The New Digs

We had a bit of a time finding a place to fit us all that we could afford. We had a line on one and were in the qualifying process while traveling. Once we got here, we had to work out a couple of kinks, but 2 days later, we were moving in.
The kids got to spend a week in Washington after I left, then my mom flew them to Pennsylvania to spend some time with their other grand parents. They got to visit Dutch Wonderland and Hershey Park (or Chocolate world as Joel called it) while there. They then drove down to Columbia, SC where Mike is in school to visit him for a couple of days before driving them this way to me.
We've had Wes' kids with us since we moved in, and I think they were glad for the extra company. Everyone is getting along well, but man 5 kids are a lot! Leftovers are a thing of the past (yes, I've been cooking dinner!)
So, for to satisfy everyone's curiosity, here are some pics of the house. Please excuse the lack of pictures on the walls, unpacked boxes and evidence of children. We're still a work in progress here.

It looks small, but as you will see, looks can be deceiving.

The view from the front door. What? It has an upstairs???!!! Crazy!

Living Room

The door to the far right is to the master bath, the door at the right of the dining room is to the master bedroom.

Dining Room


Master Bedroom


The master bath. There is a partition door in the center that seperates the commode from the shower area so we have a "powder room" for guests.

Kitchen

The breakfast nook, which we use to hold all of Joel's trains, and the pets.

Kids' bath at the top of the stairs, the boys' room is to the right, girls' to the left


The boys' room (it was already blue)


The girl's room - with Joey, Mackenzie, Russel, & Joel horsing around

Joey, Brianna, & Russel

Mackenzie & Russell

Joel playing the Wii

Still Alive and Kicking

To catch eveyone up.....
On July 9th with a 24' rental truck loaded with all my wordly goods (kids' things too), my car towed behind with 2 guinea pigs and a dog, cat in the cab of the truck, I set out on my latest adventure. My travel partner (aka Wes) and I headed east to where the kids and I would be calling home. Summerville, SC. The first thing we learned as we drove throught the Cascades was that this trip was gonna take longer than we expected. I'd driven across country with a car, with a mini van towing a trailer following an RV, with an 16' truck. But apparantly a 24' truck towing a small SUV is a whole other ball of wax. Climbing to the summit we hit the out of contol speed of 25 mph. Yes folks, we were cruising! Not to mention the engine started over heating so we had to stop for a while at the summit to let it cool off. For those of you that have ever driven between Washington and any point east of the Rockies, the cascades were only the beginning. We had set our sites for Butte Montana for that first night. We made it to Kellog Idaho.

Other than the miscalculations on time, the drive went smoothly. The animals were all taking the trip fairly well and we didn't have any problems finding hotels that were pet friendly. Wes enjoyed Montana. He says if he ever wins the lottery he wants to build a summer home there. We did manage two tourist type stops. No trip through South Dakota is complete without a stop at Wall Drug. And we had lunch at a place called Al's Oasis. Apparantly its up there with Wall Drug. Here are a few pictures I took along the way: