January 2013..additional pictures to Sam's post

December ended and January began with our awesome traditional celebration with our friends, the Denzers, Balls, and Bristows. We had a wonderful dinner followed by our traditional chocolate fondue. All our kids had a great time playing together...and I know have some pictures that people emailed me somewhere....I just have to find them...Anyway, we made it an early night so that everyone could get their kids to bed. 

Sam flew to New York on Jan. 2 for another sheep study. And then I flew to Philadelphia, where he met me, on Jan. 4. We spent the weekend house-hunting (rental), and enjoyed another little trip by ourselves (THANK YOU EVANS!!!!). We were able to celebrate Sam's birthday with a movie (Lincoln - which we loved), and then an EARLY flight back to Utah the next day. We were able to find and sign a lease on a house while we were in Philly, but MAN is it expensive out there/here!!!! Our rent has more than doubled in our move from SD to PA. And pretty much everything else is crazy more expensive out here too!

When we got back to Utah Sam's awesome family helped us celebrate his birthday with an actual cake and candles:)

Grandma Clair couldn't resist this big bear...and our girls gave it the proper attention it deserved.

When we got back to SD, we had approx. 2.5 weeks to enjoy some final time with our friends and get all packed up and out of there....so we decided to get away to Terry Peak for a weekend with some friends at a cabin, and hit the slopes. All our kids had a great time, but Ben was awesome to see on skis since he wasn't even 2 yet. He LOVED it!

Samantha was getting a lot more gutsy this year. She was super fun. LucyMae who was getting REALLY good without the edgy-wedgy at the end of last year - turning and everything, kind of turned into a wuss this year. But I think she still had fun.

We also had a wonderful night out with a bunch of our wonderful friends from Rapid City, who we miss dearly! Thank you for arranging the whole evening Amberly Baum! And BTW...the steak at this restaurant (Fuji's - I think) was the BEST I have ever tasted!

 

We had so much help from AWESOME people as we had to clean our house and load our truck on the Friday and Saturday before we drove out. I don't know how we would have done it without them (Melanie and Shelly helped clean; Peggy loaned me her carpet-cleaner, Lex, Brad, Jared loaded the truck, the Ruiz's let us stay at their house since they were out of town, etc.). But if it hadn't been for the Baums, I'm fairly certain we would still be packing and cleaning....she kept our kids at her house half of Friday, and ALL day Saturday while we worked and worked to get it all done. And it was like it didn't even faze her to have 7 children at her house. The kids had a great time in their fort watching a movie:)

There wasn't a lot of picture-taking as we were so hurriedly trying to finish the job. I wish I would have gotten some more "goodbye" pictures....of our friends, of our house, and of a million little things....I just can't believe our Rapid City dwelling days are over. I never would have imagined how much I would fall in love with that place when we found out we would be moving there for Sam's schooling.

And then, we were off...driving across the country in rainstorms, followed by ice-storms, followed by snow-storms, followed by CRAZY wind (Sam did an amazing job driving the moving truck in all that weather). We did have some fun along the way though. We got to see Nauvoo a little bit...hope to make it back there again when everything is open....

We stopped at Carthage, which put us a bit behind schedule for the day of driving, but was well worth it.

We spent a couple days hanging out with my sister and her her family in Fort Wayne...thanks for letting us invade your lives Britt and Aaron:) It was fun to let these cousins get to know each other a little bit...hopefully we get to do it again soon.

And then we made our last day of LONG driving to Philadelphia area. We successfully got in touch with the bishop of our new ward who helped us find people to help Sam unload the truck when we got to the house the next day. Those guys were SO awesome to come help out...and they worked extremely quickly and efficiently! Couldn't have done it without them! And now here we are...East-coasters. And I do have pictures of the new house...just need to get them downloaded...I'll add them soon!