Somewhere in Canada...

Leaving North Pole

We have been on the road (officially) for 5 days. But we've really only had 4 big travel days, as our first day was kind of a write-off. Here's what has happened so far:

Travel Days - 4
Miles Traveled - 1230 (high 460, low 200)
Major Cities -
Alaska: North Pole, Delta Junction, Tok
US/Canada Border
Canada: Whitehorse, Ft. NelsonAnimals Seen -
fox: 4
bunny: 2
moose: 4
coyote: 1 in the road (we had to slow to a stop to get around him)
falcon: 1
caribou: dozens (multiple herds, most in the road)
bison: 100+ (multiple herds, most within 20 yards of the road)
stone sheep: 1
elk: 10-15

Craziest Thing I Have Said Today - "We don't put daddy in the oven." (after Ezra opened the oven door in our hotel room and put his daddy doll inside for a quick roast)

We have driven through a couple major blizzards (although we just thought they were normal winter snow/wind storms until we heard people talking about "the giant blizzard that just passed through"). The first, in Alaska around Tok after dark, had Steve and I looking at each other at the same time saying, "Do you feel like an Ice Road Trucker right about now?"The roads have been pretty typical for winter roads in the north: lots of snow, ice, slush, frost heaves, uneven pavement... But it's been really great and the roads have been a bit better than what we remember from our end-of-winter drive up here 7 winters ago.We have been totally amazed at the number and types of animals we have seen. The first half of this trip has easily brought 2-3 times the number of animals that we saw on our whole drive up here the first time.

Daniel at Signpost Forest in Watson Lake, Canada

The highlight of our trip so far has been our visit to Liard River Hot Springs yesterday. This natural hot springs is in the middle of a forest, accessible by a rugged, unlit boardwalk. It is surrounded (at least this time of year) by snow-covered rocks and trees. The steam rising from the pool is a beautiful contrast to nature's winter beauty that enfolds it. We braved the 1/4 mile walk to the pool and back in weather that was close to 0 degrees F. My hair froze on the way back. It was great!!We have a lot of slippery, slushy roads to drive through during the next couple days and what sounds like a big winter rain/ice storm moving across BC. Keep those prayers coming!

And we're off!

I guess we can consider yesterday as our official First Day. We left the house at 6:30.

Now, if that was 6:30am, that would be amazing! Wonderful! Remarkable! Noteworthy!

Too bad it was 6:30pm.

We had originally expected ALL our packing to be finished last Saturday. Five days later, we finally limped to the finish. It's all done. The house is clean. We didn't leave giant piles of mind-numbing organizational nightmares for the next family (as I had begged Steve to do on more than one occasion this week, "Lets just leave it all here! If we haven't packed it yet, maybe we don't really need it.").

But, somehow, we took it all with us.

And pulled out of our house in the darkness of an Alaskan snow storm at 6:30pm last night.

And drove a whole 11 miles to Grandma's house ("over the river and through the woods...") and parked the RV in the street in front of her house for the night. The boys got to have one last sleepover with Grandma and Steve and I got some uninterrupted time to organize the chaos inside the RV from piling our "RV stuff" into the aisle that became so full we could barely walk through it.

We are all organized. We had a good sleep and a good breakfast. And I think we are finally ready to hit the road.

For all our family out there who is expecting us, like, tomorrow ... uh, we're going to be a little late. We'll call you when we get close.

Love to all from the lovely chaos that is our very blessed life! Please keep us in your prayers as we are driving through Alaska and Canada in the dead of winter in snowstorms and -20 degree weather.

Moving? Almost...

Our original plan was to have everything packed, loaded, and cleaned (by me, of course -- I hate spending money on something I can do myself!) by 2pm on Saturday (yes, that was yesterday) so that the professional carpet cleaner could come to the house and clean our carpets. At that point, since the carpets would be wet, we would all move into a local hotel (with a pool, of course). We'd spend our last Sunday at Grandma's church and have a nice, relaxing family day together taking naps and swimming in the hotel pool. Then, we would pull out early Monday morning, well rested and refreshed, and drive at least 500 miles (without any stops or complaining).

