August - Move to WA!

On Thursday the 25, we drove from Alex's parents' to our new house! It's much harder to drive in two cars than one because there isn't anyone to pass out the treats or handle the screamers or negotiate the battles. We made it work, though, with Olivia and Hunter in the car with me (O was a GREAT help with the baby. She helped with pacifiers, played with him, and read to him for a lot of the drive) and Makenzie and Carter in the van with Alex. We made it to Colton, WA in the middle of the afternoon to meet Dan, the owner of the house we are renting for a couple months while we close on and get moved into our house in Pullman. It's just one more layer of crazy that we added to our move, but renting a furnished house allowed the kids and I to move here with Alex instead of staying in California while he started the job, which is how we've done the last couple moves.

We checked out the house with Dan, unloaded most of the stuff from both cars, then Olivia and I left to go to back to school night at her school! She was starting Kindergarten the next week, and the state of Washington has all-day kinder, so it is a big adjustment. Probably more of an adjustment for me than for her, she always loves anything that makes her seem older than she is :).

At the back to school ice cream social we were able to meet her teacher at the Colton School, which is a K-12 school in the town of 400 that is about 15 minutes away from Pullman. I'm so excited that the kids have the opportunity to go to a small country school, even if it's only for a few weeks. I had that experience in Elementary school and it was wonderful. Olivia is a great student, loves everything about school, and will totally benefit from the one-on-one attention that she gets in her classroom of 12 students.

As you can tell from the pictures, Olivia's favorite thing about her school from the first night was her locker. She gets a locker to share with her 'locker friend', which I told her very few Kindergarten students get. Someone was super excited for school to start!

 Here's a few pictures of the house..

Every room has its own balcony. Here is the view of the palouse from the master bedroom. We arrived just in time to watch the fields get harvested...which is Carter's favorite thing about Colton. He has changed his dream job from 'dinosaur' to 'farmer who drives a combine'. He is going to be a farmer for Halloween this year, and I hope that sometime in the next few years we get him into a combine.

This is taken from the back corner of our back yard looking at our house. The yard is HUGE, because it's on a full double lot, with more than an acre.

Carter went on a walk with dad to get our mailbox set up. This town is so rural that there is no mail delivery, you go to the post office to pick it up. This was our first experience outside of the school of meeting anyone local, and we could tell that we were not going to remain anonymous in this town. Debbie, who runs the post office, recognized Alex as a newcomer the minute he walked in. She helped him get a Post Office Box set up, giving it to us for free after hearing our temporary situation. A few days later, I walked in with Carter and all the other kids (Carter had been with Alex to set it up) and she called to him by name and immediately knew who I was. She even told me the box number, as I had it written on my phone but was trying to find the note. Since then, every time I go in she says hi and chats while I get the mail. This experience has been the same in the library (which is open for one afternoon each week :)) and at the school. In fact, the school secretary recognized my voice and remembered both kids' names before she even looked us up or had us officially registered. I just called to get the information before coming up, and they were beyond helpful. Part of me wishes that we had known about Colton before picking a house in Pullman, but then I remember that I have to drive 20 minutes each way to buy anything (there isn't even a gas station market in town) and that our internet is 6 MBps and I get over my nostalgia for country living. I definitely enjoy the conveniences of city life and don't need to be driving for hours each day like my mom did while raising us in the country.

Alex worked on Friday, then had the weekend to play, so we were able to do a big Walmart trip, where we spent more than I ever have at one time at Walmart, and get settled into the house. We also took the opportunity of being together for the first time in almost a month to play outside. We bought a slip'n'slide (thank you summer clearance!) and had some great fun on Sunday afternoon.

The next few pictures are just of the kids wrestling. First is Hunter laying on Makenzie's stomach. She laughed and had him lay there for about ten minutes one afternoon, it was hilarious. I didn't even get a good picture because I was laughing right along with them the entire time.

Alex sent these pictures home after he got his official gear from Washington State. We are going to like being Cougars I think. I still wear orange and black on game days, but everything about the college, the town, and Alex's office seems great. Like every job in athletics that he has had, he came home with TONS of WSU gear, including these new shoes.

