Issaquah

Monday Ethan headed to work and the girls and I left the hotel to find our house. We got our keys and then for the next weeks all the moving in fun started. Groceries, utilities, registrations, libraries, bills, garbage, etc. You know the drill.
*I've never felt inferior to men ever. I know that exists but I've been surrounded by men in my life who treat me very well. For the first time in my life though I wanted to "scream that women can do it too," at this moron! I was calling the internet guy because internet here is super weird. It is a fiber network so they never "turn off" internet to the houses, you just have to have the right pieces. I was calling to see if we had the right pieces (modem or router or a combo) and he literally said "pick up the box and plug it into the wall. It will not work without electricity. once you do that call back or wait for your spouse." What the what?! Excuse me!!I was so mad that I couldn't even talk. I'm no techy nerd, but I am not dumb. I was FURIOUS!! I actually was so mad that I couldn't even talk. I hung up, but definitely called later and complained. I'm sure nothing happened, but at least I got to yell at his boss. That felt good.

 It takes so long to feel really moved in somewhere. At least we had a big empty house to play in to pass time right?!

We looked very out of place clothing wise, so the first item of business was a stop at Carters to met all our Seattle weather needs.
Those first few days were just chaos. Luckily the Salmons live so close so we were able to run to there house a ton as we figured stuff out. We saw them every day, multiple times a day for weeks.  Things actually haven't slowed down in that arena but now we can contribute to the friendship too.

Issaquah is absolutely stunning. There are trails and parks everywhere, kids everywhere, and trees everywhere. I know that we are going to love this place. The sky takes some getting used to and there are times that I still miss Arizona like crazy, but I know we will figure out what is "nice" weather and that the summers will be glorious.

I can get on board with the Seahawks especially if they keep presenting chocolate covered almonds!!  this was us trying to fit in. We have already been invited to a Dawgs game! I actually feel like I can get behind Seattle teams.

We have a green belt behind and in front of us and one day we went out and looked for worms. We are making more and more friends, so now our worms hunts involve other people but it was a fun way to get out of the house and explore our new neighborhood. Kelsey loves worms. I could write a whole post about it, but I may not have time. If I don't, Kelsey, You LOVE worms!!

Looking for worms. all day er'day

At first work days were long as we were adjusting to his new schedule, as he was figuring out what van to take, and as our days were just crammed with non stop to-dos. Time with Ethan was valued by everyone. Things have obviously settled down, like we knew they would but it took some getting used to. It also took some time getting used to the sun setting at 4 and it always being gray.

This is the park across the street. Like I can see it from my window. Its awesome

We love living so close to Hadlee!

We are quickly making friends because the people here are super awesome and inclusive! Play dates happen a lot and are super fun

Hadlee, Sienna, Kelsey

I was able to get Kelsey into a dance class the second full week of being in Issy. She loves it and almost every girl in her class is also in her primary class so we are seeing the faces over and over.

This photo shoot happened on a pretty bad day. We were all pretty mad at each other all morning and there was just so much to do. Kelsey asked to take some selfies and I'm so glad she did because the mood quickly changed.

This picture makes me a little sad. She looks super old to me. I love her so much and don't want her to leave to college soon. Too dramatic? Probably not

Another park by our house! The cool thing about this picture is that Madison and I are swinging too!!

We had to borrow the Salmons lawn mower but this was the best they had. This was IMPOSSIBLE!! The grass was so long that it was the hardest work out I have ever done. We have maybe 10 feet of grass and it took me over an hour to mow it. I mean, it could be that I'm not as strong as I think but I don't think so.

First walk in the rain!

Our church shares a parking lot with the temple so we get to see the temple at least once a week. I took this our first week of church. All I could think was that the last time I had been there was when I was 8 and Christine got married! Now I live here!

Classic

"mom and dad, You are both in the picture." I mean, she wasn't lying. We totally are

Us being hilarious and stereo typical

My shopping buddies. Ps We HAVE to bring our own shopping bags to the store. Its not an option. They charge you to use plastic or paper bags.

