Swings and School

Hi there!  Sorry for the blogging hiatus, it's been a little busy around here trying to get everything settled and getting Alex off to school/work.  The past week has been fun.  Alex has been busy with school, and Edie and I have been taking several trips to the park.  The weather has been gorgeous and sunny for the most part, although we have had a couple glimpses of our cloudy and rainy future. 

In the meantime, while we enjoy the last few sunny days of the year, Edie and I are spending a lot of time swinging.

Her favorite thing to do is watch the other kids running around and playing in the sandbox, and she gets a great view from the swings.  The park is only a few blocks from our house, and the walk is really nice.  Another plus, it's not 100 degrees outside, so strolling is actually enjoyable.

While we're at the park, Alex has been working hard.  His first day of classes was officially yesterday, but he's been at the university for the last week doing TA training and getting an introduction to his new department.  Here are a few pics of our walk around campus.

Beautiful UW campus

Edie loves it already!

Smith Hall - where Alex will be spending the next 4 years

Had to get a pic with the Husky

And because I know you've been waiting patiently for house pics, here are a few of the front.  Note that one of the first things we did was get the Texas flag up. :)

the front

Bear's new post

View out the living room window.  Yes, those are the flowers from Pike's Market

Ok!  I promise not to wait a week before updating again.

Taking a Break from Unpacking

Before you ask, no, we have not finished getting everything put away.  We did start hanging some pictures today, which is a good sign that we're getting close in at least a couple of the rooms.

After a quick run to Bed Bath and Beyond for some things, we decided that we needed to explore our new city a little bit.  We thought it would be appropriate to start with Pike's Market.

Yes, I realize that I could have gotten this photo right off the internet, but I promise we were there, and I promise I took this.  I didn't mention before, but the weather has been absolutely perfect since we arrived.  Cool nights, and clear sunny days.  Exactly what I would have ordered, and a great break from the Houston summer heat.

After walking around the market for a while, making sure to see the famous flying fish, we stopped for lunch at a great little place with a view of the water.  Here's Edie, happy as a clam in her high chair as we ate.  

Once we were refueled, we went back to the market to pick up a few things we were eying  on our initial run.  The flowers were absolutely GORGEOUS.  Not only that, they were so cheap compared to prices in Houston for a similar bouquet.  I picked up this beauty for just $5, and used it to fill two vases!  I just love dahlias, and they were all over that market in every color imaginable.

  

We also picked up some fruit and cheese before we were done.  I can't wait to go back and get some fresh seafood. After all the fun, little Edie was exhausted, and so were we. 

On the menu for tomorrow, exploring downtown Ballard and the farmers market, and walking around UW.  Can't wait!

Settling In

For those of you who automatically get emails when I update, I appologize for all the problems with the previous post.  Had some technical difficulties, but I think they are all sorted out now.

Alex and I are really enjoying our sweet little house.  We've still got some work to do, but the main floor is pretty much where we want it to be, and Edie's room is coming along nicely.  Today, we assembled our tiny little Ikea table, and enjoyed a home cooked meal with my parents.  It was something we were all craving.

We also checked out Top Pot doughnuts for breakfast.  Megan gave us the assignment, and we were happy to do it.  In fact, there's talk of doing some more doughnut research tomorrow.  Yum!

Hopefully we can also get out to explore a little more tomorrow.  We have a lot of great places within a block of our house, but we have yet to venture much farther other than to run errands.  My parents leave on Monday, so we've still got a couple of days to explore with them. 

Also, on the Edie sleep front, she's almost back to where she was before we turned her world upside down.  We've reinstated a routine and she really only needed one day of sleep training to get back into the groove of things.  Last night was much better, and we're hoping she just keeps on improving from there.

Ok, we're tired from another full day here in Seattle.  We'll post some pictures of the living room and kitchen area tomorrow.

We're Home!

Seattle has officially been invaded by the Wagner family.  We arrived at about 10 am yesterday morning, and have not stopped unloading and unpacking since. Unfortunately, after 2 days of working, we still have a lot of unpacking to do before we're done.

