. . . Welcome to Bentucky!

(I really do hope that by the time we leave Kentucky that Kylie will pronounce it correctly!)

On our trek up to Kentucky, we stopped for a couple of nights in Tennessee to visit with cousins.  The fireflies were awesome!  The girls were outside catching them in cups, and Kate decided to smear some on her pj's to make her jammies glow.  So Kater.

The next day we did our laundry and then headed to the YMCA for fun in the pool.  It had this awesome rock climbing wall, which was much harder than it looked!  It was slippery when wet and angled backwards.  But if you ended up falling, no worries, because you'd just fall into the pool.  Super fun for the older kids (and Chris.  And I even gave it a whirl.)

After church on Sunday we headed up to our new home.  You know, the funny thing is, when we told people where we were moving to in Florida, we would usually get a "Oh, well, I hear it's really pretty up there."  And then, even as we've come to Kentucky, when we tell people we came from Florida, we get a, "Oh, well, welcome to Kentucky", said in a kind of apologetic way.  It cracks me up, because I am actually happy to be here.  We are going to miss so many wonderful people from Florida, to be sure, and it was an awesome place to live, but just because we left an awesome place, doesn't mean that Kentucky doesn't have it's own awesomeness.  

As we were driving up here I fell in love with the rolling hills, barns, and fields of corn.  It brought back tons of memories from when Chris and I were stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, 14 years ago when we were newlyweds.  I love the Kentucky bluegrass, the fireflies, how non-humid it is, and how it cools down at night.  The girls don't like that we are near train tracks, so you'll hear trains sometimes at night.  But I consider it a fair trade from the fighter jets flying overhead and the EOD school bombs that would rattle our house in Florida.  Our neighborhood is up on a hill, which makes for some awesome sunsets.  Here are just two that I've seen (and I've only been here for a week!)  Heck, I'm even excited to have a winter for once!  (I may not be saying this after 3 months of snow, but for now I'm all for it! ;)

Another thing is the amazing people we've met here.  Since we're renting a member's home, a lot of people knew we were coming, and we have had a wonderful welcome.  Within a 1/2 an hour of showing up, two neighbor girls had shown up to make friends with Analise, and another little girl wanted to play with Kate.  Talk about an answer to prayers!  Aly was off to her 2nd Round of Girl's camp the next day and said that everybody was really nice and welcoming.  I don't know what it is, it's like I just feel - comfortable.  Like I know this is where our family is supposed to be right now.  And that is a great feeling.  

(Not to mention, as an added bonus, on the way up here, Kylie was saying that she wanted a "rainbow house".  Imagine how excited she was to discover that she gets to share a Pepto-Bismal pink room with Kate!  Ecstatic doesn't even cover it.  She was dancing around in her room singing, "Pink room, pink room," for 15 minutes.)

There have been a few wrinkles, however.  Due to the mass exodus going on at Fort Knox this summer, we will not be able to get our household good delivered to us until July 11th. (Hence all the free time I have  to catch up on my blog!!!)  So we are camping in our house for 3 weeks.  Thanks to the lending closet on post and the generosity of a few ladies in the ward, we've got the essential pots and pans needed for cooking, and below you will see the total amount of furniture we currently possess.  It's not as bad as I thought it would be, and it's given me plenty of time to "mentally unpack" my house and figure out where I want all the furniture, etc.  I've also had my first ever laundromat experience.  (Thanks to Aly for coming along with me to help fold.  I was a little uncomfortable in there, but it was super nice having the entire family's laundry done and folded in 2 hours!)

So, How have the girls done with an empty house on this end?  Actually they've done pretty well in entertaining themselves.  There has been a lot of exploring of the new house, games of tag, fort building, and Lise playing some game where she tries to get around the house while only stepping on carpet.  The girls brought crayons, markers, Polly Pockets, Ponies, and Littlest Pet Shop animals in their backpacks, and we have books to read and movies to watch.  We also brought their scooters, which they love to ride in the evenings when it cools down outside.  It's actually been very refreshing to see how little the girls can get by on and what great imaginations they have.  

Kate informed me that she wanted to cut a hole in her sleeping mat so that she can be a "blue, spikey ghost" for Halloween.  Love it.

We brought a cooler of food from our Florida fridge/freezer, so hurray for popcicles on the deck!  And thank goodness that the packers wouldn't pack any liquids so we have bubbles to play with!

On Saturday we celebrated Kate's 7th birthday.  We didn't have too many presents since we didn't have our stuff, but we did celebrate with doughnuts for breakfast (a request from Kate) and went to see "How to Train Your Dragon 2" after dinner.  I hope it was a good day for her, despite how unsettled we are at the moment.

 I also need to send a huge THANK YOU to my Aunt Merrilee who sent me a welcome package.  She and my mom were good friends and she knew that my Mom would come out and help me get my house situated for almost every single one of my moves.  It's not going to be nearly as much fun without my mom here to laugh and joke around with while unpacking.  But it was so kind of Merrilee to remember and send a wonderful pick me up.  I am continually blessed by the thoughtfulness and kindness of others.  THANK YOU!

So, hooray for Kentucky!  It's gonna be great!  And, just to start us out on the right foot, here is a quote of the week to show that even though our house and locations change, the zoo remains the same.

Lise - How many fingers am I holding up? (All of them)

Aly - 10

Kate - No 8!  Thumbs aren't fingers.

