Our Family Adventure...

The walls on the new home...

This summer we are building our dream home on Valley Lake. Which brings us to a new and exciting adventure. I have had so many friends ask me, "You should write a book about this." "I sure hope you are journalling all of this." and "I am sure you are scrapbooking all of this, right?"

So...I am finally getting to it...going back to where the adventure kind of began...and trying to get caught up to current day as quickly as possible. 

It all started when we decided to keep our current home as a rental instead of selling it. I had this great idea to put it on the market in June. (Our home was not going to be finished until about October or November and what family wants to rent and move into a house at that time? After school has already started and the holidays are quickly approaching.) Also, we travel a lot during the summers so why not put our home for rent at the beginning of the summer and if it rented then great we would cross that bridge when we got there. We put it up for rent hoping that it would rent before summer was over. It did rent, really right away...they wanted to be in by the end of June. 

Let the packing continue...

So the kids got out of school on a Thursday, I showed the house on Friday and they put a deposit down to move in July 1. This was really happening. I was totally ok with it all...really...just pushing on one day at a time and packing as much as I could each day. My parents came to visit two days after school was out and they played with the kids while I packed and cleaned. Then what an idea...I was suppose to head to my sister's house the first week of summer...there was no way that everything was going to get done around our house and be ready for renters if I left. My parents took my two older boys home with them where my sister met them and took care of my boys for an entire week. They just love their Aunt Shannon and their four cousins. Who wouldn't they get to go the local pool with water slides, play x-box with their cousins, camp outside, dodgeball at night with neighborhood kids and making smores over late night camp fires....and so much more. 

After their week with their Aunt Shannon, my sister from Alaska was in town as well and she decided to bring them home for us. But not until a visit to yet another sister's house in Grandview. They planned on staying one night which turned into two nights which turned into two nights and another full day. Of course they made mud pies, dug dirt holes, played in the garden, and even had an experience with the BB gun trying to shoot the chickens???Hmmm...

The boys were gone for over eight days the longest that they have ever been gone from us. We missed them to say the least....although, we got lots done while they were gone. During this time Toby was home on the weekend and helped me take apart all the furniture upstairs we hauled it all to a room in on the main floor already for the movers that were going to come the following weekend. I had the carpets cleaned and worked away on getting the house not only all packed but also ready for renters to move in. Really not an easy task. As I look back on all of it I can now say this and think wow...that was a lot!  The following week Toby was back in Sacramento with his work and I was at home with continued work on the house. 

Our trailer being delivered to our property...

The boys returned home on Thursday shortly after Toby got home from his trip in Sacramento just in time for our moving day on Friday. We headed out early on Friday and got donuts and the U-Haul. Then we met back at home where we were greeted by five local football players and one high school friend who helped rally all of the players. They helped pack the entire U-Haul with all of our belongings. After we fit as much in as we could...Toby headed to the property in the U-Haul and the boys and I headed to Taco Bell to pick up lunch and then off to the property to help unload the truck. 

Of course in Tenino, we had two more football players from the Tenino football team join us. True home town country boys..."Yes, Mam and No Thank Yous" from these boys. They unloaded the entire trunk into the trailer in less than two hours. We will definitely be inviting them back when it is time to move it all again....into our new home! 

Trusses, framers, U-Haul, Large Storage Trailer, Movers....THIS IS REAL!

It was an interesting day on the property I pulled in shortly after the U-Haul and right in front of me was the semi truck that was loaded to the max with all of the trusses for our new home. An exciting day it was for us at our property.