After the weekend and a few days of problems getting the internet set up, the kids were THRILLED on Wednesday when they were able to watch a show for the first time since arriving. Our kids don't watch a ton of TV, but most days they watch a show or two while I make dinner, so we were all a bit relieved when they could get back into that routine. The hours of 4-7 are just the worst (in my opinion), so I appreciate all the help I can get.

Here's this cute guy! He's just fun, and I find myself taking pictures of his adorable faces almost daily. The coloring in these is really good, and it shows that he actually has brown hair. It's lighter than Carter's ever was, but in some pictures it looks really red, so I wanted to show why we still call him brown-haired.

And on the last day of August, the kids got haircuts. I was going to cut Carters and just bring O in to a salon, but I got lazy and tired, so he got a 'store cut' also. Probably the best part was the free crayons, it made the kids' night :). I was also relieved to be able to brush Olivia's hair again. That girl has a really hard time after spending the summer in and out of chlorine pools, so both years we have cut her hair quite a few inches right before school. She definitely looks all of her almost 6 years in this picture.

And a few other notes we have from our first week in Colton:

1. Our entire family combined knows less about tractors and big machinery attachments than any 3 year old Colton resident.

2. Mirrored closet doors are the best for singing in front of, playing peek-a-boo with, and checking out muscles (you can guess which kid I caught doing each of these things in the first few days)

3. Some appliances are impossible to live without for 6 weeks. For us this includes a toaster, so we are glad for thrift stores with awesome prices. I am still mourning my crock pot, and can't wait to get it back in a couple weeks.

4. New people stick out like a sore thumb in small towns. Everywhere we go, people introduce themselves immediately and point out that we are new in town. Everyone that we tell our situation to also tells us we should stay, and at least 3 have offered to show us the house that is for sale in Colton (yes the only one) because it has 4 bedrooms and would definitely work for us. If we weren't under contract already in Pullman I would probably take them up on it, we love this town!

5. Folding patio chairs aren't the right height for a kitchen table. It's even hard for an adult to sit in them.

6. While country living might not be a great fit for us right now, I'm so happy that the kids get the opportunity to have this experience and learn so much from this town. The people here are so kind and it has been a great introduction to Washington.

August OR Trip Part 5

The last few days of our Oregon Trip were so fun as we finished up swimming lessons and partied a little before leaving. Leaving - like everything else during this trip - was a little complicated, but more on that later.

Thursday afternoon the trailer was delivered to our California house. This was Alex's first day not working, so he was trying hard to pack up the house and get it ready for the move. We didn't actually load the truck until Monday, but he sent me this picture to show how much bigger it was (at 28ft) than the 26ft moving van we moved to California in. I was quite worried about space, but using the truck trailer gives you an additional 2ish ft of vertical space, so we had plenty of room. 

Thursday was also the last day of swimming lessons, so we celebrated with some ice cream! I insisted on drive through instead of going in, but the kids didn't seem to mind very much :).

As a side note, this was the first time Kenzie ever got an ice cream cone! Normally I order an empty cone and give her the tiniest bit of ice cream from another cone, but I wasn't thinking today, so she got one just like the other kids. She looks thrilled about it, and her amount of pleasure was probably worth the straps needing washed :).

One interesting story from this trip was the kids discovering Alexa. If you, like me, have no idea who this is, it's a new pseudo-member of my parents' family. Alexa is the name for the Amazon Listening Speaker thing (like Siri) that you can talk to, ask questions of, etc. My first evening in the house, I was surprised when I was talking to my dad (we were the only two people in the room) and he randomly said 'Alexa, tell me a joke'. I was about to ask what he was doing when the speaker by my shoulder responded with a corny joke. Throughout the two week vacation, I saw my dad ask historical facts, my mom add things to her grocery list, and many other things. It never got beyond strange for me, but it was a point of interest.

Midway through the second week, my mom showed Olivia how to add things to the grocery list. In both of our minds, she would immediately realize that Grandpa bought the things on the list and start adding things like ice cream, candy, etc. She didn't get there, however, and just added bananas 5 times in a row and thought it was hilarious. That afternoon, Olivia showed her cousins and Carter how she added the bananas and how to add things. That started a never-ending parade of kids asking Alexa to tell them a joke and laughing hysterically before the punchline, adding things like 'stinky diapers' and '101 ponies' to the grocery list and then asking her to repeat the list back. I think my mom's grocery list went from 14 things to over 90 in just a few days. I was just glad that they didn't learn about Alexa until the last week...it was a loud week. One of the last things added was boogars...which will make more sense after the next story.

