Week Day Happenings

This is to catch everyone up with what the day to day has been around here.

 (It has only been a week plus a few days)

First up,  while we were looking at places to live (our first day here) we stopped and looked around the "city." Tuesday the 14th we checked out the temple!

The main reason we went was because this was our view from hotel #3

First thing in the morning, we headed out to see the temple up close!

Of course it was beautifully landscaped.

We went to the visitor center and they handed out scavenger hunts.

It is so pretty in Idaho Falls!

My kids asked if we could stay here forever, and the answer (for now) is YES!!!

It was getting boring in the hotel room, so we had Mills Dinner one night and the kids LOVED it!

Thursday we moved into the house so, of course we needed to buy some new house hold items.

These were found at bed bath and beyond.

Thursday was pack meeting!!!

This one was pretty great!

This below is JUST the wolves.

Lucas can't stop talking about how much he loves his new pack.

The boy on the left of him is his "mathlete" buddy Colton. He lives down the street from us.

 (we also went to the scout shop!!!)

Oh, we also bought a new mini van and some matresses.

That sort of sums it up our week. Minus tomorrows post!

New School Fall Frolic

The kids had their first official day of school on Friday the 17th. We got there just in the nick of time because the school's halloween event was on the following Monday.

We knew we weren't going to have enough time to do an all out theme for Halloween, so we decided to let the boys have their wish and do cops and robbers. The girls will get to pick next year.

This school is very proud of the fact that they are the 3rd in the entire state for best elementary school. They deserve it. Lucas is in an accelerated Math class that is separate from his actual 3rd grade class and since he is reading at a 975+ lexile they have put him in an advanced reading group as well. His group is reading the Hobbit and he was only 3 chapters behind. (which he has already caught up) They want the kids to read and understand what they are reading. Just because he can read something more mature doesn't mean he will fully understand it. They want the content and the themes to be talked about and understood while they are reading them. It is very interesting how they do it here. They also do not do Standards Based Grading which is awesome.

Bridget is not the same as Lucas. She absolutely loves to write and has so much to say. They put her in a creative writing group where they give her a prompt and let her go to town. She goes to that group for 25 minutes a day and has brought home some incredible stories. She surprised us in Colorado with how well she is at Math. I imagine some of it has to do with her testing skills. She is very good at test taking. Her teacher doesn't want to burn her out with the accelerated math, so she is giving her more complex work on her own.

Scarlett is a whole other animal. She was about to go to 1st grade for reading at the old school because she was well above her classmates in reading. At this school, they tested them the same day they got there, and Scarlett scored higher than she did just 2 weeks ago. I guess all of that reading in the hotel rooms helped. LOL.  Her teacher is trying to figure out where to put her because 1/2 day isn't cutting it. She is getting a bunch of homework and she absolutely loves it. We have a meeting with the kindergarten teachers next Wednesday to see what they plan for my little smarty.

This school is really awesome. They don't have the incredible specials teachers like our last school had, and we ALL are going to have to get over that. Sniff sniff. 

They have a lot of other cool things that the last school didn't have, our kids are really enjoying the bus, and the fact that 80% of our neighbor hood/ward goes to school here.

Did I mention that my entire subdivision is my ward? That's it! So cool! 

No excuses to NOT go HT or VT! Hahaha.

Anyway, the Frolic:

You pay for a punch pass.

 Every.Single.Classroom. has a game. You punch, go in, go to the next one.

They also had dinner and then baskets to raffle off and prizes. It was a 3 hour event. It was so much fun, and a lot of people in our new ward were introducing themselves to us. It was so neat! 

Lucas saw his teacher there, who is also in our ward. 

We are really loving Idaho, and it has only been 1 week!

Feels like we have been here forever.

A few Hello's!

Before we got to Idaho, we were "lucky" enough to go to Utah! It worked out great because the kids could see their cute cousins - Morgan and Elsa.

Uncle Jared declared we go to the park. The kids had been in a car for 2 days, it was time.

This park is in Cory and Liz's neighborhood.

 Jules loved it!

 Mason did too. He loves to climb. I think he made the other adults nervous but not this mom!

Mason feels the need to get as close to death as possible, as often as possible.

 Elsa just hung around and watched.

 Morgan and Uncle Cory.

 My kids love kids, so hanging with the little ones is oh so much fun.

 Elsa and Juliet pretty much loved each other and hugged the entire time.

Auntie Erin taught the kids some Yoga.

She also taught Bridget a little routine.

The kids ate up their time with the Aunties and Uncles.

 And then to the hotel we went. We spent one night with Liz and Cory, had a yummy breakfast and lunch with them off to see what was up with the truck.

I am so glad we are only 3 hours away from them. 

I bet we will be seeing a lot more of them now!

Ahem. We are in Idaho.

What the What? We are moving?

The long and the short of it is…yes!

We have been trying to find a way to be happy in certain aspects of our lives, and it seemed almost impossible to do without moving. So, we prayed and searched and prayed and waited and then one Wednesday, we decided to just try it out! See what would happen if we threw it into the universe. The next day, things started rolling into place and our house was pretty much sold. Does one actually need a reason to up and move? If you do need one, here it is : We wanted an adventure, we wanted to get out of our ward (yes I said it) and we wanted a fresh start. 

We wanted more than Colorado could give us.

Why Idaho? We didn’t want to stay in Colorado. It seemed that nowhere would work for what we were actually looking to do. Nathan was given an awesome opportunity and we jumped on it. Oh, and Why not? We have never been there, and it felt right. That is all you need to know.

Everything in Colorado went so fast, we were so blessed.

We packed up the moving truck, said our goodbyes and then --- all of the fun started to happen.

