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.
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