Traveling and Spokane

After 6 hours of driving we would either sleep in a hotel or at families house. Everyone was so kind and helpful especially when we were pulling into hotels at 11 PM at night with two sleeping children. We tried to make this as much of a vacation as we could so the girls didn't go crazy and they were so good. One hotel in Montana had a playground that we played at, we stopped at fun places to eat, and had endless supply of movies in the car.

 

Nothing like burgers at 10 in the morning. Yuck! but the girls were pretty happy with this decision

At long last we made it to Spokane. The plan was to get to Spokane, spend a few days with my parents before they left for MI, and then wait until our stuff got to Seattle. In total we ended up staying there about 4 days. It was tight with everyone there, but it was sunny, a place to wait for our stuff, and filled with cousins. So many great things.

We got there on my mom's birthday

Kelsey and Ainsley played non stop when Ainsley wasn't at school. I used to think Ainsley was so much older than Kelsey because she is a year older, but once kids stop being babies, time melts away a little bit. They played so well together. Plus Ainsley is hilarious so I'm hoping Kelsey picks up a few jokes to add to her bag.

  

And yes. My dad DOES have the pretties yard in the world. No offense world. Facts are facts

We took many trips to Subway and even went downtown. There was a few girls night in there with Tori, trips to Costco, conference, and football games. The Petersens know how to have a good time.

I didn't break my toe, but bruised the heck out of it on my dad's stupid ab machine.

I also went through some old boxes and got rid of some junk but not before we got some creepy pictures first. Sweet dreams...

Someone dug through the junk pile and made a new friend. I couldn't resist and took him home with us.

Sunday after conference we made the final push to Seattle where the Salmons were awaiting us. We stayed one more night in a hotel, slept on air mattress a few nights, and our stuff arrived on Wednesday.

I've been to Seattle maybe 4 times in my life so I just don't have a lot of memories of it. It is so amazing how completely different it is. You literally crest the mountain and it is a whole new place. once we got to the top I heard Kelsey say, "Is this Washington?! Do we get to live here? Its gorgeous!!" And it is gorgeous. There was green EVERYWHERE!! I mean EVERYWHERE!! Issaquah is literally in the woods. It was a fun drive to make for us first timers.

Yellowstone

I've always wanted to go to Yellowstone but never really looked at a map to see where it is. Its like crazy close to BYU-I (a place I also have yet to visit).
As we were driving out of town, Monday morning, Ethan was like "Wanna go to Yellowstone?" and I was like "Yes. Yes I do." So for the first time we went somewhere fun without any planning. Zero planning on this one and it worked really well. It was about a 2 hour detour which got long in the end, but Yellowstone was beautiful.
We got to Yellowstone around 3 pm and were there until sun down. We knew that we wouldn't be able to see everything so we basically just drove around to the main spots on the Idaho side of the park.

We were driving down the road thinking that it looked beautiful when Ethan hit the brakes HARD! On the side of the road was a big ol bison. We parked, got out of the car and tried to get close without getting too close. It was so exciting, but little did we know how common it was soon going to be.

On our way to one of the geysers, there was a herd of about 50 bison. After that, there were maybe 10 more herds of that size. Maybe they were all one herd and just really spread out, I don't know. Point is, they were EVERYWHERE!! The girls had so much fun especially since we could get pretty close to them. Some people were idiots and like petting them and Kelsey was mad that we wouldn't let her do that but I thought it was risky enough getting within 20 feet of a live, wild animals who could trample us to death in a matter of seconds.

After the bison tour, we stopped at the Rainbow Hot Springs. I don't know what it is really called, but its the one that you see on all of the billboards in Utah promoting Wyoming. Its beautiful. From eye levle its hard to really see all the colors, but the hot springs were just fun anyway.

Obviously we had to stop at Old Faithful and we planned it perfectly. We had to wait about 6 minutes and then it started going. My favorite thing about it, that I didn't know before, was that the ground rumbles as the water is shooting up and out. You can literally hear the water bubbling. Its a little spooky.

