Friday, August 11, 2017

more driving

Montana is a beautiful state.
Our drive today is short. We're only driving to Spokane,WA.

We drove through Coeur d'Alene on our way to the hotel and I had never been there before. We stopped to check out the lake. It was beautiful! There were people everywhere and once Carson saw people were swimming he just had to join them. Plus it was a very warm day. 

For over a week we stayed in a different bed. Almost a new State with each new bed. 
Wednesday our home in Illinois.
Thursday in Wisconsin.
Friday in South Dakota.
Saturday was Montana.
Sunday Washington and
Monday Pendleton, Oregon. Brian and I attended a work dinner in Pendleton Monday night then the kids and I headed to Salem on Tuesday where we stayed in a hotel until we moved into our apartment on Saturday. We had the keys Thursday but movers didn't arrive until the weekend.
Normally, after a move, I feel at home very quickly. This time not so much. We know/hope the apartment is temporary so we're not putting up wall hangings. It might be a mistake but it is what it is. Our home in Illinois has not sold yet. We've lowered the price yet again. It feels like we're giving it away. We're almost at the point where we'll just break even. Oh well, that's better than at a loss. 

Brian's new company has been amazing. They've offered to help in many ways since our house hasn't sold. He is loving working with this company. I'm so glad. That's why we moved here. 

This will be my last post here. My new blog is called "Shuldberg's Oregon Trail". Here's to new adventures!

Mt. Rushmore & Bailee


We arrived very early so we could fit this into our schedule. These first two pictures are from the road. Karlee took them for me. So cool!!


I'm not sure the kids are excited to be back.





Look!! Here I am!

This was the original plan for the mountain. Ambitious! I think where they stopped is just as impressive.

The kids ended up enjoying visiting after all. We walked on a trail that took us closer to the mountain. As we were leaving the crowds were getting intense. It was perfect!

Tired boys...

BAILEE!!!! She meet us in Butte, Montana for the night. It was great to see her! She was taking Cali with her to deliver to Grandmas until we can take her back. The apartment only allows two pets. :(
This is our third hotel but the first chance to get in the pool. The boys were excited. 

driving begins

Thursday night we stayed in Wisconsin. We were up bright and early since we had a long drive ahead of us. These lucky dogs some how got shot gun for the drive.

The boys are already bored...

Corn fields in Minnasota. It's a beautiful sight!
Bored again.
Cali in the truck with Brian and Karlee.
We had rain through much of Minnasota. 
Then in South Dakota we had a beautiful sunset! These were taken through my sunroof, of course.



Our hotel was west of Mt. Rushmore so we decided to stop before the hotel. I'm so glad we did. It was so cool! I loved the flags too. That night in the hotel I debated and debated about going the next morning. It would add an hour to our drive let alone a few hours while we're there. Brian and decided we most likely will never make it back so we planned on going back in the morning. Wahoo!

our last day

It's been over 3 weeks since I've blogged. I finally feel like I have time to sit and do a little catch up. Or maybe I should call it a BIG catch up. The packers did a great job packing everything up. They left one TV and our beds for us to use. Our pets did pretty good staying out of the way as well. I don't think these two have ever been such good friends. 


This picture was taken on Wednesday when we still had wifi. ;) Wednesday we were suppose to have movers. We were scheduled a 2 day load. Well, the driver was MIA. Around 10 AM I reached out to the company and they hadn't been able to get ahold of the driver. The GPS said he was in Indiana. It didn't look good. It was finally decided that we'd load everything in one day, Thursday. 

We spent the day Wednesday hauling off the furniture that we weren't taking; Mason's dresser, the sofa in the basement, mine and Brian's dresser set. All had already lived their life...time to retire. 


 With movers working everywhere the kids spent a lot of time playing cards. Marie Z, our friend and realtor, taught Carson how to play Gin. We played that a lot too. Karlee and Carson are playing war with three decks. They had to find a way to speed up the game. This is what they came up with, in the above picture.

I don't know if I ever shared that Karlee's car died on her way home from visiting Victoria in Indiana. It happened about two hours away on a Sunday. I managed to find a tow company to bring the car and Karlee close to home, to a repair shop. We found out it wasn't worth repairing, no surprise, so we salvaged it for a few bucks. Really, it was only a few :(  With her leaving on her mission soon we decided to make it work with only two cars. So far it's worked out ok. 
Thursday morning we had more work to do. I'll admit this is Mason's kind of work. Laying down while helping drain the water bed. He did a great job!

Karlee helped put the bolts in to secure the tub on the washer. All the kids were great helping out where needed. Have I mentioned we weren't able to turn off water to the washer and fridge? In the middle of loading on Friday we had a plumber out to fix our problem. There have been many problems but luckily we were able to find solutions. 

It was finally getting to a point I would clear out the last few boxes so I could wipe down a room and vacuum. This closet never looked so good! This is basically how the entire upstairs got cleaned. Karlee and I would haul the last few boxes out into the hall then clean. 

I really liked how they labeled our closet as "HIS"  and "HERS". It really did help on this end.
Poor Cali was put on a leash to keep track of her outside. She hated it!! All we had left was sweeping and mopping then we would leave. We didn't want to lose her.

It was such a long, hot, humid day for moving. The movers were there for over 10 hours making sure we were all loaded by the end of the day. They didn't leave until after 10. Everything did not fit in their 53' trailer. We were told it would be non essentials that would be delivered later. 

We left the house at 10:45 PM. We thought we were too exhausted to be sad. Before we left we did have a family prayer, standing in a circle in the driveway. The tears came. Mostly from Carson but a little from everyone. We all learned to love Illinois. This past week I scrolled through pictures on my phone and I just about cried. I already miss so much of St. Charles! I know it's partly because we're in a small apartment surrounded by boxes. It's not feeling like home much.