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.

SNOW!

Well, first snow storm of the year finally came! It snowed all day yesterday and by last night was dropping 2in. an hour, then late last night the wind picked up, with gusts to 50 mph. We got a total of 10-13in. of snow! So today we have blizzard conditions. Currently the temp. is 9 feels like -15! ISU is closed and the news this morning suggested that you not try to shovel the snow until the winds die down! So we are snowed in and enjoying our day at home. I told Madilynn look outside it's snowing she said, "It's Huge, it's huge!"

last night - a blanket of snow

this morning at 8am
at 1pm

Wow!

out our window - check out the snow drift!

We're so glad this is happening today and not next Mon/Tues while we're moving! Please pray for good weather then! I guess we needed one more BIG snow in Iowa, so we wouldn't forget what it's like here! ;)

Baby Talk

Elizabeth woke up so happy this morning, just making all kinds of noises...

Weekend Fun!

We had a fun weekend! It started out Friday night making some sugar cookies (see previous post)! Then Saturday morning Michael went hunting and I took the girls to get Madilynn some snow boots (yep, it's already time for that- big snow storm this week!) Then Saturday afternoon we iced the cookies, took naps, then went to see our friends. Our small group had a Christmas party/going away party for us on Saturday night.

here are the kids making christmas ornaments for our groups tree at church

all done!
Elizabeth playing with Daddy

Abby and Matthew wanting to hold Elizabeth, so cute!

Abby, Madilynn, and Julia jumping!

We had such a good time and will really miss all of our friends in Iowa!

On Sunday we took Madilynn to play in a jump house and slide. They also had some games that she got to try out. Her first time at a place like that. She won 50 tickets and got a bracelet for her prize!

Sunday evening we spent going through stuff and getting organized before the move. We only have ONE more week in Ames! That is so crazy and just seems unreal to me. The packers will show up next Monday morning...