest part is having Sam and Evie ask to go to Grandma's house and having to explain that we can't because it is too far away. I don't think they really understand. Overall, we are good though and I'm glad the move is done. I hope Dwayne's job stays stable for a while now. I really don't want to do this again anytime soon. Besides, I'm liking it here. :)

Arriving in Denver

Wednesday we woke up and got on the road around 8. This stretch of Wyoming is even worse than the day before. The towns were few and far between with lots of desolate defunct gas stations or convenience stores. Things started to get interesting as we crossed over a small mountain range approaching Cheyenne. All of a sudden we were in grasslands and we could tell we were approaching the beginning of the great plains. I've never been on the plains before so I found it fascinating. Now that we live closer I look forward to discovering this new ecosystem. At Cheyenne we turned south towards Denver. We were making excellent time and would be in Denver by 2:00. We wouldn't be able to claim our apartment until Thursday but we thought that since we were arriving in town so early and our moving truck is waiting for us, we went to the apartments and got all of our lease signing over with. That way we could claim the keys first thing in the morning and get the movers there ASAP. However, as we were approaching downtown, traffic got really really congested. It was a little strange considering it wasn't time for any work traffic.


As it turns out the North side of the freeway ended up being shutdown completely. As we drove by we got a good view of the investigation team setting up cones, snapping pictures, etc. When Dwayne saw just a shoe sitting in the middle of the freeway with a cone next to it we knew something serious had happened. We found out later that a pedestrian decided to cross the freeway and of course, didn't make it. He was struck and killed by a semi. I was thinking to myself, "What a welcome to Denver." We finally made it to the apartment a little late but still able to sign the lease. Grabbed a local hotel, went to Red Robin for dinner and went to sleep. The next morning we were at the door when they opened the office, grabbed our keys, and claimed our apartment. We also called the movers to let them know we were in. Sam was so excited to finally get his toys back.

We, of course, didn't have the beds set up yet and I figured Evie would just skip her nap for the day but we discovered her little body had other plans.

So we finally made it. We were lucky the weather held for us and God was with us on this trip. The kids handled it extremely well and we were able to put in full days of driving without too much fuss. All of our stuff arrived like it was supposed to and on time. Nothing really came out broken or damaged so we had no horror stories about the moving company. The kids just seemed happy that we weren't traveling anymore and had all their things again. The hardest part for us has been trying to juggle our things into a smaller space. Even after all the purging we have already done we have taken another van full to the local Goodwill. Dwayne seems to have settled into his job just fine and he comes home so much happier than before. I didn't realize how stressed he really was until I have seen him unstressed. Thank you to all of you for your prayers and support during this transition. I hope to send out Easter cards this year to everybody with all our new information. We are always on Facebook too so I'm sure you'll catch us there from time to time.

Tuesday's Drive

Tuesday was probably the most boring day of our trip. I tried to find interesting things to see outside but unfortunately, there isn't a lot of change in that part of the country. Most of it looks pretty much the same. Especially in the middle of winter. We left Boise before the sun came up so we got to see the sunrise. It was very pretty peaking over the horizon and very sudden too since there weren't any mountains to block it. One moment it is dark and the next it is not. There was no gradual sunrise like in the NW.

Driving through Eastern Idaho was probably the most dangerous part of the trip. We were very blessed to have good weather pretty much the whole time and we were lucky not to have gotten caught in any storms or snow. The roads were a bit icy and the big trucks were kicking up so much slush and dirt it was hard to see through the windshield. After slipping a couple times I realized I needed to slow down. You don't really realize how fast you are going in on a straight boring stretch of road.

After stopping at another McDonald's Playplace in Northern Utah for an hour's lunch break we turned east once again rather than continuing south to Mormon territory. The Rockies were starting to make themselves known even though we were still only in the foothills. Also, further south they become much more rugged and dangerous to cross. Still looking ahead at the mountains it was hard to believe a major freeway was finding its way through this small pass. It was a tight squeeze and had several sharp curves but we popped throught the other side and very quickly found ourselves in Wyoming.

Now Wyoming is a state I can't imagine myself living in. Especially the southern part. If you aren't a rancher or a trucker there is absolutely nothing there for you to do. My mom reminded me that the whole state is probably not that way but the part we drove through was boring beyond boring. It was flat. Very flat. I was looking forward to seeing an old school friend who lived near Rock Springs but she called to say that her kids had strep. As we were approaching the town though we did see start to see a few interesting natural formations. If you ever wondered "What exactly is a butte?" Well, the following is a picture of one.

We stopped in Rock Springs around 4 pm again and found ourselves another hotel. Even though we weren't meeting my friend anymore, after checking the map we realized there was a whole lot of nothing coming up and Rock Springs is the only town with any significant size for several more hours. The kids were starting to fight again pretty bad anyway so I knew it was time to stop. We went to a local Chinese buffet (not that great) for dinner and then came back and threw the kids in the pool again to get out their wiggles. We then went to bed early again.

Monday's Drive

This is a picture of our room at the Columbia Gorge Hotel. It really doesn't do the place justice. It is a gorgeous hotel and the rooms were definately old and classic. Not a place I would recommend for little ones though. But perfect for a romantic getaway.

