Goodbye Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Hello Lincoln, New Hampshire

Ahhh! I haven't blogged in over a month and not just that, but it was an insanely busy month!  How the heck am I going to write everything that happened?  The main reason for my blogs is the every-other-year blog book that I print out for our family's records and so I try to stay detailed... but there is way too much for me to be detailed about this time around.  I have limited time because I have a busy day ahead of me so I'll do my best to summarize everything (don't laugh at me, I will try!) and see how condensed I can get this...

So as you know, we moved... it wasn't that big of a deal; it was just a little move across a whole entire country. Hehehe....I've done a temporary move across the country before when I Nannied out in Jersey, but this was actually further and it wasn't a 'suitcase only' move.  It was a family of 4 with 2 cars and a whole household worth of stuff.  Plus a cat!  It was a big deal and a long process.  And don't get me started on U-haul.  Someday when I read this post and think about this move, I know I will still be riddled with anxiety when thinking about what U-haul put me through!  They are a dishonest company who really played dirty with us.  After discussing what they did to us with quite a few people who have used them too, I heard multiple horror stories!  All of us can relate to U-haul screwing us over by not following through with quotes and dates and much, much more.  A quote should reflect what a company actually pulls out of your credit card, am I right?  An honest company would honor a quote and not shock you when you compare what they quoted you with what actually gets charged.   I'm not talking about 50 dollars here.  I'm talking about hundreds for other people and THOUSANDS for us- talk about sticker shock!  Also, they told me my things would be here on Sunday and then 4 days later it still was not here, they tell us our things might be lost somewhere in the US and they'll have to fill out a police report for it; I about died.   Oh, and lets not forget that AFTER my stuff was packed into pods in CDA they told me they wouldn't deliver the pods to my house (which is the WHOLE reason we chose Pods in the first place!).  We had to unload our pods and load into a moving truck at a U-Haul center an hour away from my house, drive our stuff up to our house and unload it, and then 3 days later do that again with the 2nd shipment of my stuff.  Yeah.  I'm not kidding.  Seriously, I will NEVER use them again.  I am literally starting to have another panic attack just thinking about what they put me through for the last 6 weeks. Fighting on the phone for hours every day!  Ok, I have to change the subject now!

Alright. So. In between the moving out of my CDA house and into my NH house we had a Smidt Family Reunion.  It was SO much fun!  I was in limbo (again) living out of suitcases and being transferred to Nana's, to a hotel and eventually back to Nana's.  It was busy and crazy but worth it for the spectacular memories that were made in those 13 days.  We played games at Nana and Pops', went to Higgin's Point where we swam, jumped off docks and played Volleyball, had a talent show, walked around downtown and shopped a little, had a skit night, went to Jim and Sherene's where we rode horses and saw their farm animals, went to the new McCuen Park and Tubbs Hill where we jumped off rocks, went to Ft. Sherman and CDA lake one day and just relaxed as a family.  It was the best "send off" I could have had.

I have hundreds of pictures to sort through and choose from, so get ready for lots of scrolling on your part:

I don't know if I blogged about this, but Lucy was able to get 6 weeks of Ballet lessons in before we moved.  She was the cutest little ballerina with no balance or grace whatsoever!  But she didn't know that and she felt beautiful and graceful as she danced her heart out!  It was hilarious and adorable all the same time.  Ninny and Papa were able to come watch her last lesson :)  I am so glad they were able to see her at least once!  She loved ballet so much that she even "performed" to Frozen at the Smidt talent show.  Go Lu!

  Our last days in Coeur d'Alene

 The day we "moved" into Nana's house we were too busy for a scheduled nap, so Piper and Nana took a nap together on the Lay-Z-boy.  It was a tender moment for me to walk in on and I melted.

I taught Pops what heaven tastes like:  Popcorn and Taco Bell Sauce.

This girl LOVES Edamame.  She will eat as much as I give her.  It's impressive.

 Lucy misses her cousins.  She talks about Maggie and "Oak-a-ly" a lot.  Makes me sad for her.