 By this point, the sun was going down and we had to get going on our drive home. We were going to drive out of the park north pass "The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" and I was DYING to see it but the road was closed. Luckily I have seen the Grand Canyon of Grand Canyons so I should get over it, but this one has a waterfall!! There is so much to see in this world. I go crazy trying to plan it all!!

We ate at the Ol' Faithful lodge which was really fun and then we made the drive out. As the sun was setting the scenery got even more gorgeous because the temperature dropped creating very cool steam around the hot springs. 

About a mile into the drive, we came to a halt and were there for like 20 minutes. We were afraid it was just really bad traffic and then we saw a giant herd of bison coming towards us. The reason the traffic was so bad was because no one could drive :) It made for a fun exit as bison walked pass our car. Madison got a little freaked but the rest of us sort of loved it.

Another herd of bison we were trying to avoid

Moving Day

Moving Day was very different for us. We have never had movers or packers before and it was wonderful and weird all at the same time.
Wednesday night was the last "normal" day for us. Lots of people stopped by that night to say goodbye and I'm so glad. We visited with Roy and Phyllis and made sure everything was in order to get packed. There were things that we couldn't take so we had people stop by and pick things up. We also had to make sure everything was grouped together so that when we unpacked, we could find things  little easier.
Thursday, the packers came. They came and went in just under 2 hours. They actually laughed when they saw the amount of stuff we had. " This is it!"  The girls were at Joy's house and Ethan was wrapping up some work stuff. They packed 72 boxes. The packers weren't coming until the next day so as soon as we were ready, we drove up to Kay's to be with her for the evening. We took the girls to Churn and left them with Kay so that we could do the packing without them around. That night we stayed in the hotel across the street since our bed was in a box and saw the movie Magnificent 7 (not great but it was a fun date!)

In the morning we said a few more goodbyes and the movers were here bright and early. The truck sounded like a tank coming down the street. It was HUGE!!! It was so nice having packers and movers but it was so weird. I felt so lazy just sitting there while they worked their butt off. They were all super nice about it, but it was a weird feeling. What I loved though, was as they loaded things we were able to follow them around and clean. when they finished with the boxes, the house was cleaned and ready to hand off the keys. We were the first house on the truck so it was empty when it pulled up. It looked so funny seeing our boxes and all that truck space. It took them until about 3 and then it was time to lock the door and say goodbye. I love Avondale and still miss it a ton. It was hard to drive away.
We drove to Kay's house, grabbed the girls, said another hard goodbye, and headed to Utah. Kay was so sweet and put together care packages for both girls. There was a new gift for every leg of our trip. We sure are going to miss her.
Amazon paid for hotels and food along the way so we really took our time. Our goal was St. George. We drove until Vegas (with a failed stop at the Hoover Dam), ate at Olive Garden, put the girls in their jammies and drove the final 2 hours to St. George.

St. George was very uneventful but my favorite memory was when Kelsey stepped out in the morning, she gave her self a big hug and went. "AH! Its so burr here!!"
We looked VERY out of place the further north we drove. We had shorts and flip flops almost the whole way



















After a delicious meal at Cracker Barrel, we started out leg up to Bountiful. We had Blue skies most of the way, but once we hit Utah County we ran into cold rain and gray.

We hadn't seen the Provo City Temple yet, so while the girls were asleep we made  a quick stop. Due to conference the temple was closed so we couldn't get in the gates but it was still beautiful. We feel such a connection to that temple. Thats where we decided to get married, where we had Stake Conference, and so many other great memories. Its crazy to think its now a temple, but the Lord works in mysterious way. Oh and yes, we were FREEZING!! Utah decided to get super cold the weekend we were in town. Obviously we showed up in shorts and flip flops and had to quickly run to the store to get other stuff. Its not that we don't own other stuff, its just that the day we left it was still close to 100.

We had a great weekend in Salt Lake. I went to Stake Conference with my sisters, Ethan saw some friends, and we had a big Wing dinner on Sunday. We weren't there very long because we were anxious to keep going, but the time we did spend was quality.