Aly (gesturing to Kate) - And it's people like that, that made Pluto not a planet. 

Hasta La Vista Florida . . .

**Note - the following may or may not be in chronological order.  It's all a little fuzzy at this point! :) **

Our last few weeks in Florida were a blur.  Chris went to Kate's 1st Grade Play, "E-I-E-I-Oops!" while I took Kylie to a doctor's appointment in Pensacola.  Then I went with Kate on her field trip to the Gulfarium where we were able to see a bunch of sea life and watch some awesome shows.

Chris' work had an awards ceremony where they presented Chris with an award for his service.  (Funny sidenote: after the ceremony they asked for the picture frame back and just gave him the certificate.  Love it.)  At the same time they presented Aly with a heroism award for saving Kylie while she was bobbing around in the water during our accident.  I was totally unprepared for this.  I thought they were just going to give the award to Aly.  Instead, they asked Chris to come up and recount what happened.  As he was up there talking about Lise being stuck under the boat and Aly banging her back so badly that we were worried it was broken, I felt like these most personal experiences of our family were being exposed for everyone to see -  in front of these people I had just met 5 minutes before.  I guess Chris knew them and worked pretty intimately with them during his years at Group.  But yeah, Lise and I were just sitting there with tears streaming down our faces.  It left me a little raw.  It was really a nice honor that they would recognize Aly.  I just wish I would have know what I was getting into so I could have prepared myself mentally and emotionally.  (BTW - Chris had no idea it would be like that either, we were both caught completely off guard.)

On another note, our last Sunday before leaving Florida also happened to be Father's Day.  I had the girls fill out a little survey about what they thought about their Dad and it was a hoot (except Aly - she was at Girls' Camp, so she wrote her own letter).
Case in point.  One of the questions was, "My Dad is as handsome as  . . . "
And the survey says:
Kylie - A guy with brown hair
Kate - A Dad
Lise - A squirrel

Another question read, "In the Good Ol' Days, when my Dad was little, he  . . . "
Lise - Would get in trouble
Kate - met my Mom
Kylie - would play with boy toys, like little boy Polly Pockets.

Love it, love it, love it!

Before we headed out, we did a lot of last Hurrah's with friends - just trying to squeeze every last ounce of fun out of those last few days as possible to make the memories last.  Of course, the places we went weren't nearly as important as the people we were going to miss.  The only consolation we had is that so many of our friends were moving this summer as well.

One last day at the beach . . .

One last day at the pool . . .

 Aly also went off to have a last Hurrah with her Beehive Buddies at Girls camp (and LOVED it!)  She was asked to share her experience in sacrament meeting when she came back and said that her testimony had grown and she even liked her family a little more than before she left.  Success! ;)>

One last playgroup at the splashpad . . .

One last frozen yogurt stop . . .

And one last order of bang bang shrimp to celebrate my crossover into seafood land . . . ;)  

Oh how we are going to miss these fun places.  And more especially, the smiling faces we would find there!

But it wasn't all fun and games.  There was also much work to be done.  Once we got back from our Cruise and Disney we had one week to prep for the movers, then one week to pack up and we were gone.  So we tried  to get the house ready for renters - Chris finally got to use his chain saw (woot, woot!), he power washed the driveway, and did miscellaneous handy man jobs around the house.

Aly was also a huge help around the house.  It was so awesome having another adult size person around to help lift and carry.  She also did a great job fixing the picture holes and painting with Chris.

So, how do our girls entertain themselves when their stuff is being packed away?  Well, of course gymnastics are always an option.  Lise loved it when the stuff was gone because then there were more walls to do handstands against.

Kate colored tape yellow to create a mustache to match her Belle jammies . . .

Aly took over my phone - texting, looking up songs, and playing with the camera's special features, turning her sister's into cartoons . . .

Sledding down the stairs (sometimes head first) in sleeping bags was a favorite for the younger girls,

Along with having sleepovers in random rooms of the house (like the dining room).

And, when all else fails, pull out Mom's computer and watch a movie!

Once the kitchen was packed up, we were left with the "going out to eat" option . . . and then reminded why we rarely take our children to a restaurant. Kylie was being a little pioneer girl, 

Kate was trying to eat while laying down, and Lise just thought we were all weird.  (Note - Chris was not actually distraught over this dinner.  He had pulled a muscle in his back that day while loading up the liquids and was in quite a bit of pain.)

Oh, and here was a great conversation between Chris and Lise:

Chris - Lise, do you know what Glutes are? . . . Your Bum!

Lise - Then why do foods say Gluten free?

As sad as we were to leave Florida, there comes a time when you just need to rip off the bandaid.  After months of knowing we were going to move, working on getting the girls into their new schools/preschools, de-junking the house, fixing it up, putting it up for rent, finding a new place for us to rent, and finally packing, it was time to go.  I do not mind living in multiple places - it's truly a fun adventure.  But the actual act of moving and getting resettled is not my fave.  It is a ton of work and always ends up costing mucho mula with buying new rugs and this, that, and the other for the new house,  because things don't fit exactly the same. But, we've made it 1/2 way through this move, now on to unpacking and getting settled on the other side.  Plus, as there is a possibility that we may be returning to Florida, we will not say good-bye, but rather "Hasta La Vista" Florida - See You Later!