Banks Lake July

Some valuable lessons brought to you by Banks Lake.

1. A big tent...is always a better tent. Mostly. Unless there is a wind and rain storm. Then? Not so much.

2. Life vests keep you safe. Hence the name. They also give you wedgies.

3. Fun in the water is different for everyone.

Example:

Or:

4. Expecting popcorn to last while on vacation is just silly.

5. You are free to jump off of rocks how you see fit.

6. Even on vacation, taking a header into a swing set is not the best idea.

7. Electronics are like magnets to our kids. They are sure to be your BFF's if you have a gadget.

8. If you float, you never float alone.

9. When a kid is skiing you take 90 gazillion pictures.

10. Boat rides are...as Nacho Libre would say..."The best!"

11. Especially if you have one arm around your best pal and your hand on Grandma's leg.

12. Aunt Ramonah makes this face...A Lot.

13. But in Ramonah's defense she makes this face a lot too.

14. Having cousins around is where it is at!

15. When Penny won't speak to you, ice cream bribery works wonders.

16. Having a cute face and telling people that you are saving up to buy "water shoes" really pays off.

17. Drinking water while driving a boat is, in Blake's book, document worthy.

18. You will be photo bombed.

19. Doing things that you did as a kid...were much easier when you were a kid.

20. Vacation is great. But tiring too.

21. The family that bathes together, stays together.

Pathetic Really

I would like to blame it on life. I need a scape goat. The truth of the matter is, with doing the house that has taken up just about all of my energy....well...that and life. Once I got behind it seemed harder and harder to try to catch up. I started the house blog thinking that if I could compartmentalize that part of our life then talking about all of the other things would be easier. It probably would be if I just worked on it. So I am going to...work on it. Most of my pictures these days are from my phone. They are not professional or fancy but my phone is there, always. So it gets the little bits about our life that we would otherwise miss. Also, it seems the best route to talk about us all individually, so that we can go over what has happened since September.

Cramming 4 months in to a couple of posts? My idea of fun. 

Adventures in Moving Around the Corner

If you think moving around the corner is easier then moving across a couple of states you would be wrong.

When we told our landlords that we would be moving they asked if we would be willing to let people come and look at the house.

Sure. Seemed easy enough. Plus we wanted to be helpful.

It was awful.

That sounds dramatic...I know. But for 3 days straight I had to be gone from the house from pretty much sun up to dinner time. Evidently, realtors don't care whether or not you have 4 kids that want to eat lunch, and play with their toys.

We kept the house spotless for 3 days. Also quite a feet for a family with 4 kids. But it paid off because the landlords got an offer and accepted it on the 3rd day. 

As soon as we were done with that then we started packing. It was slow going because we were working on the new house, but also because we were getting boxes for free from KSL.

Some of them also came pre-labeled for easy use.

There had to be a careful balance between packing and also keeping out stuff that we use on a daily basis.

We planned to move stuff as we went. 

Only problem. 

The garage at the new house still had the previous owners things in it.

Sure he had made a significant dent...but there was still a long way to go.

(This is what was Left in the garage the day we actually moved in. Prior to that the garage was PACKED.)

Finally we realized that a moving truck was the only way to go.

We got the biggest one there was.

With a bunch of guys from our neighborhood it still took 3 hours and 2 trips.

But we did it.

I told Blake that I never want to move again and that we are going to die in this house. 

Dramatic much?

With the whole house moved there was still a couple of odds and ends to move. One of them being the trampoline.

Blake called me one day to tell me that they were going to roll the trampoline down the street and that he had called some of his buddies to help.

I kept saying..."this seems like a bad idea"

but he thought that taking it apart seemed like a waste of time.

Lo and behold, our friend had the idea of putting it on top of his truck and walking it over.

Also seemed like another bad idea...

But who am I to argue with three engineers.

Rest assured. The trampoline made it. With no scratches on the truck.

I was wrong.

It was a good idea, they just looked silly doing it.

The rest of moving was uneventful.

Save for a few. 

We cleaned the old house, and locked the doors. Granted a hiccup with the landlords ended up souring a good relationship that I thought that we had had. I suppose that when you are paying someone money they are far kinder.

The beautiful thing?

We are our own landlords now.

Adios old house. Hello old new house.