Goodbye to Rexburg, Hello Virginia...

We finally have the internet!!!! Yay!!!! We've been waiting and waiting and we finally got connected yesterday! Oh man! Where to start...we have been crazy busy unpacking and painting and just getting situated here in Virginia...so far...we are LOVING it! It has been a wonderful change for our family and we are loving every second of it! Packing was a NIGHTMARE, I really don't know who in this life can enjoy packing! It basically was excruciating! It seemed to never end...we kept bringing stuff out to the trailer and we finally finished on Wednesday July 23rd in the evening. We were all exhausted!!! Poor children were so confused and thank goodness for our friends Matt and Sarah who watched them for us while we were packing, I don't know what we would have done without them. I'm glad it's over!!!! The next day we had a 4 hour drive to Boise to finalize my citizenship process and take the oath. We drove there and back the same day, the ceremony was neat and it was short and sweet. I am officially a naturalized citizen. Scott's mom, dad, grandma and sister were nice enough to drive all the way there to join me for the occasion. One of my very best friends Ashley and her mom Linda also joined us, I have known the Anderson's since I started college in 99, and they are like family to me!!!

Saying goodbye to Rexburg...these pictures were from our last Sunday there...

I'm official!

Ashley and I

The next day, Friday, we were planning to leave early in the morning, but of course that didn't happen...we were soooooo exhausted. We slept in, Scott's mom made a nice breakfast and we headed out around 1pm, we needed to do some shopping in Idaho Falls so we didn't actually get on the road until 3pm. We had an itinerary of the places we were going to stay. Our first stop was going to be Cheyenne, WY, we got there around 12:30am. only to find out that the biggest rodeo in the U.S. was going on that weekend and anything 2 hours west or east of Cheyenne was booked!!!! GREAT!!!!!! We were dying!!!!! The kids did sooo incredibly well considering the circumstances. We drove about 2 hours and finally found the most ghetto hotel in Sydney, Nebraska, but at almost 3 in the morning with two crying children we were grateful to Heavenly Father for this place! The next morning we MADE SURE to make reservations in Des Moines, where our next stop was going to be. The kids were truly amazing during the whole trip, we had a few times when they were screaming at the top of their lungs but overall, they watched movies and took naps. I'd sit with them in the back seat and they loved that!

The Teton's. I do get nostalgic when I think of Idaho. I'm going to miss my daily drive past the temple on my way to work and of course these beautiful mountains. I do also miss being able to see for miles and miles ahead. You can't do that here with all the trees!!!:)

On Sunday, we headed to our next stop, Cleveland, OH. We stayed with the Heaton's for 4 days and we had the best time! We are really so blessed to have them as friends! It was so relaxed and we visited some of the Church sites there and it was incredible!!!!! We left Thursday and stayed with my mom in Arlington. Our trailer got here on Friday. My brother Kem helped Scott unload everything!!!! I really don't know what we would have done without Kem!!!! Gracias hermanito!!!!!:)

At the Kirtland Temple, I love those beautiful green doors.

Justin and Stacey were awesome, they watched our kids while we toured the sites. Thanks guys!

Aren't these 3 the cutest little kids you've ever seen???? (And Jack is making the move on Brielle already!!!!!!! ha ha ha ha ha!!!!) I love that little boy!!!! He has the cutest personality!!!

Johnson's Farm

This is at the Johnson's farm as well and this is one of the places where Christ appeared to the Prophet Joseph! I bawled my eyes out during this whole trip! It is impossible to deny that Joseph was a true prophet!!! Everyone needs to visit these places. Visiting these places has been one of the most spiritual experiences of my life!!! Thank you Justin and Stace for everything!!! I loved every second of being in Cleveland!!!

The Prophet Joseph stood on these very stairs!!!!

Our last day with the Heaton's.

