Free at Last!!

Anton just left with the kids to visit Grandma and Grandpa. I get a full 24 hours to be childless and single (and carless) again. Oh, what to do first?

Still Alive

I've fought my way through the boxes to let you all know we are still alive in here. Sadly the number of boxes doesn't seem to be decreasing. Of course, that could have something to do with the fact that we haven't unpacked any for a few days now. Once we got the essentials unpacked we kind of gave up. I'm sure by the time we move again in a year there will still be things we never unpacked. I do have pictures of the chaos around here, but I don't feel like getting the camera right now so you'll just have to wait for those.

Tonight we went to a Mariners game. We've always tried to see them whenever they were playing an away game near wherever we lived, but this was the first time we got to see them on their home field. Anton is a HUGE fan. He has the kids trained in chanting "Ichiro!" and "Foul Ball!" and other such baseball themed things. The game was fun, even though they lost. But that was expected. This was their 101st loss.

I got myself some garlic fries that were smothered with what appeared to be an entire jar of minced garlic. My breath is so beyond nasty right now. But they were tasty. I go to baseball games for the food. There is just something about paying $6 for a hot dog that makes it taste extra good.

Anton has started school. One of his classes is a repeat of one he already took because they applied his credit to a different class. So far things don't seem to bad. He's also hooked up with the cross country team. His claim to fame is being older than everyone, including the coach. He's having fun with it, though, and it gets him a bit of scholarship money, which I think is fabulous.

So that is our goings on at the moment. I will try and keep you all updated more often, but usually if I'm in front of the computer I'm working and don't feel like sitting in front of it longer to blog. So you're going to have to take what you can get!

Help!!

I'm trapped in an apartment with too many boxes and not enough space. I keep losing my kids among the piles. Send in reinforcements, stat!!

First Impressions

So here's what I think of Washington so far.

1. What's the point of getting all geared up for rain when it hasn't rained once since we got here? There hasn't been a cloud in the sky. Not a single one. How am I supposed to whine and gripe about all the greyness and rain when there is none?!? It's not fair.

2. What's the point of driving over 5000 miles away from Florida only to sit down in Sunday School at church and have the girl in front of me turn around and say, "Hey, I know you from Florida!" Can we never get away from that swampy god-forsaken place? Thankfully she was nice and only knew me from visiting a friend down there.

3. It's not fair that all the housing around a really cheap community college costs a zillion times more than tuition. Shouldn't these things be proportionate? Argh.

4. A hotel should not be able to call a room a suite that is just one big room with a counter dividing the living space from the sleeping space. I was all geared up to finally have the kids sleeping in a separate room, but no. A little false advertising and my hopes were dashed. Humph.

5. The people I've met thus far are really nice. Everyone at church today (even though it doesn't look like it is going to be our ward) was really friendly. It all reminded me of my ward in Ohio where I grew up. It was so weird to see middle aged people with teenagers at church. I haven't been in a demographically diverse ward since I lived with my family. Since then it's either been singles wards or military wards.

6. It took me a while to figure out what looked slightly strange about all the guys around here. Then I realized what it was. They all have hair! I'm so used to military haircuts that it's weird to see guys with a full head of hair. I have to admit, I think it looks a little sloppy. It'll take some getting used to.

So those are my musings for tonight. Hopefully we'll be on our way to having a place to live tomorrow. I'm so over hotels.

We Are Here!

After a month and a half of traveling and vacation, we have finally arrived in Washington. Hooray! Though Ella keeps asking when we'll be going back to Utah. Not the best sign. But in order to get from Utah to Washington we did some fancy traveling again. We were going to go up to Yellowstone, but since the hotels were all too expensive and camping was out of the question due to below freezing temperatures, we decided to change our route at the last minute.

First stop, Reno. There we visited with an old friend and college roommate of mine. We had dinner together and just caught up.

Next day we hung out at Lake Tahoe. We went down to Emerald Bay.

It was beautiful perfect weather. It was wonderful. We took a hike down the mountain.

Going down was much easier than coming back up, let me tell you. At the bottom the kids got to play on the beach, though not in the water because it was too cold.

The ultimate purpose of going all the way down there was to visit Vikingsholm.

It was someone's summer home turned museum. Ella kept calling it a princess castle. It was a fun little place and our tour guide had actually spent all her summers there when she was a girl. Cool stuff.

Our next stop was Sacramento. There we crashed with Anton's brother and his wife.

I think they might have regretted inviting us to stay after Alex started throwing up everywhere. Yuck. He was sick for a good 24 hours. But while we were there we went out kayaking on a lake where we got to play on a rope swing. I also got to go meet up with another old friend and past college roommate. We went out to dinner and had a great time catching up. Since Alex was sick I got to hang out with her all by myself. It was nice.

Then finally it was two days of driving and we made it to Washington.

Now we just need to find a place to live, get our stuff moved in and get Anton starting school. Nothing big at all.

What We Did While in Utah

Since I am a slacker blogger and blogging on dial-up internet is agonizing, you will be getting our Utah visit in list form. I figure it's better than nothing. So here goes, all the things we did while visiting Utah in no particular order:

1. Ate at Cafe Rio 3 times.
2. Visited with LOTS of family and friends. We were seeing people almost every day.
3. Went to the zoo.
4. Went swimming.
5. Ate at Bajio, Rumbi, Rubio's, Cheesecake Factory, Red Robin, The Dodo, Zupas, Gandolfo's, Cold Stone, Yoasis, Pie Pizzeria, Hard Rock Cafe, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, and more.
6. Went to the aquarium.
7. Went rock climbing. Ella was like a little monkey scaling up and down the walls.

She was a natural.

Look how high up she is!!

Alex wasn't a big fan. That's as high as he went.

8. Went to Silver Lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon.

We got tons of good pictures that day.

My kids are so cute!!


9. Anton ran up and down a few mountains, including Timp.
10. Made a cake for my sister's birthday.

Not the best picture, and not the best decorated cake. But let me tell you, it tasted fabulous! Lemon chiffon cake with lemon mousse and raspberries. Yum.

11. Raided my mother's garden and ate all her vegetables, except for the toxic zucchini.
12. Learned how to make sushi with my sister and her hubby.
13. Got family pictures taken.
14. Got a crown put on my tooth.
15. Made up a will in case this move finally kills me.
16. Took a lesson on how to play the organ.
17. Had anniversary plans all made then had to cancel them because we all got sick.
18. Got a horrendous cold.
19. Went to the chiropractor and feel fabulously better.
20. Went to IKEA.

Things I didn't get to do that I wanted to:
1. Get to see even more friends. We just ran out of time.
2. Go to the state fair.
3. Go to the kite festival.
4. Ice skating at the Olympic oval.

And as you can see, I was a terrible photographer throughout most of this. No pictures for most everything. Oh well. We had fun, lots of fun. For those of you we got to see, we loved getting to see you. For those of you we didn't get to see, we hope to be back around Christmas! Just a few more days of travelling and sightseeing and we may finally make it to Washington. Hooray!