All I can say is thank goodness for electronic toys and that we were able to set up our laptop as a DVD player. Otherwise this would have been an even longer trip than it was.

We woke up pretty early Saturday morning because I was anxious to get on the road. It had snowed overnight in Hood River but it was just a dusting and not too bad. Most of this day was pretty uneventful. We had all our toys ready to go and since it was the first day the kids were pretty good. We still had a few moments of them fighting over a toy or hitting each other but this is normal everyday stuff whether we were in a car or not. My goal was to make it to Boise the first day and I'm happy to say we made it. This was even with an hour stop at a McDonalds PlayPlace for lunch so the kids could burn off some of their pent up energy. We also made sure the hotel we stayed at had a pool so we could take them swimming in the evening to help with that too.

Now lest you think this is a picture of nothing, let me assure you it is something. In a portion of Eastern Oregon before we hit the last mountain range before hitting Idaho we hit a patch of fog that was incredibly thick. I've never driven in fog that thick before and Dwayne and I were debating on if we were actually driving through low lying clouds since we were in high enough elevation for that. Needless to say, I'm glad it was daytime and it only lasted about 10 minutes but it was a bit scary to go through and not see anything around you.

If you look right in the middle of this picture you can see the clouds/fog we had driven through.

This is a small video of Evie rockin out to some music we were playing. She was boppin and dancing but, of course every time she noticed Daddy taking a picture she would stop. She was also chomping on a mouthful of jerky which is why her mouth is so full.

We made it to Boise at about 4pm in the afternoon after a full day of driving. I decided I wanted to get to the far side of Boise to avoid any kind of work traffic congestion in the morning. It was about perfect timing since the kids' fighting was escalating from being in the van all day. We found a decent Best Western, went to dinner, threw the kids in the hotel pool for 45 min or so, took our baths/showers, and all of us went to bed. Unfortunately, the kids wouldn't go to sleep unless we did too since the lights and TV were on. Even though I wasn't ready I went to bed early so they could go to sleep. I must say it was probably a good thing for me to get a good night's sleep but I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at about 5 am just waiting for some signs of life in my family so we could get up and get on the road.

Weekend before we leave

We left Washington Friday night after Dwayne got home from work. After the decision was made to head down to my mom's before we had to leave on Monday I was anxious and ready to go. I did my best to have the house clean and things ready to be packed but the kids were a little demanding of my time and attention because they were so bored. I kept popping in various movies into the laptop but they were anxious because the house was empty and they didn't have their things. Despite the distractions I managed to get the place cleaned up. Our things weren't exactly packed well though. Somehow, Dwayne and I squeezed everything into every little nook and cranny in the van. If we had gotten in an accident it would have been really bad with stuff everywhere. Luckily, God was with us and the trip down to Oregon was uneventful.

Saturday was pretty decent weather for an Oregon winter so we decided to visit the Portland Children's museum. In all the years we had lived there we never visited. We all thought the kids were at the perfect age to enjoy it finally and so we loaded up and went. Because of the boys' enjoyment of trains we decided to take the Max up to the zoo and avoid all the parking hassels. They thought that was great fun and fascinated the whole time. Especially going through the "big tunnel." Of course, walking by the train at the Forestry center required a stop so the kids and Aiden especially could get on it.

Inside the Children's museum was a stage where children could put on performances and pretend they are in a play. Sam found a couple of drums, parked himself front and center and played and sang away for a good 10 minutes. He would have kept on too if I hadn't forced him to move on to something else.

We then checked out a large train set that had the boys fascinated. Luckily, nearby was a pretend bus that kept Evie busy while she drove Daddy to school. The kids spent the most time though in a large dig pit. It consisted of chopped up sponge plastic pieces. Kind of like the bottoms of shoes. They dug and dug and dug while all the parents just sat around relaxing, just relieved the kids were busy and we didn't have to eyeball them so hard or chase after them. Every parent in the area had the "phew" look on their faces.

Sunday we went to visit Dwayne's grandma and saw Dianne again one last time. We then completely emptied the van and repacked everything the way it should have been done in the first place. We were still extremely full but at least not bursting at the seams as much as before. By the time this was all done I was getting anxious to get on the road. Especially knowing that Mom and Melody get up so early for work. I didn't want to prolong the goodbyes and make them late and deal with cranky kids who got woken up to early. So we decided to leave about 5pm Sunday night. My idea was to get a hotel in Troutdale so we could avoid the Portland Monday morning work traffic. We made such good time though that we went all the way to Hood River and stayed at the Columbia Gorge Hotel. I had heard a lot of good things about it and I'm very happy to say I was able to stay a night there. To be continued........

We are here

I know it has been 10 days since I've posted anything. As most of you know we have arrived in Denver safely. I have been busy trying to get our accounts switched over and unpacking. By the time evening comes, I'm not usually in the mood to type up something in the blog. I have pictures from our drive over and from the last few days. I'll try to post them for you soon. This is just a quick note to let you know we have arrived in Denver and are safe.