Happy Birthday Brooke! and driving West (August 2018)

Brooke was a real trooper this year as we moved right on her 9th birthday!  We were glad we did the birthday party ahead of time so she got some good friend time in before we moved. Brooke is a funny, sweet, helpful and independent girl. She likes to do things her way and in her time but always does her best work. She loves art and riding her bike and helping kids. She looks out for other people. We love you Brooke!
Brooke opening up her presents in the car.
Moving sometimes makes you want to smash your face into the window.
We stopped at a gas station and it was $1 cone day (or free, I can't remember, it was 18 months ago lol) We said it was a celebration of Brooke's birthday and it was yummy and nice to have a break.
Hailey and William killed time by taking random pictures. 




We made it to the hotel and everyone was in good spirits. No matter where we move, we have each other!


Sun rising over Nebraska. I think I cried for a good long time when we crossed the Iowa border. Iowa will always be in our hearts. We did some of our best growing during that time and made amazing friends. We were blessed to see so many states and places and learn to be a united family.I will always think of Iowa as our growing time.
We stopped at the Bells on our way through and they had a party for Brooke. That was so nice and one of our first ever extended family birthday parties! 


You can never have too many socks!
No matter how big the kids get, they always end up snuggling on the couch at Kellie and Spencer's house. It's so cute to see them like this, after they're up messing around till 11 or 12. ha
Ethan is so darling. Hailey is great with babies.
William is a funny funny guy
Our first park lunch in Kuna. We went there to check out houses on our way from Idaho Falls. We ended up with a dead battery in Idaho Falls, so we stayed an extra day. It was nice to be with family longer before we embarked on the unknown! We looked at ten houses in Kuna but the first one we looked at, we knew was ours. But we did our due diligence and looked at a lot. Our realtor was so patient with us and all our craziness. After all that traveling and then we end up looking at houses for hours. The kids were good sports. We were so blessed to get a great deal on our house on Rosedust. I jokingly wrote on a paper to buy Rosedust house. It was way higher than we would pay but the price reduced a lot right when we were looking. We've been able to share it with a lot of family and friends and church people.
We stayed at a hotel for the first two weeks. We went to Black Bear Diner across the street.  It was fun and yummy. Staying in a hotel was pretty fun with the pool, the gym and a good breakfast and occasional dinner.

Hailey and I went grocery shopping at Winco, hooray!!!  I've missed that place. It was so funny to put our groceries on this. Hailey was super embarrassed but I wasn't!
The kids missed some time at school so I had them do some work at the hotel.  I was able to teach Spencer long division better and help the kids. It was great but I couldn't homeschool.
We spent some time playing pool..
We went to the STIL ice cream shop and played some games out front. It was a beautiful day and yummy. It's our favorite ice cream shop.

We checked out the State Capitol and did a guided tour. It was fun and quiet in there so we were obviously noticeable. That building had the nicest bathrooms I've ever seen!

This is called Freak Alley. Artists change it up all the time and it is a neat spot downtown.
Fun splash pad downtown.
Homework time
We went to the zoo. It was a  pretty good zoo! Great way to spend a day.




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