Moving...Part 4

This morning waiting on the truck to arrive. We caught Madilynn playing dress-up in her closet.

Madilynn helping us clean
Madilynn and Elizabeth hanging out

The truck arrived at about 12:30pm. It took a little while for the truck to get into the right spot for unloading into the driveway. Several people from Michael's dept. at USU showed up to help unload along with some neighbor's who just showed up and started carrying in boxes. Everyone was so eager to help!

The boxes rolled in quickly and filled up all the open space! They were done unloading by about 3 and we checked inventory and signed off with the driver and they were gone by about 3:30pm.

Madilynn and Elizabeth staying entertained during the unloading process.

Living room filled with boxes.

Now for the fun part...unpacking!

First 2 Days in Logan

Our first day in Logan we spent the morning at the house getting started on cleaning and I made a quick trip to Wal-Mart for some essentials such as toilet paper and more cleaning supplies. When Madilynn looked in the refrigerator she said, "There's no cheese!" I guess she thought that was all we'd need! Ha! We worked until noon and then got out for lunch at Chili's and then we went to the University to meet everyone at the office and see Michael's office and classrooms. Madilynn enjoyed meeting everyone and she always had to have a chair to sit in too! After that we went to try Aggie Ice Cream which is on USU campus made by the Food Science department. It was so good! I got Cookie Dough, Michael had Chocolate English Toffee, and Madilynn got Chocolate Cookie such a fun treat! A place I'm sure we'll visit often!!

While we were cleaning here's what we spotted out our dining room window...a mule deer

Four of them to be exact! They're looking at us too!
We ended the day by ordering pizza and then giving the girls baths.
We all slept pretty good our first night in the house...here's Madilynn this morning enjoying her pop tart (a treat, we don't normally have around). She has to sit up on the bar ledge since we don't have chairs yet...this is what she tells me.

Elizabeth woke up happy this morning too...

Got some light snow today, here's Madilynn watching it out the window (so light you can't really see it in the picture!)

We went to Wal-Mart again today (twice - I told Michael we'd probably be going once a day until we get settled). This morning we went ahead and stocked up on some groceries, since all of our "stuff" will be here tomorrow. While we were there Madilynn asked for cookies so we bought some to bake (and a cookie sheet and spatula!)
yum! They were so good!

Then we spotted some mallard ducks out on the river

It has been fun camping out in the house and just getting everything set up.
Daddy and Elizabeth hanging out

And, here's what it's like camping out in our house. We'll take you on a little tour, lets play find Madilynn...

Elizabeth's room

bathroom

Madilynn's room

our room

We're having a great time! We're anxiously awaiting the arrival of the big truck we've been telling Madilynn about that is bringing all of our stuff and her toys to our house. It'll be here tomorrow and then we can really "move in". So more pics to come!

Moving... Part 3

Well, we left Cheyenne, WY this morning at about 8am. Here we are coming off the "summit" as they called it into the town of Laramie - just beautiful!

This morning we asked Madilynn what she thought of the mountains and she said, "They're cool!"

Passing an Allied truck...we think it could be our "stuff"!!

clouds blanketing the top of the mountains

entering a tunnel in Green River, WY

Madilynn thought it was pretty cool that we got to go under the mountain

"Outside my window"

yeah, that songs been stuck in my head for the last 2 days!

Welcome to Utah!

Such a beautiful day, we couldn't have asked for better weather...sunny and all the roads were dry! There wasn't as much snow as we thought there would be.

Union Pacific - this reminded me of those model winter villages with toy trains

snow on one side and hardly any on the other side

Madilynn was so silly. I looked back there and said, "Where did you get those shoes?" then I told her to raise her feet up and I saw the bottoms and realized they were the arm rest covers for her booster seat. I just laughed, and Daddy said, "We've been in the car way too long!"

Entering Cache Valley (our new home)

View on a side street just before turning onto our street

Home Sweet Home

We made it! It is absolutely beautiful and can't wait to check out the town of Logan...that's for tomorrow...tonight is for sleep!

