Happy Birthday

Isaac turned six years old on Saturday -- two hands old now! He insisted on waiting until after dinner to open his presents and eat cake (and Wade even offered him cake for breakfast, but noooooo, we all had to wait until after dinner! Crazy kid!).




This is the cake I made for him -- a bit of work, but he was so excited about it so it was totally worth it!


His first glimpse of his super cool cake.


My mom came out for four days to celebrate with us, which we all enjoyed immensely. Here she's reading a bedtime story to Levi and Luke.


Mom and I took the boys to the park one day where they posed with Humpty Dumpty for this fun shot.


'Lijah decided to skip his nap this day and watch TV with his brothers instead... looks like his plan didn't work out entirely like he'd planned!

At Mom's Request...

Wow, I'm really on a roll here with blogging! At your request, Mom, here are a few pictures of the boys (and Wade and I -- Isaac actually took the picture of us. Wow, huh?).


Isaac doing his favorite thing: making a map. On this map (and most of his others) you will find a schoolasaurus, heffalumps, woozles, and the homes of pretty much everyone Isaac knows and loves.


Lukey atop a nearby jungle gym. The boys like to play "spider" on it, which includes catching insects (leaves) and after eating them (crumbling them up in their hands), dropping their bones below (letting the leaf bits fall to the ground).



Levi on the world's best merry-go-round. Give it a good push and it will spin forever! Lots of fun, even for me (but not for Wade -- just watching makes him nauseous!).



'Lijah having a really good hair day!



Me with the studliest man in the state of North Dakota (and beyond).

Culture Shock in North Dakota

Okay, so we've been here three weeks and the culture shock keeps... well, shocking me. A few strange things to point out about North (and South) Dakota:

• Tumbleweed blows across the highway in moderate winds. Seriously, you'd think we were in Texas.
• Cattle guards, even on freeway off-ramps. And of the course the related experience of driving through areas where the cattle have free reign, even on the roads.
• National Grasslands. I can understand National Forests and National Parks, but National Grasslands? It's grass -- who cares? Well, out here it's a lot harder to grow things, so I guess grass is a lot bigger deal than it is in Washington.
• Petrified wood everywhere (and I thought it was only found in certain parks and museums).
• Lefse, a Norwegian snack, is available at the grocery store year round (and I thought it was just a strange thing Wade's family ate during the holidays).
• The hardware store sells krumkaka makers (another Norwegian snack Wade's family has at Christmas). I didn't even know there were krumkaka makers!
• The town sirens go off every day at noon and 10 p.m.
• Grain elevators in almost every town.
• The sun rising in the west and setting in the east (okay, so I'm a little disoriented here and can't seem to get my inner compass to adjust).
• Everybody waves at you, especially when driving. We're learning to drive with one hand on top of the steering wheel so it's just a flick of the wrist to return (or initiate) a wave.
• No rain. I just don't get it. I just don't.

We're here!

Me and the boys in front of our new home


Yes, we are alive and well in North Dakota, and now that we're not on dial-up internet anymore, you might just hear a lot more from us!

The boys did amazingly well on the 20-hour trip, and now that we are all unpacked, moved in and mostly back to a normal routine, they are starting to settle down and act like themselves again. During the time that Wade was in ND and we were still in Washington, and during the move and the couple weeks following, the kids were a little off kilter. They may not have been able to tell you what was wrong, but they were definitely stressed out. It's nice having them normal again (as far as normal goes for little boys!).

Wade is enjoying his job and learning lots. I'm keeping busy teaching Isaac kindergarten, trying to transform the landscapeless yard into something beautiful and doing all the regular mother-of-young-children things that life demands.

Speaking of which, my to-do list is demanding my attention.

Moving and other news

I'm pretty sure most of you have probably heard our big news, but I thought I'd make an official statement here to confirm any rumors that may still be circulating -- yes, we are moving to North Dakota.

Wade got a terrific job with Midcontinent Communications, a cable company dealing in phone, tv and internet cable services. He'll be doing maintenance, upgrades and repairs on the main network of cable in the towns of Hetttinger, Mott and Reeder, and he'll do some home installation. He's very excited.

We also bought a house there in Hettinger, population somewhere between 1300 and 2000. There are a few pictures below.
We're both really excited about the move, but heartbroken about leaving our family, church and friends here, especially the Saturday night crew. It's such a confusing emotion to be excited and horrified by something both at the same time.

Wade starts work there on Sept. 19 and will come back to move the kids and I out the first weekend in October. Please pray for us while we pack and live apart for a few weeks and move and drive and drive and drive.

This is our house from the outside. It was a church up until about three years ago, and it still looks like it on the outside. The yard will be quite the project for this gardener.

There is a small balcony area above the master bedroom and this picture of the kitchen and dining area was taken from up there.


This one of the living room was also taken from the master balcony. The stairs lead to two bedrooms for the boys and a bathroom.


There's also a full unfinished basement where we'll hide out during tornadoes and stay cool during the 110-degree summer days.

In other news, since our last blog update we've also gone camping a few more times, Wade and I flew to Whitehorse in Canada's Yukon Territory for a friend's wedding and Wade and I did a three-day hike over Hannegan Pass and down part of the Copper Ridge Trail during the long Labor Day weekend. All were great, but sorry, I don't have time to upload pics of them all. Maybe later.