We are happy to be out of the car, but Edie is finally punishing us for being so good for most of the trip, and is having some major sleep regression issues. So, on top of being exhausted, we have a baby who is fighting sleep like nobody's business.  Makes for a not so restful night, and a tiring day. Hopefully we all get caught up on our ZZZ's in the next few days.

I will leave you with a nice family pic in front of our new home.  We will post more pictures of the house as we get everything settled.

We made it to Washington!

Today's drive was the most beautiful by far. Northern California, Oregon, and Washington are just gorgeous. Somewhere in the middle of Oregon, Alex rolled down his window, took a deep breath and said "It smells like fresh baked bread or something. Do you smell that? Is that what fresh air smells like?"  We took advantage of the fresh air and beautiful weather, stopping in Grants Pass for a nice lunch on the river. Here are a few pics from the stop.

Dressed for the cooler weather

Ready for some lunch!

Lunch view of the river 

After lunch, we decided to see how far Edie would let us make it. With a later start and a leisurely lunch there was no way we would make it the 600 miles to Seattle, but we could get past Portland and into Washington, which is what we did. We are now in Kelso, Washington checked into our hotel room making peanut butter sandwiches. Tomorrow morning we will drive the last 135 miles to our new home.

I almost forgot! My parents arrived in Seattle with the moving truck about an hour ago. Here's a pic of the huge truck in front of our tiny house. :)

I'm sure we will have plenty of pictures of the house to post tomorrow.  Love you and miss you!

Sunny California

We departed from Irvine early this morning.  That feels like forever ago.  We miss the amazing food Katie prepared for us all weekend and enjoying beers on their back patio (especially as we sit in our hotel room now), but most of all we miss the Bowden family! Here are a few pics of them. My brother managed to not appear in a single picture, but this is no surprise to anyone who knows him.

Brynn!

Sweet Atlas

Edie with her Aunt Katie

Today we drove almost 600 miles. It was our longest day by far, but we're glad we kept driving past our originally intended stop because we're that much closer to home.  In fact, if we drive 600 miles again tomorrow, we will make it all the way to Seattle.

We checked in to our hotel in Redding and then enjoyed a California treat for dinner.  

We  have driven by countless In-n-Out Burgers on the roads of California and we just couldn't resist stopping at least once.

Tomorrow we plan on stopping in Portland so our last day of driving will be a short one. Until then I'll leave you with a couple pictures of the kids ready for bed after a long day in the car.

She doesn't look very tired, does she?

such a good dog

Passed out, less than 30 minutes later.

4 states, 3 days of driving, and 1 exhausted family

Sorry I got so behind on updating you all.  We've been too exhausted after our nighttime socializing to write new posts at each stop.  We've made it to Irvine for our much needed weekend without driving.  We are beyond excited to spend the weekend with my brother, sister-in-law, and sweet niece.  Cute pictures and videos of the girls interacting are inevitable.

An attempt to share toys

Here they are on their way to church this morning

The drive through West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Eastern California was all about the same.  Dry.  The sights consisted of rocks, brush, mesas or mountains, wind turbines, rocks sitting next to wind turbines on mesas surrounded by brush, etc.  I think I was imagining a much flatter drive, but the mountains and mesas made the horizon much more interesting.  We also passed a lot of pecan orchards along the way.  I find this weird, because I know that pecan trees require a lot of water to produce pecans, and they were all in the middle of the dessert.  Seems like a waste of water, but who am I to say.

Meanwhile back in La Porte, this was happening...

Our stuff being loaded into the truck

my dad filling up the truck somewhere in West Texas

After stopping in Sonora on night one, we made our way to El Paso where we were greeted by a much nicer hotel and a delicious Mexican dinner with family friends.  Edie got a nice send off gift of Texas t-shirts and a "Republic of Texas" Bear, which was sweet.  El Paso was hot, and our next stop outside of Pheonix was hotter.  There we were met by sweet family and a homemade dinner.  Edie charmed everyone (as usual).  How could you not love this little face?