We rested on Thursday afternoon, then had a mini birthday party for Justin, who was turning 4 that weekend. The kids had a blast playing together, and absolutely loved that Grandpa brought a boogar cake for Justin. Typical Grandpa, and he even got caught by the girls for adding boogars to the list himself. They were not about to let him get away with saying that the kids added it.

The next day we took all the kids to the coast on the nicest day I've ever been to on the Oregon Coast. First stop, the Hatfield Marine Science Center. We love this place

Every time we go, different kids are brave. This time Olivia joined the touching group (which I will never be a part of and have to be careful to encourage to the kids). Makenzie also touched the animals and loved it, which was the first time but not a surprise at all. She turned into a Grandpa's girl this trip, so cute!

This was a display to show how waves can damage structures. Kylie, Carter, and Justin all had a height problem, but Kylie was the most persistent. She ended up kissing the wall for about ten minutes while she dug and built and played.

We took the kids to lunch, which went surprisingly well for how many kids we had :). After that we headed down to the beach. If you can see in the background of a few of these pictures, people are actually wearing swimsuits on the Oregon Coast! We should have brought swimsuits too, but we were just glad we remembered sunscreen! I ended up with a nice sunburn because as usual, I forgot to sunscreen myself after doing all the kids with my mom. here are some cute kids-on-the-beach pictures...we had a great afternoon and spent a long time just hanging out. Somehow I don't have any pictures of Carter, but he was there too :).

That pretty much wiped us out for Friday, and that evening we put a show on for the kids so we could get ready for Saturday. On Saturday at 9:00 we had three different cars of people leaving, going to three different states. My dad took Kylie and Justin to meet their dad halfway between Philomath and their house in Idaho. Mary and Gary came down to get the oldest three kids of ours to go to their house for a few days, and my mom and I took Hunter down to California to officially move us with Alex. The next few pictures are jumbled a bit, but we really loved all the sweet pictures we got from the Casqueiros with our kids. I usually look forward to these short breaks from the kids, but it always ends up being way harder than I imagine to actually be apart.

This was Hunter's face on the way down to see Dad after two weeks apart. He was just a little excited :).

The kids also got to go to the Steam Engine museum in Brooks. This train that they are sitting goes all around a little track, and they apparently rode it until Kenzie actually fell asleep :).

Hunter also had his 3-month birthday during this grand adventure! This little boy has been the perfect addition to our family. It's so sweet to see him start to interact with his siblings, and to see how much his siblings treasure him. I can already see how our children are splitting up into older and younger kids. Makenzie would love to spend every waking moment with Hunter at her side, or on her lap, or laying on her tummy. Hunter, as well, smiles every time Kenzie grabs his arm just a little too tightly to wave to herself, or 'tickles' his tummy quite aggressively. I can tell that he is going to be a very tolerant kid, and I appreciate that, because it's a necessary thing at this point. I joke with Alex that it's rare for there not to be at least one crying kid at our house. I know this is a phase and won't last long, but for now I treasure every moment that he lays content on his play mat or sits happily in one of his sisters' laps.

Monday was our official load-the-truck day. We hired some movers to help us load the truck, and I was totally glad. They were very professional and efficient, and capable of stacking boxes to the top of the truck. We haven't yet unloaded to see if we have any damaged furniture items, but luckily we are used to things getting damaged in moves and by children, so I'm not too worried. I was happy when about halfway through the tedious loading process I got this picture from Mary. The kids totally loved their time with their grandparents, and lasted through a 3 week vacation, which is more than I could have hoped.

Here is the garage...all ready to load. Alex did such a great job getting everything ready to go. I was worried that he didn't understand the magnitude of the process (every other move we have done he has either been gone and I was packing by myself or he was working very long hours and I was mostly packing by myself) but he had everything except the random stuff ready to go and I was able to pull out the kids clothes that we needed for our unplanned time in a rental and do some of the other organizational things that I hadn't done prior to our Oregon trip. My mom was also a godsend. She packed up all the food from the cupboards and random kitchen stuff, as well as the linen closets and bathroom.