Fun? Well, if you think having your moving truck BREAKING DOWN at 11pm in Evanston, Wyoming FUN then yes! It was fun! It was 20 degrees our kiddos were so cold and tired. (we sold our minivan, and huddled up in the moving truck and car) They couldn’t fix the truck after waiting 6 hours, so we stayed the night in Wyoming. The next morning was oh so much funner. The moving company decided to tow our truck to Salt Lake City, Utah, because that was the closest place. Luckily, Nathan’s brother came and picked up half of our crew while we waited to see what was going to happen. We spent the night with Liz and Cory and still no word. The next day we heard that the fuel pump was busted and they couldn’t fix it, so they totaled it. They couldn’t fix the 24 foot truck so they gave us a 26 foot truck instead. They hired professional movers to move our stuff from one truck to the next and did a TERRIBLE job. (we didn’t know until we got to Idaho)

 We were finally Idaho bound and heard back from 3 houses we put “offers” on. They all fell through. One had a leak that the inspector said needed 10k to fix. 2 others were under contract with better offers and they took the local people over us on. We were in our 3^rd hotel in 4 days. We were feeling low, and then decided to pray that we would find the house where we could do the most good (in the ward) and we thought we found it. Come to find out they changed the terms on us and we were in a hotel for 2 more days.Ugh! Trying to be positive and upbeat when everything seems to be spiraling out of control is very difficult.  We tried one more time on Thursday and it didn’t work either. After a complete breakdown to my mother in law, we decided to try a rental. We were running out of time, the kids had missed 3 days of school, and in 39 minutes we were approved – and had the keys to the new kingdom. It is a large, 6 bedroom 3 bath, and finished basement house with just enough space! On our way to the house, I registered the kids in the school I wanted (YES!!!!) and we were unloading the truck in a neighborhood we had never seen.

 Finding a rental that was empty is next to impossible in October!

Within minutes, the neighborhood kids were coming home from school and helping us unload the truck. My neighbor, Becky asked what we needed and within the hour men from the whole street came to help us move in. I could not believe my eyes. What an incredible service they did for our family.

We found out that our ward was just created. They just completed the stake center, or stake house as the Idahoans call it and they hadn’t met as a new ward yet! Talk about LUCK! Talk about TIMING! Talk about HF’s PLAN!

The next day, (Friday) the kids met the principal – talked to him, and they got to meet the teacher which best suited them. It was very Harry Potterish. But, they loved it!

It was an intense weekend. I was feeling really sad about not “buying” a house, but I feel at peace about it. We are where we need to be. We have a year to build in our neighborhood if we want, we can shop around (instead of buying a house we have never seen – which is what we were doing) Heck! - we have the freedom to move to another state if we want.

Our kids have adjusted fabulously. Their school is incredible. (3^rd in the whole state!) The church is across the street from the school. They get to take a bus! And our entire neighborhood is our ward. That is so weird and crazy cool. There are a million kids in our neighborhood and they are all in our ward and in the kids school and so far very respectful. 

We are happy about how supportive our family and close friends are. It is funny that people feel the need to know the hows and whys when they don't see or talk to us everyday. We literally moved randomly, one day in broad daylight, without any fanfare or large goodbyes - no mega announcement - nothing. We just upped and moved. I am so glad we did it this way. It was a complete blindside.

I can't wait to go and explore this new place. I can't wait to stretch out and be utilized in a calling. I can't wait to see what our family will get to do and accomplish. I can't wait for Nathan to do what he loves to do. I can't wait for family to come visit. I can't wait to meet new people.

*sigh*

This is the life!

Week of Goodbyes! - 6375 and neighbors!

We will miss so many things. Our house, which was a great size and never had any horrific issues.

Our neighbors, and our friends. I brought all my babies home to this house, and each room has been painted at least twice. Hehehe.

Our first meal in this house was KFC sandwich stackers which had just come out at the time, and Nathan was so late coming home from work (when he used to work in the hospitals) so he grabbed a bunch on his way home. It was fitting to have KFC for dinner as our last meal.

Our house sold! 20 days from when we put it on the market, to the day we closed on the house.
It was under contract in 28 hours with multiple offers. We got more than asking and love the people who bought our house! Also, the wife was at the Adams State football game where I was hit head first in the pelvis by 2 football players!!! Small world!

Here is a better tour of the house

We feel extremely blessed to have this all happen so quickly.

We will miss E, everyone's favorite Hampson.

And Maddie and Amelia, our across the street neighbors.

It was nice to spend our first and last night in the house just as we started, without children.
I teared up a little, but we are SO HAPPY to move on! Woot!

Week of Goodbyes - Chris/Kelley/Alex/Spencer

We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's, spent the day there, and then celebrated Spencer's 22nd Birthday!

Bridget helped make the cake.

We were happy to be with family, and will miss these Witte gatherings. :)

Week of Goodbyes! - Glacier Peak

My kids love their school so much. It was really hard to leave all of their teachers, past and present.

They loved the old principal and the new one.

We will miss how close the school was:

Each kid brought a goodbye snack to share with the class.

Lucas's class asked for his "lucky trail mix" from 2nd grade.

Lucas has loved his 3rd grade teacher so much.

She has been incredible.

After the song, his teacher had everyone say something nice to or about him. After the 4th kid, everyone was crying. Even the boys. When it was his teachers turn, Lucas and her were bawling.

I was too. She wants to know what Lucas will do for the world, and expects him to write to her.

Bridget was not sad at all. She said she KNEW she would make new friends and is so happy to go to our new place. Her teacher and I cried because we have had some good memories being Lucas's teacher and now, Bridget's.

Scarlett said she was only going to miss her friend, E. She was also going to miss bringing lunch to school since she is in full day K now and wont be at the new school. (they dont offer it)

I am going to miss a lot about this school, but have high hopes for the new school. :)