Sunday, June 22, 2014

Our Exodus to Washington...

Our family of 5's biggest (hopefully) ever exodus. We knew we would be moving but we didn't know to where and we didn't know how, but gradually things all came together. We have seen so many blessings in this entire process and we know it is a loving Father in Heaven has a hand in each aspect of this exodus. 

Luckily Peg and Alan (Mom and Dad) were coming out for graduation and they were willing to help travel back across the country...they are saints! They were also so great to come early so that we could have someone there to entertain the kiddos while we finished packing and so that I could take Mike on a surprise overnight trip to Amish country for graduation. We had a really nice time and the kids did great with their Grandparents...we'll have to do that more often (wink, wink)

 playing at Playground world for the last time

Even though we tried to prepare Vienna and Lincoln for our long journey ahead and focused on them more than anything for the planning, it is still tough on kiddos. Here are some of the joys of the pre-moving...
 Like Everett sleeping in the front door closet...
 showering in the scape-pod shower because we re-caulked the tub upstairs
And other things like sleeping in our rooms with just mattresses, sitting on the floor for our last few meals, living out of suitcases etc.

Here is our darling home in the CALM BEFORE THE STORM...

Loading up the truck was fun stuff too. I'm so grateful to karen for taking the kids and letting them play with her girls so the kids were out of the way and having a blast. We're so grateful for our good friends in Cleveland who we miss loads.
Luckily, not just our elders, but another companionship showed up, along with Jace, Jaron and John
 (Thank you a bunch!)

I was right in the thick of things the whole time and luckily Everett slept the whole 2 hours.

Moving Day was the same day as Graduation so we left in the evening...
 We talked about our moving truck and Lincoln thought it was pretty neat.
Here they are getting comfy for the first few hours of our trip.
 Here is Roony with our family...Good by Norma Drive
Here is the moving truck and broken Lola trailor, that would be Alan and Peg's haven (lol) for the journey. It was a beast but something very familiar for Mike and Alan as they did this 4 years earlier to get out here. 

Our journey took us to just outside Chicago, then in the morning we went to IKEA to get a bed for Lincoln and a loft bed for Vienna, that was kind of rushed so it wasn't as fun as I was hoping but we got Lincoln's bed. Vienna's was on back order so we had Mema and Papa bring hers with them.
Then we went on to Tomah, WI and got there in time for dinner and swimming (which the kids loved).
They next day was on to Mitchell South Dakota. Here was a fun waterslide and a corn palace.

 So there is this corn palace (it is made out of all different kinds of corn ears) Mike and Vienna went with Peg and Alan, while I stayed at the hotel room with sleeping Lincoln and Everett.
 This hotel also had a huge waterslide, which the kids loved!!! We had a great time and even G-ma and G-pa joined us. YAY!!!
 Daddy and Lincoln!
 Daddy and Lincoln
 Tubbo and Daddy
 Me and my sweet Lincoln man. I did go on the slide several times with Linc and Vienna but no pics :(
 The breakfast room at the hotel. I just love this picture!
 My sweet little ones doing a great job on our long journey!
 These 2 are so cute to watch play together
 What a sweet baby boy!
 Vienna adores her little baby brother!
Here is a glam shot of the slide and play area. So fun!

From here we headed to Ra[id City South Dakota, which is where Mount Rushmore is. We got there ate lunch, had naps and then went up to the Mount, It was so tough to convince the kids to get back in the car to go and truthfully they didn't care about the "faces in the mountain' but I am glad I got to see it. Once we got back and went swimming, the kids were much happier.

 We made it up to the mountain in 1 piece...barely.
This was a fun swim, Vienna found a great little friend to play with and there was a nice hot tub.  It was a unique hotel, it felt like a 1970's Las Vegas hotel. 

From here we went to Bozeman, Mt and got to swim with a smaller water slide that Vienna did all by herself. Then the next day, it was HOME!!! YAY!!!!!!!

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