WE MADE IT!!!

And so we are here!  The house is fantastic!  It is a three bedroom, 1.5 bathroom duplex townhome in a secluded neighborhood outside of Rochester.  We go to sleep at night hearing the frogs and crickets, while watching the fireflies.  We wake up in the mornings to the birds chirping, it's so peaceful and quiet.

Things I've learned about the New England coast:
*There are a lot of bugs here (my favorite are the fireflies)
*There is a Dunkin Donuts on every other block
*When it rains...it POURS!
*There are a lot of trees here but no mountains
*Motorcyclists are not required to wear helmets
*They have turnpikes...
*They drive cahs not cars (several of them have heavy accents)
*Many of the roads aren't in great condition ("These are bumpy roads mommy", says Hannah)
*Every time there is road work of any kind there is also a police officer
*Every thing is spread out, it is like driving on River Rd. in Salem, OR all the time
*It's been 80%+ humid here since we've been here
*Seatbelts aren't required beyond the age of 12
*You could likely see at least three different state license plates in one day

Although I haven't been impressed with the weather, overall this is a beautiful place to live. We are doing ok, I've been a bit lonely since my mom left and Jason goes to work but I've been staying busy.  This Sunday we went to a nice church called Grace Community Church.  It's not far from our house.  We found out they are hosting a VBS this week so I finally decided (today) to take Hannah as their minimum age is 3yrs and she isn't quite there yet.  She did fantastic and had a blast.  I met several really nice moms who invited me to a play date next week.  I am thrilled to have already met some other moms.  That will make things so much easier for the transition.  We will post on here ever so often so our west coast family and friends can keep track of us!  Please continue to pray for us as we are still transitioning.  Hannah mentions her west coast people everyday, it's hard to be positive and explain it to her.... :(

Fun pictures! (I got my new camera for a graduation gift just as soon as we got over here, so I've been having a lot of fun playing around with it)

 

It's so beautiful here!  This is in downtown Dover, NH!

 

 

Yep, it's our house...mess and all!

 

 

Grace Community Church and our Hannah bug at VBS!  Such a little peanut!

 

 

Miss Personality...see her tooth!!

 

I have to pump my own gas...WHAT!?  Jason at work!

 

 

Hannah's two favorite things!  They have these swings at most of the parks.

 

 

 

Nubble Lighthouse, York Maine

 

 

On our way!

The movers are here...WHAT!?!  Yes the movers came a whole 24+hours earlier than we expected them.  We had planned to have Hannah away for the day that we were going to be moving our stuff out of the house.  When they showed up the day before we expected them, that was not possible so we called in reinforcements (aka our sweet friend Ashley to the rescue)!

Such as it was, we got the important things packed on the truck and on it's way.  The rest of our items fit on our car which shipped a few days later (we did forget to pack our entire linens closet...haha).

After this "exciting" (more like insanely chaotic) day, we got to spend a few nights a our dear friends home while we finished cleaning up the house and waited for graduation day.  This turned out to be such a blessed time, we are so thankful we got this time with them and other friends just before we left.

Although graduation was the furthest thing from my mind, I'm thankful I got to walk with my fellow graduates.  I will never forget looking up into the crowd seeing my proud family (especially my grandma and my girls) waving excitedly at me!

 

Blessed to get my Masters in Education from OSU!

The two weeks before our departing the beautiful state of Oregon, we spent apart.  Jason was here working hard both at work and at home.  The girls and I were doing our best squeezing in as much family and friend fun time that we possibly could. 

A few picture highlights!

Fun at the Wildlife Safari and berry picking with Grandma Karen!

 

Fun taking a bath in the sink and golfing with Grandpa Keith!

 

Bowling with all the family and bedtime stories with Grandpa and Grandma...and Jayme!

The movers made it to Rochester, NH with our stuff on June 29th.  Jason was a sweet heart and had the basic stuff set up for our arrival.  We were excited to have my mom fly out with the girls and I, this way Jason would have a few more days to set up and not have to take as much time off work.  Plus, mom was thrilled of course that she'd be able to see where we live.

The flight...

We slept (or should I say "slept") in Keizer the night before our flight because we had to leave before the sun rose.  Hannah said when we left that morning, "Wow, it's a little bit dark out here."  Then on the way to Portland as it got light she said, "Where'd the dark go?"

We made it through saying goodbyes (although they were a bit rushed, which might have been a good thing), made it through security, and made it onto the plane.  The girls did ok going through security and my mom and I "figured" it out as we went.  Thank heavens for her help!  The five and a half hour flight was surprisingly ok with both girls.  No major meltdowns...PLUS!

When we got to Boston, we were all eager to see daddy and make sure Tinker (our kitty who was flying under the plane with the cargo) was ok.  Jason and I had a misunderstanding about where Tinker would be picked up at, sooo, we went looking for her...and looked, and looked, and looked!  Finally the airport called us and told us they have our cat and we need to come get her...lol!  Took us over an hour to find the darn cat!  Poor thing!  At this point we were all pretty much done with the traveling.  Then we took a few wrong turns in Boston, which then leads to a MUCH longer trip...all in all, Hannah summed it up perfectly when we drove into the driveway "WE MADE IT!"