Moving Again?

Yes I know, this is getting out of hand.  Another year, another move.  It's kind of hard to articulate how it all went down.  Summer came and was flying by and we had no plans to up and move again. But, basically a series of events occurred that made us start to consider it.  Where, you ask?  Well, back to Joe's old stomping grounds in Idaho.  Some of you who have talked to me about it over the years, may have heard me express that I'd never want to move back to where Joe grew up.  This was for a variety of reasons that I won't get into here.  Weirdly enough, though, the idea began to seem really appealing to me.  

Then, things started falling into place for us.  We found a house.  Joe's employment situation was working out.  We truly felt like we were being guided this direction.  Of course that doesn't mean it was all easy-peasy.  Moving is never fun and this might have been our roughest move yet.  But, now that we are here, we have no doubts that this is where we're supposed to be.

The kids have handled the move well.  They are used to this, I guess.  We were worried about their reactions, but they were all excited about moving close to cousins again (and about snow!).  This was our first move mid-school year and I was worried about that.  But, the girls were remarkably calm before their (second) first day.  I was seriously amazed by them.  They both seem to like their new school and are already making some friends.  It helps that there is an abundance of little girls their ages in our neighborhood.  We had about six stop by on our first day here.  

It has been rough, though.  I feel like we've all had short fuses lately and are getting annoyed with each other easily.  The kids' fighting has been driving me crazy!  We're working on it, though.  I do think most of it is moving stress taking its toll.

Anyway, here is our move in the few pictures that I have:

I found this picture Elizabeth had taken of our map on my phone:

She also took these:

Those pictures were actually taken when I was quite frustrated.  I was trying to get the games down from where we keep them above the coat closet and managed to drop most of them.  Game pieces, cards and dominoes were everywhere.  Then Eli was dumping them out as fast as I could pick them up.  I tell you, moving with a 21 month-old is not very fun.  Here's a list of just a few of his antics during our moving process:

-drawing on the carpet with sharpie (thankfully it came out)

-drinking the little bit of water at the bottom of the toilet brush holder (BLECH--it makes my stomach turn just thinking about it).

-breaking one of the hands off our nice clock.

-breaking one of my ancestor frames

-constant messes and trying to unpack all of my packing...

It's a good thing he's cute:

I also had some wonderful friends that watched him for me and that helped so much (plus naps--thank goodness for those!).

We took a break from packing one day to have a fun outing with our preschool friends.  We went apple picking at Gizdich:

It was nice to be with friends and get one last delicious slice of berry pie.  

Nate sure misses his friends.  He said more than once that he wished his friends and his cousins could all live next to each other.

These cute girls insisted on a picture on one of the last days of school in CA:

Those two girls always join us after school while we wait for everyone to come.  They LOVE Elijah and were very sweet friends to Natalie.  Tomoka (on the right) even made her a little yearbook that she could have her friends and teachers sign. 

I had to try and sneak a picture of Elizabeth after her last day of school:

She often felt that she didn't have any friends, but she was surrounded by kids giving her hugs and saying how much they'd miss her.  Her teacher came up to me and told me how much he'd miss her, too, and what a wonderful, thoughtful student she was in his class.  He even mentioned to me that she was pretty brave and articulate when talking about her religion, too.  (He seemed kind of interested in the fact that she is a Mormon.  She told me about a few conversations they had about it.)  She also was the first one to get mail at our new house--a letter from her closest friend from school, and a super thoughtful package from another girl in her old class.  I think she feels pretty loved.  Hopefully that will help carry her through the rough months ahead of being the new kid and having to make new friends.

As for me, I felt an urge to take pictures of some things that I would really miss...

Like the view from our hammock:

 I miss our palm tree.  And I miss perfect evenings on the hammock.  I had a really weird allergic reaction a few weeks ago that was so itchy it was keeping me up at nights.  I retreated to the hammock a few times and just laid there looking at the stars in the perfect weather (trying not to itch).

 And these hills:

I saw this view every day and I grew to really love those hills.  

They were even prettier when they were green.

 Most of all, I miss the people.  I miss the friends I made.  Really great women at church that were always so kind, genuine, and down-to-earth.  Really great women and men in the neighborhood and at school that loved and cared for my kids and were unfailingly generous.

Despite some challenges, our time there was good to us.

Now we're onto a new state and new adventures.

We must be crazy. :)