2,000 miles in a U-Haul and 600 more to go.

Starting off with a few photos from a couple weeks ago before arriving at the present

Julia, sleeping with her favorite chicken

mastering scissors

more mastering of scissors, this time unsupervised.

I followed a online tutorial for sewing a waldorf-style doll and managed to make one that Julia actually likes!

not too bad for a first attempt at the craft.

 We packed up life in Klamath Falls, and Julia, Dave and I drove up to Mt Vernon, to see Dave's folks. A week was spent sorting through and re-packing some of the mountain of stuff we have at Dave's Dad's place. A few days later, Dave flew to Minnesota for a charter school conference and a few days after that, Julia and I flew out to join him.

Julia's glaring at me from her car seat.

But the glares from the trip were soon forgotten! She was pretty thrilled to see Grandma Gini and Grandpa Dave again.

I moved much of our crap out of the spare room next to "our room" at Grandpa Dave's to make a dedicated space for Julia. She was pretty happy to have her bed and table and chairs and bookshelf all set up, and has spent a lot of time playing with her stuffed animals, dolls and tea set. also a old desk phone. she loves that thing. Once I got her room set up, she really seemed to relax and settle in at Grandpa Dave's. Of course, two days later I uprooted her again to go to Minnesota.

She's so thrilled with her little table. She really loves things that are her size. It will be fun to set up her permanent bedroom.

She was pretty excited about the idea of being on the airplane. Security was a bit of an ordeal, as Julia's car seat got jammed in the x-ray and they had to re-start the machine, which if you were curious, takes 25 minutes. 25 minutes feels like forever when you have 60 angry people glaring at you. This was the first flight that we had to pay for Julia to have her own seat. The cost was painful but the joys of having her not on my lap made it pretty much worth it. The flight went very smoothly.

we spent two lovely days at my friend Andrea's house. She's 8 months pregnant with her second, and still hosted a party of old friends for me! Friends don't get much better than that!

Her son William is 4 months younger than Julia, and they got along surprisingly well for a couple of irrational toddlers. Julia was a big fan of his toys!

Bathtime fun! Our visit was all too short, but we were on a schedule!

We left Minneapolis for Rochester, and the 30th birthday party of our friend Trevor. They have been sweet enough to hold onto a big ole pile of my stuff for the past two years or so, so once we finished partying, seeing lots of old Holden buddies in the process, we rented a 14 foot u haul, loaded it up and departed back to the city for the home of the Johnson's where we spent another night.  (oh! I stopped by my friend Sarah's house to collect a pile of artwork that she's held for me and miracle of miracles, she had my photo albums!!! I had convinced myself that they had been lost sometime in college, and turns out she had them all along! Praise be!!)

Unwinding after a good day.

Julia got on famously with Aubrey

and she was pretty excited about the truck! we wedged her car seat in the middle and we were pretty much set for the open road. Just a few more visits first.

Julia was a HUGE fan of Uncle Christopher and Aunt Erin. Christopher played with her for hours on end and Erin gave her a flower cupcake, so she was ready to abandon us and move in with them.

We then drove south to Northfield, visited my Aunt Marybeth and picked up my cedar chest from her basement where it's been living the past 7 years, then drove over to John and Christie, our friends of many years.

We had a lovely visit there, again too short!

after a beautiful breakfast on the porch

we said goodbye to our friends and Minnesota and began our journey west.

the only picture I took along the way. Wyoming, I think.

3 LONG days later, we arrived in Klamath Falls again. Here we still are, and the truck has been unpacked and re-packed several feet higher. Julia is so happy to see Olaf again. This morning when she was still getting over being grumpy about being awake, I asked her if she wanted to get up and go see the chickens. "No!"  Did she want to go see Grandmomma and Grandpoppa? "No!" Did she want to go wake up Olaf? "Yes!"

Dave and I are sitting here, watching Moonstruck. Julia's off at the playground with her Grandparents and Olaf. Tomorrow we hit the road again, back to Mt Vernon and the other grandparents. We'll unload the truck and return it, and then hang out for a couple weeks until August rolls around and moving day comes again. Oh the insanity!

Mosier house photos

I finished my classes. We said our goodbyes to Klamath Falls, packed the car and headed north. I finally got to see the house we are buying!

Our last little playgroup meetup. I'll miss the friends I made in Klamath Falls.

Julia helped my disassemble her bed. She understood when I said that we were going to take a big trip to visit Grandpa Dave and Grandma Gini. She doesn't yet understand that we are moving for good, but i think that's too big an idea to press on her at this point.

In Mosier, first we checked out the school playground and met a few of the teachers. Julia's pleased with the playground.

She was a little less sure about the school until...

she met the 3rd grade gerbil. awesome.

And finally, we headed over so I could check out the house and so we could all sign papers.

the yard from the upstairs window

looking out. in winter we'll get a river view, but the leaves take care of it pretty well in summer.

the master bedroom.

a lovely little glass insert.

one closet.

master bath

shower

kitchen

other side of kitchen

the shed in the yard

the downstairs bedroom

the back yard

the porch off the kitchen

the lilac bushes off the porch. compost bins off to the right. also in the yard: 2 cherry trees, a plum and a peach!

some hostas under the porch

around the back of the house

a sunny garden patch. behind it is a grapevine and some herbs and succulents

the shed has an awning.

two raised beds

the back of the house

inside the shed

another yard view from the porch

the living room

leading into the kitchen

looking back the other way

back in "Julia's room"

beautiful cedar? paneling on the walls

another kitchen shot

the front door

the living room

the front of the house

That's enough photos for the moment. I loved the house. loved loved loved. the owners have taken amazing care in fixing it up and it shows! They let us see some "before" photos and it's definitely come a long way! there used to be a scary porch off the master bedroom (hence the door) that the inspector said was the worst he'd seen in 30 years of work! We're happy that's gone! The house is full of lovely details, and if we get a renovating itch, there's a few areas left to fix up a bit. It'd be possible to raise the ceiling in the kitchen considerably, which would be fun to see done someday. We talked about some mostly minor things that came up on the inspection report and we've set the move-in date for Aug 1, so things are moving ahead in the house-buying world. We're now getting settled in Mount Vernon. In a few days, Dave will go to mn for his conference, then Julia and I will follow and we'll begin our epic trip back across the country. We'll drive the stuff all back here, and rent another truck to move it to Mosier in August.