Moving...Part 2

Today was a long day of travel. We left Ames, IA at about 8:30am (central time) and made it to Cheyenne, WY at 7:00pm (mountain time). So it took us about 12 hours, with only 3 stops! We took I-80 straight across Nebraska.

entering Nebraska

Madilynn enjoying the ride
Periodically Elizabeth would wake up and we wouldn't have even known other than she would start playing with her toys on her car seat. It was so cute, everytime we heard it we would just look at each other and smile...Elizabeth is growing so fast.
Madilynn did really well in the car today. She watched 3 movies, took 2 naps, and had some time to just watch out the window. After it got dark, she kept saying, "Mom" and then asking me a random question.

Here's the view from most of the trip, about half-way the sky opened up and the sun came out!! We were so excited!

Don't worry we weren't bored at all with the scenery...I made a game out of taking pictures of the signs along the way...

Entering Mountain Time (this is a big deal to me! having only been out of central time zone a few times - Michael thought I was so funny!)

entering Wyoming

Elizabeth getting her bath at the hotel tonight

Night night

Five Years and Graduation

Today we celebrated FIVE years of marriage...WHAT A JOURNEY...need I say more

Tonight we along with our families celebrated Michael's PhD accomplishment at Iowa State University's Graduation ceremony...

Good Job, Daddy we are so proud!!

Moving...Part 1

Day 1

Monday December 14th

The morning began with freezing rain and snow, which caused our quick trip out for breakfast to take an hour. We also got some ice melt to clean off our walkways again. The packers arrived at 9:45am. After taking a quick look around they brought in lots of boxes, paper, and tape and began. After watching for a while we realized we'd have lots of trash to deal with when unpacking, good thing they'll be coming back by to pick up all of our boxes, etc. after we unpack. Yeah! It didn't take long before we could barely get around for all of the boxes. Good thing the girls are already in AR! I couldn't imagine trying to take care of them, while all of the packing was going on. Thank you Nana & Papa for getting the girls - I'm sure they're having a great time! :)

The packing was finished at about 3:30 this afternoon and we were on our way to check in at the hotel, where we now sit (trying to get warm, the room is freezing!). Current temp is 10. Supposed to be even colder tomorrow (while loading) great!! We just found out that the truck won't arrive at our place to load until between 12 and 1 tomorrow afternoon, ughhh! We were hoping for morning, so we could get the cleaning done and hit the road for Arkansas before it gets too late! And we found out that the truck won't be in Utah until the 23rd, double ughhh!! We were hoping for the 21st! We just won't have as much time now for unpacking and getting to the store, etc. before Christmas. I was hoping to be functional and cooking by Christmas, so we'll see!

Tonight we're going to pick up some friends in Ames (the Carlats) for dinner and bowling (no kids)!

Day 2

Tuesday December 15th

We got over to the duplex at about 8am. We decided on Mon. night that we wouldn't stay in a hotel in Logan (to save money) we would just camp out in our house until our "stuff" arrives. So we opened a couple of boxes that had been packed to find our air mattress to take with us (along with some sheets and blankets). Then we got started cleaning. We found out at breakfast that the truck would be at our place between 10 and 11am - yeah! They arrived at 10:15am and didn't waste any time getting started. They had finished loading everything by 1:20pm. We had the front door wide opened that whole time with a temp of 2 degrees and wind chills in the negative teens, it was freezing to say the least. By the time they were finished we were worn out too, and hungry. So we went for lunch at The Cafe with hopes of warming up and getting some energy before heading back over to clean. We enjoyed hot chocolate (me) and coffee (Michael) along with good warm meals, it was great! Then we headed back over to the duplex to finish cleaning we basically just had the floors left to do. We were finished by 3:30pm, loaded up and then hit the road at 4pm headed to Arkansas. We had a good trip made it in exactly 7 hours (it's normally 8 with the girls) and arrived at 11pm.