That sounds like a perfect plan to me! What in the world could go wrong with that?!?

Have you ever filled your plate with an enormous quantity of food that looked wonderful and you were certain that you would eat it all AND have dessert, only to find out that your eyes were bigger than your stomach? Or how about the last time you had a school report due or an important work deadline? You thought you budgeted the right time for it but you ended up pulling an all-nighter the night before it was due and running in to the office (or the college library) to print off the finished-at-the-last-minute report.

Apparently that can happen with a move, too. Steve has some unexpected requirements on post this week that cut his time for packing and loading in half. The RV needed some maintenance and new tires before our 7000-mile road trip, which took me out of the house for a day (the only day I had reserved for a full day by myself packing the remainder of the house). Then, suddenly, all of our leftover kitchen, bath, clothing, and office items that really didn't seem like that much (with all the cabinet door closed) somehow multiplied overnight ... a few times over.

We were totally not done packing yesterday afternoon and had to scramble to move all our stuff off the carpets that needed to be cleaned. We weren't even done at the end of the day today. But the boys' Very Special Weekend With Grandma came to an end and I had to resume my mommy duties. I got almost everything packed except my closet (it's a big closet). But I am "this" close! I'll finish that sucker tomorrow!

Then we found out that, in addition to our moving trailer being picked up tomorrow, we have to turn in the van so it can be shipped to our next home, Steve has one last appointment to turn in some obscure piece of Army equipment that took forever to find (I think it was one suspender strap ... go figure). And we caved and hired cleaners to come out tomorrow and clean our house for us. Phew! So instead of driving out after dark tomorrow in a huge stressful rush, we are going to stay here till Tuesday. Or maybe Wednesday.

The boys and I had a reservation for tonight at the Hampton Inn, a brand new hotel in Fairbanks. They have a great military rate. We checked in this evening. It is beautiful inside. I reserved a King Suite and it is spacious and luxurious. The bathroom vanity is gorgeous. The wet bar, subtle but chic. The giant king bed is the centerpiece of the room but there is so much space in the room that when the sofa bed is open (and already made up by the attentive and well-trained staff) there is still SO much room for the boys to play in. It has a hot continental breakfast each morning. But best of all, it has a pool. There are only 4 hotels in Fairbanks with indoor pools and this one is definitely the nicest. So, we checked in and headed down to the pool with grandma to splash around for the evening, only to find out that their pool had been drained for repairs! Ah, nooooo!

So, we checked out and drove across the street to the Holiday Inn, which also had a pool. Their pool was filled with water (score!) and we had a fun evening playing in it. But there is a dramatic difference between the 2 hotels. The Hampton had 4 great employees working that night. The Holiday Inn had one person working and she was brand new (she had never even been in one of their king suites before tonight). She had to fill the role of front desk attendant, housekeeping, and maintenance all by herself. The king suite we got for the same price is ... enh. It's your basic hotel room. Everything you would expect in a standard hotel room and standard hotel bathroom. I had to make up the sofa bed and try to figure out how to put together the crib myself. I suppose if I hadn't seen the Hampton first, the Holiday Inn would be fine. But this is like having a huge, scrumptious slice of chocolate espresso truffle cheesecake with raspberry sauce waved in front of your face but being given a graham cracker instead. Anyway, I highly recommend the Hampton (when their pool is functional).

Ug, it's 11:30pm now. That's late for me. (Oh, did I mention that I came down with a cold yesterday?) My 3 sweet princes are snoring away next to me. They fell asleep at 10:30pm. (Their bedtime is 8pm.) I sure hope they sleep in tomorrow! Time for me to call it a day. I'm sure I'll have sweet dreams of cardboard boxes and packing tape.

Ezra is 2!

Last month, we celebrated Ezra's 2nd birthday. What a big boy!

Sampling the candles

Candles ... not so good. Maybe I'll try the cake.

Opening presents

Cool touch-and-feel book from Grandma!

