Sold!

We signed our closing papers today at 6:00.  They will be recorded tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and we will officially own a house.  The previous owners are still packing, so they have the house until Friday.  The movers don't deliver on Saturday, so we will move in on Monday.  I am so excited!  It would be nice to paint before all of the stuff is in the house, but hard to match colors until the stuff is in the house.  Besides that, our painting stuff is in the truck.

The bishop, hearing we had one more lazy weekend asked us to speak.  We don't even have any scriptures with us!  (Terrible Mormons, I know!)  He provided a set and told us too bad, no excuses.

I also just wanted to share this way cute picture.

Chicken Pox?

Who knew a 5 year old could be so hairy!?

Nope, not chicken pox... mosquitoes.  They are HORRIBLE here.  The pictures just don't quite show how bad off we all are.  The boys literally LOOK like they have chicken pox.  Poor Ethan's forehead was the worst the other day.  He had at least 20 within inches of each other.  We have tried repellent and even bought an indoor bug catcher.  Everyone has these outdoor things run by propane.

As long as I am pulling images off of the internet, does the milk at Cosco down there look like this?  We don't have a Costco, but there is a store here that sells a lot of the Kirkland brand stuff.

Boys, Boys, Boys

We have BAD boys...

(neither of them know how to get down)

and we have VERY GOOD boys...

Brenden is putting Nolan down for his nap for me.

And now that we are spending more time in the car getting from place to place, things quickly go from this:

to this...

Doug's Photography

I downloaded Doug's pictures onto my computer and was really impressed with how far he has come with his new hobby.  I gave him a new Canon XSI for graduation and he has been having a good time with it.

Missing Mom

We had lunch with Doug's new co-workers on Sunday.  The pharmacy techs were all complaining about when their moms come over and the things they do that irritate them.  I just wish my mom was close enough to do those things.  I miss my mommy.

House Hunting

Getting ready to head out on the lake.

We were looking for houses and found moose instead.

At the ocean.

Our yard - the blue through the trees is the lake.

Our yard from our log deck.

May 30, Doug and I came to Kenai for our house hunting trip.  We spent four FULL days looking at every house on the market in our price range.  In the end, we made an offer on our realtor's house, which was not on the market.  It is almost 3300 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms on 3/4 acres.  It comes with all sorts of Alaskan toys, so we won't have to save up for our adventures.  We will have 4 boats, 3 canoes, 5 snowmobiles, an RV, fishing gear, snowshoes, and cross-country skis.  The owners are moving to Texas, so they are leaving us all of their winter stuff.  Not only that, but they are leaving us their log beds, which I am pretty excited about.  They also don't want to move their pool table, foosball table, hockey table, and washer and dryer.  Basically, they walked us through the house and asked us what we wanted.  We are also purchasing the property across the street which has the boat dock on the lake. 

The BIG Move

We survived the move - well, the first part.  Doug's family came on the Saturday before moving week and helped us move out the shed that we were not selling with the house.  In order to do that, they had to rent a backhoe.  Talk about the highlight of our boys' lives!  

Nolan and Grandpa

Brenden and Grandpa

Moving went fairly well.  We already know the movers broke a few things and we haven't even received our shipment yet.  The new owner was anxious to move in, so I didn't even have to finish the cleaning!  

Our flight was 5 hours to Anchorage and the boys did GREAT.  The genius travel agent who booked our flights booked us all separate, so we were supposed to all be spread throughout the plane.  We had a few people kind enough to trade us seats so I sat with Brenden and Nolan and Doug was right in front of us with Ethan.  Ethan slept quite a bit of the flight and Brenden and Nolan colored and watched movies.  We had a relatively short layover in Anchorage.  We had to pick up our luggage, re-check it, and make it to our plane.  Not only that, but Doug had to find a taxi that would transport animals and go get the dogs from the cargo area and get them back to the terminal.  We barely made it, but made it all the same.  The flight to Kenai is only 25 minutes.  We got here and then had to fit all of our luggage, the dogs, and the kids in our rental car.  I thought for sure we would have to make a few trips, but Doug is a master at loading cars.  Luckily, our cars arrived only 4 days later.  Unluckily, something happened to my car while it was in transit and it won't start and won't lock.

Our interim housing

We arrived in Alaska June 23.  We are staying at Daniels Lake Lodge in an unfinished cabin they were kind enough to let us use for 3 weeks for just less than the price of a hotel room.  It may be unfinished, but I don't think I could have survived 3 weeks in a room with 2 queen beds and a kitchenette.  Here we have a full kitchen (as long as "full kitchen" does not mean that it has all of the kitchenware needed to actually cook a dish), 2 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms.  That's more than we had in our house in Pocatello!  

The boat dock at the main house.

The kids and dogs have been having a great time.  Brenden decided on our second day here that the large rocks in the road needed to be moved so people don't "break their car" on them.  He spent the next few days hauling rocks back to the cabin and piling them on the side.  Then he decided he was working a little too hard and got smart.  He started hauling rocks in the double stroller instead.  After 2 days of a very dirty stroller, I called Doug and asked him to pick up a wagon on his way home.  Brenden loves it, he can haul with it AND IT DUMPS!  Brenden has also been pulling up grass to make trails through the woods.  He gets up first thing in the morning and announces he has lots of work to do, gets dressed, and heads out the door.  I have never seen that kid eat more food or fall asleep so quickly.  

If a dog could smile, isn't this what it would look like?

When we pulled up to check in, Nolan had pooped - for lack of a better, nicer way of saying it.  I didn't want to unpack there and then in the main house to find a new pull-up, so I quickly found some wipes, cleaned him up, and just put his shorts back on with no pull-up.  So then we came to check out the cabin.  We were all wandering in different direction and I was following the owner who was giving us the whole shpiel (is that really a word? - and I doubt that is how it is spelled).  Our final stop was the master bedroom.  As I was walking across the floor, I stepped in something squishy.  I knew immediately what it was, but thought maybe one of the dogs had done it.  I also quickly realized that they dogs had not been inside yet.  I glared at Nolan and said, "YOU!  Did you poop on the floor?"  He sweetly said, "yes."  Okay, funny story, yes, BUT...  The cabin is tile downstairs and laminate upstairs.  There was one, YES ONE, small piece of carpet in the ENTIRE place and he managed to POOP on it!  

Ethan is not having nearly as much fun as the big boys.  He is tired of crawling on the hard floors and I am tired of him trying to make his way up the spiral staircase.  We have almost no toys here with us, so he is bored and working hard to find things to do.  He enjoys spreading the dog food far and wide and attempting to play in the toilet.  10 more days...