Unpacking hasn't been as HORRIBLE as packing but it is still a pain in the butt!!!! I think that by the end of the week we will be done. We are so close to being done with painting, we just have the dining room and the kids' room. Anyway, that is the story of our move all the way here!!!:) I have to say that the worse part was definitely the packing part, the driving wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We are ABSOLUTELY LOVING the area where we live in Fairfax. We have everything within a 10 minute drive and by everything I mean shopping. I know, I was really worried about the traffic and feeling somewhat claustrophobic with all the trees but I'm not feeling one bit claustrophobic! It might take a lot for me to move back west again!!!!:) The trees are beautiful and I guess after living in Idaho for 9 years you just get used to brown all the time. And Idaho has its own beauty and I loved every second of living there, so many good things happened to me in Idaho! (how can I NOT LOVE Idaho!!!!) but Virginia is just different. We are really enjoying our time here so far. It's only a 25 minute drive into DC (not during rush hour of course!)...the people are really friendly here and it's nice to know that there are good people in this world, no matter what their faith is.

The kids are adjusting...Brielle has had the worst time with this move. During the first week she'd say "I want to go home" like 10 times a day! It broke our hearts...I bought a puzzle map of the US and showed her where we used to live in Idaho and where we live now...I think that helped a little. She's doing a lot better and the last time I heard her say "I want to go home" was on Sunday and she only said it once. We've been going to the playground behind our condo almost everyday and they love it there! We have yet to go to the pool that is part of the community where we live. Hopefully we'll get around to it by the weekend. Our ward is really friendly, I do miss the wonderful sisters Lindsay and Stephanie from our ward in Idaho! They were awesome! And the nursery was A LOT smaller than the one at our new ward...we went from 2 or 3 kids to 18 to 20 kids!!!!!!

A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS

For the most part things did run smoothly during this whole process, but we did encounter what I have decided to label "A Series of Unfortunate Events"...

1. I will begin with the first night that we got to Virginia. We first came to the condo to get the keys and check that everything was looking good for the next day when our trailer was arriving. Everything looked good so we headed to Arlington where my family lives. We got there around 7pm. My family lives in a huge apartment building and in order for visitors to park there you have to get a visitor's parking permit from them. When we got there however, the office was closed and we didn't think it would be that big of a deal. The next day, Scott and I walked out only to find out that our car was gone. My heart started beating really fast thinking that it may have gotten stolen!!!!!!! The next worst thing happened...it had gotten towed because we didn't have a visitor's permit. My brother gave us a ride to get our car back. It was $100!!!! Our money went to these morons who decide to make a living out of towing other people's cars!!!! I better move on to the next unfortunate event before I start getting too upset about it....

2. The next thing that happened to us was our first Sunday here...we ran out of diapers...I should have checked on Saturday how we were doing with diapers, but there was too much going on. So we had to head to Wal-Mart on the Sabbath to go buy diapers. The realtor gave us two sets of keys and I don't know WHY we didn't put the house keys in with our car keys. Our house was a HUGE mess and we didn't want to spend the time searching for our keys, so we headed out without locking the door...or so we thought...when we got back it was about 9pm and our door was locked. We tried the back door, locked. We couldn't break in through any of the windows...we sat there for about 20 minutes...until this nice couple walked in and asked if we were ok...we told them what had happened...she let us use her phone to call the realtor...hoping that he would have an extra set of keys...he was out of town, so he had to send his father-in-law to his house to go get the keys for us...we met the father-in-law there and thankfully we were able to get in to our house at around 11pm!!!!!

3. The third unfortunate event happened that Sunday as well, in nursery...Braden just turned 18 months and we were soooo happy that we were going to able to sit in Sunday School and RS and Priesthood in peace!!! We took Brielle and Braden and in a matter of 15 minutes the brother in charge was back with Braden...he had bitten 2 children in a matter of minutes!!!!! Why do kids have to bite!!!!! Anyway, so now Scott and I have to take turns staying with Braden in nursery until this whole biting thing gets under control! With almost 20 children in that nursery, I can understand how difficult it would be to keep track of every child...but he loves being there and this last Sunday he was great, he just did his own thing...children, children...