Move-cation day 1

Back home from vacation so I can start catching up.  I didn't want to just come out and say on the blog that we were away from home but, yeah, we were on the other side of the country last week.  I had a couple of posts in the hopper but editing them on the ipad was not working out.  

Decided to just wait until I got home to catch up.  

So the last few days, we had LOTS of donations!  

Thank you 

to my good friend Tom for keeping us going last week!

The exciting part about catching up on the blog is we FINALLY get to share pictures from the move!  Some of you may know that our very close friend Sam moved to Anchorage about a month before we were set to move away.  As luck would have it, Sam was interested in buying a house and wouldn't you know our house was in his price range?!!!  In early August, we very happily handed the keys to our first home over to Sam.

Lots of incredible memories in this house making it that much harder to say goodbye.  It sure did make it easier knowing that someone we love would be living there.   

Even as I type this out and look over these pictures, the memories come rushing back.  I remember the days and weeks leading up to leaving, I didn't allow myself to get emotional about it.  I also remember all those emotions catching up to me as we started to drive away and I looked in the rear view mirror one last time.

So the move-cation was what we decided was going to be 8 days of NOT stressing about all that we had in front of us....finding a new house, starting a new job, etc.  So we managed to plan an awesome trip, staying our first night in Beaver Creek, Yukon.  The second day we drove from Beaver Creek to Haines where we stayed overnight before hopping on the Alaska Marine Highway and ferried our way down to Washington.

The first day, we didn't leave until much later than we wanted to (no surprise there) and especially after ONE MORE stop at Moose's Tooth to pick up some departing gear.  But the weather was cooperating and the scenery made this leg a lot easier to swallow.

So hard to say goodbye to scenery like this.

The girls also kept us well entertained.  I believe moments after this picture, Katy told Lisa to take a picture of Alyssa because she had her mouth open.  It became a constant joke during the vacation to try and take pictures of someone sleeping with their mouth open. 

Notice the car absolutely packed to the limit behind Alyssa. Wouldn't be a move without taking every little thing we could possibly squeeze into that car.

More scenic stops along the Glenn and Alaska Highways.

This picture is my favorite from day 1.  Be sure to click on it to get the full size.  

Because of our late departure, we arrived in Beaver Creek well after the sun had set.  I think it was actually pretty close to midnight!  But we drove the extra distance because we couldn't pass up the opportunity to make the first stop of our journey in a place that shared the same name as the high school where Lisa and I met.

Thanks again Tom for keeping us going while we were on vacation.  This was a short post but I promise they are about to get GOOOD!!  Lots of great photos to share.  Please keep those donations coming!