Time for some relaxation!

My apologies to my fellow blog followers- it's been a busy couple of weeks!

On Saturday, June 15th we left Cordova.  We weren't able to get into our rental place in Eagle River until Tuesday night, so we spent some time with our friend Ruth.  This was "normal" for the kiddos since we usually stay with Ruth when we were in town. 

Tuesday night we ended up highering a couple of guys from the moving company pictured. Highly recommend them and it was money well spent.  We were able to get the UHaul unloaded and all the major furniture in the correct rooms in 2 hours!!

 

 

 We didn't get to spend much time at our new house. Tuesday night I went back after putting kids to bed at Ruth's house and stayed up late getting the kitchen all unpacked.  That's just a job that you really have to not be interrupted.  Then on Wednesday we spent the full day at the house organizing and getting all the rooms set up the way we wanted.  I'm sorry I don't have more specific pictures- but I will post some when we get back to Alaska.

 

 

Thursday we headed to Fairbanks. It was beautiful drive and Denali was soaring into the sky! It was such a beautiful sight- I don't think this phone picture does it justice.  We spent Thursday night in Fairbanks and then Friday night at 11:45pm we loaded the family up and headed to the airport for our month long trip to Wisconsin to see my family.   I thought that a 1:05am departure to Seattle would mean the kids would fall right back to sleep - WRONG! Leinna is a great traveler - Lukkas - well, let's just be thankful that he's still here :o)  He DOES NOT like to fly and he made sure that everyone on the airplane knew it!  So, it was a very long flight to Seattle and we arrived at 6 am.  We had a long lay over until our flight to Minneapolis - also by design.  I planned it so the kids would eat breakfast, we could walk around and play, eat lunch and walk around and play some more to be worn out for the next flight.

Leinna loved the "little train" between the different concourses at the airport.

 

 

 

We did good with the eating, playing and walking around (pictures above from the playroom at the Seattle airport).  We boarded our flight with high hopes of both kids taking a nap.  Leinna understood and slept the entire flight to Minneapolis.  Lukkas- well, we at least got an hour of sleep and then the rest of the flight - 2+ hours worth- was him screaming his lungs out.  Poor kid was hoarse by the time we landed.  I tried everything I could think of to help him - but he just doesn't like to fly!  I don't believe in "drugging" kids with a little Benadryl before traveling - but I may just have to for everyone sanity when we fly back to Alaska at the end of July. 

 

 In the meantime - we are all happy to be settling into a routine in Wisconsin.  My brother and nephews are here this week too! So fun to have everyone all together.  We've been swimming in the lake, helping Grandpa feed the cows, to the park and 4-wheeler rides. One of the favorites is riding around in the wagon :o)

 

 

I will be posting more pictures of our fun adventures. Thank you for checking in and I'll do my best to get back to my weekly updates!  Until next time - smile at a stranger- it may just make their day :o)



Good Bye Cordova

Well, I figured I'd better get a least one more update before the internet is turned off and we head off on our new adventures.  The Uhaul arrived Tuesday afternoon with my in-laws. Thankful they are able to come help us out.  The kiddos are still going to day care this week - we thought it would be best for them to have some sense of "normal" this week.   So, we've been busy during the day and then trying to keep the evening as "normal" as we can for the kids.

We've had AMAZING weather which is both a blessing and a curse.  A blessing because we can load things out onto the deck to see how to fit things in the truck.  A curse because we just want to go out the road and play in the sunshine.  We did take a break last week from packing and took the kids to probably their last outing to the park. 

We had a great time playing on all the fun jungle gyms.  I'm looking forward to seeing what community activities we'll have in our new place.   Speaking of new place- what a crazy week we had.  We have a purchase agreement for the sale of our house!  We are VERY EXCITED but also remaining cautious - it will feel official when we sign the papers at the end of August.  The new buyers are okay with the renters we have lined up for the house, and the renters knew upfront that if the house sold, they would have 2 months to move out.  I can't even express how much of a blessing this whole situation is.  Another blessing this past week - we thought we had the perfect rental place lined up.  When we received the lease - my gut sank and I was extremely uneasy and felt like something was up.  God is good and with Leif's support we followed the "gut instinct" and it turned out that the rental person was a scam artist.  We were literally at the bank trying to decide whether to send the deposit the person was requesting.  Whew... So then, we shifted gears to finding a new place to rent and another blessing was presented.  We found a place through the help of the potential new day care provider in Eagle River and the place is available for us to move in on the 19th.  This puts our timelines a little tight as we leave for Wisconsin on the 22nd - but none the less- so very thankful to find a rental that's affordable, has the space we need, garage, fence yard, allows pets and we can move in now before we go on our trip.

Whew... I tell ya - it's been a CRAZY week and a half.  In the words of Leinna, "Two more sleeps and we'll be on the big boat to Anchorage!" 

Not sure when my next opportunity will be to blog, so

Good bye for now!

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day ~ May 2013

We decided to take a break from the business of packing and went out the road to join our friends for a BBQ lunch and fun while we remember and are thankful for all the men and women who fought and continue to fight for freedom.

We couldn't have had better weather, sunshine was shinning and a slight breeze to keep the bugs away.  We took the 4-wheeler about 1/4 of mile in to our pick-nick spot.

Leinna thought she could take her brother for a ride by themselves!

I just love how laid back Lukkas looks :o)

It was a fun afternoon of learning to skip rocks into the river and hanging out with some great friends.  It was a well needed break from wrapping up the end of the school year and now focusing on packing up the house.