We got together on the exact same dock that we stood on 20 years ago and recreated an old family picture.  We had some members missing, and Mandy filled in for Jenni, but it turned out pretty good and made us all laugh!  As soon as Tiff edits the pictures of us all jumping off the dock I will post them in another post because they are EPIC.

Me and my girls had slumber parties in the hotel while Shawn was gone.  It was so much fun!

 Riding horses at Sherene's House.  Pi was happy to sit on the horse, but nervous once it started walking.  But Lucy was in heaven!  She is a natural and could have ridden all day!  I was able to run on a horse and I haven't done that in years!  It was so much fun! The adrenaline felt and the power behind that horse is liberating!  Shawn and I would love to have a horse one day.  Maybe someday my wish will come true :)

Olivia is a natural on horses too.  Not to mention she looks like a beautiful model!

Piper and I had a date night while we were at the hotel.  Ninny took Lu for a sleepover one night and I got the Pi baby all to myself.  We had cake and popcorn and stayed up extra late.  It was so much fun to have some one-on-one time with my little girl.  It doesn't happen often and I think she felt pretty special :)

Meanwhile, back and Nana's..... Haha! I think I'll cry when she learns how to put her glasses on the right way.

Lots of lake time!

 Piper scratched my cornea so Sherene made me wear this patch to help heal it.

 Tiff and I love jumping off of stuff :)

This cracked me up!  It looks like we are walking on water! Ha!
Evelyn and I really bonded.  I was crying so hard when I had to say bye to this little girl.  She is silly and precious and I really, really miss her.

If you know Nana, you know that she LOVES the Macarena and wants to dance to it at any big get-together we have :)  It's been almost 20 years since that song was a "hit" and we have been dancing to it ever since!  Nana, you're such a cutie!

Jack performed EVERY. SINGLE. MOVE. to Gnagnam Style.  He didn't crack a smile and had each move perfected.  For 4 whole minutes he completely stole the show!  I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.  Seriously, that could have been the highlight of the whole week!

It is so fun having sisters who dress their daughters the same as I dress my daughters.  I guess us "Smidt" girls just have really great style that we pass on ;-)

 I SO wish this picture wasn't blurry! It makes me so sad because it's SO cute.  Piper is the best kiss-giver ever.  She LOVES to kiss you all day everyday and smacks her lips in the cutest way!

 We tried (and failed) to get a good picture of Lucy and Piper with Papa and Ninny.....

And this was the last picture I took while we were in CDA :(

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Off to New Hampshire we go!

A week after we landed in New Hampshire the girls and I went out to the mailbox and found the sweetest postcard in the mail from Ninny and Papa.  Usually such a thing wouldn't be so well documented like this, but it was my first Monday back to being a "Stay at Home Mom" and Shawn left for work and I was also feeling a little homesick.  Not to mention I hadn't received anything at our new house except for bills upon bills upon bills....so to open the mailbox and see a handwritten "I Miss You" letter to the girls brightened up our whole day!  It helped cure the Monday blues...and the "homesick" blues.  Thanks Ninny. It really meant a lot to all of us!

This is the girls' playroom.  It's pretty crowded!  It was the first room in the house that was done because I needed them to be busy and distracted while I worked on the rest of the house.  It isn't perfectly clean, but it's good enough for now.  I am SOOOO happy to have a designated toy room! It's the best!  I will post other pictures of our house as I finish getting all my decorations hung.  We are pretty much done but can't finish all the way until some shelves and our desk arrive later this week.

Well people, the Gilley's are here in New England safe and sound.  We're almost 100% adjusted to East Coast Time (the 3 hour change happened much quicker than I thought!!) and we are healthy and mostly happy.  Like I said, today is the first day I had enough down-time to feel homesick so I'm a little melancholy tonight. But I'm thankful to be here and to have steady paychecks and phones to send and receive pictures and messages from family whenever I want.  It's almost like my Mom and sisters are just a few finger taps away...  Oh great, here come the tears.... At least I made it through these 2 hours of blogging without crying until now :)

I think I'll end this extra long post on that note.  We miss you all and we love you as big as the beach!

Love,

The Gilleys