Our drive to Irvine went well and we could not wait to see Nathan, Katie, Brynn and Atlas.  Tired of driving, we are excited about a couple days without it.  It's also much cooler here than it has been along the way.  You know it's too hot when you find a piece of asphalt melted to your dogs skin (yes, this actually happened).  Edie is really loving playing with all of her cousins toys, and not being in the carseat.

While we made our way to Cali, our things were packed into the moving truck and started to make their way to Seattle.  My sweet parents volunteered to drive the truck and are in Colorado now after 2 days of driving.  Alex's parents also set off on their own adventure to Columbia, Missouri for a bike ride. Road trips all around! 

Tomorrow we hit the road again.  We'll probably be stopping around Sacramento after an early start to miss LA traffic.

We miss you all!

See Ya Later Alligator

We're officially on the road! Edie dressed for the occasion...

And this is the view we left behind, it will definitely be missed...

One more pic from our departure, this is the whole family ready to go...

Day one is done.  We drove about 400 miles to Sonora, TX.  The drive was not bad at all and Bear and Edie slept most of the way.  OK, Bear slept the whole way, and Edie took a couple good naps between stops.  Our first pit-stop was Schulenburg to feed Edie and gas up, and then we stopped in Kerrville and stretched our legs, made some sandwiches, and bought a Texas State flag (yes, we plan on being "those people").  Edie even got a turn behind the wheel :)

Well, she got to stand behind the wheel, while I finished eating my lunch...

Our next stop was Sonora.  Neither of us has ever heard of Sonora, but we learned from billboards along I-10 that it houses "Mother Nature's Mona Lisa."  We just had to check out the Caverns of Sonora.  The website touts it as "the most beautiful cave in Texas and one of the most beautiful show caves in the world."  How could we read that and not go see it?!?  Yes, we were tired.  Yes, we had a baby and a dog in tow.  And yes, it was 15 miles from our hotel.  We went anyway, and man are we glad.  It was truly amazing.  I have never seen anything like it in my life.  If you're going through Sonora, I highly recommend stopping.  They even have kennels for your dog to stay in while you take the tour.

We were worried when we arrived, because the employees kept telling us how hot it was, and recommending that we strip Edie down to her diaper, but if you're from anywhere near Houston, it will actually feel cool to you.   The tour took about 1 hr and 45 min, and in that time we saw some pretty incredible cave formations.  Here are a few pics that I took while we were down there...

This was the first open space we came to

Alex and Edie (they gave us a cooler carrier to use so Edie wouldn't get so hot)

Alex and I and the top of Edie's head (you never know what you're going to get when you hand your camera to a stranger)

Edie taking in the sights

The following are some of the awesome formations we saw...

This was taken looking up at the ceiling.  I know about stalactites and stalagmites (they grow down from the ceiling or up from the ground), but these were growing out to the sides. They're called helictites.

These are underwater formations that were uncovered when they were trying to connect two of the rooms

We may have been tired, but this was a stop that was definitely worth making.  Plus, it got us out of our hotel room.

Ok, we're turning in for the night, but hope to have time for another update tomorrow.  Until then, know that we're thinking about all of you back home and we miss you already!

The time has come!

It's finally here, we depart early tomorrow morning.  For those who made it to our going away party yesterday, thank you!  We really enjoyed seeing everyone one last time before we leave, and it was so nice to have everybody in one place.

We finished packing the last of our things today, and I think more than anything we're just ready to get on the road.  Alex, Edie, Bear, and I are going to be driving my Liberty and towing Alex's Wrangler.  Dogs and babies take up a lot of car space, so we're lucky that we have a whole other car to pack with our road trip supplies.  Our first stop is Sonora, Texas.  I've never heard of it, but it's halfway between here and El Paso. Fun fact:  the smaller the town, the higher the percentage of pet-friendly hotels.  It seems that they're just desperate for anyone to book a room.

Ok, well we're going to get the last of our things together so we're all ready to head out in the morning.  I promise to start posting pics soon!