It's a sign

I was looking for one toddler size 9 pink cowboy boot (gotta take a little of Wyoming to Oregon, right? And Vivian LOVES them...) and found it under the shoe "caddy" (a big wooden bench thing Bret made for our entry here) and noticed several other...things...under there. So I pulled it forward (it's about 8' long) and found a few other random things...among which was a quarter. Cool, I thought (Sabine and Vivian love gumball machines) then I turned it over...



Yup. An Oregon quarter. I think this one gets a special place...sorry, gumball machines.

We leave tomorrow morning, will drive about half way there, and will be in Portland Sunday evening. Wahoo!

Thanks to everyone who posted good wishes for the move -- sorry for the lack of individual responses, this moving thing is hard work! I'm looking forward to leisurely unpacking.

Sabine's week...

...has been brought you by the letter B.

She has learned to ride her new bike with no training wheels, is braiding hair, and and blowing bubble gum bubbles.

We're wondering what the letter C has in store. And trying to remember what A was (astrophysics, algorithms and ants? Yeah, that's it.)

This is the house...

in Portland...we'll be there on the 31st of Aug. Wahoo!

The reason for this blog's recent inactivity

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...or packing peanuts.

It's official...

...we're moving to Portland, OR!

We're so excited to be closer to Dave and Karmin, and all the cool folks we've met at the LIFE is Good conferences. While we'll miss Jackson -- it has been just shy of 16 years!!! -- we're excited about the change.

Bret will be working for City of Portland (Bureau of Environmental Services) and flys out on August 20 to begin work the 22nd. He'll fly back to Jackson on the 29th to drive back out with the girls, cats dog and me (for some reason, I blanched at doing the drive solo...can't imagine why...).

We should arrive in Portland on the 31st of August and move into the house that has been owend for almost 20 years by the midwife who caught Vivian. I'll post photos once we finalize things with her. It's in a cool, older neighborhood about 2 miles from downtown/Bret's office, and within walking distance to several neat shops/parks/etc.

So...advance apologies if I'm slow to respond to an email...or if blog doesn't get updated much in the next few weeks...but we're weeding out stuff and packing...WAHOO!

Google Maps rules...

...but they don't travel with kids. Ten hours 16 minutes I was told to get from our hotel in Dillon, MT to our hotel in Mt. Vernon, WA. My plan was to drive to Spokane, WA (approx. 5 hours from Dillon), go to the children's museum or waterfront area (arrive around 1 pm) and spend 1.5 hours there, and then 5 more hours and arrive at said hotel.

Sabine and Vivian's plan was a little different. We made it almost 2 hours when they requested a stop...so we ended up at a rest stop where Bret took the girls "fishing" while I made sandwiches...(OK, so we didn't leave Dillon till 10:45 am...minus one really cool bedrail, which coincidentally used to belong to the friends who are house sitting in Jackson for us right now...they moved to CA last December...) but hey, I didn't have to carry it up to the hotel tonight! (My glass is half full...of G&T).

After that stop, we found several interesting things to look at during our drive, including the sprawling ranch type place that had MANY giant statues of various animals (giant bull, eagle with spread wings, etc. you get the idea, right?) and then...something else...Bret and I both saw it, so it must have happened. It was an alien spaceship statue with an alien exiting the ship. Really. OK then. Toto, we really aren't in Kansas anymore.

After that, at mile 242 (yes, we took notes...) we saw that we were leaving the "Apple Maggot Quarantine Area"...thank goodness all went well...

So, we made it to our destination...14 hours later...and oh so GRATEFUL for the time change...love gaining an hour...

Trust me on this...

Dillon, MT is a lovely two-stoplight town...but not where you want to go shopping for a swimsuit. (Guess what I forgot to pack for myself?)