California or BUST!

We've now been in California a month so it is high time to make a big photo dump of our trip. :)   We decided to use ABF to move out because you pack all your stuff into their trailer, paying for the linear foot, and then they drive it out to your destination.  It was awesome, especially since I didn't have to drive the car with the girls by my self.  Big thanks to our FANTASTIC ward who helped us get everything in the truck, and especially big thanks to Carolyn Sweeny who took the girls to the museum while we finished cleaning and then let us all sleep at her house that night (since our apartment was totally empty).  Here is our journey through 9 states with 4 people and one little blue car:

All our stuff before it got loaded into the truck

Our wonderful movers!

Trying to fit all our stuff into no more than 10 feet
(P.S.  We made it into 8 ft. and saved ourselves almost $350!
Thank you ABF)

The girls with our friend Liv.  The girls got to play with Liv
one more time while we loaded the truck. 

Driving Day 1:

Us in our Hoosier gear just before leaving Bloomington on
our great cross country journey.

Our car was filled beyond maximum capacity,  Lauren liked to
give us a scare by asking where Rachel was.  There was so much
stuff in the car that she couldn't see her.

I just had to take a picture of this, what an unfortunate name for a town.

Sleeping

Supposed to be sleeping

The Great Mississippi River

That sign in the distance says "Welcome to Iowa"

Driving Day 2:

I missed the sign for Nebraska, but here is Nebraska

Our little troopers


We may be the only ones that find this funny, but the girls we totally
crazy with boredom and having spitting contests.

Driving Day 3:

Nebraska bluffs

A really cool Lincoln Memorial at a rest stop

Say CHEESE!

Our Fugitive

Beautiful Wyoming

The West

Utah ( I also missed the Welcome to Utah sign)

Yay for real mountains

Once we got to Utah we decided to give all of us a break from the car for about 5 days and lived it up visiting both both of our families and some friends.

Taking the Trax train to downtown SLC

The girls loved the train

Our favorite place to visit downtown

Dad and his girls

Rachel watching the fountains at City Creek Mall

4th of July Parade

The girls with Grandma Woolsey at the parade

 Sadly I forgot our camera at my parents house so we don't have any pictures of the last leg of our journey  from Utah to California, so here's a map.  Really Nevada isn't all that exciting but the Sierras were pretty.

Home Free

This summer Ryan had to work one of those crappy jobs that you sometimes have to do for a time just to get by.  Today was Ryan's last day at the IU Telefund, and needless to say he is very happy.  Here are his stats, just for good times sake :)

Time worked: 7 weeks = 115 hours
Wage: $7.50 an hour
Total phone calls: 6,984
Wrong Number: 105
Busy Signal: 103
Disconnected Phone Number: 45
Day Call (work number): 38
Whereabouts unknown: 6
Specified Pledge (donated money): 106
Not Available 1 (call back in a few hours): 6
Already Donated: 11
No Answer: 2,622
Special (too old to talk on the phone): 2
No Pledge (refusal to donate): 250
Fax Complete (fax number): 7
Personal Call Back: 76
Answering Machine: 3,256
Deceased: 1
Not Available (call a different day): 348
Privacy Manager (no solicitors allowed): 4

Yay Ryan! We love you and are grateful for your sacrifice for our family :)

Packing

Our house has now officially descended into the chaos that is moving.  Honestly I've been packing up things little by little for about a month, but now that it is our last week here we can really get going.  I feel like there is junk and boxes everywhere.  Lauren said that our house is like a playground and her and Rachel get in trouble several times daily for climbing up all the boxes. Lauren's personal favorite it is to stretch herself over two piles of boxes that are not right next to each other and tell me that she is being a bridge. She makes a good bridge.  Usually when they get in trouble for climbing up boxes they then go and jump on something like the couch or their bed, or our bed, or anything somewhat bouncy.  So here's to our girls and here's to moving....

While Kids are Sleeping...

So this is something I've been working on off and on for months and now it is finally finished:

It is an architectural rendering of the Rexburg, ID temple.

The New Revised Edition

The original I did for a rendering class in college. It is a three point perspective drawing using the floor plans to draw it to scale. You draw it layer upon layer with tracing paper, starting with the basic box shapes and then adding more detail with each layer. It took about half the semester.  At the end of the semester we presented it to the class and had it critiqued by the professor and the class. As often happens I ran out of time near the end and started throwing things in just to get it done.  As a result of that there were several things that I didn't like about it so I decided, using the original drawings, to try and fix some things.  I wasn't able to fix everything I wanted to since I no longer have the floor plans but I was able to fix a few things.  The landscaping was one thing that really bothered me with the original.  The Rexburg Temple was still under construction at the time I made it so I really didn't have much to go off of.  Since I was just trying to get it done by the time I got to the landscaping I decided to do the quickest thing I could think of... pave most of it over, add a little grass on the side, and throw in a "teacup" fountain, as my professor referred to it (that was one of the things attacked the most in my critique, and rightly so, it doesn't really fit).  I still wasn't able to get the landscaping totally right since I don't have the plans and all I had to go off of was pictures online, but still it is better, and no "teacup" fountain.

The Original

Lauren wanted to color a temple too, so I gave one of my practice ones.
 She made sure there was a sunshine and lots of balloons.

Happy Happy Birthday

Lauren had her birthday a few weeks ago and it was quite the party.  My sister and her family came down for the weekend and we had a great time with them.  Lauren was so excited, all she talked about was Jacqui being able to come down for her birthday.  Sadly we only got a few pictures. A few days later Lauren had her first friend party. It was a "dress-up party." All the girls came and got dressed up and then we decorated straw hats with ribbon and flowers, played "Pin the Hat on Sally" and the most important part....ate cupcakes.  Lauren didn't really care to participate much in the games (she was quite concerned over me blind folding all her friends) all she wanted to do the whole time was eat cupcakes.  But hopefully everyone had a good time.  All in all it was a fun week!  Thank you to family and friends who helped make it that way!

The Stack

Dress ups!!  A combined effort from us, the Woolsey's,
Merkley's, and Stradley's 

Princess dress from the Woolsey's

All dressed up

New Piggy Bank

Rachel in a dress from Aunt Sarah

The two princesses

Very stylin' Rachel

Pioneer outfit made by Grandma Woolsey

Swapping shoes in the cardboard "playhouse"

Our "Mother Gothel" cloak made by Aunt Sarah

Lauren and her cousin Jacqui.  Lauren adores
Cousin Jacqui and we were so glad they were
able to come down for the weekend.

The Castle Cake

  

Thank you Sarah and Steven for your artistic abilities :)

Happy Birthday Lauren!!

Hail the Conquering Graduate

Ryan is now officially graduated with his Master's in Public Affairs! It still hasn't completely sunk in, these two years have gone by so fast.  And now we just have a couple months of waiting and working till we head to the "real job,"  that crazy thing that has always be looming in the distant future.  But now onward and westward...

Here are some pictures of the blessed event and a small tour of Ryan's end of campus:

What has happened these two years

Ryan doing what he does

Ryan  in front of SPEA
 (where he has spent his two years)

 

More SPEA

Ryan in front of the library

How Rachel felt about this outing

The sign out in front of SPEA

The grad pose

Flying?

Graduation flowers for dad

Just chillin

The famous red clocks all over campus

Shot of the awesome hood

Hooding Ceremony

All hooded and graduated yay!

It's Official....

Rachel is walking and it's great.  She gets such a kick out of being able to do it and I love it.