Good Bye Spokane

Our last few weeks in Spokane were spent packing, selling our furniture, and playing with our great friends.

We had a few mini miracles as we sold our furniture. One of them was a crazy Facebook group in Spokane that is like a virtual garage sale. People sit on that site all day trolling for a deal. I sold a broken dresser, a 5-year-old fan, and a bunch of other random stuff that would probably have gone to Goodwill if I didn't use that group. We sold our nicer things on Craigslist. It was a lot of work, but we ended up making a pretty decent amount of money. Huge blessing!

One day I overheard Leah playing with her dollhouse. She was pretending that her toys were knocking on the door and buying all the doll furniture. Bless her heart.

Our most bittersweet sale was our Subaru. We debated back and forth about keeping it. In the end we decided to put it on Craigslist way overpriced (according to Kelly Blue Book) just to see what would happen. By the next day we had 10 people set up to test drive it and one of them promising to come with cash. So we sold it. To the first guy to drive it: a mechanic who loves Subarus and owns 4 of them. I might have shed a tear or two. We've loved that car. Funny how we get so attached to things, isn't it?

Our last week in Spokane I went out to dinner with these women:

They are the other resident wives with whom we've spent the last year. We've had a ton of play groups, family get-togethers, book clubs, and Power of Mom nights. They are all really awesome, amazing women and mom's. I wish we could go through all of residency together, but the week after this was taken we'd all spread out to different programs all over the country. I'm really going to miss them!

We left Spokane car-less and free of a bunch of our stuff. But we'd added a baby boy, a few life-long friends, and a bunch of great memories. We left very grateful for the year we had and excited for the next adventure!

Lainy Plays Soccer

This Spring Lainy played soccer. She loved it. She was on a team with 6 other little girls. They played with no goalies and no positions, so they all basically just ran around for 45 minutes. It was kind of hilarious. And darling.

Lainy had some great plays throughout the season. I'm pretty sure she scored at least one goal in each game. She's fast, so if she could get her feet on the ball she could usually break away from the pack for an easy goal. It was fun to see her get into the game.

We had so much fun watching her every Saturday! It was just the excuse we all needed to get outside with a new baby in the house.

 Cute girl.

Coach Shannon, Emily, Emma, Sara, Jenna, Lainy, Sofia, Kristy

Leavenworth

The first week of May we took a little vacation to Leavenworth, Washington. It was somewhere we wanted to go when we lived in Seattle, but just never found the time. So, when Brad had a week of vacation and we found a hotel for the right price, we decided to go.

On the way we stopped at Grand Coulee Dam. That place is amazing! We took a tour of the dam, went inside and underneath it, and learned a whole lot of interesting facts about it. Did you know it's the largest hydro-power producer in the US? And one of the largest concrete structures in the world? Kind of weird that it's literally stuck in the middle of nowhere...

Leavenworth is a cute little Bavarian destination town in central Washington. Besides the cute themed town (even the McDonald's is Bavarian-style) it has absolutely amazing views of the Cascade mountain range.

We spent a lot of time hanging out in the cute village browsing through shops.

 We found a beautiful park along the river:

A cute little deer in the park

We ate Brats and toured a candy factory that makes Turkish Delight (a la Chronicles of Narnia):

even baby Sam  had to wear a hair net at the candy factory

And we swam in the hotel pool. A lot.

The weather was warm and perfect, and the kids were angels. Sam was only about 5 weeks old and he did great! That boy... he's a blessing for sure.

Our last morning there Brad discovered that Leavenworth is a destination for world class rock climbing and white water rafting. So, in search of some rock climbing we decided to venture out on a little hike. It was probably not very smart. The hike was super steep and dusty and it was super hot, yet there we were with our two little girls and our newborn. Oops. Leah was a disaster. She screamed and cried nearly the whole way. We stuck with it long enough to get a good view, praised the girls for doing something so hard, and went back to the pool to swim.

All in all, it was a great little vacation. Our first venture out as a family of five! I wish we could go again: I hear it's really amazing at Christmas time. We'll put it on our bucket list!

 Das ist gut ja?

Because this picture needs to be shared...

Meet mini-Brad

This is the face that greets me every morning. Yes, he is that excited every morning. I love it. I love him. Don't you?

P.S. I'll get to more blogging about vacations, moving, Samuel's blessing, etc, etc soon. Maybe tomorrow? (don't hold your breath)

Update

Lake by our new house

There is so much to say, that it really can't be said right now.

So here are the basics:
After selling almost everything we own (including our beloved Subaru)
and packing the rest into pods
and driving myself crazy trying to coordinate a cross-country move
and spending a few days in Idaho with family (not enough)
and blessing our sweet baby Samuel (more on that later)

We made it to Boston!

We've been here a week and as of right now, our pods are MIA (lost somewhere between Washington State and Massachusetts). So we're camping on our beautiful hardwood floors and cooking from the one frying pan I threw into my suitcase as an afterthought.

But we're here! And our house is cute. And we live two blocks from a lake. And I'm sure we're going to love it...once our stuff gets here and we can get settled.

Over and out.