THE move, part four- Iowa

Over the great planes we traveled- with every passing mile I was grateful, SOOOO grateful, for modern transportation and that we weren't like the pioneers of old who crossed in covered wagons. On Friday August 20th we drove to Omaha- where we stayed with some Medical School friends of ours- the Comptons who are there for Residency. IT was wonderful to catch up! They have three adorable little children who got along well with mine! It was sad to only stay for one night.

On Saturday the 21st we stopped for a good portion of the day in Des Moines, IA- where we lived for the first two years of Medical School. IT was great to be there again, even though it was a SWELTERINGLY hot and humid day. We met up with a few friends for lunch and stopped quickly at one of our favorite parks in the afternoon.

The carosel:



I have to say as we left Des Moines, it finally hit me how far away we were moving. For some reason, the impact of this move hadn't hit me emotionally until that day. Call it being tired and emotionally wrung out- but I finally started to feel how far we were going to be from everything we love. Even leaving Des Moines- we still had a lot of driving hours ahead of us in the next day or two!

That night we drove to Iowa City and stayed with another Medical School friend- Amanda Stumpf - and had fun catching up with her. The kids especially loved her dogs- Tyler just couldn't get enough of them!






Bye to our friends in Iowa- next we traveled through Illinois, Indiana and into Michigan for a nice LONG day of driving through the beautiful summer landscape. Michigan is so green and forested- what a fun change for us!

THE Move, part three- Dinosaurs and rain

On to the next part of our journey East! We left Utah on Wednesday the 18th Happy Birthday to Cynthia!) and took a bit of a side trip off the interstate. It was a really fun day! We only had to make it to Steamboat Springs, CO from Orem, UT - - so we had some time to stop at Dinosaur National Monument in Eastern Utah. The desert landscape is so rugged and fascinating- - with the waves of multi colored rock, canyons, and the history of the area. How fun to know we walked where dinosaurs roamed, Indians lived, and even a 19th century woman hermit/outlaw who hid in the canyons. The only major disappointing thing was that the main exhibit with the actual dinosaur bones is still closed (has been since 2006 due to structural damage)- so no cool pictures of dino skeletons being excavated right out of the hillside!











I can't remember the woman's name- but she was an outlaw and lived out her days in this cabin- in the cool of the canyon and tiny bit of woods.



There are also Native American petroglyphs all throughout the area- interesting, huh?




We made it safely and easily even with our stop to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. What a beautiful place, after the barren wasteland of Eastern Utah. It was a mountain paradise, with many fun things to do- definitely worth the trip - - EXCEPT the fact that the day we stopped there (Thursday August 19th) was POURING down rain. Not just an annoying drizzle, but shut down everything kind of pouring rain. Since all of the fun things (such as a nice waterfall hike, the alpine slides, and even miniature golf) we were planning on doing were outdoor- we basically spent the day just resting and hanging out at our condo, which was still fine. We did drive around a little. It was an OK day, though I do have to say it was very disappointing since this was supposed to be our little in-the-middle-of-the-move vacation. The indoor pool at the resort was even closed because the chemicals were off! Oh well. Because we didn't really do anything- I don't have any pictures. I am still glad we stopped for those two nights in Steamboat Springs- it was a nice rest day. The trailer being pulled behind the moving truck also had a flat- so it wasn't a hassle to wait for it to get fixed. In fact we just called it in, and later that day we looked out the window and it was fixed! So easy. Penske definitely gets a thumbs up. It would have been a pain if we were just sitting on the side of the interstate I am sure.

So- these few days of sight seeing as we crossed the Rocky Mountains were good- even if it wasn't everything we thought it would be.

THE move, part two- Utah (August 16 and 17)

That first day of driving - from Yakima to Orem, Utah, was, I have to say, HORRIBLE. Although this drive is long and boring, and we have done it many times before, usually we handle the trip well. The reality of going slower because of a moving truck that tops out just under 70 miles per hour (which I thought was actually pretty good considering we were also towing a vehicle), and both of us having to drive truly hit this day. I knew it was ambitious to do this leg all in one day- it is 11 or so hours in the best of conditions, hardly stopping and slightly speeding . . . BUT on the other hand, no one sleeps well in a hotel with young children and a baby- so it has always been worth it to me to just push on. The clincher this day was I came down with a mild case of the stomach flu coming out the bottom end- and needed many potty stops. I didn't want to have to stop every half an hour (which is what I really needed), so I just "held it in" and bore the pain as long as I could- - making for a TERRIBLE day of driving! The trip ended up taking us fourteen hours (including a 20 minute dead stop on the freeway in Sandy, UT at about one AM because they were putting up a sign over the freeway!). Because we didn't end up leaving YAkima until 10:30 am or so (moving is different than vacations- EVERYTHING has to be packed, and everything has to be left clean and DONE!), we didn't arrive until almost two in the morning. One thing is for sure- I made a mistake planning to go that far on our FIRST day! Next time we move, the first day will have to be a half day . . . .

ANYWAY- I am glad we took a rest day the next day to visit our Utah family. Even with all the pain of the drive the day before, it was still SO WORTH it to go that direction so we could see my sister Shauna's and my brother Steve's families. It only added a few hours to the trip to go through Utah and across I-80 instead of I-90. We really didn't do much but just sleep in, play games and relax at Shauna's house the next day- but it was exactly what we needed! I felt much better this day and luckily for the rest of the trip. The mild sickness did go through everyone else in the family too - - but luckily it was fairly mild for everyone else.

