New House

This is for Mari who has been bugging me about pictures. Today happens to be the first day the new house has looked put together (minus the furniture from storage in VA that is still enroute) AND we got our internet up and running today. I thought I would have a funny cross-country blog for everyone, but it was actually rather boring. We stopped every 2-5 hours to pee and let the dogs out, but while in the car, Micaela played or watched movies and the dogs just laid on their make-shift bed. It all went rather smoothly. Kurt drove most of the way and I took care of the dogs at every stop (it was under 30 degrees the entire time, so it was a bit chilly walking them in my fleece). We drove 15 hour days and actually made it across in 3 days and were able to have our furniture delivered a day early. I took pictures of the scenery, but they're pretty boring since AZ and TX are flat and most of the Appalachians was driven through at night. As for the house, it is definitely the biggest house we've had, there are a few things that need fixed, but our furniture fits really well and we can accommodate more visitors than we could in Virginia. The picture tour starts in the basement, then the first floor, then the upstairs.

Our PACKED minivan

The office downstairs has a small closet and a full bathroom

This is our movie room (still need some movie posters)

This is from the other direction showing our projector screen (Kurt has the screen set for about 7 feet), taken with the camera flash on

and with the flash off

Behind the movie room is what will be a play room (missing most of the toys right now)

Stairs leading to/from the basement

Our front door

Standing with my back to the front door, on the left is a half bath, the hallway to the family room and kitchen, and the stairs going to the basement (in the hallway)

Straight in front is the stairs leading upstairs to the bedrooms

And to the right is the formal living room (which we haven't really set up yet)

Just past the formal living room is the dining room (still waiting for the table to be delivered from storage). There is an archway separating the two, but they are almost one big room

From the dining room you can go into the kitchen

The kitchen is small, but there is a ton of cabinet space and the island helps

The glass door on the left goes to our patio and backyard

Standing with my back to the kitchen, it is open to the family room. We have another couch coming that will go against the wall on the left.

The patio - which will get used a lot once it warms up since all the carpeting in the house is new and we don't like eating in the dining room

The playset in the backyard (there is a storage shed in the backyard, but we haven't checked it out yet)

From the family room/kitchen area, the hallway leading back to the front door (on the right is the garage, on the left is the stairs to the basement)

The starway (it took a bit of skill on Kurt's part to get these pictures up in this really high stairwell)

The guest room (missing the furniture that is coming from storage)

Jon's room, haven't finished unpacking yet

Micaela's new room/bed/sofa - she was just starting to clean when I came up to take this picture. She loves her bunk bed and her desk area (any adult would be claustrophobic, but I bet Caroline will like it)

Her new sofa that pulls out to a twin bed

Her bench/chest that her Pappy made for her. On the wall you can't see is her closet and a small bookshelf with a TV.

I love that the washer and dryer are upstairs, but the laundry room is far too small to hold our mountains of laundry that always need to be done.

The Master bedroom is really big, so I had to take three pictures

The walk in closet is HUGE, so that is where we are hiding our mountain of laundry for now (it's on the right so you can't see it) :)

This TV wouldn't fit anywhere else, so it had to go in the bedroom - darn :)

AND finally, the master bathroom. Its smaller than the one in Capo, but the tub is nice.

Okay, that's it. It you want to see more, then come and visit us!

Holiday Fun

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving, the Montrose Christmas Parade, and various other fun activities!

Our Thanksgiving Feast (this picture was taken after everyone's first serving!)

I love that it was warm enough for us to eat outside!

Aunt Kris and chubby baby Olive

Jon was happy playing with Aunt Shellie's Birthday balloon

Out of ALL THE TOYS at Grandma Ginny's, Jon chose the fly-swatter to play with (gross, I know, but it really kept him entertained)

Micaela and her friend Riley walking down to our float (Riley doesn't like her picture taken, so I had to be sneaky)

It's a little hard to see, but that guy is on stilts, that's fire on the back of the truck, and they all have those flaming batons - it was cool

One of the Water District's parade vehicles

We were at the back of the parade, so we had about 45 minutes to kill, so we took pictures of everyone. Micaela and Riley were on the float in front of us, so I didn't get any pictures of them.

He's cute even when he's sick

Kurt pestering the girls in the back of the minivan after the parade

On our way home we got a great view of Disneyland's fireworks show, the shoot them right off the freeway

We were at the Irvine Spectrum picking up a few things and Jon got to go on his first carousel ride (at least I think it's his first, can't really remember)

Last night Miceala was playing her DS (Isaac came over and got her interested in it) and Jon just crawled up on her lap to see what was going on

She was very nice and even let him play a little

Bass Pro Shop

Here are some fun pictures from our trip to the Bass Pro Shop.

Isaac was wearing a headset, so Jon wanted one too

Kurt wanted me to take a picture of the entrance to show his dad

Isaac was pretty good at the remote controlled cars

Nose.
This didn't quite turn out, but the store below was impressive

Nothing says "I'm bad" like a pink pop-gun :)

Jon didn't like Santa so much

Guess who found this decoration? They're cute / funny and the teeter-totter actually moves :)

Trick or Treat

Vampire Micaela

(she bought this pretty red wig to go with the costume and had a blast playing with it, at least until she got her "extensions" which is what she is wearing in the picture :)

Jon is a skeleton (the pants are somewhere in the depths of our storage unit) and I am a tourist (my camera was being used to take this picture)

One of the carnival games at CVC's Light the Night Carnival

A really cool, really long slide

Micaela and I both liked the Ferris Wheel, it went around really fast

A view of the carnival from the top of the Ferris Wheel

Jon was really snotty(sick) and miserable to start with, and then I let him get a bloody nose on his first ride... oh well.

Isaac made the perfect Robin. This is the only picture I have of him standing still, he was jumping and leaping all over the place

One of the many bounce house things

A better picture of Jon

After the carnival we came home and went trick or treating with a girl from Micaela's class who happen to stop by the house just as we were leaving

A neighbor's house, best decorated place on the street (ours came in second)

Our house with ghosts and two huge blow-ups and candy bowls that grabbed at your hands