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We had one last family dinner together the Sunday prior to our move.  We went to Round Lake.  It was a gorgeous day!

Mason, Skott, Aundray, (Nic), Max

Carrie made the most delicious homemade chocolate and bacon cupcakes!  YUMMM!!!

Our move back west was challenging.... to say the least!  Our biggest hurdle was the fact that no one would rent to us without us viewing the property in person first.  Fair enough, but also extremely frustrating in that no one would "pre-approve" us before hand (run our credit, check references, etc) so that we would be ready to sign once we found something.

My Dad helped us load the truck on Monday.  Hard to believe everything we have easily fit into a 10'x20' storage unit:

Measuring to make sure its all going to fit into truck :)

We left early Tuesday morning.  I am so glad Skott had the skills to drive that huge truck and trailer!  He volunteered to take the dogs with him so I had the nice, quiet car all to myself!  Good thing! -he told me Fucie whined for the first couple hours.  Eventually, they settled down to this:

We drove from about 7am until 11:30pm.  We stayed in Billings, MT.  Ran through the sprinklers at the hotel trying to locate an outdoor outlet so we could plug our freezer in.... We were so exhausted!  Izzy was nervous and panted the ENTIRE night.  She was literally shaking the entire bed.  After a little sleep, we woke up and headed out.  Hit a lot of construction that afternoon around Yellowstone.  Made a quick stop in Jerome and visited "Mamma Jerri".  Then headed on to Glenns Ferry where we stopped and visited Skott's "Mom and Pop" and his Aunt Joyce.  Then on to Boise/Meridian for the night.  We stopped at Heidi's first.  Mom and Seth drove up from Utah, and Rachel and Josie were there also.  It was wonderful to see everyone and we really appreciate them all coming over, despite the late hour.  Got to hug and kiss my sweet niece Ayla.  I haven't seen her in over a year.  Wow! -what a difference.  She was so cute toddling around and kept trying to feed the dogs bits of food through the (closed) screen door.  Adorable. 

We left Heidi's to go sleep at Josies new place.  Wish we would have had more time to visit.  In fact, I should have just skipped sleep altogether that night thanks to more panting by Izzy.

We left Boise Thursday morning and continued on to Oregon, arriving late at night in Lincoln City.  The retarded desk clerk misdirected us and we ended up getting "stuck" in the lower lot with the truck and trailer because the ramps into the lot were too steep to get out and there were a couple vehicles blocking the way.  Finally managed to position the truck as to not block anyone and we collapsed into bed.  The next morning we went out to move the truck and got a lovely scolding by the day shift front desk lady.  Love it when you call ahead to make arrangements for things, are given wrong information, and still get yelled at because no one can communicate or pass down messages.  Ah well, we got it all straightened out amidst dealing with a gushing toenail from Izzy... she drags her back legs when she walks and she managed to snap off her toenail below the quick.  Luckily, a vet clinic was close by and we were able to get some styptic powder to stop the bleeding but not before she had made a giant mess of the bathroom floor.  Oh, and did I mention we were supposed to be out doing drive arounds with the rental people?  Yah....  it was a crazy morning.

The place we really wanted had just been rented out the day before.  We looked at a couple places in the morning, then the landlord had some other appointments so we went and got breakfast/lunch where we discovered we had ran over a nail somewhere so off to Les Schwab we went.  Thankfully, they got us in quickly and fixed it up for no charge.  After that we went back and looked at another place and decided it was the best of our options at the time.  It is a duplex townhouse, built in the 1970's, but very roomy!  We love the fact that we are only about 4 blocks to the beach. 

We FINALLY made it to the beach about 5pm!

We had to stay in the hotel all weekend until our credit check came back.  Late Monday afternoon we got the keys and started unloading the truck into the garage.  It took SO LONG to unload.  We were already a day over our allotment on the truck so we decided to just return it that night.  Oh, but before we could return it we went and picked up a washer and dryer we found on craigslist.  Then we headed to Salem, which is an hour away (but the nearest Penske drop-off).  Ate our first fast-food of the entire trip, and consequently, both got sick on the way home (when will we ever learn?), and got to bed around 2:30am.

Whew!