Boy- we needed a rest day!


My favorite was seeing the three baby boy cousins together again! It was HARD to get them to pose for pictures together since they are all mobile! Aren't they just ADORABLE, though?






The three siblings that the three little boys go with - -


More cute and fun pictures . . .







My sister Shauna is amazing- she is so good at having fun things for my kids to do.

We also celebrated Cynthia's birthday that rest day in Utah (Tues the 17th). Her birthday is on the 18th- and we were on the road that day again. Shauna made her an ice cream pie and she opened a few presents. Happy 7th birthday to my wonderful Cynthia! She is such a wonderful part of our family and brings so much life and happines to everyone around her. I am so proud of her goodness and blossoming testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.







Overall this day in Utah with family was probably the best part of our whole trek east- I love them so much and I will miss them terribly!

THE move part one- leaving Yakima

I can hardly believe how much has happened and changed in the last month. 2500 miles of driving (both of us- Jon in the moving truck, and me with our mini-van) through 11 states over the course of a week and about 44 hours of total driving time - phew- no wonder I am exhausted. A move like this is always a crazy thing- this is the biggest one we have done to date! I asked Jon a couple of weeks ago right after we arrived here in Michigan, why does this one seem so much harder- I mean, we have moved long distances before. Then I realized- the last long distance one we did was from Iowa to Washington in 2006- which isn't as far as this one, we did a "you pack, they drive" kind of thing, so our drive was much nicer, AND most of all, we had two less children. Granted I was pregnant so that was difficult . . . I think it also because it was not a move we had planned on this year. Finding Jon a new position, packing up our stuff and getting here literally took the entire summer- I am not ready for the weather to get cold and for fall to be here! Usually I am so ready for the crisp fall air, fall colors, the holidays on the horizon- - this is truly my favorite time of year. But this year- I want my summer back! The last three weeks I have been working hard on getting us settled in here and the kids starting school . . . and hoping and praying that Jon has a much better experience with residency here.

Well, I do want to say I am so grateful that we made it here without any major problems and things are slowly falling into place. Definitely renting a Penske was the way to go- it was a nice truck at a good cost and we were able to tow our old Toyota Previa van . . . can you believe all our stuff fit in there and it traveled that far across the country? At the same time- what a huge truck! We got the BIGGEST one possible, and even then things just barely fit- - and we got rid of a lot at a huge yard sale before we left, and even left all our appliances behind with the house. I can hardly believe all that stuff fit in our house. Anyway . . .

MOST OF ALL THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS HELPED US WITH THIS MOVE, WITH PACKING AND UNPACKING OUR TRUCK, PLACES TO CRASH ON THE WAY, AND LOTS OF PRAYERS!

Thanks so much to my Mom and Dad, especially, who came down the weekend we moved to help. I already miss you both sooooo much and am sad to not live close anymore.

Our last day of church in Yakima, with my parents, and the kids on the moving truck ramp:




Bye-Bye to our wonderful little home- I hope our renters enjoy you as much as we did!

Last harah . . .

A few days before our move we had one last get-together- a pool party in our back-yard with our Yakima Friends. I sure do miss these wonderful people! I also miss our large grassy back yard (thanks to all of our hard work in 2009!), and pool. Luckily our house here has a pool- which we will get to enjoy next summer. Thanks so much to all of my friends who truly made our time in Yakima good.

I am alive . . .

Well- we made it and I am still alive! I will post more later about the move itself and our trip across the country. It was LONG and hard to say the least, but luckily no major problems occurred. So- I just wanted to give a quick update. We moved in on August 23rd- with lots of help from our new ward, and have been trying to get unpacked since then. It seems like it took so much effort to pack our stuff up and to get it here (over 2500 miles of driving!)- that once we got here I felt like I hit a wall! Now I have to unpack it all? It was a stressful and exhausting first week here trying to unpack, find the hardware for the kids bunk beds which we misplaced, find a few necesities to purchase second hand such as a washing machine and a lawn mower, register the kids for school and Lillian for pre-school, and start the process of changing over to be Michigan residents (even having to find a new bank). Now we are feeling more settled in, school has started and things are starting to fall into place. Jon has started at the Residency program and likes it so far, though is frustrated because the state of Michigan is taking a really long time to issue his limited license. He can't actually be contracted and put on the pay-roll until this happens- so he is really just shadowing and going to their lectures. He is so ready to get back into things! It is sad to realize that every time he has to go through licencing or something like that, it will always take longer because they will have to investigate what happened in Yakima with his program there. The hospital here doesn't anticipate there being a problem, it just has to go through more red tape which is frustrating. Soon . . . we just have to be patient and continue to really pinch our pennies and pray everything will work out!

I really do love Michigan- with it's lush forest and green everywhere and a huge lake just down the road. It is also so nice to live in a metropolitan area with grocery stores and every kind of shopping you can think of in every direction- not very far away. Not that I have money to spend right now, though! Ha Ha. I love the church here so far- they have been so welcoming and I feel like I have instant friends. There are other Residents in our ward (from a couple of different hospitals in the area) which understand what we have gone through with the craziness of Residency. I just feel so strongly this is where we are needed right now, so although I miss our friends and family out west terribly, I am VERY grateful and happy to be here.

Pictures in front of our house here:



More to come!