Indianola Living!!

We have officially (and finally) made it home after 5 wonderful years on the East Coast.  Matt and I had a great time living in Virginia and are so glad we got to experience life on the East Coast and love and miss all the great friends we made. 

Now that our family has grown we realized it was time to be home near grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.  We've relocated to Indianola, which also happens to be where Matt grew up.  Les and Kathy are right down the road and Dawn and Mark are just a short trip over the mountains. 

Life in Indianola is similar to living on vacation!!  Everyone has a beachy, laid-back attitude and we are just blocks from the beach.  Small town life is great.  The whole town knew our story before we even rolled into town and I love it!  Although we're just renting for now, I can see us taking up permanent residence in this cute little town...

The view of Seattle from the ferry.

Our view of the Sound from our back deck.

Paul, Angie, Olivia, and I enjoyed a stroll on the dock and coffees from the Indianola store.

Angie was ready to move to Indianola!!

Grandma Kathy and Paul enjoying some sun on our deck.

This little beach is 2 blocks from our house!

Boating over to Seattle for Amanda's birthday. 

We left from Les and Kathy's dock.

One sunny afternoon, we blew off chores for a few hours at the beach.

Beach babies...

We LOVE Indianola living!!

The Shed

Our new home is great, except for one thing is missing... A GARAGE!!!

Matt has a solution for every problem.  This problem's solution: A fantastic shed to hold our stuff (including his beloved motorcycle).

This was an amazingly quick shed build.  I'm super impressed with my handy husband and super grateful to a very helpful and over-worked father-in-law!!

Backyard pre-shed.

And we have a shed!!! Doors and paint yet to come...

Girls night out!!!

Brock is very, very brave.  He volunteered to watch Lauren, Paul, and Olivia for an evening so Natalie, Angie and I could go out to dinner and have some silly girl fun!  Brock put Paul down and comforted a screaming little Olivia.  It was after bedtime that we left, but I am super impressed with this super dad!!!

This is Brock trying to ignore our cackling from the dining room on Friday.

Saturday night was our big night out!!

Friday night we celebrated Natalie's and my birthday with lobsters from Maine.

We spent the rest of the weekend lounging...

Angie and my TV loving babies. I remember swearing my kids would not watch TV.  Yeah right!

Thanks for hosting this great weekend Brock, Natalie and Lauren!!  Thanks for making another trip across the state Angie!!

Moving home!!

Matt and I know how to plan a big move across the country... Throw in a family vacation in the middle!! 
This was our crazy schedule:
7/21- Movers arrive at our Virginia house to pack boxes.
7/22- Movers arrive to load truck.  Matt, Lisa, Paul and Olivia move into a hotel and say goodbye to our first family home.
7/23- Les, Kathy, Dawn, and Mark arrive for our Outerbanks vacation!! We start our drive south.
7/24- We arrive in Outerbanks (see separate post).
7/31- Head north to Virginia for closing on the house and final Virginia wrap-up items.
8/3- Lisa, Kathy, Dawn, and babies fly home to Washington.  Les and Matt begin cross-country drive.
8/5- Our stuff arrives in a big truck!  The Tahoe breaks down in Montana and Matt and Les get stuck...
8/9- Matt finally gets to Indianola after an extended weekend in Missoula, waiting for a new transmission.
8/10- The second truck full of our stuff arrives.  We fit in the new house just fine, until the second truck arrives.  So begins the shed building (see separate post).

Here are some pics from our journey...

Paul loved the moving trucks.

Olivia and I kill time while the movers work.

And more time...

We lived in hotels for several days and got very creative with our time killing...

Olivia was content hanging out.

Grandma Dawn and Olivia on the airplane.

Paul and Grandma Kathy on the other side of the aisle with me. You should have seen the 5 of us holding things up through the airport!

And one final trip on the ferry to get to our new home!