About midway in the truck-loading process I heard a huge crash from the garage. I ran out to find one of the movers, who had been carrying 4 medium bins of kids toys, splayed out on the ground amidst Mr. Potato Heads, blocks, and other miscellaneous toys. After he got up I was able to see what caused the problem. A Costco sized bottle of balsamic vinegar was now broken, and had splashed and poured over everything on the garage floor. I was immediately relieved, however, for the following reasons: 1. It was regular balsamic vinegar and not my prized specialty flavors from a few different shops. 2. All of the toys involved were easily rinsable, not barbies or dolls or anything like that. 3. Miraculously, the glass hadn't cut anyone, and we were able to mop up the vinegar with a few towels. These towels didn't make it through the process, so they were our first (and so far only) casualty of the move.

After the truck was completely loaded, Alex and I realized that we only had cleaning to do, and weren't feeling up to doing it yet, so we had a mini date out to lunch that we lingered over before going back to the house to start my least favorite part of moving. We are getting pretty good at packing, organizing, and moving, but cleaning is and will always be the worst.

On Tuesday, Alex and I spent the entire day cleaning, vacuuming, and replacing blinds. I'm glad the kids weren't with us, because they got to go to the zoo with cousins instead. They had the best time, and I have heard many stories about the funny animals. Makenzie especially loves to look at the pictures and name everyone. I'm so glad my children get the opportunity to be great friends with their cousins just like Alex and I were growing up.

I don't know if I've mentioned it in this blog, but Andy is seriously the best. Even when Alex and I are there, he's always stopping to pick up a straggling kid or grab a few of the 5 bags that I am always carrying. I never have to carry the bulky carseat if he's there because he gets it before I even can. We are so blessed to have him, and my kids are lucky to have the best uncle ever :).

Just looking at these pictures reminds me of Makenzie's newest ritual. Before bed each night, we read the kids a story together, then split them up into their rooms and sing to them one at a time. In the rental each of the kids has their own room, so this is a pretty long process. Kenzie always asks to do Pat-A-Cake after I sing one song. In the rhyme, we roll it, punch it, and mark it with a '__' and pick the letter of the baby's first name. After doing herself, Kenz always has to do Ashley, and will sit there saying 'Ash-ees, Ash-ees' over and over until you acknowledge her and sing Pat-A-Cake to Ashley too. This girl is smitten with her aunt :).

Midway through cleaning, Alex and I took a pizza break and I just had to laugh at us. I was sitting on an inflatable mattress in the middle of our living room with Alex sitting in a camping chair next to it, just eating pizza and salad. It's a little tricky to live in a house for 3 days after your stuff has left, but we made it work, and enjoyed the little bit of calm in the midst of a crazy month.

Here is our truck leaving! It is being stored in Boise until we are ready for it in our new house, so we will hopefully see it soon.

Wednesday morning, bright and early, we headed out. I stopped first to say goodbye to the single best thing about California...the Rule family! I feel so lucky to have met Allison just days after moving to Concord, and we became the best of friends very quickly. She saved me multiple times when I had a time problem with driving, and was so amazing when I was having a difficult pregnancy with Hunter. The kids match up in ages perfectly with her 5 year old girl and twin 3 year old boys, so our families were just a perfect match. I think between car pools, joint activities, and play dates, we saw each other easily 5 days a week if not more for the entire time we lived there. A month after moving I am still in withdrawals, and I just hope that we can see each other soon!

Leaving town, it occurred to me that this might be the last time that I see San Francisco traffic...I was so glad to leave it behind!!

We had two cars, two drivers, and a nursing baby with us, so I left a little earlier than Alex and we didn't drive together. We did meet up a few times when I was feeding Hunter at various stops, but after my first stop I passed our stuff on the freeway! I said another quick goodbye as I just felt glad that I didn't have to drive the truck. My minivan is so much easier and faster!

And that was the end of our time in Concord. As has been quite apparent, I have mixed feelings about our time there, and was glad to be moving to Washington. However, I'm so glad for the opportunities that Alex and our entire family had while we were there. The kids were able to see some of the touristy San Francisco things, and Alex was able to make a great career move that will benefit us for the rest of our lives. I'm also so grateful for friendships made, and will definitely miss that part of the Bay Area. However, for our family it was on to bigger and better things...in the post to come.