For each of the boy's 2nd birthdays (or close to it) they have gotten their own baby doll. With the first two, it coincided well with momma getting a new baby, since my boys are just under 2 years apart. I wanted them to be able to share that experience with me and give them possession of their own little baby. Grandma even helped by getting Mikey his baby doll when Ezra was born just before Mikey's 2nd birthday. Let me tell you, it has worked wonderfully! Yes, they are little boys (not girls) and it may seem unusual to give a boy a baby doll. And, yes, they have their menagerie of typical boy stuffed animals -- dogs, bears, Spider Man, Hulk, moose, dinosaurs... But these baby dolls have held a special place in each of their hearts. I have tried (not always successfully) to find a little boy baby doll for them. But even the obviously girl baby doll has been well accepted and much loved. Two years old seems to be the perfect age for this kind of gift. At this age they are getting old enough for imaginary play and ownership of "their toys" but young enough still to want to play daddy, feed their babies when momma fed the new baby (yes, they nurse them - so cute!), change their baby's diaper when momma changed the new baby, dress their baby, & push their baby around in a stroller.


Happy birthday, sweetheart! We love you so much!

Tough Chick!

Today is the day before Halloween and Daniel has been so excited. He gets to wear his costume to school and his whole class (of 11 - so cute!) will be parading through the school showing them off. Today has been The Day and he's talked about it the last 2 weeks. "Mom, when do I get to wear my costume to school?"

So, this could not have been a worse day for us to find a flat tire on our van when we went out to load up for school this morning. Ahhh!

Spare tire? I dunno. Probably. But we don't really have time for it.

AAA? Called them. It was going to be over an hour and we would totally miss school and the chaplain's farewell luncheon we need to be at (since we are the guests of honor).

2nd vehicle? Steve's truck only fits 3. There are 5 of us. Won't work.

3rd vehicle? Yep. That was the answer. I piled the boys in The RV, switched out all the car seats, and drove it through the snow and ice to school to drop off Daniel. We got there just in time. And I actually drove a 28' RV through the school drop off lane. Ha-ha-ha!

Now we are about to get back in The RV and head off to Denny's for our farewell lunch. (Yes, Denny's. Well, at least it's kid friendly. And RV friendly. This just gets better & better.)

What can I say? I know how to make an impression!

I'm such a ... dork? ... redneck? ... Alaskan? ... tough chick?

Yeah, I think I'll go with Alaskan tough chick.

Let the craziness begin. (This is so much fun!!)

School Pictures

Who is the cutest Kindergartener ever?


This is our first year for school pictures. What a handsome boy! I am such a proud mom!!

Last Minute

We have heard that 90% of the money that homeowners put into home improvements is spent during 6 months: the first 3 months and the last 3 months that they are in the house. Have you found that to be true for you? While we have done a lot of improvements to this house all throughout the time we have lived here, a lot of little projects have been left till the very end.

We are well into our 2-week countdown till we drive out of Alaska. In fact, if I am counting right, we only have 12 more days. During this last month, we have:

• finished touch-up detail work to our kitchen remodel (from 2 years ago!)
• winterized and added/improved heat to 3 rooms
• finished chair rail molding in the master bath (from a remodel a year ago)
• cleaned & sealed slate tiles
• replaced a door latch and deadbolt
• "removed" 4 dog doors from a long-ago dog grooming office, patching the exterior siding and replacing the interior wall panel
• repaired a hole in our garage ceiling
• caulked the floor, wall, and tub of the boy's bathroom
• installed a new whole-house water filter and water softener
• replaced the weather stripping on the garage door
• stained the front sidewalk and back patio

... all while battling the flu and packing the house!

Wow!

I didn't even realize how much had been done until I wrote all that out. Steve had some help with this. He hired a handyman to take care a few of the projects so he could focus on the rest. He has been working SO hard!

It has been a very productive month and it will be so satisfying to leave the house in good shape for the renters who will be moving in after us.

Here are a few pictures of Steve staining the concrete. I didn't think it was really a necessary project to do right before we left. But Steve insisted and, I must say, it turned out quite nice!

Steve staining the back patio

Finished back patio

Front sidewalk BEFORE

Front sidewalk AFTER
Very nice!