My usual approach to blogging revolves almost entirely around pictures (I realize). However, there isn't enough pictures to properly portray the experience of moving from Utah to Washington. A 2 day haul with an 18 foot trailer and our little corolla. The best I could do (in pictures) would be my 2 dogs drugged with puppy sleeping pills for the 2 day haul.
We came a week before B starts his job at the hospital to unpack, see the town, sleep in, etc. My house is almost totally put together, B is right now repairing the couch, and I'm working on a pretzel recipe.
Today we visited Lake Wenatchee (but not for a long time ... it was a surprising 60 degrees!) I brought Miss Tally along and my favorite part was her learning about what waves are. Cautiously creeping to the edge for a sniff and a drink, lets her guard down, and the next big wave sloshes over her head. Now she's scared of waves. :)
I look forward to posting more often so I don't have to play catch up. :)
Today is Thursday. Today I'm homeless. B and I spent all day yesterday and today packing up the trailer that would take us to Wenatchee and cleaning the West Vally duplex. I think we did a stinking good job! But it's trippy to sit here and think about the adventure I'm about to embark. B and I have been saying that the last couple of days we have been experiencing and 'event'. Living an 'event'. Now everything I own is stuffed (STUFFED) inside this 18 foot trailer.
For the last week B and I have also been unemployed! Which was needed for the packing and preparing. I don't feel like we have had more then and hour and a 1/2 to relax. But have done some pretty fun things too. One in particular was epic. You know the game settlers of catan? We have been playing with my Dad at least once a month for about 5 years. Last sunday - fathers day- Dad won his first game!! Not because he wasn't able to before - but Ben is very hard to beat! It was perfect! (We DID NOT let him win either).
Another favorite part was getting new furniture. I know that Ikea isn't the HIGHEST brand every - but it's about our price range and I think it's pretty good stuff. We got a computer table, new kitchen table, lamp, front room rug, book shelf and egg timer :) We also had dinner at the Ikea resturant - DO NOT DO THAT. Awful. Really awful.
Moving is hard on dogs. Tally has been wigging out the whole time. Not happy that we kept moving and hiding her stuff. Reg however, just rolled with the punches. Ben rewarded him for his good behavior. Frozen steak! He looks pleased. Another board game night with friends - the Andrus's - was Agricola on Bills Bday. Because I'm ridiculous, I brought him some crazy balloons. Thanks to Andrus's for a fun friend night! And thanks to Jay for the extra goodies and additions to the game. :) We'll miss you! Finally this is my new favorite mormon message :
I now am unemployed - no longer working at Big Brothers Big Sister of Utah. It was crazy to walk out of there, saying good byes, packing up stuff... crazy. Yesterday I went to dinner with my parents+Ben+Mike and I though to myself "I can eat the rest for lunch at work tomorrow....OH WAIT!!!"
So packing and cleaning...
But been doing other fun things to including:
- Tally's play date with cousin Lucy (tally doesn't like it when we do this. '...lucy's on my chair...'
This is my craft creation of the week. Ben's cousin's wife's (*phew*) baby shower is tonight. Diaper cake. :) Easy - if you want to make and copy it - email me. It's easy.
The other big news - we are down a car. This is our 1998 camry with 307,000 miles on it. WHOA. And I have been concerned about how we were going to get it up to Wenatchee .. like 700 miles away. Last friday I was driving home, thinking to my self - HOW DO I GET THIS CAR TO WENATCHEE. And it died! Right then and there on the free way! It's like the car heard me and said - 'i have an idea...'. Uhhh - very good. So - it doesn't look like it's going to make it and might be time for it to go away. I'm a little nervous about just having one car.... but we'll probably be okay.
As a side note also - Ben when fishing and brought home a bunch of crawdads.
Home again - jiggity jog. I can't believe we pulled off 2 weeks on the road! The trip totaled SLC to Wenatchee to Portland, down the oregon coast, through redwood national forest, down the middle of ca to stockton CA, back over to San Fran, up through San Rafael to Reno to SLC. *phew* Did you follow me? I've lost track of which days we did what and so you'll just get the hall of fame version.
Ready? (See Golden Gate?) (One of my least favorite things about blogspot is it uploads your pictures backwards. So looks like we're going this review in reverse)...
Jelly Belly Factory, Fairfield CA So very cool. We went on several 'tours' on the trip and Jelly Belly's rocked. Just like you would imagine a willy wonka factory tour would be. Machines wave, bright colored walls, huge plastic candy pieces hanging from the ceiling, free samples. Great! Angel's Camp CA - World Mark Resorts. This is good. The night before we got to stay at the time share our air mattress went flat. Lucked out. We spent 2 nights at the time share with hot tubs, microwaves and flat screens. Spoiled, I know. One of the days - we set out on a mission to find this specific board game - Agricola. Fun game - and this picture is the one time I won. I WON. I never win - and I ran around the room and captured the winning moment. :) Wha ha. (Muffins - it's the new catan... oh yeah). 2 full days were spent driving down the Oregon and California coast. So beautiful. My favorite was the ocean and I made ben pull over when ever we could. Probably because I grew up in the desert - but that much water is so amazing! I made it a rule to have a stick before getting to the beach - so i could poke stuff, draw lines, and tell the ocean where wave boundaries were. Yeah, i'm 12. Every beach we went to - there was NO ONE there. Probably because it was kinda chilly - but it was awesome. Rocky beaches are the best. Look prettier and have more things to explore. This is ben's version of the 'stick'. Playing around with big sea weeds.
BRRR! But yeah! 2.5 seconds after I took this - because I wasn't watching, the next wave came in a soaked me to my knees. But it's okay.
This WHALE JAW BONE was displayed next to a camp site of ours. I just couldn't get over it! This could be a flipper... okay that's understandable... but NOT A JAW BONE!! Crazy! Part of my home again home work assignment is to find a national geographic on whales. Almost the north west corner of the Oregon coast is the Tillamook cheese factory. Well, we had to go there... but sadly it wasn't really great. It was memorial day and it was PACKED and the factory wasn't running and 70% of it was gift shop. But, did have good ice cream. Just after the Tillamook factory minor disappointment... we found a much smaller local cheese place with cafe and petting zoo out back ( I know that sounds like a strange combo, but it worked). We got some fabulous candies and soft cheese and I made a friend... This was (i think) the best camp site we had. Near Tillamook and we just stumbled on it. We had to hike up the hill and forage our own fire wood ("squaw no get 'em' firewood"), with a nice stream near by, just beautiful!
I spend the whole night doing puzzles and snuggling with nutella :) :)
Now we are home. And ready to pack!3 weeks to Washington!
As a side note also - Ben when fishing and brought home a bunch of crawdads. 
